The Thebaid
Page 57
6.381:Admetus will receive old age Apollo arranged for Admetus to win immortality if someone would agree to die in his place; Alcestis, his wife, sacrificed herself. The story is the subject of Euripides’ Alcestis.6.383:sad birds The translation transfers the epithet “sad” from Amphiaraus to the birds (hypallage).
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6.419:white rain Horse foam
6.434–35:Though each desired to win, they never clashed Hypsipyle’s sons are models of fraternal piety.
6.596:Cydonian Cydon, a city in Crete, known for its expert archers
6.598:Hyrcanian Hyrcania was a Persian province near Parthia (the northeastern part of modern Iran) on the southern coast of the Caspian Sea.
6.608:Diana (Trivia) The goddess is called Trivia because of her threefold nature: Diana (the virgin huntress), Selene (the moon), and Hecate (the underworld).
6.632:Tegaean From Tegea, a town in Arcadia; here, Parthenopaeus
6.652:Ephyreians Corinthians, named after the nymph Ephyre (cf. Met. 2.240)
6.652:Acarnanians Acarnania was most western province of Greece, on the Ionian Sea.
6.666:Mount Pangaea A mountain in Thrace, on the border of Macedonia, near Philippi
6.725:Cnosian After Cnosis (Gnosus), former capital of Crete and home of Minos
6.742:He’d grown up in the god’s gymnasium Homer identifies Pollux as a champion boxer (Iliad 3.237; Odyssey 11.300).
6.837:Cleonae A town in Argolis near Nemea (Met. 6.417)
6.894:the earthborn Libyan Antaeus, the giant who derived his strength from the earth. Hercules defeated him by holding him up in the air and strangling him (Met. 9.184).
6.927:Lyctian Cretan (after Lyctus, a town in eastern Crete; cf. Met. 7.490)
Book 7. Earth Opens
7.8:Parrhasian dipper The constellation Ursa Major, which is the metamorphosed Callisto (Met. 2.401ff.). Parrhasia is a district in Arcadia.
7.40:Here he saw lifeless trees and shrines to Mars The following passage describes the horrors of the temple of Mars. Boccaccio (Teseida 7.29–37), Chaucer (Knight’s Tale3.1967–2050), and Spenser (Faerie Queene 4.1.20–24) all imitate this passage, paying particular attention to Statius’s personifications.
7.66:Hebrus The main river in Thrace, which starts in Mount Haemus
7.162–63:Danaë’s . . . Amyclae Danaë, Callisto, and Leda were the mothers, respectively, of Perseus, Arcas, and Castor and Pollux. Bacchus certainly should have had precedence over these lesser sons of Jupiter.
7.182:My brother Apollo, who was born on Delos
7.184:Pallas saved the citadel Refers to the contest between Minerva and Neptune over which of them would become patron god of Athens (Met. 6.70ff.)
7.186:Epaphus Another son of Jupiter, by Io, Epaphus founded Egyptian city of Memphis (Met. 1.748)
7.191:whose bull fared better Bacchus reminds Jove of Alcmena, Antiope, and Europa. The late classical authority Lactantius applied the epithet felicior (more fortunate) to Europa instead of Jove, who, transformed into a bull, carried her to sea, because she did not die in flames, like Bacchus’s mother Semele.
7.204:ancient Calydonians Diana sent a fierce boar to Calydon as retribution for the Calydonians’ failure to honor her at harvest time (see Met. 8.272).
7.207:Labdacus Father of Laius
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7.255:There—look! A catalog of heroes, towns, and rivers of Boeotia, Phocis, and Euboea follows. Most of the towns are mentioned in Homer’s catalog of Greek ships (see Iliad2.494–545).
7.255–56:gold bolt of lightning/ and trident Orion was the son of both Jupiter and Neptune (see Ovid, Fasti 5.493–544); his grandson can therefore rightly lay claim to the insignia of both gods. Several versions of the myth relate different reasons for Diana’s anger, but Statius might be alluding to her thwarted plan to marry Orion (see Hyginus, De Astrologia 2.34).
7.271:Neptune’s progeny Mycalessos, Melas, and Gargaphie are Boeotian rivers.
7.273:Gargaphie Diana (one of Hecate’s identities) killed Actaeon in this river valley (Met.3.138ff.).
7.283–84:Permesse, and pleasant Olmius Rivers of Mount Helicon
7.287:Strymon’s stream A river in the north dividing Macedonia and Thrace
7.307:Glisantan Pausanias identifies Glisas as the location of the Epigoni’s battle against the Thebans (9.5.13).
