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Bons et mauvais élèves du professeur d’amour dans le livre XIV des Métamorphoses d’Ovide 

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The story of Circe, Scylla and Glaucus is presented as an elegiac episode of Metamorphoses. However, the characters, who are, themselves, ignorant of the elegiac code, behave in accordance with that of the epic poem, and accordingly commit a series of erotic blunders, which they pay for dearly. Beside J. Fabre-Serris’ political analysis, a literary reading of the story is also possible. In fact, the clumsy trio contrasts with the couple Vertumnus and Pomona, also portrayed in book XIV, in which the lover is a perfect elegiac hero who succeeds brilliantly. By implicitly contrasting the two modes of conduct and by portraying a triumphant elegiac hero, Ovid casts judgement on the relative worth of the two literary genres.