Thebaid

Mercury, on orders from Jupiter, leads the ghost of Laius up out of the Underworld. Statius describes Mercury and Laius’s ascent up the path of Taenaros, leaving behind the “shrieking and groans of the guilty—the countryside swarms with a dark / congregation” (51-2). When they arrive at Thebes, Laius sees the bloody spoils of his defeat by Oedipus and wants to leave (65-70). The Thebans are holding a horrifying festival in honor of the birth of Bacchus, whose mother, Semele, lived there (71-88).

Mercury brings the ghost of Laius to the sleeping Eteocles. Laius takes on the appearance of the famous Theban seer Tiresias and, as commanded by Jupiter, urges him to war with Polynices. He chides Eteocles for his sleepy inaction and tells him of Polynices’ politically advantageous marriage in Argos, as well as his new ally, the fierce Tydeus. With dawn approaching, Laius abandons his disguise and reveals himself to be Eteocles’s grandfather. Bearing the wound in his throat from Oedipus, he floods the dream with blood (89-124). Eteocles thrashes awake screaming with horror and anger at his brother; Statius compares him to a tigress (125-33).

An ornate metaphor for sunrise follows: the dawn goddess Aurora flees the pursuing Morning Star (134-40). In Argos, a nervous Adrastus tells Polynices and Tydeus that he is sure that Apollo and Fate guided them here to marry his daughters (152-72). Tydeus and Polynices share a glance; Tydeus speaks first. Heaping praises on Adrastus, he tells him they are more than happy to marry into his family. Polynices agrees (173-97). In exchange, Adrastus promises to help them both take back their thrones in their homelands (197-200).

The goddess Rumor spreads the news through the Argive countryside and all the way to Thebes, confirming Eteocles’ fears (201-13). At the opulent wedding, the brides Argia and Deipyle are frightened; “love of virginity stirred / one last time, and their faces flushed with bashful thoughts / of that first transgression” (231-4). Suddenly, the ceremony is interrupted. A bronze shield falls from the citadel’s temple to the virgin goddess Minerva, and a great trumpet is heard within. The wedding party pretends not to have heard the dire omen (251-64).

Statius tells us why it happened. One of the brides, Argia, is wearing Harmony’s necklace, a gift from her groom-to-be, Polynices (265-7). The necklace is a cursed heirloom of the Theban household. It all started when the blacksmith god Hephaestus discovered his wife, Venus, goddess of sexual desire, having an affair with the war god Mars. Hephaestus forged the necklace as a curse for their daughter, Harmony, who married Cadmus, the first king of Thebes. Since then, the necklace has quietly haunted the Theban royal house. Harmony was turned into a snake. Harmony’s daughter, Semele, mother of Bacchus, wore the necklace when she boasted to Juno of her affair with, leading to her horrific death. Oedipus’s mother and wife, Jocasta, once owned it, too (267-97). Now Argia is wearing it. Another woman, Eriphyle, the wife of the Argive seer Amphiaraus, is consumed with envy for the necklace (297-305).

After the wedding, Polynices turns to his thoughts to retaking Thebes. He recalls the shame and loneliness of being left unprotected and abandoned by his allies when he lost the throne; only one of his sisters (likely the compassionate Antigone) stood by his side. His wife Argia senses his mood and asks what he is plotting. She is not afraid for herself but for him. Rumor has it Eteocles is raring for a fight, and the omens look dire (332-52). Polynices comforts her, confident that Jupiter and Justice will support him. He leaves (353-63).

Meanwhile, Tydeus heads to Thebes as an envoy for Polynices. There he sees the tyrannical Eteocles, who is now ruling beyond his one-year term, complaining that Polynices has sent his request for the transfer of power late (387-8). The hot-headed Tydeus condemns him for his lie and tells him it is time to pack up and leave (389-409).

Eteocles highlights how vicious Tydeus’s manner is and how vicious Polynices must be as the originator of his message. He gives Tydeus this message for Polynices: I am keeping the throne of Thebes, you keep the riches and connections you have amassed in Argos. He is sure Argia will find the women of the Theban court dreary—e.g. his mother Jocasta and sister Antigone—and he thinks it a shame to subject the people “by now, schooled to [his] yoke, to constant fluxes in leadership (415-51).

Tydeus interrupts him, roaring that Eteocles must return the throne to Polynices. “Is this piety,” he asks, “this your fair word?” (462). He suggests Eteocles must be the one true son of Oedipus indeed, to commit such heinous crimes and attacks away through the unsuspecting guards. Statius compares his battle rage to the hero-killing Calydonian Boar he once slew. The mothers of Thebes curse him and, internally, their own king (451-81).