7.315:Asopos The god of an Achaean river. It was also the name of a river in Boeotia. The details about Asopos’s defiance of Jove are appropriate to a description of the hero Hypseus, who dies at the hands of the impious Capaneus in book 9.
7.334:Euripus The strait that separates Euboea from Boeotia
7.335:Glaucus A fisherman who turned into a merman after eating a magic plant (Met.13.898–968)
7.349:Cephisus A Boeotian river (father of Narcissus, see Met. 3.341–46)
7.352:the god’s mass killings The Phocians wear armor that depicts two of Apollo’s victories. He defeated the giant Tityus, who had assaulted his mother (Odyssey 11.576–81), and he killed the Python at Delos.
7.397:he carries suckling youngsters to their mothers This simile casts a more flattering light on Eteocles than any previous description, again calling to question whether either brother is ultimately more blameworthy.
7.412:Sparta The site of worship of the Gemini (Castor and Pollux)
7.414:Lycaon’s frenzied ghost Lycaon was an Arcadian king who was changed into a wolf for testing Jupiter’s godhead (see Met. 1.197–239).
7.422:The Peloponnesian phalanx This fearless group is the part of the army led by Capaneus (see note to 4.178).
7.476:an olive branch with black wool twists A traditional sign of supplication
7.566:Erythraean shores Erythras was a mythical king of Asia or Arabia after whom the Red Sea, Arabian Gulf, and Indian Gulf were named; here Statius refers to the Indian Ocean, according to Lewis and Short.
7.685–86:Ismara . . . Tmolos Again, Statius lists places associated with the worship of Bacchus (see note to 4.383). Ismara was a town in Thrace, near Maronea, the place from which Odysseus acquired the sweet wine he uses to inebriate Polyphemus (Odyssey 9.193ff.). Tmolos was a mountain in Asia Minor.
7.718:Carystos A town on the southern shore of Euboea
7.792:Castor and Pollux let their sister shine The Gemini and their sister Helen were patron deities of sailors (see Horace, Odes 1.3).
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Book 8. Savage Hunger
8.15:Elysium The part of the underworld reserved for the virtuous
8.18:the pallid furrower of waters Charon, the ferryman who carries souls across the river Styx
8.26:turn thumbs In contests at the Forum, spectators would vote on the fate of a defeated gladiator by signaling with their thumbs (thumbs up was actually the sign of condemnation). See Juvenal, Satires 3.36.
8.38:third encounter The Olympian brothers Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto drew lots for their kingdoms; Pluto received “the world of harmful things” after losing the heavens and seas to his brothers (see Iliad 15.185–92).
8.42:the rattling chains After the Olympians defeated the Titans (among them Saturn, Jupiter’s father), Jupiter had them imprisoned in Tartarus (see Hesiod, Theogony717ff.).
8.50:both sons/of Tyndareus That is, Castor and Pollux. Because their mother Leda was impregnated by both Jupiter and her husband Tyndareus, only Pollux (Jupiter’s son) was granted access to Olympus after death. The brothers therefore shared this honor by taking turns each day between Olympus and the underworld. See Odyssey 11.298– 304.
8.50:Ixion See note to 4.536.
8.53–56:Pirithoüs Pirithous and Theseus tried to kidnap Pluto’s queen, Proserpina; Hercules carried Cerberus to the surface. This passage echoes Aeneid 6.392–94, in which Charon complains to Aeneas of his difficulties.
8.57:Thracian bard Odrysian in the original, from Odrysae, a people of Thrace (cf. Met.6.490); h
ere, Orpheus, who, by charming Pluto with his music, convinced the god to release Eurydice’s shade from the underworld (Met. 10.1–85)
8.62:Sicily Pluto ascended to the island of Sicily to carry off Proserpina (Met. 5.341ff.).
8.197:Tenedos and Chryse Tenedos was an island in the Aegean near the coast of Troy; Chryse was a town on the mainland near Troy. Both places were sites of worship of Apollo, whose priest Chryses invokes the names of these towns when he calls down Apollo’s curse on the Greeks (Iliad 1.35–42).
8.198:Branchus A priest (some say a son) of Apollo. The following names are sites of Apollonian oracles; see note to 3.474, note to 3.476–80, and note to 3.513.
8.199:Clarius A name for Apollo, after Claros, a town on the coast of Ionia celebrated for its temple to the god
8.212:Tiphys’ sudden death See note to 5.413.
8.237:Hydaspes River A tributary of the Indus River in northern India
8.305:Promethean man, the stones of Pyrrha Prometheus is credited with creating the first humans (Met. 1.78–88). Pyrrha and Deucalion repopulated the earth after a great flood by throwing over their shoulders stones that grew into humans (Met. 1.400– 402).
