Afterword? Per Te Poeta Fui: Dante's Statius and the Re

 Afterword? Per te poeta fui: Dante’s Statius and the Re-Writing of Literary History

It seems that our reading of identity in the Thebaid can only be suffused with a Hegelian sense of radical negativity. More than any other poem, this one achieves Barthes’ ‘death of the author’.1 In order for his poem to achieve a sense of self and be a part of the world, the poet must destroy himself. What that reading suggests is that the poet must take these sorts of radical and ultimately self-destructive steps in order to find a space for another epic poem in a literary landscape that is already remarkably crowded. Yet that reading eschews the overt sense of the The- baid’s final lines, that the poem should look back to one predecessor in particular, the Aeneid, and regard it with a quasi-religious veneration. The epic ends with a built-in sense of its own belatedness. Statius’ radical poetic vision was not nec- essarily shared by his own successors, however, and in this final chapter, we will explore the possibility of revivifying the author alongside his text. Statius is a key figure for Dante Alighieri in his Commedia. Moreover, it is one contention of this chapter that Dante does not allude to Statius in a piecemeal fashion, but regards the Flavian poet as a consistently important touchstone for his vision of Purgatory.2 In many senses, Purgatorio XXI–XXX is a staged as a se- quel to the Thebaid.3 Dante performs the same creative act for Statius which Sta- tius performed for the Thebaid; he makes him a character within his own poem. We saw how Statius’ bringing Thebais to life created a sense of identity for the work quite separate from its author. In Dante’s Purgatorio, we see poet and poem re-united and re-born as ‘Statius’ is re-made as an inspirational figure of veneration in his own right. Dante is heavily invested in the poetics of the Thebaid and is, as we shall see, a close reader of the poem’s conclusion too. However, the poet of the Italian renaissance takes the challenge of literary belatedness head on and achieves what Statius in the Thebaid could not. To be sure, Dante has the twin advantages of Christianity and writing in the vernacular to set himself apart from an overwhelming classical tradition. Nonetheless, it is possible for the poet to find space in the tradition as well as his poem.

 1 Barthes 1975, 27. 2 In this, I follow Wetherbee 2008, 159–202. On Statius and Dante, see Caviglia 1974; Dewar 1991, xliii–xliv; Parkes 2012, xxxvi; and Augoustakis 2016, lxvi–lxx. 3 Cf. Wetherbee 2008, 22; and Heslin 2015, 513–14. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110717990-005

Climbing the Mountain again: Statius in Purgatory  

. Climbing the Mountain again: Statius in Purgatory

Towards the end of Dante’s ascent up the mountain of Purgatory, the protagonist and his guide Virgil enjoy an extended encounter with the spirit of another classical epic poet, Statius. In Canto XX of Purgatorio, the protagonist-Dante and Vir- gil feel an earthquake, doubly terrifying in the normally immutable kingdom of Purgatory, after which they can hear the gloria in excelsis Deo being sung.4 At the beginning of Canto XXI, Dante and Virgil meet Statius for the first time and are informed that the earthquake is caused by the final purgation of Statius’ soul. Statius accompanies Dante and Virgil for the remainder of their ascent into the Garden of Eden (which in Dante’s topographical conception is the Earthly Para- dise at the summit of Mount Purgatory from which souls ascend to heaven). Sta- tius is, perhaps surprisingly for modern readers of classical literature, one of the most important characters in the Divine Comedy as a whole, a character whose role is only surpassed in scope by those of Virgil, Beatrice and Dante himself. It is that initial encounter between Dante and Statius which forms the basis of his re-examination of Statius’ identity, an encounter which will introduce Sta- tius as a character in Purgatorio, the importance of his poetry, especially the The- baid, for Dante and the complex relationships that Dante-poet sets up between himself and his two classical forebears. Dante explores the tensions between poets of different eras, between Latin and vernacular poetry, between pagan and Biblical inspiration and seeks to assert the dominance of both post-Augustan and post-Classical texts despite their following in the footsteps of famous predecessors such as Virgil. More importantly perhaps we would suggest that Dante en- gages in varied, detailed and complex readings of Statius’ Thebaid and that the Florentine poet invites us as readers of the Commedia to re-examine our interpre- tation of Statius’ identity, especially as it relates to Virgil. Dante’s Statius plays a complex role within the latter part of Purgatorio, but we will focus mainly on his initial arrival in Cantos XXI and XXII:5 Statius appears quietly behind Dante and Virgil at the beginning of the Canto (XXI.7–13) and asks how it is that they ascend the mountain so quickly (XXI.19–21). Virgil explains briefly and asks Statius about the earthquake which the travellers felt at the end of Canto XX (XXI.22–37). Statius explains that the mountain of Purgatory, which is normally unchangeable in any way, trembled to mark the purgation of Statius’

 4 On Statius’ appearance in the Commedia, see Lewis 1956; Barolini 1984, 256–68; Franke 1994; Martinez 1995; 1997; Butler 2003; Guy-Bray 2006, 3–27; Brownlee 2007; Wetherbee 2008; and Heslin 2015. More generally, see also Hollander 2001, 90–147, esp. 114–21 on Virgil. 5 For bibliography of studies of Cantos 20–22, see Martinez 1995, 170 n.16.

  Afterword? Per te poeta fui: Dante’s Statius and the Re-Writing of Literary History own soul. Statius then introduces himself (XXI.82–99) as a poet inspired by Virgil’s Aeneid in particular. Virgil hopes to avoid recognition, but Dante-protagonist in- advertently smiles, piquing Statius’ curiosity.6 Dante reveals the identity of Virgil and Statius attempts to embrace his feet. Virgil however refuses to accept the embrace (XXI.130–2). It seems clear that the encounter constructively re-works Sta- tius’ own injunction to his poem not to follow the Aeneid too closely. Dante makes a crucial move in that appropriation, however, by shifting back to fictionalised versions of Statius and Virgil and not thinking about a relationship between po- ems. In Canto XXII, Statius explains how he came to be in Purgatory. Although an ostensibly pagan poet, he was secretly inspired by the opening lines of Virgil’s fourth Eclogue to become a Christian, but made a public show of paganism because he feared the persecutions of Christians by the emperor Domitian (XXII.64– 99). Given the degree to which the language and imagery of Eclogue 4 informs the final lines of the Thebaid,7 it seems peculiarly appropriate that Dante chose that Virgilian poem as the motivation for his Statius’ Christianisation.8 After some discussion of the fate of other classical poets, the three poets continue their ascent of the mountain, Virgil and Statius leading and talking amongst themselves and Dante following and listening. Statius remains with Dante for much of the remainder of the cantica and will provide an explanation of the soul in Canto XXV. First of all, however, let us examine the key moment of meeting between the Dante-protagonist, Virgil and Statius:

