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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 October 2022
This article explores the intertextual connection between Eteocles’ dream in Statius’ Thebaid Book 2 and the brief reference to his ambiguous dream at Aesch. Sept. 710−11. In Aeschylus’ play, Eteocles understands the true meaning of the dream belatedly, as he is about to enter into a duel with his brother Polynices. The article argues that the ambiguous character of the Aeschylean dream forms the basis of the dream in Statius, and that the poet develops the scene further through elements of epic dream sequences that align his narrative with the epic tradition. However, Statius emphasizes even more the ambiguity of Eteocles’ dream to highlight the tragic nature of his character. Following ancient dream theorists, the discussion shows next that the obscurity of the dream in the Thebaid can be understood as the product of the fusion of different dream classes, which are evoked in the description of the dream in Statius. The proposed interpretation suggests that, on the basis of their personal experience of dreams and their familiarity with popular dream theories, Statius’ readers would have been able to perceive the irony between Laius’ message and Jupiter's true intentions, all of which enhance Eteocles’ tragic character.
For the text of the Thebaid I follow D.E. Hill, P. Papinii Statii Thebaidos libri XII (Leiden, 1983), for Artemidorus R.A. Pack, Artemidori Daldiani Onirocriticon libri V (Leipzig, 1963), and for Macrobius’ In Somnium Scipionis F. Eyssenhardt, Macrobius (Leipzig, 1868).
1 Jupiter, who has grown weary of human transgressions (1.214−23), decides to make an example out of Argos and Thebes for their inclination to crime and evil (1.227−47) by destroying their royal houses (1.224−6). As he decrees in 1.241−3, noua sontibus arma | iniciam regnis, totumque a stirpe reuellam | exitiale genus. Hill, D.E., ‘Jupiter in Thebaid 1 again’, in Smolenaars, J.J.L., van Dam, H.J., Nauta, R.R. (edd.), The Poetry of Statius (Leiden and Boston, 2008), 129−42, at 140Google Scholar and Criado, C., ‘The contradictions of Valerius’ and Statius’ Jupiter: power and weakness of the supreme god in the epic and tragic tradition’, in Manuwald, G. and Voigt, A. (edd.), Flavian Epic Interactions (Berlin and Boston, 2013), 195−214Google Scholar, at 197 argue that Jupiter's intention is to punish only Eteocles and Polynices for mistreating Oedipus, and not to exact retribution for the crimes of the whole gens. For Jupiter's depiction as an unjust and authoritative monarch, and for the outline of his cruel plan, see Dominik, W., The Mythic Voice of Statius: Power and Politics in the Thebaid (Leiden and New York, 1994), 7−15CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Ahl, F.M., ‘Lucan and Statius’, in Luce, T.J. (ed.), Ancient Writers: Greece and Rome (New York, 1982), 2.917−41Google Scholar, at 2.930, Ahl, F.M., ‘Statius’ Thebaid: a reconsideration’, ANRW 2.32.5 (1986), 2803−912, at 2845Google Scholar and Feeney, D., The Gods in Epic: Poets and Critics of the Classical Tradition (Oxford and New York, 1991), 355Google Scholar have vigorously questioned the chief god's moral role in the poem. For a more favourable approach to Jupiter's sketching, see Gossage, A.J., ‘Statius’, in Dudley, D.R. (ed.), Neronians and Flavians: Silver Latin I (London and Boston, 1972), 184–235Google Scholar, at 195, Vessey, D., Statius & the Thebaid (Cambridge, 1973), 90Google Scholar and d'Espèrey, S. Franchet, ‘Le destin dans les épopées de Lucain et de Stace’, in François, J. (ed.), Visages du destin dans les mythologies: Mélanges Jacqueline Duchemin (Paris, 1983), 95−104, at 102Google Scholar.
