Thebaid

The Thebaid is an epic poem composed by the Roman poet Statius between approximately the years 80 and 92 BCE. While details of the author’s life remain hazy, we know Statius was born around 45 BCE. His talent caught the eye of the emperor Domitian, who soon established Statius as a resident poet in his court. Statius’s productive years were largely spent there. In addition to the Thebaid, his Silvae were published in Rome in 93 BCE, to a disappointingly reception. Statius returned to Naples around 94 BCE, where he continued work on his Silvae and on a second, unfinished epic, the Achilleid, before his death somewhere around 96 BCE.

The Thebaid centers on the Greek city of Thebes. More specifically, it details the struggle between two claimants to the Theban throne, Polynices and Eteocles. They are the sons of the infamous Oedipus, whose generational blood guilt Statius extends from the boundaries of their family to the entire Greek world.

This guide refers to Jane Wilson Joyce’s 2008 translation of the Thebaid.

Plot Summary

Book 1 of the Thebaid opens with the former king of Thebes, the blind and wretched Oedipus, cursing his sons Eteocles and Polynices for their neglect. He calls on the Fury Tisiphone to wreak havoc in their kingdom, a goal shared by the god Jupiter in heaven, who wants to set Thebes and Argos in conflict to punish their royal families for their crimes. Before the epic started, Eteocles and Polynices had tentatively agreed that one brother would rule for a year while the other would be exiled, then they would switch. However, the arrangement was tenuous at best, and all too easy for Tisiphone (and Jupiter) to disrupt.

This year’s exile, Polynices, is driven by a storm to the Argive town of Inachus. There he meets King Adrastus and another hero, Tydeus of Calydon, who is also an exile. The three form an alliance, with Polynices and Tydeus marrying Adrastus’s daughters. Adrastus promises to assist his sons-in-law in retaking their homelands.

In Book 2, Tydeus approaches Eteocles in Thebes as an envoy to facilitate the transition of power. In an act of treachery, Eteocles refuses to abdicate and tries to kill him. Tydeus slaughters his attackers and limps back to Argos, where his story enrages Polynices and Adrastus. In Book 3, the Argives declare war and gather their forces. Adrastus, Polynices, and Tydeus are joined by four other heroes: the seer Amphiaraus, the impious Capaneus, the beautiful Parthenopaeus, and the noble Hippomedon. These seven heroes form the infamous “Seven Against Thebes.”

The Seven’s journey to Eteocles will not be easy. Thebes is sacred to the god Bacchus, who strikes the countryside with a horrible drought to slow their progress in Book 4. In desperate need of water, the Argives seek the help of the Hypsipyle, who was once a princess and is now enslaved. Most of Book 5 consists of Hypsipyle’s backstory. While Hypsipyle is distracted by the Argives, a giant snake kills her ward, the infant prince Opheltes. In honor of the child, in Book 6, the Argives hold an elaborate funeral and accompanying funeral games, an origin myth for the panhellenic Nemean Games.

After the halfway point, the bloody fight between Argos and Thebes begins in Book 7, which is capped off by a spectacular scene: the seer Amphiaraus, one of the Seven, is dragged into hell while still alive. His colleagues will not fare much better. In Book 8, the once heroic Tydeus is driven mad and dies gnawing on the skull of his enemy. In Book 9, Hippomedon and the young Parthenopaeus, attempting to protect his body, are killed by the Thebans as well. However, the Argives strike back in Book 10. A night raid allows them to slaughter hundreds of Thebans as they sleep. Losses are heavy on both sides. Finally, in Book 11, Polynices and Eteocles meet in a climactic battle—they die killing each other, and Adrastus and his army flee back to Argos.

One of Eteocles’s courtiers, Creon, takes the throne of Thebes. In rage and sorrow over the suicide of his son Menoeceus in Book 10, he refuses to allow the Argive dead to be buried. The wives of many of the Seven leave the safety of Argos to try to care for their husbands’ corpses. Polynices’ wife Argia joins his sister, Antigone, in breaking the law to honor Polynices’ body. In the meantime, the others petition the Athenian hero Theseus to help them set things right. Theseus agrees and invades Thebes. The Thebans, exhausted at this point, can barely put up a fight. Theseus kills Creon in single combat, allowing the Argive dead proper burials. Statius ends with a brief epilogue hoping his poem will be successful but not more so than its inspiration, Virgil’s Aeneid.