Miti acquatici in miniatura: Ila, Narciso, Ermafrodito negli epigrammi di Ausonio.

This paper examines some epigrams of Ausonius’ mythological cycle, which are dedicated to young men whose fate is in various ways connected to the aqueous element: Hylas (106-107), Narcissus (108-110, but see also 11 about Echo) and Hermaphrodite (111-112). In an exemplary exercise of brevitas and crafty allusive technique, Ausonius dialogues with Ovid's Metamorphoses (explicitly mentioned, in relation to Hermaphrodite, in epigr. 72), both grasping the essential aspects of that text and playing at distancing himself from it with alternative versions (as in the case of Hermaphrodite) or integrative ones (as in the case of Hylas, whose myth does not appear in Ovid but is the subject of a metamorphosis in flower in epigr. 107, as is shown by the manuscript lesson supported here with new comparisons). On the other hand, Ausonius’ 'miniaturization' of myth refers clearly to Martial, who is a basic model of adaptation of the mythical-narrative material (especially Ovidian) to the short form of the epigram. New, however, is the sensitivity with which Ausonius reinterprets the stories of beautiful youths. While the tradition stressed their pederastic aspects, he connects them to heterosexual stories (Hylas and the Nymphs, Narcissus and Echo, Hermaphrodite and Salmacis), almost completely eliminating any homoerotic reference. This is to be interpreted as a reflection, as part of the myth, of Ausonius’ tendency not to represent the love of boys, evidently considered inopportune in the changed cultural and religious climate, and to confine the homosexual theme to satirical epigrams.