Intertextuality, or reading the allusions in one text to another text, has long been a popular approach in the scholarship on Ovid's Metamorphoses, a Latin poem consisting of a sequence of episodes depicting character transformations. This interpretive method, in which scholars locate textual allusions and discuss their implications, has been very helpful in elucidating how ancient texts can engage with and complicate other texts.

Recently, however, scholars have begun to explore an expanding network of intertexts, imagining various forms of literary narrative in conversation with images from the visual arts. After all, not only did readers possess a deep and intimate knowledge of both Greek and Latin literature, but they were also visually informed. This study participates in a larger discussion which argues that images should not be viewed independently from the culture and society which produce them.

Although the text does not come with illustrations, and is therefore not explicitly paired with images, Ovid's Metamorphoses nevertheless alludes, in its very narrative, to popular images and works of art. Just as contemporary literature contributes to an understanding of art, so conversely, I suggest, contemporary popular art can enrich a reading (through allusion) of a literary text. I suggest that by reading Ovid's poem with and against these images from his contemporary visual culture, one can open up multiple readings of both text and art.