8.311:Two chariots The sun and the moon
8.352:seven gates Thebes was famous for its seven gates; the Greek epithet for Thebes is Heptapulos, “seven-gated.”
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8.364–65:the Eleans, the Spartans,/and Pylians These men had been under Amphiaraus’s charge; see 4.238.
8.426:Aquilo The north wind, the Roman version of Boreas (see Aeneid 1.102)
8.437:Taÿgetus A mountain range between Laconia and Messenia
8.466:Onchestian Onchestus was a town in Boeotia that was sacred to Neptune (Iliad2.506).
8.477:Maera A Nereid impregnated by Jupiter. She and Eriphyle are mentioned together in the list of women whom Odysseus sees in the underworld (Odyssey 11.326).
8.482–84:Calydonians Calydon, Pylene, Pleuron, and Olenus are towns mentioned in Homer’s catalog of Aetolian warriors (Iliad 2.638–40).
8.509:Amphitryon The husband of Alcmene, Hercules’ father (Met. 6.112)
8.518:the snakes that bristled on her breast These are the snakes on the head of Medusa, which decorates the aegis, Minerva’s breastplate or shield.
8.532:Lucania An ancient district of southern Italy, roughly equivalent to modern Basilicata
8.545:Mount Gaurus A mountain on the eastern coast of Italy, near Naples
8.551:Urania The muse of astronomy
8.616:nightingale and swallow See note to 5.122.
8.675:the bird/that carries lightning Literally, the flame carrier— that is, the eagle, the bird sacred to Jupiter
8.758:Tritonian Pallas “Tritonian” is an epithet for Minerva, perhaps in reference to Libya’s Lake Triton. Homer calls her “Tritogeneia” (Iliad 4.515, Odyssey 3.378).
Book 9. Tide and Time
9.127:Tanagraean Tanagraea was a district in Boeotia that housed a temple to Bacchus.
9.189:Moorish Mauritanian, North African
9.290–91:Thisbaean Lichas, and Lycetus/the Anthedonian Anthedon and Thisbae were Boeotian towns; both are mentioned in Homer’s catalog of Boeotia (see note to 7.255).
9.307:Caphereus A cape on the east coast of Euboea
9.319:Faunus and the nymph Ismenis Faunus was the Roman god of the forest; Ismenis was the daughter of the river god Ismenos.
9.323:Sisters of Elysium The Fates
9.334:Sidonian maiden Europa
9.351:silvery sisters Nereids
9.371:Doris’ The sea, in general; Doris was the mother of the Nereids (Met. 2.11).
9.423:the guilty horns Ismenos refers to some of Jupiter’s indiscretions (with Europa, Alcmena, and Semele).
9.427:Tirynthius Hercules (after Tiryns, the city from which his mother came)
9.598:Maenads Bacchantes
9.611:Colchian/barbarians The Argonauts (after Colchis, the island that held the golden fleece)
9.617:to hide my moral fault in secret caves See note to 4.249.
9.632:Dictynna Another name for Diana (Met. 2.441)
9.796:spears of infamy That is, thyrsi, the staffs carried by Bacchantes. Parthenopaeus
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distinguishes himself from the Thebans, who he implies are to blame for their devotion to Bacchus.
Book 10. Sacrifices
10.56:They offered Juno’s statue cloaks of state In their effort to placate Juno, the Argive women present the goddess’s statue with a peplus, an intricately embroidered robe depicting, in this case, Juno as a young bride (cf. Aeneid 1.479–82). Suppliant women of Troy similarly appeal to Athena (Iliad 6.286ff.).
10.77:Alcmene Disguising himself as her husband, Jupiter spent two nights with Alcmene engendering Hercules (Met. 6.111).
10.111:slipping horn Somnus poured sleep over his victims from a horn.
10.170:the mother goddess of Mount Ida Cybele (see note to 4.789). Her ecstatic priests, Corybantes (or Curetes), mutilated themselves when celebrating the festival that honored Attis (see Ovid, Fasti 4.179ff.).
10.228:Pholoë A mountain between Arcadia and Elis, where Centaurs lived (Apollodorus, Library 2.5.4)
10.343:Paean See note to 1.636.
10.347–48:a Calydonian, Hopleus, and a Maenalian, Dymas Dymas and Hopleus are modeled after Virgil’s Nisus and Euryalus (Aeneid 9.176ff.). The relationship of the younger and older man replicates the bond each had with his captain, Parthenopaeus (an Arcadian, like Dymas) and Tydeus (whose half brother Meleager killed the Calydonian boar).