La sete natural che mai non sazia se non con l’acqua onde la femminetta samaritana domandò la grazia, mi travagliava, e pungeami la fretta per la ‘mpacciata via dietro al mio duca, e condoleami a la giusta vendetta. Ed ecco, sì come ne scrive Luca che Cristo apparve a’ due ch’erano in via, già surto fuor de la sepulcral buca, ci apparve un’ombra, e dietro a noi venìa, dal piè guardando la turba che giace;

 6 On this reaction as an indication of the limitations of Virgil’s knowledge, see Wetherbee 2008, 198. 7 See Gervais forthcoming. 8 The depiction of Statius as Christian is a Dantean innovation, see Kallendorf & Kallendorf 2002; Wetherbee 2008, 181–8. For Dante’s reasons for such a move as inspired by Statius’ theol- ogy, see Heslin 2015, 512–17.

Climbing the Mountain again: Statius in Purgatory  

né ci addemmo di lei, sì parlò pria, dicendo: “O frati miei, Dio vi dea pace”.9 Purg. XXI.1–13

The natural thirst which is never quenched but with the water which the woman of Samaria bagged as a boon was tormenting me and our haste was urging me along the encumbered way behind my leader and I was grieving over the just vengeance; and lo, as Luke writes for us that Christ, new-risen from the sepulchral grave, appeared to the two who were in the way, a shade appeared to us, and he came behind us while we were watching the crowd that lay at our feet, and we were not aware of him until he first spoke and said: ‘O my brothers, God give you peace.’

As Statius approaches behind Virgil and Dante, following in their footsteps, Dante-poet appears to imitate the final lines of Statius’ Thebaid, where Statius depicted his own poem following in the footsteps of Virgil’s Aeneid:

uiue precor, nec tu diuinam Aeneida tempta sed longe sequere et uestigia semper adora. mox, tibi si quis adhuc praetendit nubila liuor occidet et meriti post me referentur honores. Theb. 12.816–19

Live, I pray, and do not challenge the divine Aeneid; rather, follow at a distance and always worship her footsteps. Soon any clouds of envy that still cover you over will perish, and after I am gone your well-earned honours will be paid.

The manner in which Statius-shade approaches suggests an intertextual link between our two texts and that, just as Statius deferentially reads Virgil, so Dante is approaching his classical predecessors by following in their footsteps. This reading of Statius’ initial meeting with Dante and Virgil was first suggested by Um- berto Bosco and Giovanni Reggio in their commentary on the Purgatorio and has been taken up explicitly in a more recent article by Ronald Martinez.10 Martinez views this meeting as implicitly being an account of Dante’s rendering the Latin epic tradition into something accessible to Dante and his audience.11 Although the allusion to the end of the Thebaid is not especially well marked at the level of verbal reminiscence in the opening lines of Canto XXI, and, as we shall see, the end of the Latin epic is not the only key text alluded to here, we will briefly explore the ways in which Dante builds up a series of allusions to Statius’ poem

 9 Translation of the Commedia throughout by Sinclair 1939. 10 Martinez 1995 passim, esp. 155–6; see Alighieri 1982–3 ad loc. 11 Martinez 1995, 155.

  Afterword? Per te poeta fui: Dante’s Statius and the Re-Writing of Literary History which makes our reference to the closing lines of the Thebaid at this point an inescapable conclusion. As well as exploring the complex relationship that Dante’s Commedia has with Statius’ poetry, we will also need to explore the me- chanics of leading and following as Dante-poet presents it in these Cantos. Alt- hough Dante presents a strict sense of authorial hierarchy, when we look more closely we can see him presenting the relationships between texts as always in- tricate and difficult and that the literary order presented is consistently dynamic and unstable. Dante looks to create a poetics of progress, where to fall later in the poetic tradition is to improve upon the past and where poetry, like the pilgrim on his journey to paradise, is always moving onwards and upwards.

. conosco i segni: Statius the Poet in Dante’s Commedia

As well as looking at the end of the Thebaid in writing this section of Purgatorio, we can see that Dante also has a programmatic interest in the opening lines and opening images of Statius’ epic poem, and in particular on the use of fire imagery in connection with poetic inspiration. Dante’s exploration of the relationship between Statius and Virgil becomes a hugely important model for his own relationships with his classical models:

Stazio la gente ancor di là mi noma: cantai di Tebe, e poi del grande Achille; ma caddi in via con la seconda soma. Al mio ardor fuor seme le faville, che mi scaldar, de la divina fiamma onde sono allumati più di mille; de l’Eneïda dico, la qual mamma fummi, e fummi nutrice, poetando: Purg. XXI.91–9

Men yonder still speak my name, which is Statius; and I sang of Thebes and then of great Achilles, but fell by the way with the second burden. The sparks that kindled fire in me were from the divine flame from which more than a thousand have been lit – I mean the Aeneid, which was in poetry my mother and my nurse

As we saw at the end of the Thebaid, the Aeneid was represented by Statius as a divine female personification (12.816, nec tu diuinam Aeneida tempta). In casting the Aeneid as mother and nurse, Dante’s Statius explicitly picks up on the complex of imagery in the Thebaid’s concluding lines which depicted the poem as wife, child, worshipper and slave. However, Dante blurs the boundaries between author and work by having Statius lit by the same inspirational fire as his work.

conosco I segni: Statius the Poet in Dante’s Commedia  

He speaks of the inspiration afforded him by reading Virgil’s Aeneid as sparks kindling a fire in his soul, of Virgil’s epic as a divine flame which has lit many others. Similarly, Statius speaks of his love for Virgil which burns inside of him:

Ed ei surgendo: “Or puoi la quantitate comprender de l’amor ch’a te mi scalda Purg. XXI.133–4

And he, rising: ‘Now thou canst understand the measure of love that burns in me for thee […]

The imagery here threatens to spill over into a lover’s discourse with Statius burning with desire like a classical elegiac poet,12 a tendency which is explored, but remains checked, in Dante’s creation. Furthermore, in the following Canto, Virgil begins his account of how the shade of Juvenal descended to Limbo and told Vir- gil of Statius’ veneration with his own fiery discourse:

quando Virgilio incominciò: “Amore, acceso di virtù, sempre altro accese, pur che la fiamma sua paresse fore; Purg. XXII.10–12

When Virgil began: ‘Love kindled by virtue always kindles another, if only its flame appear without […]’

Finally, Statius describes the enlightenment which he gained by reading Virgil’s fourth Eclogue as though he were a man travelling by night and able to see because a guide travels behind him shining a light:

Ed elli a lui: “Tu prima m’invïasti verso Parnaso a ber ne le sue grotte, e prima appresso Dio m’alluminasti. Facesti come quei che va di notte, che porta il lume dietro e sé non giova, ma dopo sé fa le persone dotte... Purg. XXII.64–9

 12 For the trope, see Kennedy 1993; for the discourse of poetic affiliation figured as a homoerotic relationship, see Guy-Bray 2006.

