STATIUS IN THE SILVAE 159
the writing of a consolation is that Etruscus deserved it by his pietas.^43
This is also formulated in the preface to Book 3: merebatur et Claudi
Etrusci mei pietas aliquod ex studiis nostris solacium, “also, the devo-
tion of my friend Claudius Etruscus deserved some consolation from
my pursuits” (3.ep.14–5). The addition ex studiis nostris suggests that
Statius, as someone whose studia are poetry, has at his disposal a po-
etic repertory, on which he may draw to fulfil his social obligations.
The poetic character of Statius’ consolations is apparent from the
poetic manner of speaking (apostrophes, etc.), but is also thematised
in the texts themselves. Both in the consolation for Etruscus and in
that for Abascantus, Statius compares his poem to funerary offerings
such as incense and spices and to funerary monuments such as paint-
ings and sculptures, and even the grave itself, stressing that his gift,
though less costly, is more durable.^44 This imagery regards not so
much the consolatory character of the poems as their commemorative
one, linked to the presence, in Statius’ consolations, of extensive lau-
dations of the deceased (and in the case of the poem for Abascantus of
the mourner as well). The consolatory character itself is connected
with another, more dynamic, set of images, that of the poet singing
and playing his lyre.^45 The most elaborate use of this imagery is to be
found in Statius’ long consolation for Atedius Melior on the death of
his young freedman Glaucias (2.1). The fiction is that the poet is pre-
sent at the pyre, attempting to play his lyre and sing—but Melior is
still too distracted to be able to listen (1–13). Then the poet asks again,
as a friend (16 preces amicas). May he sing now? (17 iamne canam?)
He himself is weeping, and tears blot out the words he is writing (17–
8)—a rare disruption of the fiction of oral performance.^46 He then
again stresses his own presence at the funeral (19–25) and his own
sorrow: he has cast off his ceremonial fillets and garlands, and is beat-
ing his breast with lyre reversed (26–8):^47 as a friend, he shares in
Melior’s sorrow, and so he needs not only to overcome the resistance
43 Evocation to Pietas (1), dabimus solacia dignis / luctibus (31–2), pietas me
poscit Etrusci / ... carmina (173–4), nostra ... exemplo meritus ... carmina (215).
44 Silv. 3.3.31–9, 215–6, 5.1.1–15.
45 Silv. 3.3.41, 172–6, 215, 5.1.12–5, 135–6.
46 On this passage see Coleman in this volume, 30.
47 Vollmer 1898, 321 and van Dam 1984, 88 ad 27–8 uersa ... lyra rightly point to
the custom of reversing various objects (fasces, torches, etc.) in funerary contexts, but
I see also a reference to the expression stilum uertere (cf. Cic. Ver. 2.101; Hor. S.
1.10.72), with renewed conflation of the oral and the written.