2 The Theban Cycle served as a thematic source for numerous works, most notably epic, tragic and lyric poems. For the authorship, plot and various comments on the surviving fragments of the epic poems Oedipodeia, Thebais, Epigoni and Alcmaeonis, see Davies, M., The Theban Epics (Washington, 2015)Google Scholar. Theban-related plays were very popular in Athenian drama (see H.C. Baldry, ‘The dramatization of the Theban legend’, G&R 3 [1956], 24−37): (1) Aeschylus’ Seven against Thebes, the unpreserved Laius and Oedipus and the lost satyr play Sphinx; (2) Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, Antigone and Oedipus at Colonus; (3) Euripides’ Phoenician Women, the Suppliants, the lost Alcmaeon in Psofis and Antigone; (4) many unpreserved plays by minor poets (see TGF vol. 1, passim). The Theban legend or parts of it are treated in the lyric poems of Pindar (Ol. 2.35−45) and in Stesichorus’ Eriphyle (see M. Noussia-Fantuzzi, ‘The Epic Cycle, Stesichorus and Ibycus’, in M. Fantuzzi and C. Tsagalis [edd.], The Cambridge Companion to the Cyclic Epic [Cambridge and New York, 2015], 365−82) and Thebais (see J.M. Bremer, A.M. van Erp Taalman Kip, S.R. Slings [edd.], Some Recently Found Greek Poems: Text and Commentary [Leiden and New York, 1987], 128−72). The woes of the house of Laius are a theme also in Seneca's Oedipus and Phoenissae.
3 K. Gervais, Statius, Thebaid 2 (Oxford, 2017), xxxiii–xlvi discusses Statius’ debt to earlier poets, offering a summary of the rich intertexts for the opening scene of the second book, ranging from Homer and Virgil to Ovid, Lucan and Seneca.
4 Gervais (n. 3), xxxv. For the role of irony in the Thebaid, see Micozzi, L., ‘Statius’ epic poetry: a challenge to the literary past’, in Dominik, W.J., Newlands, C.F. and Gervais, K. (edd.), Brill's Companion to Statius (Leiden and Boston, 2015), 325−42Google Scholar, at 329.
5 For an informed discussion on these issues, see P.J. Davis, ‘The fabric of history in Statius’ Thebaid’, in C. Deroux (ed.), Studies in Latin Literature and Roman History 7 (Brussels, 1994), 464–83; d'Espèrey, S. Franchet, ‘La causalité dans le chant I de la Thébaïde de Stace. Ou commence la Thébaïde?’, REL 79 (2001), 188–200Google Scholar, focussing particularly on Oedipus; Franchet d'Esperey (n. 1); Bernstein, N.W., In the Image of the Ancestors: Narratives of Kinship in Flavian Epic (Toronto and Buffalo, 2008), 64−104CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
6 R. Parkes, ‘Finding the tragic in the epics of Statius’, in S. Papaioannou and A. Marinis (edd.), Elements of Tragedy in Flavian Epic (Berlin, 2021), 107−28, at 121.
7 Legras, L., Étude sur la Thébaïde de Stace (Paris, 1905), 39Google Scholar mentions Aesch. Sept. 710−11 as an intertext, but traces both the Aeschylean and the Statian dreams back to the cyclic epic Thebais. For the Thebaid's intertextual relationship with Greek tragedy, see J.M. Hulls, ‘Greek author, Greek past: Statius, Athens, and the tragic self’, in A. Augoustakis (ed.), Flavian Poetry and its Greek Past (Leiden and Boston, 2014), 193−213, Marinis, A., ‘Statius’ Thebaid and Greek tragedy: the legacy of Thebes’, in Dominik, W.J., Newlands, C.F. and Gervais, K. (edd.), Brill's Companion to Statius (Leiden and Boston, 2015), 343–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar and P.J. Heslin, ‘Statius and the Greek tragedians on Athens, Thebes and Rome’, in J.J.L. Smolenaars, H.J. van Dam, R.R. Nauta (edd.), The Poetry of Statius (Leiden and Boston, 2008), 111−28. Numerous studies on the influence of specific Greek poets on individual scenes and characters of the Thebaid have also been published: for Euripides’ influence on the Hypsipyle episode, see G. Aricὸ, ‘Stazio e l’ Ipsipile euripidea: note sull’ imitazione staziana’, Dioniso 35 (1961), 56−67 and R.M. Iglesias and M.C. Álvarez, ‘El treno de Hipsípila en la Tebaida de Estacio’, in J.F. González Castro, A. Alvar Ezquerra, A. Bernabé et al. (edd.), Actas del XI congreso español de estudios clásicos (Madrid, 2005), 2.895−902; for the description of Adrastus’ and Hippomedon's shields in Eur. Phoen. 1113−18 as a model for Capaneus’ shield in Theb. 4.165−72, see Fernandelli, M., ‘Statius’ Thebaid 4.165−72 and Euripides’ Phoenissae 1113−18’, SO 75 (2000), 89−98CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For the different versions of the story of Jocasta's suicide in Greek and Roman drama, and in the Thebaid, see Smolenaars, J.J.L., ‘Statius Thebaid 1.72: is Jocasta dead or alive? The tradition of Jocasta's suicide in Greek and Roman drama and in Statius’ Thebaid’, in Smolenaars, J.J.L., van Dam, H.J., Nauta, R.R. (edd.), The Poetry of Statius (Leiden and Boston, 2008), 215−38Google Scholar.
