90 BRUCE GIBSON
in view of the fact that on both occasions the heroes are accompanied
by divinities in their chariots. However the aristeia of Diomedes is so
large in execution in Homer that the poet in fact breaks up the action
in Iliad 5 with other material. Thus we have Aeneas’ killing of the
sons of Diocles and the response of Menelaus and Antilochus (Il.
5.541–89), a temporary halt to Diomedes represented by the simile of
a person halted by a river (Il. 5.597–600), the conflict of Tlepolemos
and Sarpedon (Il. 5.627–69), an episode of success for Hector, and
then the reactions of Hera and Athena. The focus only returns to Dio-
medes with Athena’s encouragement to him at Il. 5.793. In contrast to
this, Amphiaraus’ whole aristeia takes place on a much shorter scale,
beginning with Statius’ pointing out his prominence in the action at
Theb. 7.690, and ending some 133 lines later at the end of Book 7
with his descent into the underworld, which is then continued into the
next book. Moreover, the sections which provide the greatest level of
detail within this aristeia are in fact very brief in coverage: thus one
hears of a series of ten victims at 7.711–22,^14 followed by five more
vi ctims at 7.755–9.^15 Even more general scenes of fighting during this
episode do not take up such a great deal of space: Statius devotes
nineteen lines to introducing the episode at 7.690–708, before describ-
ing in three lines how Amphiaraus is slaying an innumeram plebem, a
“countless multitude” to his own shade (709–11), before the ten vic-
tims I have mentioned above. Hypseus then kills Amphiaraus’ chario-
teer, when the god seizes control of the chariot at 737; after the set of
five victims at 755–9, there is then a passage of eleven lines (760–70)
describing Amphiaraus’ slaughter of the Thebans in general terms,
and the rest of the book is then taken up with Apollo’s farewell to
Amphiaraus and his descent into the underworld. General descriptions
of the aristeia of Amphiaraus thus take up a total of 14 lines, while the
slaughter of individuals occupies only a total of 17 lines. From this we
can see that actual combat involving individuals is perhaps less pre-
sent in Thebaid than one might initially expect. I will return to this
issue of coverage in the war in Book 12 later on in this paper.
The absence of much fighting involving individuals is especially
striking in view of the prominence of individual exploits in the story
14 Smolenaars 1994, 336 suggests that these kills may be an imitation of Il. 5.144–
65.
15 Smolenaars 1994, 359 compares Ov. Met. 5.1–235.