CHAPTER 13 Parent-Child Conflict in the Thebaid

Kyle Gervais

Statius’ Thebaid promises fraternal conflict ( fraternas acies, 1.1), but in the first scene after the proem, Oedipus (who killed his father and married his mother)1 curses his sons (46–87). In the next part of the book, the scene changes to Olympus, where Jupiter resolves to punish Argos and Thebes, two races of his descendants (quis sanguinis auctor / ipse ego, “whose bloodline I myself began,” 224–5). After these extraordinary scenes—a pair of fathers desiring the extinction of their own bloodlines—the setting shifts to Argos and the poem’s third major father, Adrastus. Here, Statius steps away from the world of his epic for the first of two long inset narratives: Adrastus’ tale of Linus and Coroebus (1.557–668) and Hypsipyle’s tale of the Lemnian massacre (5.17–498).2 These episodes are separated from the main narrative in time (ancient Argos) or space (the island of Lemnos), but they too are concerned with parent- child strife. I begin by reading the episodes through to show that a controlling theme is the destruction of parent-child bonds: dangerous offspring, cruel or neg- ligent parents, and, everywhere, children dying.3 I end by suggesting that these two extended meditations on parent-child relationships are important because, in the final lines of his epic (12.810–19)—effectively a tiny third inset

1 These deeds have left their scars: as Hypsipyle is obsessed with “The Name of the Father” (see below, p. 230), so Oedipus has “father” and “mother” on his mind (matre, 1.60; patrem, 66; matris, 68; matre, 72). 2 On the Linus and Coroebus episode: Legras (1905a) 38–9; Heuvel (1932) 243–65; Aricò (1960); Vessey (1970b, reproduced in [1973] 101–7); Caviglia (1973a) 22–6, 149–63; Ahl (1986) 2853–6; Kytzler (1986); Hill (1990) 113–15; Brown (1994) 164–87; Dominik (1994b) 63–70; Ripoll (1998a) 303–4; Franchet d’Espèrey (1999) 376–82; Delarue (2000) 121–3, 317–18; Ganiban (2007) 9–23; McNelis (2007) 25–49; Coffee (2009b) 215–17. On the Lemnian episode: Legras (1905a) 61–9; Aricò (1961); Vessey (1970a, largely reproduced in [1973] 170–87); Ahl (1986) 2886–7; Brown (1994) 117–23 et passim; Dominik (1994b) 54–63, (1997a); Gruzelier (1994); Frings (1996); Kytzler (1996); Nugent (1996); Delarue (2000) 130–3, 316–7, 333–7; Casali (2003); Gibson (2004); Ganiban (2007) 71–95; Coffee (2009b) 200–4; Augoustakis (2010b) 34–62. 3 Bernstein, pp. 139–54 in this volume offers a more general examination of troubled kinship bonds in the Thebaid.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���5 | doi ��.��63/9789004284708_014 222 Gervais narrative—Statius figures the Thebaid as a child, and himself as its father.4 This metapoetic parent-child relationship is no different from those in the two longer inset narratives: as Statius sends his poem out into the world, he does not know whether to pray for its survival, or wish for its death.

Adrastus’ Tale

First, Apollo slays the Python. The language points to Ovid’s version in Metamorphoses 1.5 Of particular interest is Ovid’s description of the serpent’s birth:

illa quidem nollet, sed te quoque, maxime Python, tum genuit. Ov. Met. 1.438–9

And although the Earth would not have wished it, at that time she bore you too, giant Python.

To summarize this, Statius offers terrigenam Pythona (“earthborn Python,” Theb. 1.563, a phrase unique in Latin literature), reminding us that the mon- strous serpent is nevertheless a child of Earth, albeit a horrible one that she would have rather not born (a detail unique to Ovid). Python, then, is the first in a series of harmful offspring that will bring grief and die (or die and bring grief) in Adrastus’ narrative.6

4 On these lines: Vessey (1986a) 2974–6; Malamud (1995) 24–7; Braund (1996a) 7–8; Nugent (1996) 70–1; Dietrich (1999) 50; Pagán (2000) 444–6; Dominik (1994b) 173–5, (2003); Pollmann (2004) 284–9; Leigh (2006) 223–5; McNelis (2007) 22–3. 5 Verbal links between Met. 1.436–44 and Theb. 1.562–71: edidit/perdidit ~ dedit, innumeras ~ numerosa, noua/nouis ~ noua, monstra ~ monstri, deus, telis, perdidit ~ perculit/perquirens, uulnera, nigra ueneno ~ nigro . . . ueneno. Cf. also Met. 1.459–60 (pestifero tot iugera uentre prementem / strauimus innumeris tumidum Pythona sagittis), with Theb. 1.564 (squamisque annosa terentem / robora), 567 (absumptis numerosa in uulnera telis), and 568 (centum per iugera campi). Cf. McNelis (2007) 29–30. 6 Statius also alludes to Luc. 5.79–81 (ultor ibi expulsae, premeret cum uiscera partus, / matris adhuc rudibus Paean Pythona sagittis / explicuit, “there, avenging his mother who had been chased away when her babies were burdening her womb, Paean stretched Python out with still unpracticed arrows”); cf. Theb. 1.568–9: dedit [Apollo Pythona] centum per iugera campi / uix tandem explicitum). A subtle reminder that Apollo was avenging his mother’s mistreat- ment by Python: one child kills another.