138 D. E. HILL
be spoken of (reticenda). The climax of this part of the speech, just
before he passes from the general to the particular, demands a climac-
tic denunciation of man’s sinfulness. The assertion that there are un-
speakable (reticenda) human crimes committed against the gods fits
the demands of the context perfectly.
We now approach the real purpose of this hitherto rambling speech
with the standard complaint that the subject’s scope defeats the poet:
uix lucis spatio, uix noctis abactae enumerare queam mores
gentemque profanam (1.231–2 “Scarcely in the space of a day,
scarcely in the space of a spent night could I enumerate their habits
and the wicked race”). Homer complained (Il. 2.489–91) that not with
ten tongues and ten mouths could he tell of the ships that went to
Troy, unless he had the Muses’ help. Jupiter’s claim is more modest;
scarcely could he enumerate the (evil) habits of the disgusting
(Theban) race in a day and a night. uix lucis spatio, uix noctis is clear
enough. Statius himself adopts this strategy at 3–15. What is meant by
abactae? Shackleton Bailey^4 compares Virgil’s rather puzzling use of
the same phrase at A. 8.407 to argue that what is meant is a day fol-
lowed by a night with the lights on, the notion being for both poets
that the night is abacta by the introduction of artificial light. However
that may be, we are being prepared for Jupiter’s real complaints
against Thebes:
scandere quin etiam thalamos hic impius heres patris et inmeri-
tae gremium incestare parentis appetiit, proprios (monstrum!) reuo-
lutus in ortus (1.233–5 “But this impious heir even sought to climb
into his father’s bed and to violate the womb of his innocent mother
returning (monstrous) to his own origin.”). So, we imagine, the great
Theban sin is Oedipus’ incest with his mother. Oedipus’ killing of his
father is, for now, to be ignored. But these natural expectations are
immediately frustrated: ille tamen “But he” (note how doubt is imme-
diately sown in our minds) superis aeterna piacula soluit
proiecitque diem, nec iam amplius aethere nostro uescitur (1.236–8
“payed an eternal penalty to the gods, and cast away the light and and
he feeds on our air no longer.”). No, Oedipus is not the problem be-
cause his blindness has been sufficient punishment; and we are not
even going to mention his patricide. Curiously, Jupiter will eventually
involve Laius, the father that Oedipus killed, in his strategy for pun-
4 Shackleton Bailey 2000, 463.