The Thebaid (; ) is a Latin epic poem written by the Roman poet Statius. Published in the early 90s AD, it contains 9,748 lines arranged in 12 books, and recounts the clash of two brothers, Eteocles and Polynices, over the throne of the Greek city of Thebes. After Polynices is sent into exile, he forges an alliance of seven Greek princes and embarks on a military campaign against his brother.
Although its source material derives predominantly from the Greek literary tradition, the Thebaid has close ties with other Latin texts such as Virgil's Aeneid and the tragedies of Seneca the Younger. The poem's central themes include the relationship between politics and the family, civil war, and the amoral acts to which it gives rise. Critics have also noted the poem's innovative depiction of Roman mythology. Following in the footsteps of Ovid's Metamorphoses, Statius used an episodic structure which is held together by subtle links between individual episodes.
The Thebaid was not widely read in antiquity, but was held in high esteem throughout the Middle Ages, when multiple adaptions of the poem were composed in vernacular languages. Preserved through the Carolingian Renaissance, the text of the Thebaid reached modernity without the recognition it once held. While classical scholars of the 19th and early 20th century criticised the poem for a perceived lack of originality and taste, a resurgence of critical interest has since brought it closer to the centre of the literary canon.
Synopsis
Preparations for war Book 1: The Thebaid begins with a view of Oedipus, the former king of Thebes, who has gouged out his eyes and relinquished his kingdom after learning that he had killed his father Laius and committed incest with his mother Jocasta. He places a curse on his sons, Eteocles and Polynices, who had turned on him because of his transgressions. The fury Tisiphone is sent to Thebes in order to sow discord among the brothers. In the city, Eteocles and Polynices strike a pact, stipulating that rule of the city would alternate between them on an annual basis while the other spent a year in exile. Eteocles is granted the first term as king.
A council of the gods takes place, at which Jupiter decides that he will involve the cities of Thebes and Argos in a war against each other. Following the agreement with his brother, Polynices is exiled and wanders through Greece. In the midst of a violent storm, he seeks refuge at the palace of Adrastus, king of Argos. At the palace's threshold, he gets into a heated argument with Tydeus, an exiled prince from Calydon. Their fight is broken up by Adrastus who invites them into his palace.
At a feast in honour of the god Apollo, Adrastus suggests that the two exiles marry his young daughters. He also explains that the feast commemorates a legend from his city's history: After Apollo defeated the serpent Python, he went to King Crotopus of Argos to purify himself. There he fell in love with the king's daughter (nameless in the Thebaid, but called Psamathe by Callimachus)P.J. van den Broek, "The narrative of Adrastus in Statius' Thebaid as a case study of intratextual poetics" and impregnated the girl. She kept her pregnancy secret in fear of her father’s reaction and gave birth to a son (Linus according to other sources, but unnamed in the Thebaid), whom she entrusted to a herdsman to be raised. In an unguarded moment, wild dogs devoured the infant. Hearing this, the princess confessed her plight to her father who punished her by death. Apollo then created a child-devouring monster and sent it to punish the people of the kingdom. The young hero Coroebus, not wanting the disaster to continue, killed the monster. Even more angered by this, Apollo sent a plague onto Argos. Seeing this Coroebus went to the god’s newly erected sanctuary in Delphi and confronted him, expressing his will to offer his own life to save his hometown from the god’s wrath. Moved by this, the god decided to spare both Coroebus and his city. Thereafter, the Argives annually celebrated a festival in Apollo's honor.
Book 2: Argia and Deipyle, Adrastus' daughters, marry Polynices and Tydeus respectively. Their father thus concludes a military alliance with his sons-in-law. The wedding ceremony is marred by ill omens caused by Argia's wearing of the Necklace of Harmonia, a cursed object first worn by Harmonia, the wife of Thebes' mythical founder Cadmus. Polynices dreams of recovering his throne and asks his new allies for their support. Short of going to war, Tydeus is sent on an embassy to Thebes.
Eteocles is visited by the ghost of his grandfather Laius who warns him about his brother's intentions. Thus instructed, he rejects the Argive embassy and sends a group of 50 warriors to ambush Tydeus on his way home; in the ensuing battle, Tydeus single-handedly kills all but one Theban soldier. Maeon, the only survivor, returns to the palace.
Book 3: Maeon accuses Eteocles of causing the death of dozens of Thebans. He kills himself in anticipation of the king's punishment.
Jupiter instructs Mars to incite the citizens of Argos to war. Upon Tydeus' arrival, Adrastus remains reluctant to go to war against Thebes. After several days, he bows to his allies' pressure and lets his seers Amphiaraus and Melampus find out whether a war is sanctioned by the gods.
Book 4: Though the omens presage a terrible defeat, it is decided that Argos should march against Thebes. Both sides begin to prepare for war. At Argos, seven princes assemble their forces: Polynices, Adrastus, Tydeus, Amphiaraus, Capaneus, Hippomedon, and Parthenopaeus. At Thebes, panic breaks out at the news that an Argive army is preparing. Eteocles orders the seer Tiresias to consult the gods. In a necromantic ritual, he predicts a horrific war with a good outcome for Thebes.
