Thebaid (Latin poem)
| Thebaid | |
|---|---|
| by Statius | |
 1786 oil painting by Henry Fuseli depicting the curse of Oedipus | |
| Written | 80–90 AD |
| Language | Latin |
| Genre(s) | Epic poetry |
| Meter | Dactylic hexameter |
The Thebaid (
Although its source material derives predominantly from the
The Thebaid was not widely read in antiquity, but was held in high esteem throughout the Middle Ages, when multiple adaptions of the poem were composed in vernacular languages. Preserved through the Carolingian Renaissance, the text of the Thebaid reached modernity without the recognition it once held. While classical scholars of the 19th and early 20th century criticised the poem for a perceived lack of originality and taste, a resurgence of critical interest has since brought it closer to the centre of the literary canon.
Synopsis
Preparations for war
The Thebaid begins with a view of Oedipus, the former king of Thebes. Having gouged out his own eyes, he had relinquished his kingdom after learning that he had killed his father Laius and committed incest with his mother Jocasta. He places a curse on his sons, Eteocles and Polynices, who had turned on him because of his transgressions. The fury Tisiphone is sent to Thebes in order to sow discord among the brothers. In the city, Eteocles and Polynices strike a pact, stipulating that rule of the city would alternate between them on an annual basis while the other spent a year in exile. Eteocles is granted the first term as king.
A council of the gods takes places, at which
At a feast in honour of the god Apollo, Adrastus suggests that the two exiles marry his young daughters. He also explains that the feast commemorates a legend from his city's history: After Apollo defeated the serpent Python, he went to King Crotopus of Argos to purify himself. There he fell in love with the king’s daughter (nameless in the Thebaid, but called Psamathe by Callimachus)[1] and impregnated the girl. She kept her pregnancy secret in fear of her father’s reaction and gave birth to a son (Linus according to other sources, but unnamed in the Thebaid),[2] whom she entrusted to a herdsman to be raised. In an unguarded moment, wild dogs devoured the infant. Hearing this, the princess confessed her plight to her father who punished her by death. Apollo then created a child-devouring monster and sent it to punish the people of the kingdom. The young hero Coroebus, not wanting the disaster to continue, killed the monster. Even more angered by this, Apollo sent a plague onto Argos. Seeing this Coroebus went to the god’s newly erected sanctuary in Delphi and confronted him, expressing his will to offer his own life to save his hometown from the god’s wrath. Moved by this, the god decided to spare both Coroebus and his city. Thereafter, the Argives annually celebrated a festival in Apollo's honor.
Argia and Deipyle, Adrastus' daughters, marry Polynices and Tydeus respectively. Their father thus concludes a military alliance with his sons in law. The wedding ceremony is marred by ill omens caused by Argia's wearing of the Necklace of Harmonia, a cursed object first worn by Harmonia, the wife of Thebes' mythical founder Cadmus. Polynices dreams of recovering his throne and asks his new allies for their support. Short of going to war, Tydeus is sent on an embassy to Thebes.
Eteocles is visited by the ghost of his grandfather Laius who warns him about his brother's intentions. Thus instructed, he rejects the Argive embassy and sends a group of 50 warriors to ambush Tydeus on his way home; in the ensuing battle, Tydeus single-handedly kills all but one Theban soldier. Maeon, the only survivor, returns to the palace and accuses Eteocles of causing the death of dozens of Thebans. He kills himself in anticipation of the king's punishment.
Jupiter instructs Mars to incite the citizens of Argos to war. Upon Tydeus' arrival, Adrastus remains reluctant to go to war against Thebes. After several days, he bows to his allies' pressure and lets his seers Amphiaraus and Melampus find out whether a war is sanctioned by the gods. Though the omens presage a terrible defeat, it is decided that Argos should march against Thebes. Both sides begin to prepare for war. At Argos, seven princes assemble their forces: Polynices, Adrastus, Tydeus, Amphiaraus, Capaneus, Hippomedon, and Parthenopaeus. At Thebes, panic breaks out at the news that an Argive army is preparing. Eteocles orders the seer Tiresias to consult the gods. In a necromantic ritual, he predicts a horrific war with a good outcome for Thebes.
