Politics and Poetics HANDOUT 9 (week 10)

Mangled Epic: Statius’ Thebaid (II)

1. Ends in the beginning: the politics of limit/endlessness

  • Thebes as ALL WARS

Lucretius, On the Nature of Things 5.324-7: ‘Besides, if there has been no first birth-time for earth and heaven, and they have been always everlasting, why have not other poets also sung other things beyond the Theban War and the ruin of Troy?’

More Thebes: key predecessors for Statius:

  • An early Greek cyclic epic called the Thebais, of which a few fragments survive - attributed by early writers to Homer.
  • The long and apparently long-winded epic on Thebes by Antimachus of Colophon, a proto-Alexandrian poet and grammarian who flourished c. 400BCE (he was admired by Plato) and to whose work Statius perhaps alludes in his proem, when he stresses the limits he will place on the scope of his work.
  • The Hellenistic poet Antagoras of Rhodos wrote a Thebaid in 11 books, as did other poets roughly contemporary with him.
  • 5th century Greek tragedy deals extensively with these tales, often as a means of grappling with contemporary, Athenian political concerns (nb. F.Zeitlin on Thebes as Athens’ archetypal other): Euripides’ Suppliants and Phoenissae, Aeschlyus’Seven Against Thebes, Sophocles’ Antigone, Oedipus Rex and Oedipus Colonus.Very many other plays are of course lost.
  • Pindar used the Theban myth for purposes of eulogy (Isthmian Ode 7.3-15).
  • Latin versions: e.g. Accius’ and Seneca’s Phoenissae. Propertius, at 1.7.1-2, 17-18 and Ovid in Tristia 4.10.47, mention a poet called Ponticus who wrote about the expedition of the Seven against Thebes.
  • Nb: Aeneas meets three of the seven against Thebes in the underworld at Virgil Aen.6.477-82. Thebes is conspicuous by its absence from Virgil’s epic, yet critics have noticed that the Theban three all seem to have corresponding characters in the Aeneid (Tydeus is the hot-headed Mezentius, Parthenopaeus the virgin Pallas, Adrastus the good king Evander, or Latinus). Is Thebes operating beneath the surface in the ‘Iliadic’ books? How far is the war in Latium a civil war?

2. Classically horrific: Shall Tydeus be the first “hero”?

  • Thebaid 8. 751-66: Tydeus, one of the Seven against Thebes, devours the head of his enemy Melanippus

erigitur Tydeus uultuque occurrit et amens

laetitiaque iraque, ut singultantia uidit

ora trahique oculos seseque agnouit in illo,

imperat abscisum porgi, laeuaque receptum

spectat atrox hostile caput, gliscitque tepentis755

lumina torua uidens et adhuc dubitantia figi.

infelix contentus erat: plus exigit ultrix

Tisiphone; iamque inflexo Tritonia patre

uenerat et misero decus inmortale ferebat,

atque illum effracti perfusum tabe cerebri 760

aspicit et uiuo scelerantem sanguine fauces

(nec comites auferre ualent): stetit aspera Gorgon

crinibus emissis rectique ante ora cerastae

uelauere deam; fugit auersata iacentem,

nec prius astra subit quam mystica lampas et insons765

Ilissos multa purgauit lumina lympha.

Tydeus raised himself and turned his head

To see him, wild with joy and wrath, contemplating

The gasping mouth, the savage eyes, and recognised

Himself in the other. He commanded the enemy’s

Head be severed and brought to him. Holding it in his

Left hand, he glared at it fiercely, proud to feel it

Cool, and see those grim eyeballs, still trembling,

Grow still. But though the unhappy man was content,

Tisiphone the avenger demanded more. As Pallas

Appeared, having swayed her father’s emotions,

Bearing immortal glory to the wretched Tydeus,

Gazing at him, she saw his jaws drenched with fluid

From the shattered skull, polluted with the matter

From a human brain (his comrades could not wrest

It away). The bitter Gorgon on her shield stood tall,

With flailing snaky locks; the asps rearing before

The goddess’ face and masking it. Turning away

From the prostrate Tydeus, she fled, not returning

To the stars until the mystic torch and the waters

Of the guiltless river, Ilissos, had purged her eyes.

3.Thebes and Rome: what’s in the mirror?

  • virtusbecomes a form of death. See Theb 10.628-787. ‘Chance does the work of valour’ at 8.421 (casus agit virtutis opus).
  • The search foriustitiainspires mass murder: Theb 2.360
  • The final killing fields are clementia’s tribute: Theb 12.451-796 (Clementia has her seat ‘in the middle of the city’, 12.481-2).
  • pietasbecomes a female value inverted and perverted in men. The poem climaxes in and is sealed by female values, which undercut the ethos of epic and its narrative of male heroism.

