BATTLE NARRATIVE IN STATIUS, THEBAID 95
taedet fugientibus uti
Thesea, nec facilem dignatur dextra cruorem.
cetera plebeio desaeuit sanguine uirtus:
sic iuuat exanimis proiectaque praeda canesque
degeneresque lupos, magnos alit ira leones.
(Theb. 12.736–40)
It is wearisome for Theseus to avail himself of his fleeing enemy, nor
does his right hand deem such easy bloodshed worthy. The rest of the
men on his side rage in the blood of the crowd: so a lifeless prey,
spread out, is a delight to dogs and degenerate wolves, but anger is
what nourishes great lions.Here, Theseus does not deign to pursue his foes, a striking contrast to
the tendency of heroes in epic to pursue those in flight, and Statius
also refrains from naming Theseus’ colleagues who do go after the
enemy, simply referring to them with the striking periphrasis cetera
uirtus. But, once again, Statius suggests an alternative way of con-
ducting battle narrative, only to go on to give us a perfunctory taste of
the traditional mode as well. Thus, at 12.741–51 there is a brief set of
individuals killed by Theseus, including three brothers, a last glance at
the fraternal theme, before, interestingly, Theseus fails to kill Hae-
mon. There is then a final duel, obviously echoing the end of the Ae-
neid as well as the duel of Polynices and Eteocles, as scholars have
pointed out,^21 but even more perfunctory. Again we see the Statian
te chnique of foreshortening applied here, since the only acts of com-
bat are two casts of spears, one each from Theseus and Creon, who
conveniently receives a fatal wound. Contrast the more extensive
combat of Hector and Achilles in Iliad 22, and that of Aeneas and
Turnus in Aeneid 12, where Virgil gives an elaborate account of the
heroes clashing in single combat. Before Aeneas’ fatal throw against
Turnus, incidents take place such as the breaking of Turnus’ sword,
Aeneas’ spear becoming stuck in the olive tree, and Turnus’ cast of a
stone at Aeneas. Moreover, Turnus is famously not killed by Aeneas’
spear, and Aeneas finishes him and the poem with a final sword-blow
at the end.^22 Statius, however, cuts to the chase by having Theseus
throw his first spear at Creon and at the same time invoke the lan-
guage of sacrifice used by Aeneas at the end of the Aeneid when he
21 See e.g. Hardie 1997, 152–3; Pollmann 2004, 26–7; McNelis 2007, 161–3.
22 Hardie 1997, 145–8 usefully analyses the importance of delay in the closing
phases of the Aeneid.