Shadows of Ovid’s Metamorphoses in the Orlando Innamorato

Abstract

Ovid's <i>Metamorphoses</i> is an important intertext for Boiardo's Quattrocento epic, the <i>Orlando Innamorato</i>. This paper examines two principal ways in which Boiardo exploits his classical intertext: as a source of allegory, and as a means of heroic characterisation. Boiardo follows the Medieval tradition of exploiting Ovid as a source of allegorical tales, often modifying the Ovidian original to clarify the moral.