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The Arms of Capaneus: Statius, Thebaid 4.165–77*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

S. J. Harrison
S. J. Harrison
Affiliation:
Corpus Christi College, Oxford
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Extract

The lack of a separate commentary on the fourth book of Statius' Thebaid has meant that many significant details in this description of Capaneus in the catalogue of the Seven have gone unremarked. This article aims to fill the deficiency, pointing out the rich literary allusions, artful symbolism and the careful use of language in this well written passage.

Type
Articles
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , May 1992 , pp. 247 - 252
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1992

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References

1 Some good hints are to be found in Vessey, D., Statius and the Thebaid (Cambridge, 1973), pp. 200, 204Google Scholar, and especially in Klinnert, Th., Capaneus–Hippomedon: Interpretationen zur Heldendarstellung in der Thebais des P. Papinius Statius (Diss. Berlin, 1970), pp. 22–8.Google Scholar

2 That Capaneus appeared in the Cyclic Thebais is assumed by most modern scholars – cf. Davies, M., The Epic Cycle (Bristol, 1989), p. 27.Google Scholar

3 Cf. G. O. Hutchinson's commentary ad loc.

4 Cf. Hutchinson on 422–56.

5 Cf. Fraenkel, E., SBAW (1963), 53–63Google Scholar, who athetises the lines, and Mastronade, D., Phoenix 32 (1978), 105–20Google Scholar, who is less sure of their non-authenticity.

6 Plato, Rep. 378d; cf. also Plut. Mor. 19e.

7 Cf. Phoen. 180–1, where the Paidagogos reports Capaneus' sizing-up of the walls of Thebes.

8 Some of the links with this Vergilian passage are pointed out by Klinnert, op. cit. (n. 1), p. 27 n. 56.

9 Cf. Hardie, P. R., Virgil's Aeneid: Cosmos and Imperium (Oxford, 1986), pp. 118–19.Google Scholar

10 Cf. Small, S. G. P., TAPA 90 (1959), 249–51.Google Scholar

11 This point is noted by Vessey, op. cit. (n. 1), p. 204.

12 Cf. Vessey, op. cit. (n. 1), pp. 188–9.

13 Cf. Klinnert, op. cit. (n. 1), p. 27.

14 Gellius 2.6.23, Nonius, p. 725.18ff. Lindsay, Macrobius 6.7.17–18.

15 The serpent which kills Opheltes/Archemorus in Thebaid 6 also has an Ovidian model: cf. Legras, L., Etude sur la Thébaïde de Stace (Paris, 1905), pp. 72–3.Google Scholar

16 So the ancient commentary on the Thebaid, ascribed to Lactantius: ‘ita veritatem expressit pictura, ut paene recenti obitu Hydra cum suis serpentibus interiret.’

17 Cf. Nisbet and Hubbard on Horace, Odes 1.37.25.

18 Aen. 2.475, Georg. 3.439, Silius 6.223.

19 Housman, A. E., CQ 27 (1933), 7CrossRefGoogle Scholar (= Classical Papers, ii.1203–4).

20 Diodorus 4.11.5, Apollodorus, Bibl. 2.5.2.

21 Ignescit, the reading of ω, is clearly inappropriate here; P's nigrescit is much to be preferred –cf. Klinnert, op. cit. (n. 1), pp. 24–5.

22 The references for these conjectures may conveniently be found in Th. Klinnert's revision of A. Klotz's Teubner edition of the Thebaid (Leipzig, 1973), pp. lxxii–v and 605.Google Scholar

23 Cf. Klinnert, op. cit. (n. 1), p. 23: ‘Unklarheit herrscht beim Verständnis von conditur.’

24 Håkanson, L., Statius' Thebaid: Critical and Exegetical Remarks (Lund, 1973), p. 22.Google Scholar

25 For ‘caeruleus’ of the Underworld and objects associated with it cf. further TLL 3.106.74ff.; for ‘caeruleus’ of rivers cf. Thebaid 1.38 ‘caerula Dirce’, TLL 3.104.40ff.

26 This echo is perhaps rendered more likely by Statius' clear use of Seneca's Oedipus elsewhere–cf. Vessey, op. cit. (n. 1), p. 252.

27 Cf. e.g. Silvae 3.5.76–7 ‘magnae tractus imitantia Romae/…moenia’, Lucan 2.630 ‘immensis tractibus Alpes’.

28 For ‘nexilis’ cf. Lucretius 5.1350 ‘nexilis ante fuit vestis quam textile tegmen’;‘subtegmen’ is a technical term in weaving – cf. OLD s.v.

29 ‘Lactantius’ ad loc.: ‘quasi imbellibus illa conveniant, quae a femina fabricantur, ut Vergilius “et tunicam molli mater quam neverat auro”.’ Statius imitates this Vergilian passage again at Theb. 9.691–2 ‘hoc neverat unum/matris opus’.

30 Iliad 16.141–2 τò μν οὐ δύνατ᾿ ἂλλος ' Αχαιιν|πλλειν, λλ μιν οἶος πίστατο πλαι Άχιλλεύς.

31 Cf. Aeneid 3.659 (Polyphemus) ‘trunca manum pinus regit’, 10.766 (Orion) ‘referens annosam montibus ornum’. In Capaneus' case, the fact that the cypress is a sacred tree makes its wielding particularly hybristic – cf. Klinnert, op. cit. (n. 1), p. 26.

32 So R. D. Williams in his commentary ad loc. For this pastoral aspect of Camilla cf. further Brill, A., Die Gestalt der Camilla bei Vergil (Diss. Heidelberg, 1972), pp. 27–8.Google Scholar

33 Cf. Klinnert, op. cit. (n. 1), p. 28, Thebaid 4.460–1 ‘cupressus/…plorata’, H. W. Fortgens on Thebaid 6.54, Nisbet and Hubbard on Horace, Odes 2.14.22.