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Print Price: $300.00

Format:
Hardback
448 pp.
153 mm x 234 mm

ISBN-13:
9780198744702

Publication date:
April 2017

Imprint: OUP UK

Statius, Thebaid 2

Edited with an Introduction, Translation, and Commentary

Edited by Kyle Gervais

Composed towards the end of the first century CE, Statius' Thebaid relates the myth of the "Seven against Thebes": the assault of the seven champions of Argos on the ancient city in a bid to oust Eteocles, son of Oedipus, from his throne in favour of his brother, Polynices. Book 2 presents several key events in the build-up to the Theban war: Eteocles' haunting by the ghost of his grandfather Laius, the ill-omened weddings of Polynices and his ally Tydeus to the princesses of Argos, and Tydeus' failed embassy to Eteocles, leading to his famed victory over a Theban ambush.

This volume represents the first full-length scholarly commentary in English on Book 2 of the twelve-book Latin epic, greatly expanding on and updating Mulder's Latin language commentary published in 1954 by Groningen. An extensive introduction covers the poem's historical, textual, and literary contexts, with particular attention to Statius' adaptation of prior literary tradition and especially the epics of Homer, Virgil, Ovid, Lucan, Valerius Flaccus, and Silius Italicus. The Latin text, accompanied by a clear translation and apparatus criticus, is newly edited to take advantage of the recent detailed editorial work on the poem by Hall, Ritchie, and Edwards and is supplemented by a comprehensive and incisive line-by-line commentary which addresses a range of textual, linguistic, and literary topics. The result is a keenly focused yet accessible critical edition that will be of interest both to specialist scholars of Latin poetry and to advanced graduate students studying Flavian epic.

Readership : Scholars and students of Statius' Thebaid and Flavian epic, Latin poetry, and classical literature more generally.

Frontmatter
List of Abbreviations and Conventions
INTRODUCTION
1. Author
2. Text
a) Editing the Thebaid
b) Editing Thebaid 2
c) Textual differences
3. Intratexts
a) Myth, plot, structure
b) Book 1
c) Book 3
d) Book 8
4. Intertexts
a) Poetics
b) Allusive techniques
c) Greek and minor Latin texts
d) Aeneid
e) Metamorphoses
f) De Bello Civili
g) Senecan tragedy
h) Argonautica
i) Punica
j) Silvae, Achilleid, and later texts
SIGLA
P. PAPINI STATI THEBAIDOS LIBER SECVNDVS
TRANSLATION
COMMENTARY
Endmatter
Bibliography
Indexes

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Kyle Gervais is Assistant Professor in the Department of Classical Studies at the University of Western Ontario, where he teaches courses in Latin language and literature. He is the author of various articles on Latin poetry and classics in popular culture, and is also a co-editor of Brill's Companion to Statius (Leiden, 2015).

Making Sense - Margot Northey and Joan McKibbin
Statius, Thebaid 4 - Dr. Ruth Parkes
Commentary on Silius Italicus, Punica 7 - R. Joy Littlewood

Special Features

Represents the first full-length English language commentary on Book 2 of Statius' Thebaid.
Juxtaposes the newly edited full Latin text with an accessible translation and extensive contextualizing introduction.
Provides comprehensive detail and a combined textual and literary focus in both introduction and incisive line-by-line commentary.
Expands greatly on Mulder's 1954 Latin language commentary to offer an up-to-date resource for both specialist scholars and advanced students.