Compared with the fairly straightforward Homeric and Vergilian narrative, Statius' epic style is rather self-conscious and sometimes hard to follow. Statius (AD 45-96) uses the same poetic devices as Homer but with less naturalness. His style is characteristic of what is known as the Silver Age of Latin Literature, when too much attention was given to literary form. The first-time reader of Statius can find his narrative daunting, but don't allow yourself to be distracted from following the general outline of the story. A little perseverance combined with an awareness of his poetic style can generally bring an adequate understanding of the narrative. His importance as a source for Greek athletics and the Roman view of Greek sports will make your effort worthwhile.
STATIUS' EPIC STYLE
Statius employs basically the same poetic devices that Homer and Vergil do but much more extravagantly. For example, instead of saying prosaically "it was dawn" Statius indulges in a long circumlocution (25 ff.):
Bright Tithonia had brought out her laboring chariot from the sky and Night and Sleep with empty horn were fleeing the wakeful reins of the pale goddess.This sentence contains other things to watch out for. "Tithonia" is an epithet1 used instead of the goddess' more usual name Aurora (Dawn). Statius, like Homer, constantly uses epithets instead of a character's given name. Often these a number of different epithets are used for the same character. Polynices is called the "harsh son of Oedipus," "the descendant of Labdacus," and "the Aonian exile." The Argives are called both "Inachidae' and "Pelasgians."2 These epithets will always be explained by the footnotes. The phrase "wakeful reins" also seems odd because reins as an inanimate object cannot really be "wakeful," only people can. This is an example of hypallage or transferred epithet. The adjective "wakeful" is transferred from the people who are awakened by dawn to the reins that control the horses of Dawn's chariot.
1An epithet is a descriptive word or phrase.
2Actually Homer does the same thing. He calls the Greeks
at Troy "Achaeans," "Argives," and "Danaans." He doesn't use the word "Greeks"
because this is a designation adopted much later by the Romans. Homer doesn't
even use the classical name 'Hellenes' (Homer is pre-classical), which
the Greeks today still use of themselves.
Long similes are another important characteristic of the epic style. For example, Amphiaraus' advice to Polynices about how to handle the difficult horse Arion is compared to the Sun god's advice to his son (Phaethon) about how to control the god's chariot. The pessimism of the simile foreshadows that Polynices too will come to grief in the chariot race (320 ff.):
Just as when the Sun was giving the fiery reins to his son and was placing him on the rapid chariot, crying he taught the happy boy the insidious stars and the zones unwilling to be traversed and the atmospheric conditions between the poles: the boy indeed is respectful and sensibly cautious, but the harsh Fates prohibited the young man from learning.Another characteristic of Statius' epic style is his fondness for describing works of art. This device, called ecphrasis, is not peculiar to Statius but a part of the epic tradition. The first example of it is in Homer's Iliad when he describes the scenes depicted on Achilles' shield. There are many examples in Statius, who tends to overuse this device. For example, there's the bas-relief on the temple dedicated to Archemorus that depicts the events leading up to the child's death (245 ff.) and the story of Leander, who drowned attempting to swim the Hellespont at night to be with his girlfriend Hero ("the Sestian girl") is woven on a cloak given as a prize to Admetus (540 ff.).
But for you, Admetus, in return for your merits, is brought a cloak edged with a Maeonian border and dyed a deep purple: on the cloak is pictured a Greek youth named Leander, who scoffed at the dangers of the Hellespont, swims and dark blue he shines through the painted wave; he seems to move his hands sideways with alternate movement of the arms and you would believe that the cloth figure's hair was wet. On the opposite shore, however, in a very high tower sits the Sestian girl, anxiously looking for him in vain. nearby the fire, conscious of her plight, is dying.A device that the modern reader may find strange is apostrophe, the direct address by the poet of a character in his narrative. This poetic figure is an attempt by the poet to engage his reader's emotions by expressing how he himself feels about a character or event in his story. For example, when Polynices barely escapes death in the chariot race, Statius says to Polynices that it would have been better for him to die in the race rather than survive to kill his brother and himself be killed in a fratricidal war (510 ff.):
What a good opportunity this would have been for you to die, Theban, had not Tisiphone been kind, how great a war you would have been able to avoid! Thebe would have mourned for you and so would your brother, but only on the surface, Argos, Nemea all would have lamented for you, for you Lerna and the suppliant Larisa would have cut their hair; you would have been honored with a tomb greater than that of Archemorus.Finally, Statius expected his readers to be intimately familiar with the whole tradition of Greek mythology. Thus he fills his narrative with obscure allusions to stories with which most modern readers are unfamiliar. All epic poets indulge in this practice to a greater or lesser degree from Homer on, but with Statius it is almost a game of mythological trivia in which the poet tests the reader's knowledge. Again, the footnotes will provide whatever information is needed to understand the text.
THE BACKGROUND OF BOOK SIX
Book six of the Thebaid is an account of the games that the Argive king Adrastus held as part of the funeral ritual for the death of the Nemean crown prince. The events that led up to this funeral are the following: Eteocles and Polynices, the sons of Oedipus, had agreed to share the kingship after their father's retirement by reigning in alternate years. Eteocles ruled first while Polynices went to Argos and married Adrastus' daughter, but when Polynices turn came to rule, Eteocles refused to give up the throne.3 Thus Adrastus led an Argive army to Thebes to restore his son-in-law to the throne. This would be the war that was known as the Seven against Thebes. The seven heroes that would attack Thebes are Adrastus, Polynices, Amphiaraus, Parthenopaeus, Tydeus, Capaneus and Hippodmedon. These heroes also take part in the athletic contests along with other Argives and local Nemean heroes.
3This story also provides the background for Sophocles' Antigone.
On their way to Thebes the Argives at Nemea were told by a woman named Hypsipyle4 where to find water. While she led them to a spring, she forgot about a baby which was in her care. This infant was Opheltes, the crown prince of Nemea, and, as a result, he was killed by a serpent. When the Argives found the dead child, the prophet Amphiaraus told them that this was an omen of their own doom. They gave the child a burial described in book six and called the dead child "Archemorus," a name which means "the beginning of doom." The funeral games they held in honor of the child were believed to be the first celebration of the Nemean Games, which were one of the four great Greek athletic festivals.5
4Hypsipyle had been the queen of the island of Lemnos. All
the women of the island had sworn to kill their male relatives but Hypsipyle
relented and saved the life of her father by putting him in a box, which
she set adrift at sea. Then the Argonauts arrived on Lemnos and their leader,
Jason, had two sons by Hypsipyle. Although there are different versions
of the story, one has it that after the Argonauts left, the women of Lemnos
sold Hypsipyle to Lycurgus, king of Nemea, as a slave, because she had
not killed her father. In this way she became the nurse of Opheltes (Archemorus).
Just at the time when Opheltes is killed by the snake, her two sons by
Jason, now grown up, eventually find their way to Nemea and discover their
mother with the aid of the prophet Amphiaraus. They give comfort to their
mother during the funeral and afterwards bring her back to Lemnos.
5The other three were the Olympic, Pythian and Isthmian
Games.
Go to text of Statius, Book Six