Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-cx56b Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-25T14:24:42.920Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Patterns of Madness in Statius' Thebaid*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2012

Debra Hershkowitz
Debra Hershkowitz
Affiliation:
Christ Church, Oxford
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The traditional problem of Silver Latin poetry, and Silver Latin epic especially, has been its attraction to the extravagant, the grotesque, the infinite, the absurd, in other words, its propensity for excess. Statius' Thebaid in particular has been considered guilty of this offence. Recent criticism, however, has tended to see Silver Latin poetry not simply as being excessive, but as being deeply concerned with excess—cultural, ideological, and poetic. In this paper I hope to demonstrate that such a concern is a prominent characteristic of Statius' Thebaid, by exploring perhaps the most important manifestation of excess in the poem, madness. I will argue that the Thebaid's excessiveness is fundamental and necessary, rather than detrimental, to its overall effect. But this paper, like the Thebaid, will not concentrate exclusively on excess, for it will prove to be only the starting-point for a specific interpretation of the patterns of action and madness in the Thebaid.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 85 , November 1995 , pp. 52 - 64
Copyright
Copyright © Debra Hershkowitz 1995. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Perhaps most vehemently presented in recent times by Williams, G., Change and Decline. Roman Literature in the Early Empire (1978), esp. ch. 5Google Scholar; cf. the recuperative yet still conservative approach of Hutchinson, G. O., Latin Literature from Seneca to Juvenal (1993).Google Scholar

2 Although the Thebaid has been neglected by post-renaissance scholarship, more recently there has been a resurgence of interest in the poem. Pioneering treatments of the epic are Schetter, W., Untersuchungen zur epischen Kunst des Statius (1960)Google Scholar and Vessey, D., Statius and the Thebaid (1973)Google Scholar, both of which contain bibliography of earlier work; more recently, see e.g. Vessey, D., ‘Pierius menti calor incidit: Statius' Epic Style,’ANRW II.32.5 (1986), 2965–3019Google Scholar, Ahl, F., ‘Statius' “Thebaid”: A Reconsideration,’ ANRW II.32.5 (1986), 2803–2912Google Scholar, Dominik, W. J., ‘Monarchical Power and Imperial Politics in Statius' Thebaid’, in Boyle, A. J. (ed.), The Imperial Muse: Ramus Essays on Roman Literature of the Empire. Flavian Epicist to Claudian (1990), 74–97Google Scholar, D. E. Hill, ‘Statius' Thebaid: A Glimmer of Light in a Sea of Darkness,’ in Boyle (1990), 98–118, Henderson, J., ‘Statius' Thebaid / form premade,’, PCPhS n.s. 37 (1991), 30–80Google Scholar, and ‘Form Remade / Statius' Thebaid,’ in A. J. Boyle (ed.), Roman Epic (1993), 162–91, Taisne, A.-M., L'esthétique de Stace: la peinture des correspondances (1994)Google Scholar, Dominik, W. J., Speech and Rhetoric in Statius' Thebaid (1994)Google Scholar and The Mythic Voice of Statius. Power and Politics in the Thebaid (1994); see also the chapters on Statius in Burck, E. (ed.), Das römische Epos (1979), 300–51Google Scholar, Feeney, D. C., The Gods in Epic (1991), 337–91Google Scholar. Commentaries are still sparse, but see especially Smolenaars, J. J. L. (ed.), Statius Thebaid VII: A Commentary (1994)Google Scholar, Dewar, M. (ed.), Statius Thebaid IX (1991)Google Scholar, Williams, R. D. (ed.), P. Papini Stati Thebaidos Liber Decimus (1972)Google Scholar, Venini, P. (ed.), P. Papini Stati Thebaidos Liber XI (1970).Google Scholar

3 e.g. by Williams, op. cit. (n. 1), and in ‘Statius and Vergil: Defensive Imitation’, in Bernard, J. D. (ed.), Vergil at 2000 (1986), 207–24Google Scholar, who, for example, sees Statius' practice of imitation as a mannerist penchant for the over-the-top expansion of antecedents; Ahl, op. cit. (n. 2), 2805–6, compiles a bibliography of negative Statian criticism in n. 2; cf. the more positive but still qualified remarks of Schetter, op. cit. (n. 2), 122–5, Vessey (1973), op. cit. (n. 2), 9–14 on Silver mannerism, and now Dewar, op. cit. (n. 2), xxxi–xxxiv.