  Afterword? Per te poeta fui: Dante’s Statius and the Re-Writing of Literary History

And the other answered him: ‘Thou first directedst me to Parnassus to drink in its caves, and first, after God, enlightenedst me. Thou didst like him that goes by night and carries the light behind him and does not help himself but makes wise […]

This is an important passage to which we shall return, especially as it reverses the pattern of leading and following established at the end of the Thebaid and by Statius’ appearance at the beginning of Canto XXI. For the moment, let us note the complex of imagery related to fire and light that underpins all four passages and suggest that Dante-poet here is thinking of two classical passages, the first being the opening of the Thebaid, where Statius speaks of his own fiery inspiration, the second from the beginning of book 4 of Virgil’s Aeneid, where Dido con- fides in her sister regarding her love for Aeneas:

fraternas acies alternaque regna profanis decertata odiis sontesque euoluere Thebas Pierius menti calor incidit. Theb. 1.1–3

Fraternal battle-lines and alternating reigns fought over with profane hatred and to tell of guilty Thebes, Pierian fire lights my mind.

agnosco ueteris uestigia flammae. Aen. 4.23

I recognise the traces of the old flame

Repeated intertextual contact with our primary classical text, the opening of the Thebaid, seems reasonably straightforward. Dante signals his knowledge of both of Statius’ epics explicitly by having the ghost of the poet refer to them. Moreover, the way in which Statius approaches the two travellers and refers to specifically Virgilian inspiration maps neatly onto the programmatic opening and closing passages of the Thebaid by invoking the key images of flame and following in footsteps. Yet this combination of key images is complicated by additional reminiscence of a secondary classical text, where Virgil’s Dido recognises the flame of love rekindled by the appearance in Carthage of Aeneas. Again, Statius’ poetic affiliation to Virgil threatens to reconfigure itself as an amatory relationship. Thus in Dante’s re-presentation of Statius’ literary relationship with Virgil, the alluding poet following in the footsteps of his predecessor is inspired much like a lover burning with desire and with that flame lighting up his own literary path. The extensive use of light as a metaphor for poetic revelation is further complicated by the wider importance of light for spiritual knowledge in Dante’s Purga-

conosco I segni: Statius the Poet in Dante’s Commedia   torio. As Jeffrey Schnapp explains: ‘due to the fact that Purgatory’s terrain is un- familiar to Virgil, his authority is somewhat diminished, the Latin poet repeatedly appeals to the sun – symbol of God and reason … for assistance.’13 Here the classical and Christian work in parallel. In a similar way, the metaphor of flame and fire for poetic inspiration must be taken alongside the inspiration of the Apostles by the Holy Spirit which allows them to speak in tongues:

And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Acts 2:2–4

Again, the parallels between Christian and classical in Dante are striking: in both instances the flame acts as a signal that a special form of inspiration has taken place which allows the recipient to speak in a new manner. Hence the metaphor of light and fire for the inspiration Virgil provides to Statius is also figured in the same terminology as that which Dante uses to describe divine knowledge as it is imparted to the pilgrim or in the manner with which the Holy Spirit inspires the Apostles. Just as Virgil lights an allusive, inspirational poetic, even erotic, path for Statius, so God’s light illuminates Dante’s intellectual and spiritual path upwards into Paradise. The equivalence is disconcerting, but Dante knows what he is doing, I think. For the moment, let us merely accept the breadth and programmatic importance of Statius for Dante’s own poetry. Furthermore, let us not assume that this is for Dante a passing, if intense ac- quaintance which he makes with Statius. Statius’ poetry, the Thebaid in particular, is of huge inspirational value for Dante’s Commedia. Statius’ descriptions of Thebes provide perhaps Dante’s most important model for his own description of the city of Dis in Inferno. David Quint has shown how, in Canto 9 of Inferno, Dante: ‘pits the Virgilian tradition of underworld descent and heavenly messen- ger against the conjuration scenes of Lucan and Statius.’14 Later on, in the eighth circle of hell, where the spirits of false counsellors are burned by flames, Dante sees a divided flame which he likens to the flame erupting from the pyre of Eteo- cles and Polynices, but within which Virgil informs him are the tormented souls of Ulysses and Diomedes:

 13 Schnapp 2007, 94–5. 14 Quint 1975, 206.

  Afterword? Per te poeta fui: Dante’s Statius and the Re-Writing of Literary History

“Maestro mio”, rispuos’io, “per udirti son io più certo; ma già m’era avviso che così fosse, e già voleva dirti: chi è ‘n quel foco che vien sì diviso di sopra, che par surger de la pira dov’Eteòcle col fratel fu miso?”. Rispuose a me: “Là dentro si martira Ulisse e Dïomede, e così insieme a la vendetta vanno come a l'ira; e dentro da la lor fiamma si geme l’agguato del caval che fé la porta onde uscì de’ Romani il gentil seme. Piangevisi entro l’arte per che, morta, Deïdamìa ancor si duol d’Achille, e del Palladio pena vi si porta”. Inf. XXVI.49–63

‘My master,’ I replied ‘by hearing thee I am more certain, but already I thought it was so, and I already wished to ask thee who is in that fire which comes so cloven at the top that it seems to rise from the pyre where Eteocles was laid with his brother.’ He answered me: ‘Within there are tormented Ulysses and Diomed, and thus together they go under vengeance as once under wrath, and within their flame they groan for the ambush of the horse that made the gateway by which the noble seed of the Romans went forth; they lament within it the craft on account of which Deidamia dead still mourns Achilles, and there is borne the penalty for the Palladium.’

ecce iterum fratres. primos ut contigit artus ignis edax, tremuere rogi et nouus aduena busto pellitur: exundant diuiso uertice flammae alternique apices abrupta luce coruscant. Theb. 12.429–32

See, once more the brothers! As soon as the consuming fire touched the limbs, the pile shook and the new arrival is driven from the pyre. The flames gush up divided at the top, flashing two tips in broken light.

