Statius (Classics)

The centrality of Bacchus’ role in Statius’ Thebaid is unprecedented in the epic tradition. Of Statius’ predecessors, only Ovid had accorded him a signif- icant on-stage role, while others, such as Virgil, made him important in indirect ways that are associated with the creative energies that drive the narrative. Sta- tius responds to his predecessors mainly by subverting the traditional Bacchic imaginary. The god emerges as largely ineffectual, neither a fully-fledged culture hero, nor a terrible punisher of hybris. As if to work athwart the god’s traditional role as ‘most terrible but also most sweet to mankind’ (Eur. Ba. 861) or ‘a mediator of peace but midmost in the fight’ (Hor. Odes 2.19.27–28), the poem oscillates be- tween war and peace, between deferral and continuation of its own action. This chapter examines the presentation of Bacchus in the Thebaid and some of the implications of this presentation for the poem’s poetic and ideological texture. There is particular discussion of Bacchus’ main interventions: in book 4 to fore- stall the Argive alliance’s assault on Thebes; and again in book 7 when he up- braids Jupiter for his complacency in allowing Thebes to be attacked, in both of which Bacchus emerges as unwarlike relative to his models and antagonists. Bac- chic manoeuvres proliferate: Venus encroaches on the territory of Bacchus by staging her own Bacchae in the Lemnian episode of book 5; Statius’ matrona (4.377–405) replays Lucan’s sibyl (1.679–95) in her Bacchic enthusiasm, which in the revised version signals the furor of civil war, and yet remains ineffective as a plot-motivator. Leaving aside Virgil and Ovid, Statius takes most closely after the sublime Dionysian furor of Lucan and Seneca, and yet what we find in the The- baid is an attenuated Bacchus, metamorphosed into the antithesis of the sublime aesthetic, a reduction of which the poem at several points shows metapoetic awareness. The chapter brings together the different strands of its argument by examining the role of Bacchus in the conclusion of the Thebaid.

An extensive commentary on each poem from Book 9, placing them in their literary, social, and historical context
Includes a comprehensive introduction which establishes Book 9 in Martial's work as a whole
Contains the Latin text of each eprigram, which takes manuscript variants and suggested emendations into account
In this volume, Henriksén offers the first extensive commentary on Book 9 of the Epigrams of M. Valerius Martialis (ca. AD 40-104), who published fifteen books of Epigrams during the last two decades of the 1st century AD. Firmly established in a literary tradition that had begun in Greece more than half a millennium earlier, Martial's work represents the height of the development of ancient epigram. Conscious of his own times and society, Martial often engages current genres and his great Roman predecessors, such as Catullus, Vergil, and Ovid, in an intertextual dialogue.

First published in AD 94/95, Book 9 is the last book in the corpus of Martial to have been published in the reign of the emperor Domitian. While it presents the reader with the epigrammatist's characteristic variety of subjects drawn from contemporary Roman society and everyday life, it also contains a patently higher number of poems focusing on and eulogizing Domitian than any other book in the Epigrams. Unlike those of Book 8, the panegyrics in Book 9 are mixed with satirical and obscene epigrams, and the panegyrical tone is intensified. Book 9 also provides a conclusion to the large cycle on Domitian's Second Pannonian War that extends over Books 7, 8, and 9, the three books that have been termed Martial's 'Kaisertriade'.

A thoroughly revised and expanded edition of Henriksén's published thesis, the book consists of an introduction discussing the date, characteristics, structure, and themes of Book 9, followed by a detailed commentary on each of the 105 poems, which places them in their literary, social, and historical context.
Readership: For scholars and students of classical studies, Latin literature, ancient history, and Roman studies.

Silvae 5.2 is an encomium addressed to Crispinus upon the occasion of his appointment as tribunus militum. This paper investigates how Statius employs epic intertexts in order to address potentially negative judgments of Crispinus caused by the young man's inexperience and the memory of his mother's crime. Allusions to Virgil's Aeneid affirm Crispinus's ability to emulate his father, exclude his criminal mother as a formative influence, and specify the roles of the young man's preceptors. Recollections of Statius's Thebaid, meanwhile, highlight the emperor's successful resolution of Crispinus's familial conflict through contrast with the epic's fratricidal violence.