4 See e.g. Henderson (1991), op. cit. (n. 2), who positively revels in Statius' excessive poetics, and cf. his discussion of Lucan, ‘Lucan/The Word at War,’ in Boyle, A. J. (ed.), The Imperial Muse: Ramus Essays on Roman Literature of the Empire. To Juvenal through Ovid (1988), 122–64Google Scholar, as well as that of his Polynices/Oedipus? Masters, J., Poetry and Civil War in Lucan's ‘Bellum Civile’ (1992)Google Scholar; cf. more generally Feeney, op. cit. (n. 2), and Hardie, P., The Epic Successors of Virgil (1993)Google Scholar.

5 There are a number of treatments of madness in Statius, none of which touch directly on the concerns of this paper; see esp. Schetter, op. cit. (n. 2), 5–21, 122–3, Venini, P., ‘Furor e psicolgia nella Tebaide di Stazio,’ Athenaeum 52 (1964), 201–13Google Scholar, D. Hershkowitz, ‘Sexuality and madness in Statius' Thebaid,’ MD (forthcoming).

6 On Amphiaraus in the Thebaid see Vessey (1973), op. cit. (n. 2), 259–2, Ahl, op. cit. (n. 2), 2858–63.

7 For evidence of his excessiveness see e.g. 703ff. where he is described as burning with an insatiable love of Mars and being completely changed from his role of peaceful prophet, 709–10 where, recalling the raging Aeneas, he is likened to pestilence and sacrifices men to his own shade, and 768 where he is finally called furens, a term reserved for those afflicted by madness in the Thebaid — and therefore applied to just about everyone in the poem at one time or another.

8 The simile recalls Iliad XIII.137–42 (cited by Juhnke, H., Homerisches in römischer Epik flavischer Zeit (1972)Google Scholar), in which Hector's onrush in battle is compared to the onrush of a boulder, freed by winter rain, whose motion comes to a halt on reaching flat land. Unlike in the Statian passage, which hints at Amphiaraus' halt, Hector's own halt (when he reaches the wall of Achaean warriors) is immediately described; a more striking difference is that in the Homeric simile the boulder's impetus is lost on reaching level ground although the boulder is still ‘eager’ to move (ἐσσύμενός (Il. XIII.142)), while in the Statian simile the mountainside is said to be exhaustus turbine fesso. The Statian simile also recalls Aeneid XII.684–9 (itself recalling Iliad XIII.137ff.), in which Turnus' onrush in battle is compared to the force of a collapsing mountainside. The ultimate cessation of the power of the falling rock — and therefore of the power of Turnus — is not described in the Vergilian simile, but is implied by the recollection of the Homeric antecedent.

9 On Thiodamas in the Thebaid see Vessey (1973), op. cit. (n. 2), 266–8, Williams, op. cit. (n. 2), ad X.156–218, 262–325.

10 This pattern suggests the sexual pattern of excitement, orgasm, and detumescence, an idea which perhaps gains added significance when considered in the light of the importance of sexuality in Theban madness (on which see Hershkowitz, op. cit. (n. 5)). I have not tried in this paper to compare Statius' pattern of madness with the use of madness made by the other epicists, or, more generally, to compare it with the ancient cultural discourse of madness and psychological disorder. Both the other epic poets' (as well as Statius') treatment of madness and the wider cultural aspects of their treatments are the subject of my D. Phil dissertation, Madness in Greek and Latin Epic.

11 On Tydeus in the Thebaid see e.g. Vessey (1973), op. cit. (n. 2), 141–52, 283–94, Vessey (1986), op. cit. (n. 2), 2984–8, Henderson (1993), op. cit. (n. 2), 176–9.

12 Except chance: ‘hic uero ambobus rabiem fortuna cruentam / adtulit’ (408–9).

13 cf. also Scaeva's battle against Pompey's forces in the sixth book of Lucan's Bellum Ciuile.

14 On Pallas' unexpected intervention see Feeney, op. cit. (n. 2), 365–7.

15 For discussions of allegory in the Thebaid see Lewis, C. S., The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval Tradition (1936), 48–56Google Scholar, Vessey (1973), op. cit. (n. 2), 75–6 and 86–7, Feeney, op. cit. (n. 2), 364–91.

16 On Haemon and Tydeus see Vessey (1973), op. cit. (n. 2), 226, 288–9.

17 On Tisiphone in the Thebaid see e.g. Vessey (1973), op. cit. (n. 2), 75–6, 161–4, Venini, op. cit. (n. 2), ad XI.58, Feeney, op. cit. (n. 2), 377–8, 386–9, Hardie, op. cit. (n. 4), 76–80.

