Statius, Thebaid 8: Edited with an Introduction, Translation, and Commentary Hardcover 0199655332 9780199655335 Augoustakis, Antony

This is a Brand New book in excellent condition.

• Format: Hardcover
• Author: Augoustakis, Antony
• ISBN10: 0199655332
• ISBN13: 9780199655335

Composed at the end of the first century CE, Statius Thebaid recounts the civil war in Thebes between the two sons of Oedipus, Polynices and Eteocles, and the horrific events that take place on the battlefield. Its author, the Roman poet Statius, employed a wide variety of Greco-Roman
sources in order to narrate the Argive expedition against Thebes and the fratricidal war. Book 8 opens with the descent of the Argive seer Amphiaraus to the Underworld through a chasm of the earth; the soldiers mourn their seers loss and elect a successor, Thiodamas, who placates Earth Tellus
through a prayer, before the opening of the second day of hostilities. The book reaches its climax when fierce Tydeus is mortally wounded and dies having committed an act of cannibalism by eating his opponents brains; Minerva leaves the battlefield in disgust, taking away from her protege the
intended gift of immortality.

In this volume, Augoustakis presents the first full-length edition of Thebaid 8, with text and apparatus criticus, and an English translation. A detailed introduction discusses the Argive/Theban myth in the Greek and Roman literary tradition and art, as well as the reception of the book in
subsequent centuries, especially in Dantes Divine Comedy. The accompanying commentary provides useful notes which explore questions of interpretation and Statius language and literary craft, with particular emphasis on the exploitation of various Greek and Latin intertexts in Statius poetry.