Incest Exposed: Oedipus’ Programmatic Speech in Statius’ Thebaid
By Georgia Ferentinou, University of Toronto
The proem of Statius' Thebaid establishes Oedipus and his incestuous family (1.17: Oedipodae confusa domus) at the center of the epic narrative. The beginning of the narrative proper introduces Oedipus himself who enters the epic to deliver a prayer-cum-autobiography addressed to Tisiphone (1.56-87). In this paper, I shall explore the incestuous undertones of the Theban's programmatic speech as seen through his recapitulation of the mythic past as well as his construction of his relationship to the Fury.
From Ships to Nymphs: Cybele’s Maternal Metamorphosis in Aen. 7.77-122 and Met. 14.530-65
By Lien van Geel, Columbia University
The focus of this talk is, according to Williams 1973, “the most incongruous episode in the whole Aeneid,” otherwise known as Aeneid 9.77-122—the mystical moment when Cybele causes Aeneas’ burning fleet to be transformed into naiads. Schenk 1984, O’Hara 1990: 74-8, Glei 1991: 204-6, Papaioannou 2002: 35-7; 40-3 interpret this episode as a manifestation of the Trojans’ divine favour, their finished wanderings, and as representative reflections of Turnus’ hybris and Aeneas’ pietas.
The Counternarratives of Composite Bodies: Moments of Disrupted Monstrosity in Post-Vergilian Latin Epic
By Kathleen Cruz, University of California, Davis
Scholars have well appreciated imperial Latin literature's interest in the monstrous and grotesque. This includes its centralization of evocative descriptions of both transgressed or transformed mortal bodies as well as non-human creatures whose bodily multiplicity seems pointedly designed to evoke fear and disgust (for recent sustained studies, see Lowe 2015, Backhaus 2019, McClellan 2019, and Estèves 2020). In this paper, however, I consider how post-Vergilian Latin epic at times offers a different understanding of bodies traditionally conceived of as monstrous.
Virtue’s Claim to Fame in Statius’ Version of Menoeceus’ Sacrifice (Stat. Theb. 10.610-679)
By Melissande Tomcik, University of Toronto
Just like the rumors she personifies, Vergil’s Fama in Aeneid 4 is a pervasive figure that has many ramifications in art and literature (Hardie 2012; Guastella 2017). In Statius’ Thebaid, scholars have identified many re-creations of the Vergilian monster. Besides the two main appearances of the goddess in books 2 and 3 (Snijder 1968, 179‑181; Hardie 2012, 201‑207; Gervais 2017, 140‑145), the figure of Pavor in book 7 has also been convincingly interpreted as an avatar of Fama (Smolenaars 1994, 55‑66; Hardie 2012, 207‑214; Clément-Tarantino 2015).