4. Eteocles and Polynices – Titus and Domitian?

Suetonius Dom.2.3:

From that time on – the death of his father – he never ceased to plot against his brother secretly or openly, until Titus was seized with a dangerous illness, when Domitian ordered that he be left for dead, before he had actually drawn his last breath. And after his death he bestowed no honour on him, except for that of deification, and he often attacked his memory in ambiguous phrases, both in his speeches and his edicts.

5. A model for successful succession?

In Book 8, the Argive army has to choose a successor to Amphiaraus, the warrior-prophet of Argos, who has been swallowed by the earth. They all agree that his rightful heir should be Thiodamas, son of Melampus:

Thebaid8.286-93:

The king had summoned

His gloomy council; groaning, they ask who will

Succeed to the tripods, to whom the abandoned

Laurel will pass; the sacred ribbon’s lonely glory.

All want Thiodamas, without delay, the eminent

Son of holy Melampus. Amphiaraus himself

Used to share with him the secrets of the gods;

With him alone, omens from the flight of birds.

Far from jealous of such arts, he was delighted

For Thiodamas to be called his peer, or his near

Equal. The magnitude of the honour astounds

Thiodamas now, the unexpected glory amazes

Him; humbly he reveres the proffered laurel,

Denying he’s fitted for the burden, so worthy

To be coerced. Thus, a son of the Persian king

For whom it were better if his father had lived,

Chancing to inherit the throne and its power,

Weighs the joy against his anxiety and doubt:

Are his nobles loyal, will the people oppose his

Rule, to whom shall he entrust the Euphrates’

Shore, the Caspian Gate? So he is reluctant

To accept fealty and mount his own father’s

Steed, thinking his hand too immature to hold

The sceptre, his brow too slight for the crown.

On the simile underlined above, Hardie (Epic Successors, 1993, p111) comments: ‘The setting is exotic, but the problems might be Roman. Statius is avoiding direct comparison with the imperial succession – or is he saying that these things are done better or are simpler in ‘barbarian lands’?’

6. The glories of men?

  1. 1.45: ‘I must sing of Capaneus with another horror’ (alio Capaneus horrorecanendus)
  1. 1.425-6: Tydeus and Polynices fight, and both are flushed with hatred (alacres odio) yet are inspired by ‘no desire for praise/glory’ (nullaque cupidine laudis).
  1. 3.160-4: Ide, a Theban mother (name not known elsewhere), mourns the (nameless) sons of Thespius

Not in the thick of battle, famous for your fate, your

Daring actions, destined to live in the memory of nations,

Did you find these wounds, a grieving mother laments;

You died an obscure death, amongst the crowd, alas,

Lying unnoticed, amongst the gore, none to praise you (sine laude).

D. 8.551-553: Death of Corymbus

Corymbus of Helicon, who was formerly

A friend of the Muses, had taken arms against the Danai. Aware

Of what the Stygian Fates had spun, one Muse, Urania, had long

Foretold his death from the stars’ alignments. Yet he longs for

War and warriors, so as to sing them perhaps. Now he lies low,

Worthy himself to be sung with lasting praise, yet the Sisters wept his loss in silence.

E. 4.182-6:

Thamyris, the Getic bard, who thought

To surpass the Aonian Muses in song, was condemned to a life

Of silence, voice and lyre instantly mute (who can slight the deities

Face to face?) He had forgotten Celaenae, the home of the satyr,

Marsyas hung and flayed for daring to try his skill against Apollo.

7. Thebaid and Aeneid

  • Silvae 5.3.233-4: ‘Under your guidance (father) my Thebaid followed the footsteps of ancient bards’
  • Thebaid 12.816-17: ‘Live, I pray, and do not rival the divine Aeneid, but follow from afar and worship its footsteps.’
  • No ‘Odyssey’ in the Thebaid. Action begins as Oedipus steps into the role of Virgil’s Allecto in Aeneid 7, and calls on the Fury Tisiphone to exact revenge on his sons by setting them against each other.
  • The loss of epic teleology (and the Virgilian drive towards imperium sine fine) is captured above all in the figure of Statius’ Jupiter. Jupiter now rouses disorder rather than calming it; and he channels Juno’s chthonic anger. See the following two examples:
  1. Theb 7.1-14, 26-32:

While the Pelasgi thus delayed the onset of the Theban war,

Jupiter watched them, no kindness in his heart, and shook

His head, so that the stars on high trembled at the motion;

Atlas complaining: Earth weighed heavier on his shoulders.