Here Dante takes the opportunity to incorporate a key Statian image in what is, perhaps, a rather unexpected context. Indeed the invocation of Eteocles by Dante-protagonist is almost presented as a kind of misapprehension. Yet given the warning in the passage about excessive and misused cleverness (Dante nearly falls into the flames himself), Dante-poet may be suggesting something about the dangerous inspirational power of Statius’ poetry in the midst of one of the most concerted pieces of dramatic imagination in the Inferno.

conosco I segni: Statius the Poet in Dante’s Commedia  

Perhaps the greatest and certainly the most extended episode in Inferno also finds its inspiration in Statius’ Thebaid. At the end of Canto XXXII, Dante encounters Guelf Count Ugolino della Gherardesca and the enemy who betrayed him in life, Archbishop Ruggieri degli Ubaldini. In Hell, Ugolino and Ruggieri are im- prisoned in a hole, where Ugolino avenges Ruggieri’s treachery by eating his brain (Ugolino tells his story in Canto XXXIII). The episode is overtly indebted to Tydeus and his cannibalism of Melanippus (whose name is transposed to Menalippo in the Italian) at the end of Thebaid 8:15

Noi eravam partiti già da ello, ch’io vidi due ghiacciati in una buca, sì che l’un capo a l’altro era cappello; e come ‘l pan per fame si manduca, così ‘l sovran li denti a l’altro pose là ‘ve ‘l cervel s’aggiugne con la nuca: non altrimenti Tidëo si rose le tempie a Menalippo per disdegno, che quei faceva il teschio e l’altre cose. Inf. XXXII.124–32

We had already left him when I saw two frozen in one hole so that the one head was a hood for the other, and, as bread is devoured for hunger, the one above set his teeth in the other at the place where the brain joins the nape; Tydeus gnawed at the temples of Menalippus for rage just as he was doing with the skull and the other parts.

erigitur Tydeus uultuque occurrit et amens laetitiaque iraque, ut singultantia uidit ora trucesque oculos seseque agnouit in illo, imperat abscisum porgi laeuaque receptum spectat atrox hostile caput gliscitque tepentis lumina torua uidens et adhuc dubitantia figi. infelix contentus erat: Theb. 8.751–7

Tydeus raises himself and turns his face to meet him. He is wild with joy and anger as he sees the gasping visage, the fierce eyes, and recognizes himself in the other. He orders that the enemy’s head be cut off and brought to him. Holding it in his left hand, he glares at it savagely and swells as he sees it still warm and the eyes, grim and uncertain, grow fixed.

This is Dante at his most explicit, both in terms of the violence which dominates the punishment of Ugolino and Ruggieri, but also in terms of the directness with

 15 See Martinez 1997, 63 and n.97. On Dante’s allusion to Tydeus, see Augoustakis 2016, lxvii– lxix; on the episode in Thebaid 8, see Augoustakis 2016, 344–50.

  Afterword? Per te poeta fui: Dante’s Statius and the Re-Writing of Literary History which he alludes to his model text. Cannibalism acts as a trope for the act of literary allusion, the redisposition of source-text a brutal act of domination by the vernacular poet, which also acts the violence of Statius’ own appropriations. Given the reflective potential for the cannibalism scene in the Thebaid to stand for the process of identity formation, this has further, powerful implications for Dante’s self-construction as a successor to the classical and especially the Flavian tradition. Furthermore, the potential of this image to double as an image of the manner of Dante’s intertextuality has formidable consequences for the appearance of Statius in Purgatorio, implying as it does that later poets can assume po- sitions of control in their intertextual allusions. Further allusions to Statius’ poetry in the Commedia underline this idea. When awaking from sleep outside the gates of Purgatory itself, Dante likens himself to the young Achilles waking on Scyros, after Thetis had taken him from Chi- ron to hide him from the Greek expedition to Troy. Given that Statius-shade later announces himself as the poet who sang first of Thebes, then of Achilles, it is difficult to suppose an allusion to a poem other than Statius’ Achilleid, especially given that Dante-poet here uses the same introductory formula as he had with the Tydeus simile in Inferno XXXII:

Stazio la gente ancor di là mi noma: cantai di Tebe, e poi del grande Achille; ma caddi in via con la seconda soma. Purg. XXI.91–3

Men yonder still speak my name, which is Statius; and I sang of Thebes and then of great Achilles, but fell by the way with the second burden.

Non altrimenti Achille si riscosse, li occhi svegliati rivolgendo in giro e non sappiendo là dove si fosse, quando la madre da Chirón a Schiro trafuggò lui dormendo in le sue braccia, là onde poi li Greci il dipartiro; che mi scoss’io, sì come da la faccia mi fuggì ‘l sonno, e diventa’ ismorto, come fa l’uom che, spaventato, agghiaccia. Dallato m’era solo il mio conforto, e ‘l sole er’alto già più che due ore, e ‘l viso m’era a la marina torto. Purg. IX.34–45

Even as Achilles started up, turning his awakened eyes about him and not knowing where he was, when his mother carried him off sleeping in her arms from Chiron to Scyros, whence

conosco I segni: Statius the Poet in Dante’s Commedia  

later the Greeks took him away, so I started, as soon as sleep left my eyes, and turned pale, like one that is chilled with fear. Beside me was my comfort alone, and the sun was already more than two hours high, and my face was turned to the sea.

iam premit astra dies humilisque ex aequore Titan rorantes euoluit equos et ab aethere magno sublatum curru pelagus cadit; at uada mater Scyria iamdudum fluctus emensa tenebat exierantque iugo fessi delphines erili cum pueri tremefacta quies oculique patentes infusum sensere diem. stupet aere primo quae loca qui fluctus ubi Pelion. omnia uersa atque ignota uidet dubitatque agnoscere matrem. Ach. 1.242–50

Now day presses down the stars and Titan rolls his dripping steeds out from the low and level waters and the sea raised by his chariot falls from the vast sky. But the mother had already crossed the waves and was safe on Scyros’ shore, the weary dolphins had left their mistress’ yoke, when the boy’s sleep was shaken and his wide eyes felt daylight pouring in. At first sight of sky he was stunned: what place is this, what waves, where is Pelion? Every- thing he sees is strange and changed, and he doubts to recognize his mother.

