Introduction

The epic boxing match is characterised by a structure of sudden narrative reversals. Boxing is about literally knocking your opponent over. This study of the tradition of epic boxing matches from Homer to Statius will show that reversal is the key to both the structure of the individual match and the structure of intertextual negotiation. In a recent tour de force, Damien Nelis has used Virgil's boxing match as a showcase of the way Virgil reads Homer through Apollonius. I shall respond by arguing that Statius is equally subtle and even more complex in his reworking of his predecessors. If the chariot race shows a self-conscious manipulation of the mode of repetition, the boxing reflects on reversal as an intertextual trope as well as a narrative device. This chapter takes these moves beyond metapoetics, however, by looking at issues of national identity in Statius' boxing match, also at stake in the Virgilian match. Nationality and civilisation are at the forefront of epic portrayals of boxers, and reversals of the narrative structures of boxing matches can be mapped onto reversals in the presentation of Greek and Roman culture, civilisation and barbarism.

Statius' boxing match comes at the end of a long sequence. The fight between Irus and Odysseus in Odyssey 18 and that of Amycus and Polydeukes in book 2 of Apollonius' Argonautica both reverse the match between Epeius and Euryalus in the Iliad. Similarly, both Valerius Flaccus (Argonautica 4.199–343) and Statius are rivals in their reworking of Virgil. In all of these matches, a champion issues a challenge in supreme confidence, and expectations are aroused.