Vates operose dierum : The Reception of Hesiod's Works and Days in Ovid's Fasti

This article argues that, beyond Aratus and Callimachus, Hesiod’s Works and Days provides a code model for Ovid’s Fasti. Despite the many differences, the connection becomes clear when considering the ancient reception of Hesiod. Literary imitations, as well as ancient exegesis preserved in the scholia, show that in Antiquity the Works and Days was read as both an astronomical poem and a poem about the religious calendar, viz. a poem very similar to Ovid’s Fasti. The remaining divergences highlight the novelty of Ovid’s appropriation of the model: Hesiod’s rustic and archaic calendar is recast in the urban and festive context of contemporary Augustan Rome.