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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 April 2021
This paper focusses on colour terminology as a tool for achieving ἐνάργεια (pictorial vividness) in the Latin poetry of the first century c.e. After briefly outlining the developments in the concept of ἐνάργεια from Aristotle to Quintilian, the paper considers the use of Latin terms for black in three descriptive passages from Statius’ epic poem, the Thebaid. It is observed that the poet privileges the juxtaposition of the two adjectives ater and niger in a pattern of uariatio, where ater often carries a figurative meaning and repeats established poetic clichés, while niger is part of unparalleled collocations that evoke a material notion of blackness. Further analysis of the uariatio in the context of each passage reveals that the juxtaposition of the two-colour terms enhances the vividness of the objects described not only by increasing their chromatic impact but also by establishing connections with other parts of the poem, and by inviting a reflection on the competing practices of imitation and transgression of poetic models. The analysis of one stylistic feature (the use of colour terms in uariatio) shows that this stylistic feature is used by Statius for achieving ἐνάργεια as an artistic effect, for reflecting on ἐνάργεια as an instrument through which poetic models are challenged, and for tying his own poetic practice to contemporary rhetorical discussions.
I would like to express my gratitude to the anonymous referees for their careful reading of previous versions of the paper and for their generous and constructive feedback. I also wish to thank Francesca Econimo for allowing me to read a draft of her forthcoming book.
1 Such is the definition of ἔκφρασις given by the rhetorical handbooks known as Progymnasmata: according to Theon's handbook (first century c.e.), for example, ἔκφρασις is a λόγος περιηγηματικὸς ἐναργῶς ὑπ’ ὄψιν ἄγων τὸ δηλούμενον (Prog. 2.118.7–8 Spengel). On the broad meaning of ἔκφρασις in antiquity, see Webb, R., ‘Ekphrasis ancient and modern: the invention of a genre’, Word & Image 15 (1999), 7–18CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Elsner, J., ‘Introduction. The genres of ekphrasis’, Ramus 31 (2002), 1–18CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see also Webb, R., Ekphrasis, Imagination and Persuasion in Ancient Rhetorical Theory and Practice (Farnham and Burlington, 2009)Google Scholar, especially 1–9. For the popular image of the mind's eye and its ancient sources, see Squire, M., ‘Introductory reflections. Making sense of ancient sight’, in Squire, M. (ed.), Sight and the Ancient Senses (London and New York, 2016), 1–35Google Scholar.
2 On ἐνάργεια, see G. Zanker, ‘Enargeia in the ancient criticism of poetry’, RhM 124 (1981), 297–311; R. Webb, ‘Mémoire et imagination: les limites de l’enargeia dans la théorie rhétorique grecque’, in C. Lévy and L. Pernot (edd.), Dire l’évidence (Philosophie et rhétorique antiques) (Paris, 1997), 229–48; A. Manieri, L'immagine poetica nella teoria degli antichi. Phantasia ed enargeia (Pisa and Rome, 1998); N. Otto, Enargeia: Untersuchung zur Charakteristik alexandrinischer Dichtung (Stuttgart, 2009); Webb (n. 1 [2009]); H.F. Plett, Enargeia in Classical Antiquity and the Early Modern Age. The Aesthetics of Evidence (Leiden, 2012), especially 8–21; A. Sheppard, ‘Imagination’, in P. Destrée and P. Murray (edd.), A Companion to Ancient Aesthetics (Chichester, 2015), 354–65.
3 See Arist. Rhet. 1411b24; G. Morpurgo-Tagliabue, Linguistica e stilistica di Aristotele (Rome, 1967), 256–66; Webb (n. 2 [1997]), 229–32.