Nemea
As the Argives pass through
In a narrative taking up the fifth book almost in its entirety, the princess tells the story of how she came to Nemea: the women of Lemnos had disrespected the goddess Venus who, in return, inspires their husbands to embark on a military campaign against Thrace. In the men's absence, the women fall into a frenzy and conspire to kill all male children on the island. When the Lemnian men return, they too are murdered by their wives. Only Hypsipyle is unaffected by the women's condition and guides her father Thoas to safety in a chest. She then becomes queen of Lemnos.
After a while, the
While Hypsipyle talks to the Argives, Opheltes sleeps unwatched. A large serpent sacred to Jupiter grazes the child with its scales and kills him. The Argive princes attack the serpent in order to avenge the child's death; Capaneus succeeds in killing it and thereby incurs the enmity of Jupiter. Opheltes's parents, Lycurgus and his wife Eurydice, accuse Hypsipyle of neglecting their son. Keen to protect their saviour, the Argives initiate a commotion at Lycurgus' palace, from which Hypsipyle is saved by her sons Thoas and Euneus who had arrived in search of their lost mother.
The next day, the Argive princess congregate at the palace to attend the funeral of Opheltes. An ancient grove is felled to provide the building material for a sumptuous pyre. After the child's body is cremated, they erect a temple to mark the spot. Following a common epic tradition, the Argives suggest the inauguration of funerary games in honour of the dead boy. The games are contested by the Argive army and act as an origin myth of the Nemean Games which were celebrated in antiquity.
War at Thebes
Angry at the Nemean delay, Jupiter sends Mars to incite the Argives to continue their march. Against the opposition of Bacchus, the Argive army makes its way to Thebes. Meanwhile, the Thebans muster their own army while Antigone, the warring brothers' sister, looks down from the city walls. In a narrative device known as teichoscopy, an old servant instructs her about all notable warriors involved in the Theban host.
In the night after the Argives arrive at Thebes, Jocasta visits their camp hoping to serve as a mediator between her sons. However, Tydeus turns her down and brusquely sends her back to the city. The Argives proceed to kill the tigers of Bacchus, a
Disturbed by the news of his death, the Argives negotiate a brief truce. They spend the night mourning their loss while the Thebans celebrate a victory. On the morning of the next day,
Both sides are horror-struck by the horrific act of Tydeus and attempt to take possession of his body. Hippomedon fights against a whole host of Thebans to retain the corpse but is tricked by Tisiphone into abandoning the scene. He goes on to fight in the bed of the river Ismenus but makes the mistake of killing the river god's grandson Crenaeus. So provoked, the river joins the battle and drowns Hippomedon. Atalanta, Parthenopaeus' mother, has a vision of her son's death in a dream. The goddess Diana seeks to intervene on her behalf but is told by Apollo that the youth cannot be saved. Parthenopaeus is granted one last killing spree before he is killed by Dryas.
At Argos, a group of women pray to Juno to come to their army's help. The goddess sends her messenger Iris to the cave of sleep where she ask Sleep himself to intervene. He obliges and casts deep sleep onto the Theban army. Led by Thiodamas, a band of Argives invades the Theban siege camp and commits a massacre. Two youths, Dymas and Hopleus, attempt to retrieve the bodies of Tydeus and Parthenopaeus. Apprehended by the Thebans, they die on top of the bodies they sought to steal.
The Argives now mount a full on assault on the fortress of Thebes. Within the city, Tiresias consults the gods and is given an omen:
Tisiphone and her sister Megaera stir Polynices to challenge Eteocles to single combat to decide the war. Eteocles is hesitant but he is urged by Creon to accept the duel, while Antigone and Jocasta try to defuse the situation. Meeting on the plain before the city, the brothers fight and kill each other. Jocasta kills herself at the news. Creon succeeds Eteocles as king of Thebes as the rest of the Argive army depart.
