BATTLE NARRATIVE IN STATIUS, THEBAID 89
las, who is described as being carried by his unreliable horse through
the two battle lines (diuersa per agmina, Theb. 7.633), so that, even
after the invocation of the Muses at the start of the conflict, the hasty
scenes before the invocation blend into the actual fight, and hence
Statius avoids the kind of formal entry into battle that Homer had
given in Iliad 4.
We can also observe something similar in the manner in which the
short series of rapidly narrated killings in Theb. 7.640–8^12 is brought
to a close with the death of Abas, slain whilst trying to despoil Cae-
neus, already killed by Haemon. This can be felt as a parallel to the
similar moment towards the start of the fighting in Iliad 4, where Ele-
phenor, μεγαθύμων ἀρχὸς ̓Αβάντων (Iliad 4.464), “leader of the
great-hearted Abantes” (which surely explains Statius’ choice of the
name Abas in the Thebaid), tries to despoil the body of Echepolus, but
is then killed by Agenor. Homer follows up this moment by having a
general scene of conflict (Iliad 4.470–2), but Statius moves straight
from the death of Abas to the episode of Eunaeus’ death, with no in-
termediary scene.
The point can also be made, in respect to degree of coverage, that
Statius is unwilling to provide very extended accounts of battle in-
volving minor characters fighting amongst themselves. Examination
of the second half of the Thebaid reveals only a surprising handful of
such passages: Theb. 8.438–55, a passage involving several such kills
amongst minor characters, 9.670–82, where both sides fight in grief
for Hypseus and Hippomedon but with no characters actually named,
and a slightly longer passage in Book 10 (10.493–551), where some of
the Spartan contingent actually manage to get inside the gates of the
city (something that does not occur in the Iliad, as reflected in the
instruction to Patroclus from Achilles not to attempt to take Troy), and
a brief passage in Book 11 (11.39–56) where the attack on the Argive
fortifications leads to the death of the trumpeter Enyeus; in book 12
there is nothing in this category at all.
Concomitant to this is the poet’s practice of shortening episodes
where more significant characters are involved. Thus, as scholars have
pointed out, the aristeia of Amphiaraus in Book 7 has much in com-
mon with the aristeia of Diomedes in Iliad 5,^13 appropriately enough
12 On which see Smolenaars 1994, 288–9.
13 Smolenaars 1994, 322, 344.