18 Except Tisiphone herself (see below).

19 On Jupiter and Tisiphone in the Thebaid see Feeney, op. cit (n. 2), 346–8.

20 On Jupiter's entrance in the Thebaid see Vessey (1973), op. cit. (n.2), 82–5, Schubert, W., Jupiter in den Epen der Flavierzeit (1984), 71–101Google Scholar (passim on the role of Jupiter in the Thebaid), Ahl, op. cit. (n.2), 2834–45, Feeney, op. cit. (n. 2), 354.

21 cf. e.g. Vergil, , Aen. IV.300ff.Google Scholar: ‘[Dido] saeuit inops animi totamque incensa per urbem / bacchatur…’.

22 fatiscere can mean ‘to break down’ or have the more abstract meaning ‘to exhaust, tire out’ (see TLL VI.352.68–353.79): both ideas are present in Statius' uses cited above (and cf. Aen. IX.809 (quoted above)).

23 OLD ‘ignauus’ 1 and 2; contrast TLL VII.1.55–66.

24 Sophocles' Oedipus begs the chorus (Sophocles, OT 1410–12), exactly the behaviour that Statius' Jupiter condones, but Statius' Oedipus, resentful that the gods have been overlooking him, forces them to see him by seeking help from the Underworld.

25 This is an ironic justification for punishment since Jupiter gained power by maltreating his father who still, as Dis hints at VIII.42–4, potentially poses a threat to him.

26 cf. Vergil's etymologizing ‘ultrix…Tisiphone’ (Aen. VI.570–1), repeated by Statius at VIII.758.

27 On Jupiter's interventions in Books III and VII see Vessey (1973), op. cit. (n. 2), 85–7, Ahl, op. cit (n. 2), 2845–9.

28 On delay in the Thebaid see Feeney, op. cit. (n. 2), 339; cf. Vessey (1973), op. cit. (n. 2), 66–7.

29 This sort of repetition is, of course, a traditional feature of epic, but it arguably takes on a new meaning within the context of the Thebaid. For wider aspects of the concept of repetition in epic see Hardie, op. cit. (n. 4), 14–18, D. Quint, Epic and Empire (1993), 50–96. On the repetition of the past as an important aspect of the Theban saga, see F. I. Zeitlin, ‘Thebes: Theater of Self and Society in Athenian Drama,’ in J. J. Winkler and F. I. Zeitlin (eds), Nothing to Do with Dionysos? Athenian Drama in its Social Context (1990), 130–67. On Statius' use of Theban repetition see Henderson (1991), op. cit. (n. 2), 41, Hardie, op. cit. (n. 4), 63.

30 On Jupiter's withdrawal see Vessey (1973), op. cit. (n. 2), 162, Henderson (1991), op. cit. (n. 2), 59, Feeney, op. cit. (n. 2), 355–6.

31 For the relationship between madness and the motive force of a text see e.g. Hershkowitz, op. cit. (n. 5), Masters, op. cit. (n. 4), Schiesaro, A., ‘Seneca's Thyestes and the morality of tragic furor, in Elsner, J. and Masters, J. (eds), Reflections of Nero: Culture, History and Representation (1994), 196–210Google Scholar, Hardie, op. cit (n.4), 57–87. This builds on the common use of madness terminology applied to poetic inspiration in antiquity, especially in relationship to epic (cf. Petronius 118: ‘furentis animi uaticinatio’), a phenomenom often commented on in treatments of the subject, e.g. Murray, P., ‘Poetic inspiration in early Greece’, JHS 101 (1981), 87–100CrossRefGoogle Scholar. In Statius this idea is most developed in the poet's invocation to the Muse preceding his account of Capaneus' mad assault on the heavens (X.827–36). On the passage, see Williams, op. cit. (n. 2), ad loc., Vessey (1973), op. cit. (n. 2), 222; cf. Schetter, op. cit. (n. 2), 19–21. On Statius' language of poetic inspiration cf. also Van Dam, H.-J. (ed.), Siluae Book II (1984), ad II.7.1–4 and 76Google Scholar (‘docti furor arduus Lucreti’).

32 Perhaps longaeua robora refers to older, venerable poetry; cf. Quintilian: ‘Ennium sicut sacros uestustate lucos adoremus, in quibus grandia et antiqua robora iam non tantum habent speciem quantum religionem’ (X.1.88).