4 Arist. Poet. 1455a23–7; cf. Morpurgo-Tagliabue (n. 3), 260–6.
5 Morpurgo-Tagliabue (n. 3), 262 n. 10; Webb (n. 2 [1997]), 230–1; Manieri (n. 2), 99–104.
6 Morpurgo-Tagliabue (n. 3), 271–83; Manieri (n. 2), 129–43.
7 [Longinus], Subl. 15.2. In On the Sublime, φαντασία indicates both the idea driving certain thoughts and their verbal expressions, and the passages themselves where the author ‘seems to see’ (βλέπειν δοκῇς) what he describes, bringing such sights in front of his audience's eyes (ὑπ’ ὄψιν τιθῇς τοῖς ἀκούουσιν): [Longinus], Subl. 15.1.
8 [Longinus], Subl. 15.7; Manieri (n. 2), 58 and n. 171.
9 Morpurgo-Tagliabue (n. 3), 268; Manieri (n. 2), 58–9.
10 Demetr. Eloc. 209–22; cf. Manieri (n. 2), 133–7.
11 Morpurgo-Tagliabue (n. 3), 280–1.
12 Morpurgo-Tagliabue (n. 3), 271–4; Manieri (n. 2), 137–43.
13 See e.g. Cic. Orat. 3.202; Quint. Inst. 6.2.32, 8.3.61, 9.2.40.
14 Quint. Inst. 8.3.64.
15 On ἐνάργεια as a virtue of style, see Manieri (n. 2), 137; Morpurgo-Tagliabue (n. 3), 277, 283.
16 For the problem, see C. Criado, ‘A reflection upon the application of mannerism and historical baroque concepts in Roman literature’, GRM 50 (2000), 299–332.
17 H. Lovatt, ‘Statius’ ekphrastic games: Thebaid 6.531–47’, Ramus 31 (2002), 73–90, at 73.
18 F. Econimo, La parola e gli occhi. L'ekphrasis nella Tebaide di Stazio (Pisa, forthcoming).
19 For colour terms generating vividness in poetry, see M.M. Sassi, ‘Perceiving colours’, in P. Destrée and P. Murray (edd.), A Companion to Ancient Aesthetics (Chichester, 2015), 262–73; Manieri (n. 2), 83–5. On colour terms in antiquity, see J. André, Étude sur les termes de couleur dans la langue latine (Paris, 1949); E. Irwin, Colour Terms in Greek Poetry (Toronto, 1974); N.V. Baran, ‘Les caractéristiques essentielles du vocabulaire chromatique latin (aspect général, étapes de développement, sens figuré, valeur stylistique, circulation’, ANRW 2.29.1 (Berlin and New York, 1983), 321–441; M. Bradley, Colour and Meaning in Ancient Rome (Cambridge, 2009); R.B. Goldman, Color-Terms in Social and Cultural Context in Ancient Rome (Piscataway, N.J., 2013); M. Bradley, ‘Colours as synaesthetic experience in antiquity’, in S. Butler and A. Purves (edd.), Synaesthesia and the Ancient Senses (London and New York, 2014), 127–40.
20 On the use of rhetorical figures involving repetition and/or symmetry for achieving ἐνάργεια, see Manieri (n. 2), 139. For uariatio with colour terms, see André (n. 19), 317–19; Bradley (n. 19 [2009]), 76. Statius’ use of uariatio with ater and niger mirrors at the level of language the poet's fondness for dual patterns, for which see, in general, A.-M. Taisne, L'esthétique de Stace: la peinture des correspondances (Paris, 1994), 5.
21 Statius’ writing by miniatures (miniaturizing poetic models, producing miniature ἐκφράσεις) is discussed, for example, by Lovatt (n. 17), 73; S. Rebeggiani, The Fragility of Power. Statius, Domitian, and the Politics of the Thebaid (Oxford, 2018), 207 and Econimo (n. 18).
22 On ‘normative’ allusion and its formal character, see, recently, C. Chinn, ‘Nec discolor amnis: intertext and aesthetics in Statius’ shield of Crenaeus (Theb. 9.332–338)’, Phoenix 64 (2010), 148–69, at 150.
23 On the figurative meaning of ancient colour terms, see André (n. 19), 43–52; Baran (n. 19), 324–5; J.R. Clarke, ‘Colours in conflict: Catullus’ use of colour imagery in C. 63’, CQ 51 (2001), 163–77, at 163.