Then Jove addressed Mercury, the swift Arcadian god: ‘Go, 5

Lad, and in one rapid leap glide to the north as far as those

Thracian dwellings, and the pole of the snowy constellation,

That Great Bear, where Callisto feeds her flames (forbidden

To sink into the Ocean) on wintry clouds and my own rain.

There, quickly, deliver his father’s urgent command to Mars,

Who perhaps lays his spear aside to breathe, though he hates

To rest or, more likely, plies weapons and insatiate trumpets,

Revelling in the courage of a race he loves. Spare nothing!

…

Now he (Mars) is soft in warfare and grows slack though I am angry. Unless he hastens the war and hurls the Danaan host against

The Theban walls faster than I command let him (and yet

I threaten nothing cruel) let him become a kind and gentle god,

Let his savage ways transform to peaceful ones, let him return

The sword and horses, and end his power over life and death.

- Compare Theb.7.5-6, I, …puer , with Aen.4.223: vade, puer

  1. Theb.1.214-47 (Jupiter’s speech at the council of the gods, which

alludes both to Jupiter’s speech in response to Venus’ plea at Aen.1.257-96, and also to Juno’s decision to make Allecto her puppet in Aeneid 7). Note especially lines 224-5: nunc geminas punire domos, quis sanguinis auctor /ipse ego, descendo (Now I am descending in punishment on the twin houses, whose father I am by blood’)

-Compare Theb.2.115-16:

Ipse deum genitor tibi me miseratus ab alto / mittit

The father of the gods himself in pity sends me to you from on high/from the depths.

8. The epilogue in full:

My Thebaidon whom for twelve years I’ve spent all my waking effort,

Will you survive, and be read when your masteris long gone? Already,

In truth, your fame has spread a generous path before you, and begun

To reveal you, a new arrival, to those to come. Already magnanimous

Domitian, our Caesar, has deigned to acknowledge you, and the learned

Youth of Italy memorise you and recite you. Live on, I pray; but do not

Try to compete with the divine Aeneid, rather follow always in its steps

And adore it from afar. Soon every envy spreading mist before you will

Vanish and, when I am gone, you’ll receive such honour as is deserved.

durabisne procul dominoque legere superstes,Domitian named himself dominus et deus.

o mihi bissenos multum uigilata per annos Rivalry with Aeneid, written ‘in 11 years’?

Thebai? iam certe praesens tibi Fama benignum cf. Ov.Met.15.878, fama

strauit iter coepitque nouam monstrare futuris.

iam te magnanimus dignatur noscere Caesar,

Itala iam studio discit memoratque iuuentus.815

uiue, precor; nec tu diuinam Aeneida tempta, cf. Ov.Met.15.879, vivam, ‘I will live’

sed longe sequere et uestigia semper adora. Cf. Lucretius, following in the footsteps (vestigia) of

mox, tibi si quis adhuc praetendit nubila liuor, Epicurus at DRN 3.3-4

occidet, et meriti post me referentur honores.

9. Silvae 2.7.79-80 (birthday poem for dead Lucan): ‘The Aeneid will worship you when you sing to the Latins!’

Politics and Poetics term 1, QUIZ

  1. Suggest 4 ways of filling in the blank:

The politics of ______

  1. Place the following figures in chronological order (according to birth date), beginning with the earliest:

Virgil, Lucan, Seneca the Younger, Persius, Ovid, Catullus, Nero, Domitian, Statius.

  1. When did the battle of Pharsalus take place?
  1. Translate the following key Latin terms:

concordia

amicitia

furor

mora

libertas

carmen perpetuum

recusatio

tempora

verba novissima

  1. What does a ‘formalist’ approach to literature consist of?
  1. Conservative criticism in a formal style
  2. Criticism which deals only with metre and rhythm
  3. Interpretation which approaches the text as isolated from the social, political, cultural and economic context in which it was produced.
  1. What suggests that Ovid Metamorphoses 3 gets us to reflect on Ovid’s own ‘guilt’ and punishment by Augustus?
  1. Which of the following statements are true?
  1. Literature reflects and responds to its surrounding culture
  2. Literature participates/intervenes in and performs politics
  3. Literature is a product of social and political forces.
  4. The verbal arts are uniquely political
  1. Why does the topic of civil war offer such exciting opportunities for Latin

epic poets to experiment with poetic form?

  1. Why are civil war and incest entwined themes in Latin epic?
  2. Why is teleology in epic narrative political?
  1. In what ways does Virgil get us to think about politics as a viewpoint, or visual perspective?
  1. Name three things Statius’ Thebaid has in common with Virgil’s Aeneid.
  1. How do Lucan and Statius make reading about civil war a participatory political act?

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