This paper is aimed at studying how the primaeval relationship between music and epic poetry, whose traces are found in Homer, was thought under the light of ancient doctrines about musical teaching and its ethical effects, as well as at showing the way in which moral readings of this kind, based on the Achilles at the lyre passage from the Iliad (IX, 186-189), were exploited by Statius in his Achilleid.

Augustus’ portrait in Seneca, brev. vitae 4, shows a remarkable concentration
of terms and images related to the imperial power, and it can be compared
with many other Senecan statements in the philosophical works and also in
the tragedies, which are often marked by the theme of the regnum. From the
analysis of the stylistic and metaphorical occurrences Augustus seems to be
portrayed as the antithesis of the sapiens, characterized as a dissatisfied and
unhappy man, who deceives himself with illusory consolations and superficial
statements without seeking for more rational life options.

This chapter explores slavery’s often unseen contributions to imperial Roman literary representations of elite men’s voluntary solitude at their villas, chiefly examining the villa-tours of Pollius Felix (Stat. Silv. 2.2) and Pliny the Younger (Ep. 2.17). The chapter argues that whether it is distanced, elided or displaced within the villa landscape, slavery helps define and facilitate the villa owner’s solitude. Even when it seems to disappear from or blend into the solitary landscape, slavery helps maintain the all-important sense of freedom and independence that he enjoys there, at the margins of a hierarchical society that threatened to render him figuratively servile. Thus, even as these accounts seek to accrue social distinction for their protagonists within Rome’s social hierarchies by lending them a solitary, independent pose ostensibly external to them, from a broader perspective, they reproduce these same hierarchies and reveal how far from external or marginal these men were to Roman society’s structures of power.

La presente tesi di laurea si propone di offrire un’analisi della traduzione settecentesca della Tebaide ad opera del Cardinale Cornelio Bentivoglio D’Aragona.
Mediante una selezione di brani dal forte valore esemplificativo, si è cercato di analizzarne l'ars vertendi, senza tuttavia resistere alla tentazione di avanzare ipotesi e giustificazioni.

This article aims at analyzing the history of the Latin iunctura “machina mundi” since its original formulation (Lucretius, DRN 5.95-96). Lucretius’ use of the world-machine metaphor contains a clear polemical intent, directed against two complementary images: the Platonic view of the world as a divine creation and the widespread Hellenistic representation of the world as a perfect mechanism of spheres turning around an immobile Earth. The shadow of the original eschatological context in Lucretius’ poem hangs over its first quotations and reformulations (Manilius, Aetna, Lucan): an important role is played by Statius (later imitated by Avienus), who first interprets and transforms Lucretius’ machina mundi into a machina caeli, with emphasis on the rotation of celestial spheres. Another important turning point is the Christian appropriation of the iunctura, both in prose (Arnobius, Firmicus Maternus) and verse (Laudes Domini), since late III century AD. At the same time, the expression machina mundi becomes a commonplace formula to refer to the Vault of Heaven or to the world. However, its reuse during the IV Century AD seems often linked to Lucretius’ original context (with polemical intent). The analysis concludes with the work of Prudentius and Claudianus, which represents a perfect synthesis of the interpretations of the iunctura until late antiquity. In the final chapter, returning to Lucretius’ verses, it is suggested that in DRN 5.95-96 we find an allusion to the myth of Atlas and its allegorical interpretations.

General introduction to the epic genre in Rome after Vergil's and Lucan's experiences. Translation with stylistic and philological commentary of Valerius Flaccus’ 'Argonautica', 7, 1.25 and 101-152; Statius' 'Thebais' 10, 827-939; Silius' 'Punica' 9, 66-167.

This dissertation examines the somewhat neglected epic poem the Thebaid of the Silver Age Latin poet Statius. Until recently considered as something of a failure of epic, the Thebaid is actually a complex reflection of Rome under the emperor Domitian. The first chapter examines the many depictions of death, from murder to battle to glorious death, and demonstrates the major persistent theme of futility in war. The second chapter analyses Statius’ use of similes, including an original database of all the Thebaid’s similes, and shows how we can use those similes to identify his focus on the Argive heroes. It also shows that his similes have complex intratextual development to characterise people, such as the pattern of the chief bull simile to criticize Polynices and Eteocles. The third chapter examines how Statius represents both mortal and immortal tyrants, criticising them for their injustice and implicitly comparing them to Domitian. It also analyses how Statius’ characters respond to the tyrants, on whether they sycophantically support them or dare to defy them, even at the cost of their own life. Overall, we can see through the Thebaid a Rome which is intensely concerned with the increasingly autocratic Domitian and the threat of civil war if he was to fall.