24 See Bradley (n. 19 [2009]).
25 Cf. Bradley (n. 19 [2009]), 228.
26 André (n. 19), 43–52.
27 André (n. 19), 48–51, 362–3.
28 André (n. 19), 58.
29 André (n. 19), 54.
30 André (n. 19), 56.
31 André (n. 19), 50. ater is absent from the Eclogues.
32 E.g. with reference to infernal rivers (as in G. 1.243; Aen. 9.105 = 10.114; Aen. 6.132) or to the infernal kingdom/king (as in Aen. 6.127 atri ianua Ditis); cf. also the unprecedented collocation atra silex (Aen. 6.602).
33 E.g. G. 1.236, 1.323 (line-ending formula imbribus atris) and Aen. 4.248, 10.264 (line-ending formula nubibus atris).
34 E.g. Aen. 1.89, 2.360, 4.570, 5.721, 6.272, 6.866.
35 For the γαῖα μέλαινα, see atro puluere (Aen. 2.272–3) and atram | … humum (Aen. 10.730–1); and cf. Aen. 4.633 cinis ater (the soil of Dido's homeland and the incinerated body of her nurse). For the dust of the battlefield, see e.g. Aen. 9.36, 11.876.
36 As literally black (clouds of) smoke (G. 2.309; Aen. 3.572, 8.258, 9.239) or, with ignis (Aen. 4.384, 8.198, 11.186; cf. fax: Aen. 9.74, 10.77; see also Aen. 5.666 fauillam; 7.456 lumine), implying the paradoxical notion of ‘dark flames’. For ‘dark flames’ and the Virgilian formula ignibus atris, see below.
37 Either sanguis (G. 3.221, 3.507–8; Aen. 3.28, 3.33, 3.622) or cruor (Aen. 4.687, 9.333, 11.646) but also tabum at Aen. 3.626 and 9.472, and, perhaps metonymically, uulnus at Aen. 9.700.
38 E.g. Aen. 9.719 atrumque Timorem; 12.335 atrae Formidinis.
39 E.g. serpentes (G. 1.129; Aen. 4.472); their ingluuies (G. 3.430–1), hiatus (Aen. 6.576, of the Hydra) and uenena (G. 2.130; Aen. 2.221); a tiger (G. 4.407); the fleece of a sacrificial sheep (Aen. 6.249). For ‘deadly’ or ‘sinister’ places, see Aen. 1.60 speluncis … atris; 1.240–1 atris | faucibus (the Underworld's entrance); 7.565–6 atrum | … latus nemoris (= 11.523–4); 9.105 (= 10.114) atra … uoragine.
40 One of Virgil's favourite images: see e.g. Aen. 3.45–6, 11.601–2, 12.663–4; cf. G. 2.142 (without any indication of colour).
41 E.g. G. 4.468 nigra formidine; Aen. 4.514 nigri … ueneni; Aen. 5.516 nigra nube; Aen. 7.414 nigra nocte; Aen. 9.34 nigro … puluere; Aen. 11.596 turbine nigro.
42 Plants (a number of cases in the Georgics; Aen. 8.599, 9.381), the soil (cf. G. 2.203, 2.255 with terra, 3.243, 4.291 with harena; also at Aen. 9.714), water (cf. G. 4.126; Aen. 6.238); winds and storms (G. 1.320–1, 3.278; Aen. 5.696); animals (sheep: G. 4.546; Aen. 3.120, 5.736, 6.153; chelydris: G. 2.214; the swallow: Aen. 12.473); fire (Ecl. 7.50 adsidua postes fuligine nigri). In the Georgics, see also niger with aëra (G. 1.428), amurca (G. 1.194), hebenum (G. 2.116–17), bitumen (G. 3.451), limus (G. 4.478).
