Author

Publius Ovidius Naso (Ovid)(43 BCE–17/18 CE)Inferred

Publius Ovidius Naso (Ovid) is documented in Fuller’s letters, books, and manuscripts (1841–1845). 2 distinct works are named, most often in Summer on the Lakes, in 1843, and the most intensive engagement recorded is “excerpted”.

Harvard College Library loan

1844 Jan 4·Ovidii Heroides.shelf 2002
1844 Jan 4·" Delphini.shelf 2513
1844 Jan 8·" Opera Burmanni.shelf 2351
1844 Feb ~12·Ovid. Burnman.shelf 2354
1844 May 6·Ovidii Opera Burmannishelf 2351

Charged out of Gore Hall on the card of Richard Frederick Fuller, Margaret's brother and then a Harvard senior; women could not borrow in their own name. Household access, not proof of her reading — not counted toward engagements. The full ledger →

Engagement: ExcerptedAnalyzedQuotedReadMentioned
Present in: Letters · Books · Manuscripts
Documented: 1841–1845

Additional passages preserved in the Memoirs (1852)

Totals count documented engagements, once at the earliest witness. How we count →

Reprints, Memoirs passages, and repeat notes within a single manuscript are shown but never counted twice. Evidence for this author is selective, not exhaustive. Methodology →

In Fuller’s words

“Do you remember the passage in Ovid where Jupiter expresses to the Gods his delight at seeing the fire at last consume all that his child had inherited from a mortal mother. I wish I had my Ovid here that I might quote the beautiful thought. - And do you remember how when Ceres is travelling in search of Proserpine, she pauses a while and becomes foster nurse to a young prince.”

Metamorphoses · Wordsworth's Greece and Notes on Greek Myth

When Fuller engaged with Publius Ovidius Naso (Ovid)

I. Childhood

II. Adolescence

III. Self-Directed

IV. Transcendentalist1record

V. New York2records

VI. Europe

✦. Memoirs (1852)1record

1810

1820

1832

1836

1844

1846

1850

This page brings together documented engagements currently identified within the Fuller Reading Worlds catalog.

Naso in Fuller’s reading world

Documentary evidence

Selected passages from Fuller’s own writings, in chronological order.

1841—

Letter to William H. Channing

p223

read

“when you see the oxen in the surf, you lose all faith in the story of Europa, as the gay waves tumble in on their lazy sides.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. II. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984.

Inferred Fuller invokes the myth of Zeus and Europa: 'you lose all faith in the story of Europa, as the gay waves tumble in on their lazy sides.' Fuller is watching oxen in the surf, saying the oxen in the surf undermine the myth's plausibility ('you lose all faith in the story of Europa').

1843—

Summer on the Lakes, in 1843

analyzed · quoted · read6 selected passages

“I thought that Bacchic energy of yours was long since repressed.”

Inferred Identification rationale not yet recorded.

“the hamadryads had not time to make their plaints heard”

Inferred Fuller invokes hamadryads in a pastoral-elegiac tone, lamenting the rapid felling of trees. Fuller alludes to 'hamadryads' ? tree nymphs in Greek mythology who were bound to specific trees and cried out when those trees were cut.

“the worker is a true Midas to the gold he makes”

Inferred Fuller alludes to 'Midas' ? the legendary king whose touch turned everything to gold.

“but believe it will have Medea's virtue, and reproduce them in the form of new intellectual growths”

Inferred alluding to Medea's cauldron, which in the myth could restore youth (she restored Aeson's youth for Jason, and later deceived Pelias's daughters into killing him).

“I think it springs from the blood of the Indians, as the hyacinth did from that of Apollo's darling.”

Inferred Fuller alludes to the Greek myth of Hyacinthus (Hyakinthos), a young Spartan prince beloved by Apollo.

“This is precisely the division of functions made by Ovid, as the father sees Hercules perishing on the funeral pyre. "Nec nisi materna Vulcanum parte potentem Sentiet.”

Inferred Fuller names Ovid explicitly and quotes three lines of Latin. The passage comes from Book IX of the Metamorphoses (lines 249-251), where Jupiter addresses Juno about the immortal part of Hercules that will not be consumed by fire on the pyre.

Fuller, Margaret. Summer on the Lakes, in 1843. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1844.

1845—

Woman in the Nineteenth Century

Met. IX.239–272

excerpted · quoted · read2 selected passages

“Siquis tam^n, Hercule, siquis / Forte Deo doliturus erit, data prsemia nollet, / Sed meruisse dari sciet, invitus que probabit, / Assensere Dei.”

“Nic nisi materna Vulcanum parte potentem. / Sentiet.”

Fuller explicitly identifies this as 'that noble passage of Ovid, already quoted' — Jupiter's speech at Hercules' funeral pyre.

Fuller, Margaret. Woman in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Greeley & McElrath, 1845.

Undated

Pieces with no legible date. They are part of the record but cannot be placed on the lifeline.

n.d.—

Mostly Extracts

p58

analyzed · readManuscript page

“Ovid.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Mostly Extracts." Houghton Library, Harvard University; bMS Am 1086 (89); Box 5 (89).

Inferred Ovid is named explicitly within the Pentameron extracts on p. 58: 'Ovid. – His natural air of levity...'. Within the Pentameron extracts, pp. 58–59 discuss Ovid's 'natural air of levity,' his 'unequalled and unfailing ease,' and credit him as having 'the first imagination' among ancient Romans and the best judgment of contemporary and predecessor poetry. This is Landor's commentary on Ovid within the Pentameron.

n.d.—

Wordsworth's Greece and Notes on Greek Myth

p2, p3

analyzed · readManuscript page

“Do you remember the passage in Ovid where Jupiter expresses to the Gods his delight at seeing the fire at last consume all that his child had inherited from a mortal mother.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Wordsworth's Greece and Notes on Greek Myth." Houghton Library, Harvard University.

Fuller names Ovid explicitly and identifies two specific passages, both from the Metamorphoses: (1) Jupiter's speech at Hercules's apotheosis on Mt.

n.d.—

Plan for a Life of Goethe

p21

mentionedManuscript page

“as first of the five books of Moses, then of the Aeneid o& Metamorphoses.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Plan for a Life of Goethe." Houghton Library, Harvard University.

Preserved in the Memoirs (1852)

Passages surviving only in the posthumous Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, compiled by Emerson, Channing, and Clarke.

1852—

Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli

p18

analyzed · read

“Ovid gave me not Rome, nor himself, but a view into the enchanted gardens of the Greek mythology. This path I followed, have been following ever since”

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, William Henry Channing, and James Freeman Clarke, eds. Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli. 2 vols. Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, 1852.

Inferred In this passage, Margaret Fuller reflects on her formative encounter with Ovid, describing his work as providing her with "a view into the enchanted gardens of the Greek mythology." While not naming a specific title, editors infer that Fuller refers to Ovid's Metamorphoses, as this epic poem is the principal source of classical mythology for English-language readers and aligns with her description of discovering mythological worlds.