224 JOHANNES J.L. SMOLENAARS
In Seneca Phoen. 387–402 a servant informs Jocasta that the two
armies are on the verge of battle; Jocasta must reconcile her sons. The
situation resembles that in Eur. Phoin. in so far as Jocasta is there,
alive and eager to make an attempt at reconciliation, but it is far more
urgent than in Phoin. As the armies close in, Jocasta leaves for the
battlefield (420–6). Her offstage actions are subsequently described by
the servant in a brilliant eyewitness account (427–42), after which the
setting thus described becomes the actual setting of Jocasta’s attempt
in 443–664. Eteocles’ reaction to his mother’s plea (664) makes it
quite clear that her attempt will fail. It is evident that Seneca has cho-
sen to heighten the dramatic suspense by placing the reconciliation-
scene at a later and far more dramatic point than his predecessor,
namely at the outbreak of war, by replacing the safe walls of Thebes
with the battlefield and, finally, by making Jocasta utter her plea while
she is holding both sons and their threatening armies at bay.
In Statius the situation is very different. At the first light of dawn,
Jocasta, accompanied by Antigone and Ismene, leaves Thebes in haste
and meets her son Polynices in the camp of the Seven (7.470–83). Her
highly emotional speech is not a plea for reconciliation as such; she
limits herself to suggesting a truce during which Polynices can discuss
the matter with his brother. It appears that Statius has transposed the
famous attempts in his predecessors to a moment preceding that of the
dramatic action in Euripides. The actual meeting in Phoin. 452ff. is
the outcome of her suggestion to Polynices of a truce (81ff.), whereas
in Statius she passionately argues in favour of this truce, during which
her attempt at reconciliation might take place. Seneca did not separate
this suggestion from the actual meeting at the battlefield for the sake
of dramatic tension. Statius chose a dramatic moment and setting not
dealt with by his predecessors. In his version, the discussion between
the two brothers envisaged by Jocasta never takes place. When
Polynices decides to grant his mother’s request, the actual success of
Jocasta’s attempt is thwarted by Tydeus’ sarcastic intervention and the
killing of Bacchus’ tigresses maddened by Tisiphone. Jocasta and her
daughters narrowly escape assault; Tydeus’ second speech then
unleashes the war (7.611 ff.). Statius’ transposition of the traditional
reconciliation-scene to a much earlier moment in the narrative in book
7, addressing one son only, allows for a second attempt by Jocasta in
Theb. 11.315–53, now to dissuade Eteocles from battle at the very
moment he is donning his suit of armour.