43 With candidus: Ecl. 2.16, G. 3.388; with albus: Ecl. 2.18, Aen. 3.120; with niueus: Ecl. 6.54.
44 Silius follows Virgil in his preference for ater, appearing ninety-six times in the Punica, as opposed to niger (twenty times).
45 ignibus atris in line-ending: Luc. 2.299, 3.98; niger: Luc. 3.505, 6.535–6 (nigroque … fumo instead of the metrically impossible atroque).
46 Clouds: Luc. 3.409 (nubibus atris, in line-ending), 6.518; winds: Luc. 5.608–9, 9.320.
47 Luc. 5.564–5 niger inficit horror | terga maris; 1.547–8 atra Charybdis | sanguineum fundo torsit mare.
48 On Luc. 9.772 as a model for Statius, see below; cf. also Luc. 1.615 diffusum rutilo nigrum pro sanguine uirus.
49 See Luc. 1.234 nigrae … robiginis; 3.411–12 … nigris | fontibus; 4.310 nigro … limo; 9.930 nigris … medullis; cf. also 10.303 nigris … colonis (of the skin colour).
50 Cf. Ov. Met. 2.760–1 inuidiae nigro squalentia tabo | tecta, rewriting Verg. Aen. 3.626 atro cum membra fluentia tabo.
51 Val. Fl. 2.236 ignibus, in line ending; 3.96 faces; 7.572 atros … fluctus; but cf. 2.332 nigris … iugis, of rocks blackened by the effects of volcanic eruptions.
52 For agmine nigro, cf. Enn. Ann. 187 V2 it nigrum campis agmen (of elephants) and Verg. Aen. 4.404 (of ants); for nigro … equo, cf. Soph. Trach. 838 and Ov. Met. 12.402.
53 For the paradox of dark solar horses, cf. Prop. 2.15.32 nigros sol agitabat equos; 3.5.34 solis et atratis luxerit orbis equis.
54 In uariatio with the description of the Harpies as a niger … nimbus (Val. Fl. 4.451–2).
55 As it is said, for example, of Hector in Hom. Il. 17.243 and of Hannibal in Sil. Pun. 5.379; cf. also the god Mars in Valerius’ own passage.
56 Bradley (n. 19 [2009]), 204.
57 In the Siluae, ater occurs seven times and niger six; the unfinished Achilleid has one instance of each adjective.
58 Theb. 6.87 atra piacula; 4.445–6 armentaque … | atra; but 1.506–7 nigri greges.
59 E.g. Theb. 4.521–2 nigra flumina but 7.782–3 atra flumina; 6.375 nigrae Sorores (the Parcae) but 11.75 atra soror (Megaera).
60 nox atra (Theb. 1.346, 2.153, 7.454, 8.691), but note also Theb. 3.415–16 nox … | nigroque polos inuoluit amictu; 5.152–3 lucus … | … niger ipse; 12.233–4 nemorumque arcana (sereno | nigra die); cf. also 12.254 nigrantes … tenebras.
61 E.g. Theb. 1.464 nubibus atris, 2.106 nigra sub nube; cf. the discussion below.
62 See K. Gervais, Statius, Thebaid 2. Edited with an Introduction, Translation and Commentary (Oxford, 2017), 80.
63 Cf. S. Briguglio, Fraternas acies. Saggio di commento a Stazio, Tebaide 1, 1–389 (Alessandria, 2017).
64 For the metrical convenience of ater at line-ending, see André (n. 19), 268–9.
65 Coroebus’ act of self-offering is a Statian innovation: see G. Aricò, Ricerche staziane (Palermo, 1972), 83–4; C. McNelis, Statius’ Thebaid and the Poetics of Civil War (Oxford, 2007), 33. On the accumulation of details in this passage, see Taisne (n. 20), 246 and n. 31.
66 For ater applied to clouds and for the formula nubibus atris, see André (n. 19), 49, 368; for the Homeric cliché, see Irwin (n. 19), 88–9.
