Dead Woman Walking: Jocasta in the Thebaid

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CHAPTER 17 Dead Woman Walking: Jocasta in the Thebaid

Jessica S. Dietrich

Jocasta, wife of Laius, wife and mother of Oedipus, mother of Eteocles and Polynices as well as Antigone and Ismene, and finally, sister of Creon, perhaps best embodies the confusion associated with the house of Oedipus. In his pre- sentation of the two major episodes involving Jocasta in the Thebaid—her attempts to persuade her sons against fighting each other and her suicide— Statius engages with literary models, including epic and tragedy as well as historical accounts, and carefully combines his sources, developing a complex series of allusions.1 It is not surprising that Statius evokes many models in his portrayal of Jocasta in the Thebaid, but through such allusions, Statius invites comparisons that highlight important differences, distinguishing his Jocasta as a uniquely Flavian creation. Statius consistently plays with the contradictory traditions surrounding Jocasta’s death in particular, thus creating a figure who can be read as among the living but also one of the dead. In this way, Jocasta’s role may be similar to that of her first husband Laius, who is twice brought back from the dead to influence the world of the living.

Ecce Jocasta: Jocasta in Thebaid 7

In Thebaid 7, Jocasta bursts onto the scene: ecce truces oculos sordentibus obsita canis / exangues Iocasta genas et bracchia planctu (“Look! Jocasta, her savage eyes and bloodless cheeks covered by her filthy gray hair and her arms covered with beating,” Theb. 7.474–5). Jocasta’s intrusion into the text in Thebaid 7 may have been a surprise to Statius’ readers who would have good reason to assume that Jocasta had died after Oedipus blinded himself, as she does in Sophocles’ and Seneca’s Oedipus. Indeed, in Thebaid 1, Oedipus remarks that he has left his eyes on his mother (miseraque oculos in matre reliqui, 1.72), which is a clear reference to Sophocles’ Oedipus, thus implying that Jocasta is already dead.2 Smolenaars rightly tries to make sense of this apparent contradiction of a reference to Jocasta’s death in book 1 and her appearance, apparently alive,

1 Smolenaars (2008) 220–3 investigates the wider tradition of Jocasta’s role in Theban legend. 2 Smolenaars (2008) 219.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ��5 | doi ��.��63/9789004284708_018 308 Dietrich in book 7. But while Smolenaars suggests that it is not necessary to read the reference in book 1 as being to Jocasta’s corpse,3 I would argue that the ambigu- ity of Jocasta’s status as living or dead is maintained and exploited by Statius in his introduction of her into his story,4 as well as in her other appearances in the epic. Statius’ emphasis on Jocasta’s physical appearance, in particular her filthy hair and bruised arms, may evoke depictions of female lamentation, an asso- ciation Statius returns to in Jocasta’s embassy to Polynices,5 but there is also a suggestion of another kind of imagery—that of a fury. In his commentary on Thebaid 7, Smolenaars argues that the description of Jocasta’s appearance is primarily derived from Vergil’s Allecto in Aeneid 7, who appears to Turnus as the aged Calybe.6 This connection to Allecto is strengthened by the simile fol- lowing Jocasta’s appearance in which Statius explicitly compares Jocasta to a fury: Eumenidum uelut antiquissima (“like the oldest of the Eumenides,” Theb. 7.477). It is difficult, however, to view Jocasta as acting as a fury in this passage as she strives to stop rather than stir up the war between her sons.7 Statius perhaps contrasts Jocasta’s fury-like appearance at the beginning of the passage with the action of the real Fury who instigates the war that Jocasta has failed to avert at the conclusion of her intervention: arma iterum furiaeque placent; fera tempus Erinys / arripit (“arms and battle lust are pleasing again; the savage Fury jumps at the opportunity,” 7.562–3). Therefore, Jocasta is characterized by fury imagery, but her role within the episode is seemingly quite different from that of the actual Furies.8 These two aspects of Statius’ description of Jocasta, her physical appearance and the use of fury imagery, may allow the poet to exploit otherworldly figures similar to the furies, yet not quite the same—figures such as dreams, visions and ghosts. Thus, although Jocasta is introduced on a peace-keeping mission, the simile comparing her to a fury has sinister implications that are evoked by a further

3 Smolenaars (2008) 235. 4 That figures in the Thebaid act like the living dead is argued by Hardie (1993) 44–6, who views Eteocles and Polynices as furies who act after death, and Vessey (1973) 280, who refers to Oedipus’ living death. 5 Cf. below, p. 312 n. 25 for lamentation in the characterization of Jocasta in Thebaid 7 as well as in her embassy to Eteocles in book 11. 6 Smolenaars (1994) 220–2; Ganiban (2007) 112. 7 For readings of Jocasta’s role in the violent action of the poem, see Ganiban (2007) 112; Keith (2000) 97; and especially Augoustakis (2010b) 62–4 on the tension between the representa- tion of a fury and an emphasis on her maternal role. 8 Hershkowitz (1998) 280 suggests that Jocasta’s passivity and resignation make her an unwit- ting agent of the Furies, but it may also be evidence of her status as not quite alive.