“(In)Human, All Too (In)Human”: Ovid’s Tereus and the Vulnerable Body

This chapter focuses on the Ovidian depiction of the myth of Tereus. Building on anthropological and feminist approaches to incest, rape, and anthropophagy, the authors use Charles Segal’s reading of Tereus as a “metamorphic body” to investigate the story’s dynamics of perpetual change that culminate in the dissolution of corporeal boundaries. This re-examination of Tereus’ narrative demonstrates that Tereus’ moral “inhumanity” is revealed poetically by a progressive splintering of his identity, correlated to the instability of his body and gender.