Poétique et thérapéutique dans les Remedia amoris d'Ovide: un traitement homéopathique de la passion amoureuse

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between the poetic form and the didactic purpose of Ovid's Remedia amoris. Beyond the paradox well noted between the elegiac form and the poet's intent to cure one's love, I wish to explore the extent to which poetry is part of the praeceptor's therapy. How does the illusion produced by the conjuring power of poetry constitute a key element of the therapy developed within the treaty? If the poetic language participates in the rhetorical strategy of the praeceptor to teach his students how to fall out of love, poetic delusion and self-deception are also revealed as being central to the therapeutic process presented by the poeta-medicus. From this perspective, the nature of the treatment offered by the poet is homeopathic in so far as love's illusions are healed by poetic illusions. Thus, the poetic form acts as an ambivalent pharmakon since its consolatory virtue precisely relies on its deceitful and illusionary effects.