The Aesthetics of Bathos in Early Imperial Latin Literature

Due to the resurgence of interest in aesthetics, scholars now appreciate the sophisticated ways aesthetic experience is drawn upon in Greco-Roman literature (Telò 2020, Martindale 2004, Bartsch 1997). A major focus of such criticism has been how ancient literature evokes the sublime (Lagière 2018, Porter 2016, Day 2013). While this focus is understandable, numerous other aesthetic sensibilities were important to ancient audiences. In this paper, I argue for the importance of bathos in Early Imperial Latin literature with a focus on Statius’ poetry. The paper is divided into two parts. First, I distill a theoretical framework for bathos from ancient literary critics. Second, I analyze two episodes from Statius’ Thebaid to argue that bathos, which transgresses the subtle intersection of decorum and genre, is a key component of his literary repertoire and legacy. 

To begin, I argue that Pseudo-Longinus’ extensive theorization of the sublime assumes and forms a coherent system of concepts that can be understood as an anti-sublime. I  this conception through consideration of several scenes that Pseudo-Longinus discusses as not sublime: Hesiod’s revolting image of Gloom (Longin. 9.5), Homer’s absurd suitor slaying scene in Odyssey (9.14.2), and the implausibility of Odyssey’s raft ride in Odyssey (9.14.5). What emerges from my analysis is a set of tenets that focus on the mundanity of the body, disgust, and absurdity, all of which threaten to overwhelm the sublime experience at any moment. A challenge for critics working on the sublime in Latin literature is imprecise translations of Pseudo-Longinus’ terminology from Greek into Latin. Accordingly, I build on Llewelyn Morgan’s discussion of ancient criticism of Ovidian decorum and suggest, relying on Quintilian (Inst. 10.1.88 and 98) and Seneca (NQ. 3.27.13), that two critical terms for bathos in Latin are inanis and puerilis (Morgan 2003).

In the second part of the paper, I turn to Statius’ Thebaid to illustrate ancient bathos at work. The first episode I analyze is Venus’ confrontation of Mars immediately following Jupiter’s declaration of the Theban War (Stat. Theb. 3.260-323). I argue that Statius’ well-known allegorization of the gods is a point of tension for the poem’s gravitas (Feeney 1991). The physical manifestations of love and war are incompatible as allegorical beings yet must nonetheless interact in Statius’ mythic universe. What results is Mars unintentionally injuring Venus, a bathetic moment related to the anti-sublime impulse in giving the divine anthropomorphised forms. The second episode I investigate is Amphiaraus’ descent into the Underworld (Stat. Theb 8.1-126). Statius evokes the Pseudo-Longinian sublime as he describes the earth’s chasm, but diffuses it through a focus on Amphiaraus’ body. As he falls to the Underworld, all, including Pluto, are terrified because Amphiaraus still has his living body. I argue that the scene’s bathos depends on Amphiaraus’ mundane corporeality. I close by reflection on the implications of Statius’ reliance on bathos for epic’s generic decorum and for his poetic program.