Comparison of passages suggests interesting roles for Dante-pilgrim and -poet. In Statius’ Achilleid, Achilles asks his mother where he is, in Purgatorio, Dante-protagonist asks Virgil for information and reassurance. Virgil therefore plays a ma- ternal role, much as Statius will later claim Virgil played in inspiring his poetry (la qual mamma / fummi, Purg. XXI.98–9). It is no surprise that we can equate Virgil’s role as guide within the Commedia to Virgil’s role as inspirational author in its composition, but what this series of similes does provide for us is the opportunity to map Statius’ role as a Christian follower of Virgil who ascends into Par- adise onto Dante’s role as follower; Statius becomes a model of emulation for Dante. As Kevin Brownlee puts it: ‘this Statius figure is thus an inscribed model who authorises the new vernacular Christian Dante-poeta in the process of defin- ing himself over the course of the Commedia’s story of Dante-protagonist.’16 Yet there is an extra twist in the allusive fabric of this passage. In Statius’ Achilleid, Achilles is not only amazed at the change in location, but also that his mother has replaced Chiron in the role of parent (1.250, dubitatque agnoscere matrem). Dante-poet’s allusion here perhaps signals a shift in intertextual authority away from Virgil (who was both mother and nurse to Statius-shade).17

 16 Brownlee 2007, 149. 17 On the shift in the Achilleid, see Heslin 2005, 118.

  Afterword? Per te poeta fui: Dante’s Statius and the Re-Writing of Literary History

The sense of a shift in the canonical hierarchy is implicit in two other Statian moments in the text, the first in Canto XXII, the second in Canto XXVI. In Canto XXII, Virgil and Statius discuss the latter’s conversion to Christianity; Statius claims his conversion to Christianity pre-dated the composition of the Thebaid, but describes his epic in a slightly surprising way:

E pria ch’io conducessi i Greci a’ fiumi di Tebe poetando, ebb’io battesmo Purg. XXII.88–9

Then before I brought the Greeks to the rivers of Thebes in my verse I received baptism

Here the Thebaid is reduced to the Argive army being led to Theban rivers. Brown- lee points out the disparity between Statius’ conversion and his Theban waters: ‘the non-baptismal significance of the Theban rivers in the Statian epic contrasts dramatically with the Dantean ‘Statius’ metaphoric baptism in the river, that is, the text of the Dantean Virgil.’18 However, it seems that Dante is also alert to the metapoetic importance of rivers in Statius’ text. It seems as if the Christian ritual of baptism is also being used to clean the waters which Statius’ Greeks had earlier muddied.19 What is more, the Argive army tarrying in Nemea is not a passing, lo- calised point of interest for Dante, but holds a more programmatic fascination for him. When Dante-protagonist meets his vernacular poetic predecessor, Guido Guinizelli, there occurs a scene of veneration strikingly similar to that between Statius and Virgil and marked by an overt reference to Statius’ Thebaid:

Quali ne la tristizia di Ligurgo si fer due figli a riveder la madre, tal mi fec’io, ma non a tanto insurgo, quand’io odo nomar sé stesso il padre mio e de li altri miei miglior che mai rime d’amor usar dolci e leggiadre; e sanza udire e dir pensoso andai lunga fïata rimirando lui, né, per lo foco, in là più m’appressai. Poi che di riguardar pasciuto fui, tutto m’offersi pronto al suo servigio con l’affermar che fa credere altrui. Ed elli a me: ‘Tu lasci tal vestigio, per quel ch‘i’ odo, in me, e tanto chiaro,

 18 Brownlee 2007, 148–9. 19 For the important role the Nemean episode plays for Dante, see Wetherbee 2008, 182–96.

conosco I segni: Statius the Poet in Dante’s Commedia  

che Letè nol può tòrre né far bigio. Ma se le tue parole or ver giuraro, dimmi che è cagion per che dimostri nel dire e nel guardar d’avermi caro’. Purg. XXVI.94–111

Such as, in the grief of Lycurgus, the two sons became on seeing their mother again, I became, but with more restraint, when I heard speak his own name the father of me and of others my betters, whoever have used sweet and graceful rhymes of love; and without hearing or speech I went on a long way in thought gazing at him, and did not, for the fire, go nearer him. When I had fed my sight on him I offered myself wholly ready at his service, with the assurance that gains belief. And he said to me: ‘Thou leavest such a trace and so clear in me by that which I hear thee tell as Lethe cannot destroy or dim; but if thy words have now sworn truth, tell me for what cause thou showest thyself, by speech and look, to hold me dear.’

Here Dante-protagonist is struck dumb by his encounter with the man he terms his poetic ‘father’ and compares himself to the twin sons of Hypsipyle when they were reunited with their mother in Statius’ Nemean episode (Theb. 6.710–30).20 Key moments in Dante’s construction of poetic lineages and hierarchies are col- oured with Statian reminiscences. These Greek waters clearly hold a privileged place in Dante’s poetic scheme; despite the apparent contrast that Brownlee highlights, Dante’s Statius merges the narrative of Bacchic rejuvenation at Ne- mea with his own status as closet Christian. The character himself says of his affiliation: ‘per te poeta fui, per te cristiano.’ (Purg. XXII.73). Yet the double inspiration that Virgil provides allows follower to transcend his master; Virgil cannot pass upwards into Paradise, but both Statius and Dante will do so. Similarly, when Dante here meets a poetic master whom he follows, shows deference towards and reveres, we are never in doubt that Dante transcends Guinizelli, not only in a purely physical sense, by passing through Purgatory, but also in the poetic realm. What is more, Dante reassures us of this transcendence by building a simile out of the narrative of Statius’ Thebaid. Dante’s willingness to transcend his poetic models is further indicated, we might suggest, by the passage which marks Virgil’s final disappearance in Canto XXX. Here Dante-protagonist plays child to Virgil’s mother, Dido to his Aeneas, but also Orpheus to his Eurydice, and even provides the sensitive reader with an allusive sting in the tail. As he leaves Virgil behind, he turns to his guide:

volsimi a la sinistra col respitto col quale il fantolin corre a la mamma

 20 On the encounter with Guinizelli, see Wetherbee 2008, 207–9.

  Afterword? Per te poeta fui: Dante’s Statius and the Re-Writing of Literary History

quando ha paura o quando elli è afflitto, per dicere a Virgilio: ‘Men che dramma di sangue m’è rimaso che non tremi: conosco i segni de l’antica fiamma’. Ma Virgilio n’avea lasciati scemi di sé, Virgilio dolcissimo patre, Virgilio a cui per mia salute die’ mi; né quantunque perdeo l’antica matre, valse a le guance nette di rugiada che, lagrimando, non tornasser atre. “Dante, perché Virgilio se ne vada, non pianger anco, non piangere ancora; ché pianger ti conven per altra spada”. Purg. XXX.43–57

