162 RUURD R. NAUTA
calls his impressions, and conflates his astonished straying through the
building then with his bewilderment now as to what to sing and in
which order: “Hither by my eyes I am torn, thither by my mind” (38).
But in spite of all the first-person verbs like “I wander” or “shall I
praise?”,^53 Statius acquires no individuality beyond that of guest and
poet,^54 and there is no indication of the nature of the relationship with
Vopiscus. In Silvae 1.5, on a bath-house built by Claudius Etruscus,
Statius’ roles are likewise those of poet and guest, but here amicitia is
stressed: the poet is not just a guest, but a guest at a festive meal, and
in this sympotic context he exclaims in Horatian accents that he
wishes to revel for his dear friend: dilecto uolo lasciuire sodali (9).^55
This means of course that he is going to write ‘light’ poetry, and, in a
by now familiar move, he rejects his customary inspirational deities
for more fitting ones, in this case water-nymphs and Vulcan (as the
god of heating), and announces that he will briefly interrupt his work
on the Thebaid (1–9). He then goes on having more fun with the mo-
tifs of singing, lyre and Muse, and finally reassures the nymphs that
the “work” (29 opus) he undertakes belongs to them, that it is their
new habitation that he will celebrate “in soft song” (29 carmine
molli). The same technique of adapting the inspirational deities to the
theme is also used in Silvae 2.3, on a curiously shaped tree near a
pond in the garden of Atedius Melior’s town-house: here water-
nymphs and Fauns are invoked (6–7) to tell an Ovidian story of how a
nymph, pursued by Pan, was metamorphosed into the tree. At
Melior’s house Statius was a regular, not an occasional guest, and
Statius therefore makes use of a different occasion than a visit:
Melior’s birthday. The poem is not so much a description motivated
by a visit, as a story offered as a gift (62–3).
In the two poems to Pollius Felix, the autobiographical element is
more strongly present. The description of his Surrentine villa in Silvae
2.2 uses the same encomiastic technique of not knowing what to
praise first as the description of the villa of Manilius Vopiscus,^56 but
53 Cf. canam ... quiescam? (34), mirer ...? (37), trahor (38), dicam ...? (38), uidi
(47), uagor ... duco ... calcabam (52–3), mirer ...? (57), referam ...? (64), laudem
...? (81).
54 In his quality as poet he again challenges fama (27–8).
55 Cf. Hor. Carm. 2.7.27–8 recepto / dulce mihi furere est amico, or (from the ode
Statius most insistently evokes) 3.19.18 insanire iuuat.
56 After a proem expressing the inadequacy of his poetic powers (36–42) and of his
eyes and steps as he wanders through the building (42–4), Statius punctuates his