Theseus' intervention
In Thebes, Menoecus receives a kingly burial while the other war dead are cremated. Creon proclaims that he will deny burial to the dead Argives. The widows of the Argive army go on a mission to retrieve their husbands' bodies. When they learn of Creon's decree, they decide to split up: Polynices' widow Argia goes to Thebes, the other women to Athens in order to seek the protection of King Theseus.
Argia meets Antigone at the site of Polynices' body. After weeping over their shared loss, they burn his body on Eteocles' pyre. At Athens, the Argive women seek refuge at the Altar of Mercy. Having returned from an expedition against the Amazons, Theseus agrees to come to their aid. He directs his army towards Thebes where he routs the exhausted defenders and kills King Creon.
Structure
Following the model of
- Books 1–4: build-up to the war, preparations at Argos and Thebes
- Books 5–6: the Argive army at Nemea, sometimes described as mora ("delay")[8]
- Books 7–11: war at Thebes, deaths of the seven princes
Themes
Politics
According to the classicist Kathleen Coleman, the Thebaid displays "a particularly Roman preoccupation with the relationship between politics and the family".[9] The politics of Thebes are inextricably linked with those of its royal family: the rupture between Eteocles and Polynices results in a split within the Theban polity and leads ultimately to civil war.[10] Another aspect of this theme is the dominance of male actors over their female contemporaries which mirrors the patriarchal society of Flavian Rome.[9] Statius shares this concern with his epic predecessor Lucan, whose Bellum civile portrayed the civil war between Pompey and Caesar as failure of their marriage ties.[11]
Moral and theological outlook
Statius' depiction of the gods marks a departure from the mythological anthropomorphism exhibited by Homer and Vergil towards allegory. The writer C. S. Lewis considered his development of this narrative device an important predecessor of medieval forms of allegorical writing.[12] Lewis illustrates this point with his analysis of the portrayal of Mars in the Thebaid: instead of playing a mythological role, the god is always in a state of blind wrath and has come to represent the concept of warfare.[13]
Another important theme is the poem's depiction of
Episodicity
In contrast with other Roman epics (notably, the Aeneid), the poem does not follow a linear form of plot development. Instead, it entails a variety of loosely related episodes. This observation is most valid in the build-up to the war and has traditionally been viewed as a poetic flaw.[18] The Argives' extensive stint at Nemea is typical of this trend. Hypsipyle's tale, embedded within the Nemean episode, introduces nearly an entire book of material extraneous to the Theban legend.[19] Though seemingly unconnected, the Thebaid's episodes reveal an intricate carmen perpetuum ('unbroken song'), in the manner of Ovid's Metamorphoses: an epic of diverse strands which are held together by an intricate internal structure.[20]
Textual history
Date
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Although the precise dating of the Thebaid is unknown, the poem is thought to have been written during the reign of
Transmission
The text of the poem known to modern readers derives from several medieval manuscripts which trace their roots back to the 9th century AD.[25] This tradition is thought to fall into two distinct branches. One, labelled P as a shorthand for Puteaneus, is represented by a single manuscript written at Corbie Abbey and housed in Paris. The other, labelled ω, has spawned numerous descendants, though its original copy, known as the archetype, is lost.[25] P and ω offer diverging text on many occasions with P being considered less corrupted by mistakes.[26] The first printed edition based on these manuscripts was published in Rome around 1470.[26]
Influences
Long before Statius wrote the Thebaid, the Theban legend had been present in
Among the Latin literary tradition, the
Reception
Antiquity and the Middle Ages
Writing a generation after Statius, the
The Thebaid played an important role in the work of the Italian poet Dante Alighieri. Its influence on the Divine Comedy is, according to Dewar, "manifest and omnipresent".[36] Dante's fascination for Statius, whom he erroneously considered to have been a Christian,[22] is illustrated by his appearance, alongside Vergil, on the fifth terrace of the Purgatorio.[37]
Modern approaches
Modern
References
- ^ P.J. van den Broek, "The narrative of Adrastus in Statius’ Thebaid as a case study of intratextual poetics"
- ^ P.J. van den Broek, "The narrative of Adrastus in Statius’ Thebaid as a case study of intratextual poetics"
- ^ Gibson 2006, p. xxix, n. 44.
