BATTLE NARRATIVE IN STATIUS, THEBAID 101
First of all, when the Thebans are stirred to respond to Tydeus’ canni-
balism, the poet compares their reaction to the way they would act if
their ancestral graves were violated (Theb. 9.10–1). And at 9.44–5,
when Polynices is grieving for Tydeus, it is as if he is affected by
1000 wounds: again the simile does not take the focus of attention
away from Polynices, but envisages him in a hypothetical situation.^29
Book 10 offers another striking example, where sleeping Thebans
prior to the night raid led by Thiodamas are said to look as if they are
already dead (10.265–6), in what is obviously an anticipation of what
is about to happen. The opposite effect is also produced in the brief
counterfactual simile at 10.379 where the dead Parthenopaeus and
Tydeus are said to be carried by Dymas and Hopleus as if they were
actually alive, illustrating the depth of their emotion for their dead
commanders. At 10.854–5, there is something similar, when Capaneus
in his ascent of the walls of Thebes is said to be ceu suprema lues urbi
facibusque cruentis / aequatura solo turres Bellona subiret, “as if he
were the final doom for the city, and as if Bellona, about to raze the
towers to the ground, were coming with bloody torches”, a simile
which draws attention to the fact that Capaneus’ assault will not in
fact succeed. The simile perhaps also owes something to two related
similes in Virgil and Homer which provide rare instance of those po-
ets using counterfactual similes, Iliad 22.410–1 where lamentation for
Hector is compared to the grief that would be manifested if Troy were
falling, and Aeneid 4.669–71, where reaction to Dido’s death is lik-
ened to the lamentation that would arise if Carthage or Tyre were
sacked. We can note too, with Smolenaars, that Statius in fact had
already reused this material in Book 7, in what might be called a near-
simile, at 7.599–603:^30
templa putes urbemque rapi facibusque nefandis
Si donios ardere lares, sic clamor apertis
exoritur muris; mallent cunabula magni
Herculis aut Semeles thalamum aut penetrale ruisse
Harmoniae.29 For an example within direct speech, note Polynices on Tydeus at Theb. 9.67
ceu tibimet sceptra et proprios laturus honores; where Dewar 1991, 71 compares
2.477 ipsi ceu regna negentur.
30 Smolenaars 1994, 269. For a Silian counterfactual example, note Sil. 10.172
where Paulus is said to be fighting ceu uictor.