Does art replace divinity in Ovid's epic?

Answer 1

Art is divine in Ovid's Metamorphoses, and the two don't need to be mutually exclusive. The concept of divine art was not unique for Ovid. It was a common motif in Classical literature throughout Rome and Greece. If the question is whether Ovid is worshiping art rather than the Roman gods, again I think there is an unnecessary division implied by the question. For the Romans, divinity was everywhere and in everything. To worship anything was to worship the "deity-ness" of the thing. The answer isn't either-or, but both-and.