Post-Augustan Poetry From Seneca to Juvenal Part 44

542. Dante regards him also as a Christian. This compliment was paid by the Middle Ages to not a few of the great cla.s.sical authors. It was not even a fatal obstacle to have lived before the birth of Christ. Cicero, for instance, was believed to have been a Christian. The description of the Altar of Mercy at Athens (_Th._ xii. 493) has been regarded as a special reason for the Christianizing of Statius: cp. Verrall, _Oxford and Cambridge Review_, No. 1; Arturo Graf, _Roma nella memoria del medio evo_, vol. ii, ch. 17.

543. This statement does not, however, apply to the _Silvae_.

544. Ov. _Am_. i. 15. 14.

545. Merivale, _Rom. Emp_. viii. 80, 1.

546. Merivale, _Rom. Emp_. viii. 80, 1.

547. The sources for his story were the old Cyclic poem, the later epic of Antimachus, the plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, that draw their plots from the Theban cycle of legend. The material thus given him he worked over in the Vergilian manner, remoulding incidents or introducing fresh episodes in such a fashion as to provide precise parallels to many episodes in the _Aeneid_. He also drew certain hints from the _Phoenissae_ and _Oedipus_ of Seneca: for details see Legras, _etude sur la Thebaide de Stace_, part i, ch. 2, part ii, chh. 1 and 2.

The subject had been treated also by one Ponticus, the friend of Propertius (Prop. i. 7. 1, Ov. _Tr_. iv. 10. 47) and possibly by Lynceus (Prop. ii. 34).

548. Legras, _Les Legendes Theb._, ch. iii. 4. The [Greek: Amphiaraou exelasis] mentioned by Suidas s.v. [Greek: Hom_eros] is sometimes identified with the _Thebais_; but it is more probably merely the t.i.tle of a book of that epic. Still the fact that the [Greek: Amph.

exel.] is given such prominence by Suidas does lend some support to the view that he was the chief character of the epic. He is certainly the most tragic figure.

549. Porphyr. ad Hor. _A.P._ 146.

550. Vergil had given six books to the wanderings of Aeneas; Statius must give six to the preparation and march of the Thebans!

551. See Legras, op. cit., pp. 183 ff.

552. x. 632.

553. xi. 457. Cp. also the strange and stilted description of the cave of sleep, x. 84, where Quies, Oblivio, Ignavia, Otium, Silentium, Voluptas, and even Labor and Amor are to be found. But with the exception of Amor these abstract personages are inventions of Statius.

Virtus and Pietas had temples at Rome.

554. iv. 32-308; vii. 250-358.

555. x. 262-448.

556. vi. 1-921. Two other funerals are to be found, in. 114-217, xii. 22-104.

557. _Th._ i. 557 sqq.; Verg. _Aen._ viii. 190 sqq.

558. v. 17-498: with this compare the version of the story given by Valerius Maccus, ii. 78-305; except in point of brevity there is little to choose between the two versions. But it is not a digression in Valerius, and it is told at less inordinate length. The versions differ much in detail, and Statius owes little or nothing to Valerius.

559. Op. Legras, _Les legendes Thebaines_, ch. ii. 4, Welcker, _Ep.

Cycl._ ii. 350. The story was well known. Aeschylus probably treated it in his [Greek: Nemea,] Euripides certainly in his [Greek: ypsipel_e].

The legend gives the origin of the Nemean games.

560. The speeches in the _Thebais_, though they lack variety, are almost always exceedingly clever and quite repay reading; see esp. i.

642; iii. 59, 151, 348; iv. 318; vi. 138; vii. 497, 539; ix. 375; xi.

155, 677, 708.

561. iii. 348.

562. v. 660.

563. vii. 538.

564. viii. 751. Tydeus bites the severed head of Melanippus to the brain, thereby losing the gift of immortality that Pallas was hastening to bring him. The incident is revolting, but Statius has merely followed the old legend recorded by Aesch. _Sept._ 587; Soph. _Fr._ 731; Eurip.

_Fr._ 357.

565. Cp. in this context Atalanta's beautiful lament on his departure for the war, iv. 318.

566. Every book, however, abounds in echoes of Vergil, both in matter and diction; e.g. _Aen._ vii. 475, Allecto precipitates the war by making Ascanius kill a tame stag. _Theb._ vii. 562, an Erinnys brings about the war by causing the death of two pet tigers sacred to Bacchus.

_Aen._ xi. 591, Diana orders one of her nymphs to kill the slayer of Camilla. _Theb._ ix. 665, she tells Apollo that the slayer of Parthenopaeus shall perish by her arrows, for which see _Th._ ix. 875.

Cp. also _Th._ ii. 205; _Aen._ iv. 173, 189; _Th._ ii. 162; _Aen._ xi.

581. The pa.s.sage previously referred to concerning the exploits of Dymas and Hopleus is especially noteworthy as openly challenging comparison with Vergil; cp. x. 445. For verbal imitations cp. _Aen._ v. 726, 7; _Th._ ii. 115; _Aen._ i. 106; _Th._ v. 366; _Aen._ vii. 397; _Th._ iv.

379, &c. It is no defence to urge that the ancients held different views on plagiarism, that Vergil and Ovid pilfered from their predecessors.

For _they_ made their appropriations their own, and set the stamp of their genius upon what they borrowed. And, further, the process of borrowing cannot continue indefinitely. The c.u.mulative effect of progressive plagiarism is distressing. For Statius' imitation of other Latin poets, notably Lucan, Seneca, and Ovid, see Legras, op. cit., i.

2. Such imitations, though not very rare, are of comparatively small importance.

567. ix. 315 sqq.

568. Statius is imitating early Greek epic. That might excuse him if these similes possessed either truth or beauty.

569. See p.123, note.

570. i. 841-85 gives a good idea of the _Achilleis_ at its best. The pa.s.sage describes the unmasking of the disguised Achilles.

571. Quint, x. 3. 17.

572. _Silv._ i. 1. 6; iii. 4; iv. 1. 2, 3.

573. ii. 1. 6; iii. 3.

574. v. 1. 3, 5.

575. iii. 5; iv. 4. 5, 7; v. 2.

576. i. 4.

577. iii. 2.

578. i. 3. 5; ii. 2; iii. 1.

579. i. 2.

580. ii. 7.

581. iv. 6.

582. ii. 4. 5.

583. v. 4.

584. Cp. also the extravagant dedication of the _Thebais_.