University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies Legacy Theses 2001 The Nemean episode in Statius' Thebaid Kenyeres, Jennifer Lynn Kenyeres, J. L. (2001). The Nemean episode in Statius' Thebaid (Unpublished master's thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. doi:10.11575/PRISM/17007 http://hdl.handle.net/1880/41204 master thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca The author of this thesis has granted the University of Calgary a non-exclusive license to reproduce and distribute copies of this thesis to users of the University of Calgary Archives. Copyright remains with the author. 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Please contact the University of Calgary Archives for further information, E-mail: [email protected] Telephone: (403) 220-7271 Website: http://www.ucalgary.ca/archives/ UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY The Nemean Episode in Statius' Thebaic! by Jennifer Lynn Kenyeres A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS DEPARTMENT OF GREEK AND ROMAN STUDIES CALGARY, ALBERTA JUNE, 2001 © Jennifer Kenyeres 2001 The University of Calgary Abstract The Nemean Episode in Statius' Thebaic! by Jennifer Lynn Kenyeres This thesis presents an analysis of the Nemean episode of books 4 to 6 of Statius' Thebaic! and the relation of these books to the thematic concerns of the poem. While Statius owes much to his literary antecedents, he also contributes a distinct voice of his own by making the Nemean episode thematically relevant to his epic as a whole. Although the Thebaic! is indebted to a constellation of influences, variations and innovations are worked into the text so that Statius' epic does not lack unity. Hypsipyle's presence in the landscape of the Thebaid may seem arbitrary, but her encounter with the Argives is not without consequences. Statius relies heavily on character parallels and foreshadowing, and there is an almost obsessive recurrence of themes and moods throughout Statius' Thebaid. Approached in this way, books 4 to 6 seem less of a digression than a microcosm of the larger epic. iii ACNOWLEDGMENTS I extend my utmost gratitude to Professor Peter Toohey for providing moral support and guidance in the early stages of my thesis and invaluable advice on the advanced drafts of my work. I feel strongly indebted to Professor Martin Cropp from whose conversations my thesis took shape. Dr. Cropp's critical reading and crucial suggestions contributed enormous improvements in bringing out subtle points, and in the overall logic and consistency of my arguments. I am also grateful to the Department of Greek and Roman Studies for its generous support during my graduate years and I thank the Department of Graduate Studies for awarding me guaranteed funding for two years, the Dean's Special Masters Scholarship and the Province of Alberta Graduate Scholarship. I thank John Mastwijk for scanning so many pictures for me (even though they were never used!) and for helping me with the technical side of my thesis. I would also like to express my appreciation to Cliff Mastwijk for his help in proofreading my drafts. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Approval page 11 Abstract Mi Acknowledgments iv Table of Contents v-vi PART I: BACKGROUND Introduction 1-5 Summary of books 4 to 6 of the Thebaid 6-8 Hypsipyle on Lemnos: literary background 9-12 Hypsipyle at Nemea: Background 12-16 Influences: Euripides' Hypsipyle 16-28 Influences: Antimachus and the Hellenism of Naples 28-32 Influences: Vergil 32-40 Influences: Apollonius Rhodius and Valerius Flaccus 40-52 PART II: THEMES AND TECHNIQUES Introduction 53-56 Delay 57-59 Reversals 59-64 Bacchus and Bacchic Imagery 64-69 Nefas 69-76 Resolution: the return to fas 76-86 Character parallels 86-92 ν Linus and Coroebus 92-95 Opheltes' death and funeral games 95-103 Conclusion 104-106 PRIMARY REFERENCES 107-109 SECONDARY REFERENCES 110-114 vi 1 PART I: BACKGROUND Introduction Statius' Thebaid introduces a large number of heroes and engages them in a very complex plot. A true protagonist is absent and subsidiary narratives diversify the material and add new depths of significance to the story of the Seven against Thebes. Statius, however, makes a conscious effort to resist the dangers of dissipation. Even in the longer episodes which delay the start of the Theban war, Statius establishes recurring thematic links as well as parallels and foreshadowing in order to advance the development of the principal plot. This thesis offers an analysis of Books 4 to 6 of Statius' epic in which the army of the Seven encounter Hypsipyle at Nemea and organize funeral games for her nursling, Opheltes, who was killed by a serpent while Hypsipyle was leading the army to water. This is, in some sense, a self-contained episode, but I will also analyze the relation of these books to the thematic concerns of the poem. If this aim is to be achieved, it is also instructive to consider Statius' relation to his literary antecedents. Within the course of my thesis, I will also attempt to show the changes that Statius makes to the tradition of Hypsipyle in order to produce a character and a series of events that fit into the larger design to which I shall allude. But first some preliminaries. In writing the Thebaid, Statius chose a mythological subject, replete with a complex divine apparatus. His epic has been read as a poem whose main focus is power: Eteocles holds power in Thebes and his brother, Polynices, wants it.1 More precisely, Statius' theme is fraternae acies, ('battles between brothers', 1.1). With the characters overwhelmed by the laws of the cosmos and their predetermined destinies, the Thebaid presents a rather stark outlook. Long ago, in his Post-Augustan Poetry from Seneca to Juvenal, H.E. Butler offered an evaluation of Statius and his Thebaid. Having faulted the poet for a lack of ingenium, he went on to write: He [Statius] was further handicapped by his choice of a subject. The Theban legend is unsuitable for epic treatment for more reasons than one. In the first place the story is unpleasant from beginning to end. Horror accumulates on horror, crime on crime...we cannot get away from the fact that the story is ultimately one of almost bestial fratricidal strife, darkened by the awful shadow of the house of Labdacus.2 Despite such objections about theme, it is nevertheless a fact that Statius deliberately chose to write about such dark issues. Terrible violence and horror are fundamental elements of this poetic universe. Readers of the Thebaid must accept this fascination with the macabre, this exploration of evil, if a fair evaluation is to be reached. The Thebaid, however, is not all brutality. Like Ovid, Statius was primarily concerned with creating a vivid story. Although Statius' epic explores civil war, the political nightmare of the Roman people, Statius did not go out of his way to create an epic that was politically and culturally relevant to his contemporary Roman audience. Rather, Statius portrays civil war as a universal evil and not just as a 1Dominik, (1994a), xii, "What is the Thebaid about? In a word: power." 2Butler, (1909), 207-8. specifically Roman problem.3 Statius' narrative is not heavily moralizing; he does not overtly connect Eteocles and Polynices to the Emperor, Domitian, and his brother, Titus. Nor is there any necessary link between the civil strife at Thebes and the civil wars of 69 AD.4 There is no authorial intervention which over- determines the epic's grand design. This tactic had already been employed by Lucan. In Lucan's Bellum Civile, the narrator is both authorial and moralizing. It was always clear to the reader that this is not just a story about the conflict between Julius Caesar and Pompey, but it is also a story about the loss of liberty and the degeneration and increasing corruption of the Roman Empire.5 Statius' narrator has much less to say about contemporary politics. The detached portrayal of civil war in the Thebaid is consonant with the mythological distance of the Theban saga. It is important to emphasize, first of all, that the subject matter of the Thebaid would have been well known to a Roman audience. Even before the prologue, which presents a preview of the spectacles contained within the Thebaid 3See Seneca's Oedipus, Phoenissae, and Hercules Furens where Thebes is used the same way. 4See Toohey (1992), 189, who argues that "Eteocles and Polynices need no more represent Domitian and his brother (whom he may have poisoned) than Romulus and Remus.