- ^ a b c Shackleton Bailey 2003, p. 3.
- ^ Vessey 1973, pp. 317–20.
- ^ Vessey 1973, pp. 321–2.
- ^ Vessey 1973, p. 321.
- ^ Aricò 2020, p. 1.
- ^ a b Coleman 2003, p. 12.
- ^ Hardie 1993, p. 95.
- ^ Hardie 1993, p. 91.
- ^ Lewis 1936, pp. 49–50.
- ^ Lewis 1936, p. 50–1.
- ^ Ganiban 2007, p. 34.
- ^ Ganiban 2007, p. 37.
- ^ Dominik 1994, p. 1.
- ^ Ganiban 2007, p. 43.
- ^ Coleman 2003, p. 14.
- ^ Hardie 1993, p. 170.
- ^ Vessey 1973, p. 328.
- ^ Stat. Theb. 12.811–12
- ^ a b c Howatson 2011.
- ^ Stat. Silv. 1 praef. 6.
- ^ Shackleton Bailey 2003, p. 2.
- ^ a b Reeve 1984, p. 394.
- ^ a b Reeve 1984, p. 395.
- ^ a b Vessey 1973, p. 69.
- ^ Dewar 1991, p. xxix–xxx.
- ^ Marinis 2015, pp. 343–4.
- ^ Stat. Theb. 12.816–7.
- ^ Ganiban 2007, p. 8.
- ^ Juv. 7.82–4.
- ^ Dewar 1991, p. xxxvii.
- ^ Dewar 1991, p. xxxvii–viii.
- ^ a b Dewar 1991, p. xxxix.
- ^ Dewar 1991, p. xliv.
- ^ Shackleton Bailey 2003, p. 4.
- ^ a b Coleman 2003, p. 10.
- ^ Ahl 1984, p. 2808.
- ^ Coleman 2003, p. 11.
- ^ Dominik, Newlands & Gervais 2015, p. 4.
Works cited
- Ahl, Frederick (1984). "Statius Thebaid: a Reconsideration". Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt. II (32.5): 2803–2912.
- Aricò, Giuseppe (2020). "Narrative Strategies in Statius' Thebaid". The Classical Review. 70 (2): 1–2.
- Coleman, Kathleen M. (2003). "Recent Scholarship". Statius II: Thebaid 1–7. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. pp. 9–37. ISBN 978-0-674-01208-0.
- Dewar, Michael (1991). Statius, Thebaid IX. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-814480-9.
- Dominik, William J. (1994). The Mythic Voice of Statius: Power and Politics in the Thebaid. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-09972-2.
- Dominik, William J.; Newlands, Carole E.; Gervais, Kyle (2015). "Reading Statius". Brill's Companion to Statius. Leiden: Brill. pp. 1–27. ISBN 978-90-04-28470-8.
- Ganiban, Randall T. (2007). Statius and Virgil: The Thebaid and the Reinterpretation of the Aeneid. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-16911-0.
- Gibson, Bruce (2006). Statius, Silvae 5. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-927715-5.
- ISBN 978-0-521-42562-9.
- Howatson, M. C., ed. (2011). "Statius". The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-954854-5.
- ISBN 978-1-107-65943-8.
- Marinis, Agis (2015). "Statius' Thebaid and Greek Tragedy: The Legacy of Thebes". In Dominik, William J.; Newlands, Carole E.; Gervais, Kyle (eds.). Brill's Companion to Statius. Leiden: Brill. pp. 343–61. ISBN 978-90-04-21789-8.
- ISBN 978-0-19-814456-4.
- ISBN 978-0-674-01208-0.
- Vessey, David (1973). Statius and the Thebaid. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-14751-4.
Further reading
- Tomcik, Melissande (2023). Aurores et crépuscules dans la Thébaïde de Stace. Leiden; Boston: Brill. ISBN 9789004537132.