8 For the dream of Eteocles in Aeschylus, and its probable content, see Hutchinson, G.O., Aeschylus, Septem contra Thebas (Oxford, 1985), xxviiGoogle Scholar; Burnett, A., ‘Curse and dream in Aeschylus’ Septem’, GRBS 14 (1973), 343−68Google Scholar, at 351−61; Torrance, I., Aeschylus: Seven against Thebes (London, 2007), 12−13 and 62Google Scholar.
9 Burnett (n. 8), 357.
10 Manton, G.R., ‘The second stasimon of the Seven Against Thebes’, BICS 8 (1961), 77−84Google Scholar, at 79 makes this important observation.
11 Manton (n. 10), 79; Torrance (n. 8), 62 also adopts Manton's view on the dream's content.
12 Manton (n. 10), 79 has suggested that the dream might have been experienced by Jocasta. Although this is possible, I am more inclined to accept that Eteocles was the one who dreamt of the division of the paternal wealth, in the absence of any evidence supporting Manton's suggestion.
13 The Homeric epics establish many of the patterns found in subsequent poets. For an exhaustive catalogue of the motifs from Homer to Lucan, see Walde, C., Die Traumdarstellungen in der griechisch-römischen Dichtung (Munich, 2001), 439−56Google Scholar.
14 For the function of epic dreams within the narrative, see Walde (n. 13).
15 Gervais (n. 3), 97−8 lists a number of epic intertexts, including Agamemnon's dream in the Iliad and Allecto's epiphany to Turnus in the Aeneid.
16 Ahl (n. 1 [1986]), 2843.
17 Hershkowitz, D., The Madness of Epic. Reading Insanity from Homer to Statius (Oxford, 1998), 60Google Scholar.
18 My discussion on the similarities between the dream in Thebaid Book 2 and earlier epic poems is greatly indebted to A. Khoo, ‘Dream scenes in ancient epic’, in C. Reitz and S. Finkmann (edd.), Structures of Epic Poetry. Vol. II.2: Configuration (Boston, 2019), 563−95.
19 Gervais (n. 3), 108.
20 Khoo (n. 18), 584, and 585−6 for a brief analysis of the elements differentiating Eteocles’ dream from the earlier epic tradition.
21 ‘Inconsistency’ as an element in Statius’ epic has been noted in C. Reitz, ‘Vocem fata sequuntur: Entscheidungsfindung und epische Konvention in der flavischen Epik’, in T. Baier (ed.), Götter und menschliche Willensfreiheit. Von Lucan bis Silius Italicus (Munich, 2012), 29−42, at 37−8 and in C. Criado, ‘La inevitable inconsistencia del Zeus/Júpiter épico’, CFC(L) 35 (2015), 263−77, at 265−8. For Eteocles’ tragic nature in the epic, see A. Marinis, ‘Eteocles and Polynices in Statius’ Thebaid: revisiting the issue of tragic causality’, in S. Papaioannou and A. Marinis (edd.), Elements of Tragedy in Flavian Epic (Berlin, 2021), 149−69.
22 As soon as Eteocles awakens, he is not iners any more. For the importance of the word in the vocabulary of sleep and for dreaming in the Thebaid, see A. Sacerdoti, Tremefacta quies. Spazi di transito nella Tebaide di Stazio e nei Punica di Silio Italico (Naples, 2019), 36−7.
23 Most of the evidence on dream divination in the Graeco-Roman world comes from Artemidorus’ second-century c.e. treatise, the Oneirocritica. Although written much later than Statius’ Thebaid, we can assume that dream theories were widely circulating in Imperial times. As the author claims at the beginning of the book, his writings are based mostly on his personal experience (διὰ πείρας), but he also paid heed to the various diviners of his time, and studied meticulously earlier oneiromantic works (1.1 τοῖς τῶν παλαιῶν βιβλίοις … δι’ ἀρχαιότητα σπάνια ὄντα καὶ διεφθαρμένα). Furthermore, if we consider Gervais’s ([n. 3], 84) assumption that Statius was suffering from frequent bouts of insomnia (at least during the composition of Thebaid Book 2), perhaps we have another reason to believe that the poet would be particularly interested in dreams and sleep.