Without delay Eteocles reacts in kind, ordering his retinue to assassinate Tydeus, despite his being an envoy, a position usually under protection (482-95). They plan to ambush him in a nearby gorge, but Tydeus spots the glint of their shields in the trees before they can attack (483-535). They almost kill him, but he heaves a huge stone downhill, crushing many. He finishes off those who remain in violent hand-to-hand combat; Statius spares no gory detail (536-648). When one man begs mercy, Tydeus denies him (649-68). He would have tried to kill Eteocles right then and there, had not his patron deity Minerva, goddess of war and wisdom, intervened and called him off (682-89). Tydeus sends the sole survivor (Maeon) to Eteocles with a message to prepare for war and dedicates his spoils to Minerva. He promises her a temple back home in Calydon, should he and Polynices be victorious (690-743).

In Thebes, Eteocles is upset at the delay of the return of his men, alternating between fear and rage. Statius compares him to a sailor beset by a sudden storm (23-32). At daybreak, an earthquake hits, presaging the return of the sole survivor: Maeon (33-52). Maeon reports to Eteocles that the others are dead and that he did not survive because he begged for mercy; rather, “the Gods’ commands deprived me of my end” (67-8). To show how little he cares for his own life, he tells Eteocles that he has started an evil, lawless war that will cause great anger among his people (69-7). Before Eteocles and his guards can kill him, he commits suicide (83-91). When his kin try to take his corpse home, Eteocles forbids the body from being properly cremated. Statius addresses Maeon directly, praising his courage to “scorn kings outright and make sacred a way whereby / Freedom might come in full” (99-113).

Led by a personification of Grief, the Thebans mourn the dead (114-33). Statius concentrates especially on the mothers. Ide addresses the corpses of her twin sons who died in each other’s arms, believing barren women to be luckier than she (133-68). As they build funeral pyres, the elderly Aletes recounts other Theban tragic myths, saying few low moments compare to this day (e.g. the death of Semele, the death of the hunter Actaeon). Only Niobe, whose boasting resulted in the deaths of all her children, suffered something similar (191-98). He blames the carnage on Eteocles, whom he believes will pay the price (174-215).

In heaven, Jupiter summons Mars, the god of war, to goad Argos on to fight. He orders the other gods not to oppose this war, which is fated; “If you object to my making this generation pay / for crimes of old […] I swear / with my own hand I’ll shake Thebes off her foundations” (239-52). His orders stun them; “You’d think they had / mortal minds, the way they held their tongues and breath—hushed / as those days when the winds’ extended treaty lulls / the sea” (253-6).

Mars gleefully turns his chariot to Argos, but is stopped cold by Venus. She is shocked Mars could fight against Thebes, where their descendants live (remember that their daughter Harmony married Thebes’s first king, Cadmus) (260-90). Mars embraces her and while tells her that while he cares deeply for her, destiny and Jupiter’s plan must not be opposed. “How would I have the effrontery,” he asks, “to thwart Jove and flaunt the laws ordered by him?” (304-7). He claims he will assist their kin as he can and continues on.

Meanwhile, the wounded Tydeus has almost made it back to Argos. Throughout the Argive countryside he and the goddess Rumor spread the news: Eteocles tried to kill an envoy in a cowardly nighttime siege and refuses to yield the throne to Polynices (324-44). He crows for war in Adrastus’s court (345-364). Polynices leaps on the opportunity, claiming he will freely go to certain death to reclaim his homeland (and checking the crowd’s reaction—“he angles for favor,” 382). The Inachidae are ready to go to war but Adrastus voices his reluctance, believing Eteocles will not rule long (386-93).

For seven days Mars and personifications of strife—Anger, Rage, Rumor, etc.—spread hunger for war in the countryside (407-39). Adrastus wavers, equally fearful of commitment and inaction (440-9). He decides to consult the seers Amphiaraus and Melampus for advice. The two men first try haruspicy—studying the entrails of sacrificial victims—but when the omens there look bad, they turn to studying the flight of birds (auspicy). On Mount Aphesas, they ask Jupiter to send them a sign (460-96).

Neither man has ever seen such chaos in the sky. Vultures and hawks screech and fight. They notice a flock of swans, which they link to Thebes, as they seem to circle in a defensive formation (524-29). Seven eagles attack the swans. At first the eagles seem victorious, but each is killed horrifically in turn (530-47). Amphiaraus and Melampus regret ever looking at all; they hate the gods for revealing this catastrophe to them (549-51). In an aside, Statius wonders why mankind sought out prophecies and what good seeing the future has done them (551-65).

Neither seer reports the omens to the Argives. Amphiaraus returns to Inachus; in shame and fear, Melampus stays in the countryside as Jupiter’s command stirs all of Argos to war (575-97). Finally the war-mad Capaneus sieges Amphiaraus’s house, demanding the truth of the omen. Amphiaraus emerges, claiming that he is unafraid—he will not die at the hands of a mortal (foreshadowing his unusual death at the end of Book 7). Rather, his love of country drives him to now share how awful the omens are (620-47). Capaneus mocks him as an effeminate coward and warns Amphiaraus to keep out of his way. The crowd roars with approval (648-76).

Polynices’ wife Argia begs her father Adrastus to start the war. Polynices’ honor and happiness is on the line, so she begs for “this harsh and joyless / boon” (706-7). Adrastus tells her he is burdened by the difficulties of kingship and delays properly preparing for war (712-9).