I turned to the left with the confidence of a little child that runs to his mother when he is afraid or in distress, to say to Virgil: ‘Not a drop of blood is left in me that does not tremble; I know the marks of the ancient flame.’ But Virgil had left us bereft of him, Virgil sweetest father, Virgil to whom I gave myself for my salvation, nor did all the ancient mother lost avail my cheeks washed with dew that they should be stained again with tears. ‘Dante, because Virgil leaves thee weep not yet, for thou must weep for another sword.’

agnosco ueteris uestigia flammae. Aen. 4.23

I recognise the traces of the old flame

tum quoque marmorea caput a ceruice reuulsum gurgite cum medio portans Oeagrius Hebrus uolueret, Eurydicen uox ipsa et frigida lingua ah miseram Eurydicen! anima fugiente uocabat: Eurydicen toto referebant flumine ripae. Geo. 4.523–7

Then too, even then, what time the Hebrus stream, Oeagrian Hebrus, down mid-current rolled, rent from the marble neck, his drifting head, the death-chilled tongue found yet a voice to cry: ‘Eurydice! ah! poor Eurydice!’ with parting breath he called her, and the banks from the broad stream caught up ‘Eurydice!’

Dante explicitly likens himself to a child running to his mother, translates Dido’s famous line we have already encountered from book 4 of the Aeneid, and, by the double repetition of Virgilio, casts himself as Virgil’s Orpheus. It strikes me that there is a subtle but rapid shift in emphasis here. Dante goes from helpless, weak- ling child, to female lover and finally becomes the husband who survives his wife. This transformation makes much greater sense in the light of the sphragis at the

conosco I segni: Statius the Poet in Dante’s Commedia   end of Statius’ Thebaid. There it was Statius’ poem which was portrayed as Eu- rydice vainly following the Aeneid’s Orpheus. Dante carefully re-crafts that net- work of images so that he can now occupy the privileged position of an Orpheus who will ascend to an upper world. Furthermore, Beatrice’s triple invocation not to weep balances the Orphic moment and suggests that, despite all the veneration and the self-deprecation, Dante will leave Virgil behind both literally and poeti- cally. The sting in the tail comes in two ways; firstly, through the potential for a double allusion in the triple naming of Virgil. Statius had, at the end of his own epic poem, reworked Georgics 4 in his own lament for Parthenopaeus; secondly, through an intratextual repetition of the unusual triple rhyme structure which we heard earlier when Statius first appeared and spoke of his devotion to Virgil:21

Arcada quo planctu genetrix Erymanthia clamet Arcada consumpto seruantem sanguine uultus Arcada quem geminae pariter fleuere cohortes. Theb. 12.805–7

[…] with what lamentation the Erymanthian mother bewails the Arcadian, the Arcadian who keeps his beauty though his blood is spent, the Arcadian for whom both armies wept alike.

Al mio ardor fuor seme le faville, che mi scaldar, de la divina fiamma onde sono allumati più di mille; de l’Eneïda dico, la qual mamma fummi, e fummi nutrice, poetando: sanz’essa non fermai peso di dramma. Purg. XXI.94–9

The sparks that kindled fire in me were from the divine flame from which more than a thousand have been lit – I mean the Aeneid, which was in poetry my mother and my nurse; without it I had not weighed a drachm.

The repetition of the triple rhyme brings us back to the first encounter with Sta- tius, the moment where the follower in footsteps first appeared.22 However, the followers are now about to go beyond the bounds of their guide. Once more, amidst the veneration, Dante the poet creates the idea, in no small measure through his various uses of Statius, that he is to surpass his poetic predecessors. Statius’ greeting to Virgil and Dante, O frati miei, Dio vi dea pace (XXI.13, ‘O my

 21 See Martinez 1995, 165–7. 22 For the importance of the triple iam in Theb. 12.810–19, see Gervais forthcoming.

  Afterword? Per te poeta fui: Dante’s Statius and the Re-Writing of Literary History brothers, God give you peace’), is a comprehensive transformation of the poetics of fraternas acies.23 Perhaps it is no wonder then, that when the ghost of Statius first meets Virgil and Dante, Virgil attempts to hide his identity, giving Dante a look that commands silence (XXI.103–29). Dante cannot help but smile, which Statius notices. Once Statius asks Dante, Virgil grudgingly allows the pilgrim to reveal his guide’s true identity. Virgil’s behaviour seems a little churlish, almost like Venus concealing her identity from Aeneas in Aeneid 1. What is more, the pattern of revelation is changed, corrected even, when Dante meets Guinizelli. In the latter instance it is the star-struck Dante who cannot speak, and Guinizelli who reads in his expression the admiration Dante has for him. Dante’s give-away smile is mirrored by Statius at the beginning of Canto XXII when he hears how Juvenal reported his admiration to Virgil (queste parole Stazio mover fenno | un poco a riso pria, XXII.25–6, ‘these words first made Statius begin to smile a little’). One wonders, however, if Virgil’s behaviour is motivated by a kind of authorial anxiety where master attempts to put off that moment where he is surpassed by pupil. Several studies of Virgil’s role in the Commedia have noticed the limitations to the guide’s knowledge and the frequency with which Statius and Lucan are invoked by Dante-poet to fill in the blanks.24 It is Statius, not Virgil, who, in Canto XXV provides the complex discourse on the relationship between body and soul.

