DUST, WATER AND SWEAT: THE STATIAN PUER 201
taedet nemorum, titulumque nocentem
sanguinis humani pudor est nescire sagittas
(Theb. 4.263–4)
He is weary of the woods and ashamed that his arrows know not the
guilty glory of human blood.Dust and sweat appear again at the close of the description of the
spectacular charm of the puer in battle: elegant, splendid and wrapped
in golden and purple clothes (Theb. 9.690–9),^18 he shows his sweet
and beardless face:
tunc dulce comae radiisque trementes
dulce nitent uisus et, quas dolet ipse morari,
nondum mutatae rosea lanugine malae.
(Theb. 9.701–3)
Then his locks shine sweetly and sweetly his eyes in their tremulous ra-
diance and his cheeks whose tardiness vexes himself, not yet changed
by rosy down.His seductive body is covered in sweat and dust (Theb. 9.710 sudore
et puluere gratum):^19
... Dat sponte locum Thebana iuuentus,
natorum memores, intentaque tela retorquent;
sed premit et saeuas miserantibus ingerit hastas.
Illum et Sidoniae iuga per Teumesia Nymphae
bellantem atque ipso sudore et puluere gratum
laudant, et tacito ducunt suspiria uoto.
(Theb. 9.706–11)
Unbidden the Theban soldiery, remembering their sons, make way for
him, and turn away the weapons that they hold poised; but he presses
hard upon them and, though they pity him, he assails them with his
merciless javelins. Him even the Sidonian nymphs along the ridges of
Teumesus praise as he fights, winning favour by the very dust and
sweat, and they breathe out in sighs the prayer they cannot speak. (tr.
Dewar 1991)ludique de la guerre” on Parthenopaeus’ part; Eisenhut 1973, 166, considers the
hero’s improba uirtus a sign of his immorality.
17 Cf. also Theb. 9.739–43.
18 Sanna 2004, 287–97.
19 Some useful indications are to be found in Dewar 1991, 192, who also quotes
Claudian’s recuperation of Statius’ expression (III Cons. Hon. 37 grato respersus
puluere belli).