67 See e.g. Sen. Oed. 47 grauis et ater incubat terris uapor; Sil. Pun. 14.594 ater picea uapor expirabat in aethra; cf. also Ov. Met. 7.528–9; Luc. 6.89–90. For the idea that virulent contagions originate from the clouds above or the putrid earth below, see e.g. Lucr. 6.1097–101; Verg. G. 3.478–9; Stat. Theb. 2.274–5.
68 See e.g. Sen. Oed. 166 atra Mors (caused by the Theban pestilence), 1060 atra Pestis; Sil. Pun. 7.356 lues agit atra, 14.613–15 Acherusia pestis … fert atra laborem.
69 nigra tabes only appears elsewhere in Luc. 9.772 nigra destillant inguina tabe. On the rarity of tabes in Latin poetry, see A. Estèves, ‘Color épique et color tragique dans la “Thébaïde” de Stace: récits de “nefas” et stratégies narratives (VIII, 751–765 et XI, 524–579)’, Latomus 64 (2005), 96–120, at 108 n. 52.
70 Cf. Gervais (n. 62), 65.
71 See e.g. Theb. 8.760–1 ecce illum effracti perfusum tabe cerebri | aspicit.
72 See e.g. the squalid storms of Lucretius (4.169, 6.253–9) and Virgil (G. 1.320–4). For torrential black downpours, see e.g. Lucr. 6.256–7 niger … nimbus, | ut picis e caelo demissum flumen; Verg. Aen. 5.695–6 ruit aethere toto | turbidus imber aqua densisque nigerrimus Austris; Sil. Pun. 12.619–21.
73 OLD s.v. 3a (‘rotten blood’), 3c (‘poisonous exundation’). For ater as the colour of putrid blood (especially sanguis ater or tabum atrum), see André (n. 19), 48–63; Baran (n. 19), 339, 344. niger, however, is associated with putrefaction in a plague at least since Lucr. 6.1200–1 ulceribus taetris et nigra proluuie alui | posterius tamen nunc tabes letumque manebat; see also Sen. Oed. 189–90 stillatque niger naris aduncae | cruor (of the Theban pestilence).
74 On the rain of blood as a literary topos and a ‘standard ingredient in portents’, see G. Schmeling, A Commentary on the Satyrica of Petronius (Oxford and New York, 2011), 461.
75 On which, see Taisne (n. 20), 246 and n. 32.
76 See e.g. D.T.W.C. Vessey, Statius & the Thebaid (Cambridge, 1973), 106; F. Ahl, ‘Statius’ Thebaid: a reconsideration’, ANRW 2.32.5 (Berlin and New York, 1986), 2804–912, at 2824.
77 Cf. Sen. Oed. 29–79, especially 44–5 obscura caelo labitur Phoebi soror, | tristisque mundus nubilo pallet nouo; 47–9 grauis et ater incubat terris uapor | obtexit arces caelitum ac summas domos | inferna facies.
78 D. Feeney, The Gods in Epic (Oxford, 1991), 381.
79 See Ahl (n. 76), 2852.
80 caeruleus is now generally understood as a peculiar shade of blue, dark (Bradley [n. 19], 9–11) and mutable (see e.g. E. Romano, ‘Il lessico latino dei colori: il punto della situazione’, in S. Beta and M.M. Sassi [edd.], I colori nel mondo antico. Esperienze linguistiche e quadri simbolici [Fiesole, 2003], 41–53, at 51–3). On caeruleus as a normative epic adjective, see André (n. 19), 166, 360; Bradley (n. 19 [2009]), 10 n. 50.
81 Cf. Ov. Met. 1.444 effuso per uulnera nigra ueneno. On Statius’ Ovidian intertext, see McNelis (n. 65), 29–30; A. Keith, ‘Medusa, Python, and Poine in Argive religious ritual’, in A. Augoustakis (ed.), Ritual and Religion in Flavian Epic (Oxford, 2013), 303–17, at 308–10; for a full list of verbal echoes between Ov. Met. 1.436–44 and Theb. 1.562–71, see now K. Gervais, ‘Parent-child conflict in the Thebaid’, in W.J. Dominik, C.E. Newlands, K. Gervais (edd.), Brill's Companion to Statius (Leiden, 2015), 221–39, at 222 n. 5.