. The Road to Emmaus: Different Patterns of Following

Part of the problem for many readers of the final lines of Statius’ Thebaid is, as we saw, his essential attitude of inferiority. Statius’ poem itself plays a wide vari- ety of inferior roles in the conclusion of the Thebaid and despite the many instances in Dante’s writing where Statius appears to be given a privileged role, there is the pervasive sense, despite his Christianity, of Statius’ secondariness when placed next to Virgil. Moreover, Dante homes in on Virgil as the single, spe- cific comparand for Statius. Yet it is precisely Dante’s recasting of Statius as a Christian that allows for Dante’s reconstruction of literary hierarchies to favour later poets. That initial moment of meeting between Statius, Virgil and Dante is explicitly modelled upon a well-known scene in Luke’s gospel (Luke 24:13–32; come ne scrive Luca | che Cristo apparve a’ due ch’erano in via, Purg. XXI.7–8)

 23 See Wetherbee 2008, 161. 24 Quint 1975 on Inferno 9; Butler 2003 on Inferno 31.

The Road to Emmaus: Different Patterns of Following   where two disciples encounter the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus, but do not recognise him until He breaks bread with them in consecration of the Eucharist:25

Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him. … Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight. Luke 24:13–16, 30–31

In William Franke’s reading of Dante’s Statius through Luke’s gospel, the emphasis lies upon the way in which revelatory truth relies upon the lived experience of the reader: ‘Dante similarly emphasises how Statius’ recognition of the Christian truth latent in Virgil’s text stems from his own personal experience in a world in which Christ is made present.’26 Yet what is clear is that on his first appearance in Purgatory, it is Statius who plays the role of Jesus at Emmaus, thus lending him an authoritative air which Virgil cannot match, and providing for the pilgrim the revelatory Christian truth underpinning Virgil’s writing, that is, the Christian message hidden in Eclogue 4 (itself the text which underpins the end of the The- baid). As the ascent of Purgatory recommences, the poets move more rapidly with Statius now acting as their guide (prendemmo la via con men sospetto | per l’as- sentir di quell’anima degna, XXII.125–6, ‘we took our way with less uncertainty because of the assent of that elect soul’). The simple message has huge implications for our secondary authors; following in another’s footsteps is not an admis- sion of inferiority. What is more, just as the Christian Statius acquires superiority in following, so the later, medieval, vernacular poet Dante can, by virtue of his greater Christian understanding, surpass his predecessors. Statius’ Christianity is, of course, a pleasant fiction and a Dantean invention. Yet the model that this fictional Statius provides for Dante is enormously important. Different acts of following in footsteps in Cantos XXI and XXII underline not only the complexity of poetic relationships, but also how Dante subtly constructs these relationships in order to privilege his own position in the hierarchy.

 25 There are other important parallels: the earthquake and singing of the gloria in Canto 20 re- late to the singing of the gloria at Luke 2:8–14 and the earthquake that marks Christ’s death at Para. 7.48; Statius’ greeting mimics the greeting Jesus gives to his disciples at Luke 24:34. 26 Franke 1994, 9.

  Afterword? Per te poeta fui: Dante’s Statius and the Re-Writing of Literary History

While Statius initially acts as follower, he describes his connection with Virgil in a simile which complicates the picture:

Who is the follower here? Dante’s Statius exploits the tension between Virgil and himself adroitly through this image. More intriguing from our point of view is the picture that Dante paints as the trio ascends to the sixth Terrace on Purgatory:

Elli givan dinanzi, e io soletto di retro, e ascoltava i lor sermoni, ch’a poetar mi davano intelletto. Purg. XXII.127–9

They went in front and I by myself behind listening to their talk, which gave me understanding in making verse.

Very rapidly Dante-protagonist becomes the one who follows in footsteps and explicitly gains poetic knowledge in so doing, but also gains a sense of superiority by being an enlightened follower (which is, of course, the Lucretian role which Statius intends for the Thebaid). Interrelated with this increasingly complex picture of poetic hierarchy is the crucial scene with which Canto XXI ends, where Statius attempts to embrace the feet of his master, but is forbidden to do so by Virgil on the basis that shades cannot touch one another:

Già s’inchinava ad abbracciar li piedi al mio dottor, ma el li disse: “Frate, non far, ché tu se’ ombra e ombra vedi”. Ed ei surgendo: “Or puoi la quantitate comprender de l’amor ch’a te mi scalda, quand’io dismento nostra vanitate, trattando l’ombre come cosa salda”. Purg. XXI.130–6

The Road to Emmaus: Different Patterns of Following  

Already he was bending to embrace my teacher’s feet; but he said to him: ‘Brother, do not so, for thou art a shade and a shade thou seest.’ And he, rising: ‘Now thou canst understand the measure of love that burns in me for thee, when I forget our emptiness and treat shades as solid things,’

The logic in Purgatorio is inconsistent, as Dante-protagonist encounters a similar problem when he meets the Florentine musician Casella, yet the two Mantuan poets Virgil and Sordello (a 13th century poet of the Provençal dialect) are certainly able to embrace one another:

Ohi ombre vane, fuor che ne l’aspetto! tre volte dietro a lei le mani avvinsi, e tante mi tornai con esse al petto. Purg. II.79–81

O empty shades, except in semblance! Three times I clasped my hands behind him and as often brought them back to my breast.

e ‘l dolce duca incominciava “Mantüa ...”, e l’ombra, tutta in sé romita, surse ver’ lui del loco ove pria stava, dicendo: “O Mantoano, io son Sordello de la tua terra!”; e l’un l’altro abbracciava. Purg. VI.71–5

And the gentle leader began: ‘Mantua …’; and the shade, who had been all rapt within himself, sprang towards him from the place where he was, saying: ‘O Mantuan, I am Sordello of thy city.’ And the one embraced the other.

Certainly, these passages are carefully modelled upon the failed embraces in the Aeneid, where Aeneas tries and fails three times to embrace the ghosts of Creusa and Anchises (Aen. 2.792–4, 6.700–2),27 yet the logic is obscure, if there is any at all; does Dante’s embrace fail because he is among the living, while the equally insubstantial Sordello and Virgil succeed? And is Virgil therefore deceiving Sta- tius by refusing his attention? Statius certainly seems to understand that shades are insubstantial and therefore cannot touch one another, implying that the scene in Canto VI is an aberration. Furthermore, Statius imitates Mary Magdalene attempting to embrace Jesus following his crucifixion, an allusion which again feminises Statius and makes him subordinate:

 27 See Martinez 1995, 167.

  Afterword? Per te poeta fui: Dante’s Statius and the Re-Writing of Literary History

Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father…” John 20:1728

Whilst it is tempting to read the emptiness of the shades as a metapoetic indication of the constructedness of Dante’s Virgil and Statius, there does seem to be a crucial difference between these earlier scenes of embracing and that of Statius and Virgil, which is that Statius attempts to embrace Virgil’s feet. The detail is important in that it takes us back to the final lines of the Thebaid, where Statius encourages his poem not to follow too closely in the Aeneid’s footsteps. Vestigia refers most naturally to footsteps or may be used metaphorically to mean traces of other kinds (as in Dido’s uestigia at Aen. 4.23 or Guinizelli’s vestigio at Purg. XXVI.106). Yet Dante also uses vestigge to mean the path that is trodden (Purg. XXXIII.108) and the Latin uestigium also refers to that which creates the foot- print.29 Thus in Canto XXI, Statius literally attempts to get too close to Virgil’s uestigia and breaks his own injunction. Dante thus emphasises not only a posture of absolute deference, but also the way in which Statius maintains his own power by keeping a discrete distance from his predecessor.

