Thebaid

Upset at the ongoing delay, Jupiter sends Mercury to goad Mars into action, as Jupiter ordered him to start the war back in Book 3 (1-33). Fighting inclement weather, Mercury flies to the Barren Woods and the foreboding Shrine of Mars, where various personifications of human anguish haunt the grounds (34-63). Mars himself swings by in his terrifying chariot, driven by the minor war goddess Bellona, and terrifies Mercury, who delivers his message (64-81). “No longer delay”—Mars takes up Jupiter’s anger, while Jupiter himself calms down, since his will is enacted (81-9).

With the funeral of Opheltes and the funeral games finished, Adrastus pours his infant’s shade a final libation (90-104). Nearby Mars mobilizes the personification of Panic, who makes the surrounding plain of Nemea dusty and noisy, an illusion of approaching troops. The Argives are already fretting and war-hungry when Mars finishes the job with a terrifying call to arms (116-44).

Bacchus, disheveled with worry rather than his usual drunkenness, notices the Argive troops now nearing his beloved Thebes. He appeals to his father Jupiter on Thebes’s behalf, asking if he—and his mother, Jupiter’s ill-fated consort Semele—mean so little to him (145-67).