82 Keith (n. 81), 313.
83 Lactantius glosses ferruginea as nigra; on the adjective as linking Poine to the Underworld, see André (n. 19), 109–10. For Poine's infernal origin, see Theb. 1.597–8 and cf. Taisne (n. 20), 245; McNelis (n. 65), 36. For the conventional blackness of the Underworld, see e.g. André (n. 19), 47, 341–2.
84 The description of Python as caeruleus might also be read as anticipating the last, ‘rainy’, monster, given the association of caeruleus in Latin with rain, water and the sea: see Bradley (n. 19 [2009]), 10 n. 43; Bradley (n. 19 [2014]), 132; Sassi (n. 19), 268.
85 Cf. Gervais (n. 81), 222; Taisne (n. 20), 262–3.
86 On Apollo as creator of monsters in the aition, see e.g. Ahl (n. 76), 2854; Keith (n. 81), 315; H. Lovatt, ‘Following after Valerius: Argonautic imagery in the Thebaid’, in W.J. Dominik, C.E. Newlands, K. Gervais (edd.), Brill's Companion to Statius (Leiden, 2015), 408–24, at 418, comparing the god to a ‘malignly creative poet figure’.
87 On the circular narrative of the aition, see Ahl (n. 76), 2853; McNelis (n. 65), 32, 36; Rebeggiani (n. 21), 215.
88 On Jocasta as a Fury, see e.g. A. Keith, Engendering Rome: Women in Latin Epic (Cambridge, 2000), 96; A. Augoustakis, Motherhood and the Other. Fashioning Female Power in Flavian Epic (Oxford, 2010), 62–4; J.S. Dietrich, ‘Dead woman walking: Jocasta in the Thebaid’, in Dominik, W.J., Newlands, C.E. and Gervais, K. (edd.), Brill's Companion to Statius (Leiden, 2015), 307–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 308.
89 For these parallels, see J.J.L. Smolenaars, Statius Thebaid 7: A Commentary (Leiden, 1994), 222–3.
90 Cf. Eur. Phoen. 324–6, possibly a rare verbal memory from Euripides’ tragedy (cf. Vessey [n. 76], 274). On the relevance of Euripides’ Phoenissae for Statius’ treatment of Jocasta, see e.g. J.J.L. Smolenaars, ‘Statius’ Thebaid 1.72: is Jocasta dead or alive? The tradition of Jocasta's suicide in Greek and Roman drama and in Statius’ Thebaid’, in J.J.L. Smolenaars, H.-J. Van Dam and R.R. Nauta (edd.), The Poetry of Statius (Leiden, 2008), 215–37.
91 Cf. Theb. 11.170–1 non si atra parens, miseraeque sorores | in media arma cadant (where the colour term is paired with miserae to describe an emotional state); Theb. 11.461–2.
92 On the normative colour of self-beaten skin, see André (n. 19), 172–3; Clarke, J.R., Imagery of Colour and Shining in Catullus, Propertius, and Horace (New York, 2001), 94Google Scholar; in Statius, see e.g. Theb. 6.133–4 sustentant liuida nati | bracchia (Hypsipile); Ach. 1.132 nunc planctu liuere manus (Thetis). For bracchia nigra as an unparalleled phrase, see Smolenaars (n. 89), 410; however, cf. Silu. 2.6.82–3 non saeuius atros | nigrasset planctu genetrix tibi salua lacertos, with C. Newlands, Statius Siluae Book II (Cambridge, 2011), 220.