. Vernacular and Latin Traditions and the Notion of Renaissance Succession

At this point it seems pertinent to broaden our discussion and see how Statius might act as a model for Dante’s own poetics. Dante’s attitude towards the 13th century vernacular poets whom he meets on his journey, Virgils to his Statius one might say, is every bit as self-effacing as that of Statius. The encounter with Sor- dello prompts Dante to a tirade against the (extremely messy) political condition of Italy at the beginning of the 14th century. We have already witnessed his rev- erence for Guinizelli, but we should note also how Dante links their use of vernacular with their survival:

E io a lui: “Li dolci detti vostri, che, quanto durerà luso moderno, faranno cari ancora i loro incostri”. Purg. XXVI.112–14

 28 For negative connotations of such an embrace, see Matthew 4:19. 29 L&S s.v. uestigium B.1.

Vernacular and Latin Traditions and the Notion of Renaissance Succession  

And I to him: ‘Those sweet lines of yours, which so long as the modern use shall last will make their ink still dear.’

In the same Canto, Guinizelli introduces Dante to another Provençal poet, Arnaut Daniel, who is even permitted to speak in his own language (XXVI.140–7). Much like Statius himself, Dante-protagonist is highly reverential of his predecessors, and the attitude towards classical poetry in the Commedia is, by and large, one of veneration rather than anything more antagonistic. This, however, does not sit well with the oppositions between vernacular poetry and Latin poetry that Dante constructs in his other works where the vernacular is unequivocally the superior language in which to write:30

harum quoque duarum nobilior est uulgaris De Vulgari Eloquentia 1.1.4

Of these two the nobler is the vernacular

The contrast between this Dante, who seems utterly self-confident as regards his classical predecessors in more minor works, and the Dante who, in his greatest composition, seems extremely deferential both to classical and vernacular ante- cedents is mirrored by the attitude visible in Statius’ own poetry; we have seen the respectful and anxious stance at the end of the Thebaid, but this stands in contrast to his much more assertive and positive outlook in later poetry (cf. e.g. Silvae 4.7.25–8, 5.3.60–3, 233–8; Ach. 1.12–13).31 Given Dante’s ignorance of the Silvae, such correspondences as we find there must be coincidental, but this seems all the more instructive as it demonstrates both poets positioning themselves within the canon in similar ways. In any event, we can construct a reading of Dante where the poet is ambivalent and cagey about his own superiority and the significant marker for such self-positioning within any poetic canon is that closing passage of Statius’ Thebaid. No wonder then, that Dante’s own successors used that classical passage as a model text when finishing their own works; Sta-

 30 It is ironic to expound such an ideal in a Latin text. See also Convivia 1.7.1–4 with Martinez 1995, 151–4. 31 See above, introduction, with Rosati 2011; and Bessone 2014. It is tempting to compare the poetic catalogues in Canto XXII.94–114 with Statius’ catalogue of poets at Silvae 5.3.146–59. Note that both Convivio and de Vulgari Eloquentia were published in 1305, Purgatorio in 1315, while the Thebaid was published in c. AD 92, Silvae 4 in c. AD 95. Where we detected a growing confidence in Statius as his career progressed, Dante’s confidence in his vernacular form is already well established.

  Afterword? Per te poeta fui: Dante’s Statius and the Re-Writing of Literary History tius’ vive precor is reworked by Boccaccio (Filocolo 5.97, Teseida 12.84–6), Pet- rarch (Africa 9.475–83) and Chaucer (Troilus and Criseyde 5.1786–92).32 Statius therefore provides the dominant closural model as well as a key pattern of literary affiliation for the poets of the early Italian renaissance. Following in the footsteps of one’s predecessors becomes a marker of excellence.

. uestigia semper adora: Reading Statius Reading Virgil through Reading Dante

The appearance of Statius in Canto XXI of Purgatorio presents us with a complex and dynamic metapoetic image. Dante takes the end of the Thebaid as a key moment in an important text and incorporates it into his own literary and spiritual journey. We see Statius once more following in Virgil’s footsteps. Yet by virtue of the fiction of Statius as a secret Christian, Dante is able to transform the logic of literary succession in his own favour. Literary successors need no longer be viewed as secondary or inferior. The reasons for this process are manifold: Dante needs to establish himself as superior to his classical forebears, to establish vernacular poetry as superior to Latin, to prove himself as superior to his own vernacular predecessors. Dante looks to find his own space in the literary canon and this episode shows how he is willing to manipulate Roman literary history in order so to do. We get a glimpse of how Dante pictures himself as another literary follower and the relationship between this role and the central path towards spiritual illumination, and his own take on the tensions between imitation and originality. Yet as a reader of selfhood in Statius, we may be more interested in what such a set of readings might mean for a Flavian epicist caught at the crossroads between the traditions and originality of Augustan poetry and the brave new world of renaissance poetry, equipped with the religion and language to reinvigorate a moribund tradition. Dante certainly makes it clear that Statius is as valuable a text as any in the canon, but, given that we no longer live in a world where one needs to apologise for reading Flavian epic, we cannot simply suggest that Dante legitimates the scholarly activity of re-reading the Thebaid. Rather we should look at the way Dante constructs himself as one who follows Statius’ example and therefore as a special kind of poet, one with access to the best of both worlds, the higher truths of Christianity and the traditions of classical poetry. As a result, Sta- tius himself partakes of this new and grander poetics.

 32 See Barolini 1984, 261 n.75.

uestigia semper adora: Reading Statius Reading Virgil through Reading Dante  

Although Statius once more occupies a central role in the classical canon, his injunction to his poem not to follow the Aeneid too closely still encourages us to read our poet with what one might simplistically term ‘Virgilian eyes’. What Dante suggests to us therefore, is that we can take Statius on our own terms as never before and view the Flavian epic poet as carving his own niche in the literary canon and constructing his own poetics which in Dantean mode may follow in the footsteps of earlier poetry and nonetheless partake of higher truths. The degree to which Statius qua poet of the Thebaid needs to be re-written in order to function within Dantean poetics is remarkable. Statius is finally permitted to emerge into the world of the concrete universal as a Christian pilgrim, which in Dante is symbolised by his ascent into Paradise. The nihilism of Statius’ identity as it was presented to us in the Thebaid is replaced by an astonishing literary optimism.