Intertextuality can be of aid to textual criticism and give support to editorial choices.
In the first case discussed (Catull. 51, 11 sg.) the much debated Catullan gemina ... nocte in the translation of Sappho (fr. 31 V.) get support not only from the homeric formula which describes the black night falling on the eyes of the wounded hero (cp. Il. V 310; XI 356), probably echoed by Catullus, but also from the clear allusion to Catullus' verse by Stat. Theb. II 30 sq. ni deus horrentem Lethaeo vimine mulcens / ferrea tergemino domuisset lumina somno, which describes Mercurius putting Cerberus to sleep with his caduceus. The bold enallage tergemino ... somno certainly hints at Catullus' gemina nocte, giving a strong argument for the defence of the transmissed text (cp. also the identic dispositio verborum: gemina teguntur lumina nocte with tergemino domuisset lumina somno).
In Martial I 116, 1 sg. hoc nemus aeterno cinerum sacravit honori / Faenius et culti iugera pulchra soli, editors generally accept pulchra (v. 2) of first and third family against pauca of the Gennadian family. This last one is however probably what Martial wrote: the same ager is described in I 114, 2 as breve rus and pulchra would produce a bad paronomastic effect with sepulchro (v. 3). Furthermore, Martial is certainly hinting at Tibullus' first pentameter (I 1, 1 sg. Divitias alius fulvo sibi congerat auro / et teneat culti iugera multa soli), a memorable verse, already imitated by Ovid (am. III 15, 12 moenia quae campi iugera pauca tenent; fast. III 192 iugeraque inculti pauca tenere soli; Pont. IV 9, 86 et teneat glacies iugera multa soli), whose contrastive allusion in the Amores and in the Fasti (iugera pauca) surely constitute a precedent for Martial. The epigrammatist hints at Tibullan verse also in I 85, 2 (atque suburbani iugera pulchra soli, which may be the source for the interpolation of pulchra in I 116, 2); VI 16, 2 (iugera sepositi pauca tuere soli); XI 29, 6 (et dabo Setini iugera multa soli); cp. also IV 64, 36 Iuli iugera pauca Martialis.
In Martial IX 71, 7 quid meruit terror Nemees, quid portitor Helles / ut niteant celsi lucida signa poli?, all modern editors prefer portitor of first and third family to proditor of the Gennadian family. Portitor Helles is in Col. X 155 (mox ubi nubigenae Phrixi nec portitor Helles) and Lucan. IV 57 (sidera respiciens delapsae portitor Helles). Both however hint at the tragic end of Helle (Columella with nec, which distinguishes Phrixus' fate from his sister's; Lucan. with the participle delapsae). Moreover Martial wants to discredit the Nemean lion as well as the golden aries, which were unworthy of becoming stars. The epigrammatist probably hints at Ovid. fast. IV 715 sq. de duce lanigeri pecoris, qui prodidit Hellen / sol abit; cp. Mart. IX 71, 1 sq. pecorisque maritus / lanigeri with Ovid. fast. IV 715 de duce lanigeri pecoris. Ovidian hypotext gives strong support to proditor, which is also lectio difficilior. Martial verse then probably influenced sap. 122, 1 (AL 616 1 R.2) proditor est Helles et proditor Europaeus.

I offer a close intertextual reading of the epilogue to Statius' Thebaid (12.810-19) that incorporates the epic and non-epic works of Lucretius, Horace, Virgil, Ovid, and Lucan; I identify nine previously unnoticed or undiscussed intertexts, and examine others in a new light. In this epilogue we find, first, a deep unease with the purposes of imperial Roman epic and the place of the Thebaid within that genre, and second, a bold attempt to separate Roman epic from the Roman empire in order to carve out a new kind of poetic immortality.

In his sonnet "En la muerte de tres hijas del duque de Feria" Luis de Góngora has combined Virgilʼs simile of the nightingaleʼs lament (Georg. 4, 511- 515) with Heliodorus of Emesaʼs simile of the snakeʼs assault to the nest (Aeth. 2, 22, 4), previously imitated by Francisco de Terrazas and by the author of an anonymous sonnet from the Cancionero sevillano de Toledo. But, in doing so, he has wittily corrected the literary tradition about the bird crying for her brood.