24 Vessey (n. 1), 235 followed by Gervais (n. 3), 98.
25 In Artemidorus’ five-volume treatise, the basic distinction is made between ὄνειροι and ἐνύπνια, that is, prophetic and non-prophetic dreams respectively (1.1 [3.13−15 Pack]). ὄνειροι are further divided into two subcategories based on whether their content appears in literal or in symbolic form: in θεωρηματικοὶ ὄνειροι the message is directly communicated to the dreamer (1.2 [4.23 Pack]), while in ἀλληγορικοὶ ὄνειροι the message is encrypted (1.2 [5.9−11 Pack]); therefore, the dream needs decoding. The taxonomy of ὄνειροι branches further as the θεωρηματικοί are subdivided into ὁράματα and χρηματισμοί (1.2 [6.16−17 Pack]). In the case of the ἐνύπνια, Artemidorus adds another class, the φαντάσματα, on which he does not elaborate further (1.2 [6.13–14 Pack]). He thus reaches a fivefold taxonomy consisting of the non-prophetic φάντασμα and ἐνύπνιον, and the prophetic ὅραμα, χρηματισμός and ὄνειρος. In his Commentary on the Dream of Scipio, Macrobius also distinguishes between five classes, and provides us with their Greek equivalents (In Somn. 1.3.2). The Greek terms are identical with those employed by Artemidorus: ὄνειρος = somnium, ὅραμα = uisio, χρηματισμός = oraculum, ἐνύπνιον = insomnium, φάντασμα = uisum. In the class of uisum/φάντασμα, Macrobius includes the ἐπιάλτης, an apparition which attacks people in their sleep, causing a feeling of pressure and burden (In Somn. 1.3.7). For a critical analysis of Artemidorus’ dream classes, see Harris-McCoy, D.E., Artemidorus’ Oneirocritica (Oxford, 2012), 414−24Google Scholar and Kessels, A.H.M., ‘Ancient systems of dream-classification’, Mnemosyne 4 (1969), 389−424, at 391−6Google Scholar.
26 Ahl (n. 1 [1986]), 2843: ‘To avoid appearing “a false vision of the night” − falsa … noctis imago (94−95), Laius assumes a false appearance, and thus becomes a false vision.’
27 Gervais (n. 3), 89 identifies this festival as the τριετηρίς, during which women dressed as maenads would engage in ‘ὀρειβασία (mountain dancing; still practiced in St.'s day [Plut. De prim. frig. 953d]; cf. 79f.) and σπαραγμός and ὠμοφαγία (dismembering and eating raw animal flesh; the practice found more in myth than actual ritual [OCD s.v. Dionysus]; cf. 83f.)’.
28 Gervais (n. 3), 91 argues that Laius’ appearance happens at dawn, not during the day, since such an interpretation does not disturb the chronological sequence and is further supported by lines 76−7 (the verb proflabant recalls Nisus and Euryalus’ episode, which takes place at night [Verg. Aen. 9.325−6]).
29 Gervais (n. 3), 96.
30 Coffee, N., ‘Eteocles, Polynices, and the economics of violence in Statius’ Thebaid’, AJPh 127 (2006), 415−52Google Scholar, at 436; Gervais (n. 3), 97.
31 Gervais (n. 3), 91 cites Ov. Her. 19.195−6 and claims that, since Eteocles’ dream is prophetic, dawn is the appropriate time for it. For the immoderate consumption of food and drink as a factor affecting the predictive power of dreams, see Harris-McCoy (n. 25), 430, who also includes in his discussion a list of primary sources.
32 The belief that reliable dreams are the result of eating in moderation before sleep was probably very old, dating back to Plato and the Pythagoreans (see Cic. Diu. 2.119).
33 Gervais (n. 3), 98.
34 R. Lesueur, Thébaïde (Paris, 1990), 1.128 n. 11: ‘… il révèle, sans raison particulière, sa veritable identité’.
35 Gervais (n. 3), 107 wonders exactly the same.
36 According to Gervais (n. 3), 98, this is the first instance of a person's ghost appearing in disguise.
37 This is further confirmed by Eteocles’ subsequent fantasies, specifically the fight with his absent brother. See Lagière, A., La Thébaïde de Stace et le sublime (Brussels, 2017), 126−8Google Scholar.