93 Cf. Clarke (n. 92), 94 on liueo gradually losing its sense of colour owing to cliché use for bruised skin.
94 Cf. e.g. Theb. 2.440–1.
95 For Lucanian elements in Statius’ Jocasta, see Dietrich (n. 88), 309.
96 See Gagliardi, D., ‘Ater in Lucano (per lo studio della lingua della Pharsalia)’, SIFC 4 (1986), 64–7Google Scholar.
97 On Jocasta's awareness of her Fury-like appearance, see e.g. Theb. 11.339–40 stabo ipso in limine portae | auspicium infelix scelerumque inmanis imago; cf. also Manolaraki, E., ‘“Consider the image of Thebes”: celestial and poetic auspicy in the Thebaid’, in Augoustakis, A. (ed.), Ritual and Religion in Flavian Epic (Oxford, 2013), 89–107CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 99.
98 Theb. 7.470–3. Dawn is here a functional detail introduced by Statius to reinforce the choice of having Jocasta alive this late in the plot: see Smolenaars (n. 89), 218; cf. also Dietrich (n. 88), 307.
99 For the desolation of Thebes’ last night, see Theb. 7.453–9; on the Thebans’ fear and desire of a new day, see Theb. 7.465 lucemque timent lucemque precantur.
100 See Smolenaars (n. 89), 203.
101 See Quintilian's passages collected above. On ostendere as a keyword in discussions of euidentia, see B.F. Scholz, ‘“Sub oculos subiectio”: Quintilian on ekphrasis and enargeia’, in V. Robillard and B.F. Scholz (edd.), Pictures into Words: Theoretical and Descriptive Approaches to Ekphrasis (Amsterdam, 1998), 73–99, at 78.
102 I follow Hill's choice of atris instead of artus: cf. D.E. Hill (ed.), P. Papini Stati Thebaidos Libri XII (Leiden, 19962); for the reading atris, see also M. Dewar, ‘Review of R. Lesueur (ed. transl.), Stace, Thébaïde, Livres V–VIII. Texte établi et traduit (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1991)’, CR 42 (1992), 194; R. Nau, ‘A note on Statius Thebaid 8.5’, CQ 59 (2009), 664–5 and A. Augoustakis, Statius, Thebaid 8. Edited with an Introduction, Translation and Commentary (Oxford, 2016). artus, a plural accusative of respect attached to conditus, is recorded by the majority of the manuscripts and printed by most of the modern editors (see the full discussion in Augoustakis [this note], 63–4).
103 See Theb. 7.691–8, 7.775–7.
104 On ‘black’ as a cliché colour for the Underworld, see above. On Amphiaraus’ inappropriate physicality, see Masterson, M., ‘Statius’ “Thebaid” and the realization of Roman manhood’, Phoenix 59 (2005), 288–315Google Scholar, at 309.
105 For a list of the unfulfilled rites, see Theb. 8.9–13, with Augoustakis (n. 102), 61–3; cf. also J.M. Seo, Exemplary Traits. Reading Characterization in Roman Poetry (Oxford, 2013), 165.
106 André (n. 19), 369.
107 See TLL 4.149.44–7 for the meaning of condere with in and the accusative.
108 For Statius’ conflation of pyre and burial here, see Nau (n. 102), 665; Augoustakis (n. 102), 63–4.
109 maesta further echoes the Virgilian intertext, where ignibus atris is glossed by maestum ignem at Aen. 11.189.
110 See N. Horsfall, Virgil, Aeneid 11. A Commentary (Leiden, 2003), 145–55.
111 For Amphiaraus’ disappointment in having been denied a heroic funeral, see Theb. 8.111–15.
112 Cf. Theb. 10.929 et clipei niger umbo cadit (Capaneus’ shield) and 12.424–5 hic tenuem nigris etiamnum aduiuere lucem | roboribus (the logs of Eteocles’ pyre).
113 Michael Dewar per litteras kindly drew my attention to this parallel.
114 See Ov. Met. 2.324 excipit Eridanus fumantiaque abluit ora; Stat. Theb. 12.413–14 Phaethonta sorores | fumantem lauere Pado.
115 On Phaethon falling as a comet, see F. Spaltenstein, Commentaire des Argonautica de Valérius Flaccus (livres 3, 4, et 5) (Brussels, 2004), 500, quoting Ov. Met. 2.319–22.