Nemea As the Argives pass through Nemea on their way to Thebes, they are spotted by the god Bacchus who harbours sympathies for the Thebans. To prevent the army's arrival, he withdraws all water from the area. The Argives are struck by a parching thirst but they are saved by a young woman named Hypsipyle who shows them the way to a nearby stream. After they drink from the muddy river, Hypsipyle reveals that she is the daughter of Thoas, the former king of the island of Lemnos.
Book 5: In a narrative taking up the fifth book almost in its entirety, the princess Hypsipyle tells the story of how she came to Nemea: the women of Lemnos had disrespected the goddess Venus who, in return, had inspired their husbands to embark on a military campaign against Thrace. In the men's absence, the women had fallen into a frenzy and conspired to kill all male children on the island. When the Lemnian men returned, they too were murdered by their wives. Only Hypsipyle was unaffected by the women's condition and had guided her father Thoas to safety in a chest. She then became queen of Lemnos.
After a while, the Argonauts had passed by Lemnos on their way back from Colchis. Although the women had tried to prevent them from disembarking, the Argonauts had invaded the island and, in a mass rape, fathered a new population of Lemnians. Hypsipyle was raped by their leader, Jason, and gave birth to two sons. In spite of their offspring, the Argonauts decided to leave the island. When rumour of Thoas' survival reached the island, Hypsipyle was forced to flee. Apprehended by pirates, the princess had been sold to Lycurgus, king of Nemea who made her a nurse to his infant son Opheltes.
While Hypsipyle is talking to the Argives, Opheltes is sleeping unwatched. A large serpent sacred to Jupiter grazes the child with its scales and kills him. The Argive princes attack the serpent in order to avenge the child's death; Capaneus succeeds in killing it and thereby incurs the enmity of Jupiter. Opheltes' parents, Lycurgus and his wife Eurydice, accuse Hypsipyle of neglecting their son. Keen to protect their saviour, the Argives initiate a commotion at Lycurgus' palace, from which Hypsipyle is saved by her sons Thoas and Euneus who had arrived in search of their lost mother.
Book 6: The next day, the Argive princes congregate at the palace to attend the funeral of Opheltes. An ancient grove is felled to provide the building material for a sumptuous pyre. After the child's body is cremated, they erect a temple to mark the spot. Following a common epic tradition, the Argives suggest the inauguration of funerary games in honour of the dead boy. The games are contested by the Argive army and act as an origin myth of the Nemean Games which were celebrated in antiquity.
War at Thebes Book 7: Angry at the Nemean delay, Jupiter sends Mars to incite the Argives to continue their march. Against the opposition of Bacchus, the Argive army makes its way to Thebes. Meanwhile, the Thebans muster their own army while Antigone, the warring brothers' sister, looks down from the city walls. In a narrative device known as teichoscopy, an old servant instructs her about all notable warriors involved in the Theban host.
In the night after the Argives arrive at Thebes, Jocasta visits their camp hoping to serve as a mediator between her sons. However, Tydeus turns her down and brusquely sends her back to the city. The Argives proceed to kill the tigers of Bacchus, a sacrilege over which their first confrontation with the Thebans breaks out. Amphiaraus, aided by his patron Apollo, kills dozens of enemies in a frenzy until a large chasm opens up and absorbs him into the underworld. He is the first of the seven princes to die.
Book 8: Disturbed by the news of his death, the Argives negotiate a brief truce. They spend the night mourning their loss while the Thebans celebrate a victory. On the morning of the next day, Thiodamas is appointed to replace the dead seer. Upon his accession, he conducts an elaborate ritual to the gods. Slaughter ensues on the second day of battle. Tydeus fights the Theban prince Haemon. Victorious, he goes on a rampage and kills swathes of Theban soldiers, among them Atys, the fiancé of Polynices' sister Ismene. When he sets his sights on Eteocles, Tydeus is intercepted by the Theban hero Melanippus, whom Tydeus slays, but not before receiving a mortal wound. Driven beyond sanity by hatred toward the man who fatally wounded him and the pain of dying, Tydeus cracks open Melanipus's skull and devours his brains.
Book 9: Both sides are horror-struck by Tydeus' horrific act and attempt to take possession of his body. Hippomedon fights against a whole host of Thebans to retain the corpse but is tricked by Tisiphone into abandoning the scene. He goes on to fight in the bed of the river Ismenus but makes the mistake of killing the river god's grandson Crenaeus. So provoked, the river joins the battle and drowns Hippomedon. Atalanta, Parthenopaeus' mother, has a vision of her son's death in a dream. The goddess Diana seeks to intervene on her behalf but is told by Apollo that the youth cannot be saved. Parthenopaeus is granted one last killing spree before he is killed by Dryas.
Book 10: At Argos, a group of women pray to Juno to come to their army's help. The goddess sends her messenger Iris to the cave of sleep where she ask Sleep himself to intervene. He obliges and casts deep sleep onto the Theban army. Led by Thiodamas, a band of Argives invades the Theban siege camp and commits a massacre. Two youths, Dymas and Hopleus, attempt to retrieve the bodies of Tydeus and Parthenopaeus. Apprehended by the Thebans, they die on top of the bodies they sought to steal.