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Die vielschichtig motivierte Translozierung der turma Alexandri nach Rom und ihre Umnutzung als ursprüngliches Weihgeschenk und ihrer folgenden Umdeutung, indem man durch ihre Entkontextualisierung wesentliche semantische Aspekte und ihre für die Makedonen identitätsstiftende und stabilisierende Funktionen überschrieb, zeigen, wie Monumente in neuen Zusammenhängen neu besetzbar waren.
Die Kenntnis von der ursprünglichen Aufstellung, wie sie in annähernd allen literarischen Erwähnungen der turma Alexandri Niederschlag findet, und die damit kommunizierte, offene Aneignung des Monuments spielte gerade für dessen Neubewertung und Überschreibung unter Q. Caecilius Metellus eine wichtige Rolle.
Caesars Translozierung des lysippischen Alexanderbildes von der Porticus Metelli und dessen Umwidmung hingegen hatten zum Ziel, durch die den statuarischen Typus vermittelten Assoziationen eine Nähe zu den Fähigkeiten Alexanders, mithin eine partielle Imitatio Alexandri zu evozieren. Demgegenüber wird durch die späte literarische Rezeption mit Statius eine weitere Facette deutlich: Erst durch die Hervorhebung der Umwidmung und der Neukontextualisierung durch Caesar wird der Ruhm des equus Domitiani und des Kaisers Domitian in vollendeter Weise überhöht. Mithilfe einer dreistufigen literarischen Figur, die von Alexander über Caesar bis hin zu Domitian reicht, entwirft Statius eine präzise Schilderung von den Qualitäten des Princeps und erhebt diesen dadurch zur größten Figur der römischen Geschichte überhaupt. Erst durch den geschickten, nur über die hervorgehobene Wiederverwendung glaubhaft und sichtbar werdenden agonalen Diskurs der Arbeiten Lysipps mit den zeitgenössischen Künstlern des equus Domitiani gelingt darauf aufbauend auch die Überhöhung der formalen und ästhetischen Qualitäten des Reiterstandbildes auf dem Forum Romanum.

By introducing a multifaceted approach to epic geography, the editors of the volume wish to provide a critical assessment of spatial perception, of its repercussions on shaping narrative as well as of its discursive traits and cultural contexts. Taking the genre-specific boundaries of Greco-Roman epic poetry as a case in point, a team of international scholars examines issues that lie at the heart of modern criticism on human geography. Modern and ancient discourse on space representations revolves around the nation-shaping force of geography, the gendered dynamics of landscapes, the topography of isolation and integration, the politics of imperialism, globalization, environmentalism as well as the power of language and narrative to turn space into place. One of the major aims of the volume is to show that the world of the Classics is not just the origin, but the essence of current debates on spatial constructions and reconstructions.

1. Eurialo e Niso: lo scambio delle armi e la spada di Licaone.  2. Moralità del massacro notturno e vestizione appropriata in Stazio, Tebaide 10.  2.1. Le due spedizioni notturne di Tebaide 10.  2.2. L’arco di Odisseo e l’arco di Agilleo.  3. La Doloneia dei Punica di Silio Italico

All three descriptions of dawn in Statius' Achilleid (1.242–5; 1.819–20; 2.1–4) are tightly connected to the "metamorphoses" of Achilles in the poem. These passages also recall the dawn-opening of Iliad 19, and the Homeric system of metaphors and symbols which compares the hero's return to battle to the arrival of light and dawn. A particularly complex connection between Achilles' discovery and the sunrise is established in the third Statian passage under discussion, which can also be interpreted as a possible prediction of Achilles' future role as an epic and elegiac hero. The genitor coruscae lucis mentioned in this passage can be identified as Iuppiter/Diespiter; hence the description also sheds some light on the god's role in the Achilleid.

El capítulo parte de la consideración de cómo la teo­ría griega relativa a los efectos morales que la música puede causar en el ánimo del oyente se presenta en la Roma del siglo I con la distinción entre un tipo de música que calma y otro que excita. Mientras Ovidio ve la música como un medio empleado por Quirón para sosegar al belicoso Aquiles, Séneca acusa al centauro de haberla utilizado para embravecerlo. La oposición en que, mediante una estili­zación literaria de las doctrinas sobre el ethos de la música, se sitúa el poeta nero­niano con respecto al augústeo, deja abierta una cuestión a la cual cada uno de los tres épicos flavios querrá procurar su propia respuesta. Se analiza detalladamente cada una de ellas.