10.445:You will be long remembered A eulogy reminiscent of that for Maeon (see 3.88ff.)
10.512:Pangaea A Macedonian mountain range, site of King Lycurgus’s death (cf. note to
4.53).
10.530:turtles Either a sort of covering shed beneath which sappers could undermine a tower or a close formation of soldiers holding shields together over their heads while besieging the walls of a city.
10.537:Malea/or high Ceraunia The cape between the Laconian and Argolic gulfs on the Peloponnesus mountain range on the coast of Epirus, known to be dangerous to ships (see Aeneid 3.506)
10.646:as when Omphale laughed at Hercules The simile refers to Hercules’ affair with Omphale, the Lydian queen who made him wear her clothes (see Ovid, Heroides 9).
10.857:Balearic The Baleares (inhabitants of modern Majorca and Minorca, islands east of Spain) were skilled slingers (see Caesar, Gallic War 2.7).
10.909:when proud giants fought at Phlegra See note to 2.596.
10.916:Iapetus One of the Titans, imprisoned in Tartarus for defying Jupiter (Iliad 8.479)
10.917:Ischia Modern name of ancient Inarime
Book 11. Piety
11.8:Enceledus See note to 3.595.
11.84:Enyo The Greek equivalent of Bellona (see note to 4.6)
11.105:he whose prayers Oedipus
11.124:a single man Capaneus
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11.125:a pair Polynices and Eteocles
11.132–33:Astraea’s constellation/or Leda’s brothers Virgo and Gemini. Astraea was the daughter of Jupiter and Themis, goddess of justice. She fled earth due to the depravity of humankind (Met. 1.150).
11.136:The virgin daughter of the god of darkness Megaera
11.177:her lord Parthenopaeus
11.231:haruspex See note to 3.557.
11.234:Hercules Hercules burned to death after donning a cloak poisoned by his rival Nessus (Met. 9.134–88).
11.318:Agave See note to 4.561.
11.401:Maeonian Lydian, that is, exotically Eastern
11.438:Cyanean islands’ cliffs The Cyaneae, also known as the Symplegades, were islands at the opening of the Black Sea that reputedly crashed together whenever ships tried to pass among them (see Homer, Odyssey 12.59–72).
11.445:king of shadows Pluto
11.458:Piety Pietas—the personif
ied deity of loyalty, duty, and filial love—was central to the Romans’ conception of themselves. Piety has been absent from Thebes throughout the poem; therefore, Tisiphone’s response to the goddess is warranted.
11.571:Minos See note to 4.530.
11.588:sailor of the stagnant stream Avernus Charon
11.645:Erigone Subject of an etiological myth accounting for the constellation Virgo (cf. note to 11.132), Erigone committed suicide after discovering that her father had been killed by drunken shepherds (Apollodorus, Library 3.14.7).
Book 12. Clemency
12.3: Tithonia The dawn, or Aurora. The name is transferred from her husband Tithonus, a mortal to whom the gods granted eternal life but not eternal youth. As he aged, he withered until he metamorphosed into a grasshopper.
12.67:just as Hercules See note to 4.158.
12.106:miserable women The mourning and pilgrimage of the Argive women is central to many analogous works of literature; see, for example, Aeschylus’ Seven against Thebes,Boccaccio’s Teseida, Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale, and Shakespeare’s The Two Noble Kinsmen.12.131:Leucothea See note to 6.5.
12.132:Eleüsin Eleusis was a city in Attica where rites were held in honor of Ceres.
12.155:Busiris An Egyptian king who sacrificed a human every year to appease Jupiter (see Apollodorus, Library 2.5.11). Both Busiris and Odrysius were overcome by Hercules.
12.156:Odrysiae A Thracian people. King Diomedes of Thrace owned the horses, which ate the flesh of humans (Apollodorus, Library 2.5.8).
12.181–82:nor any daughter from the snows of Phasis That is, Medea, who was called Phasias (Met. 7.298).
12.225:Dindyma A Phrygian mountain sacred to Cybele
12.273–74:dark conveyer Pluto (see note to 4.124)
12.275:Enceladus See note to 3.595.
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12.431:a double top The dueling flames motif inspired one of Dante’s punishments in hell: that of Ulysses and Diomedes (the son of Tydeus); see Inferno, canto 26.
12.480:the crimes and wickedness of Tereus See note to 5.122.
12.482:Clemency Clementia was seen as a prototype of the Christian god, since she had no form and no set rites. Dante regarded Statius as a Christian (Purgatorio 21 and 22), partly because this description of the god’s altar seemed to supply Christian overtones.