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stcantarella · 3 months

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normal problem im running into

#100 #cicero....#save me #cicero #thebaid #pharsalia

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ironspdr6700 · 3 months

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I'm up to book 2 of the Thebaid and Tydeus is officially my favorite character. You begin to understand why Athena is much colder towards Diomedes in the Iliad compared to Odysseus.

In my last post I teased that Tydeus was the original Warrior of the Mind but after reading this book I think it would be more appropriate to consider him an anti-Odysseus.

Let me explain… Polyneices and Tydeus arrive banished to the city of Argos, where they become friends (after trying to murder each other) and King Adrastus marries them to his daughters. Adrastus promises to help them recover their kingdoms, starting with Polyneices. Tydeus offers himself as an ambassador so that Eteocles (brother of Polyneices) voluntarily gives up the throne.

Now, this episode is taken directly from book 4 of the Iliad, Agamemnon confronts Diomedes:

"In the palace of strong Eteocles many Thebans were gathered at a banquet; but not even there, being a guest and alone among so many, was the excellent horseman Tydeus troubled"

But while Odysseus is a master of speeches and knows how to win over his audience with the right words, Tydeus is extremely aggressive, arrogant and rude:

"…not with rhetoric and composed serious, humble and measured prayer; but he is rude in language. And so, that loud voice, naked of flattery and with daring and with much pride, spoke like this…"

Eteocles obviously refuses and Tydeus can think of no better way to end this embassy than to threaten the king with death and, to add insult to injury, publicly remind him that his father was his mother's son (did I forget to mention that Eteocles and Polyneices are children of Oedipus?)

"What do I wonder about, if the crime has been inherited from parents and grandparents? What should be expected from someone who was born from such incest in a desecrated bed?"

That was a low blow, man.

#greek mythology #odysseus #tydeus #thebaid #Statius #diomedes #the iliad #warrior of the mind #epic the musical

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deathlessathanasia · 1 month

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Which part of the Thebaid says that Hephaestus would do anything for Aphrodite including make weapons for her lover Ares? That’s actually kinda messed up.

Book 3 I think? Yeah, it's kind of messed up, though Venus is the one who makes this claim to Mars when he is ordered by Jupiter to rouse the Argives to war against the Thebans:

„‘O finest of fathers, war against Thebes, is it war you plan, The destruction of your own descendants? Harmonia’s race, And the union we celebrated in heaven, and these my tears, Do they not deter you, madman? Is this the reward for my Shame? Is this what my lost name and honour, and Lemnos’ Net of chain deserve from you? Go your way, freely, yet Elsewhere Vulcan defers to me, and my wronged husband Though angered, serves me yet. If I ordered him to sweat For me, spending sleepless nights at his everlasting forge, He would be pleased and toil at new weapons, even for you. But you – I seek to move stone, a heart of bronze, with my Requests. …’”

So she might be exaggerating here in order to get Mars to do the „pick me” dance, but more likely this is actually the truth since Vulcan seems so much more of a simp for Venus than Hephaistos for Aphrodite, as also shown in Book 8 of the Aeneid.

#ask #venus #vulcan #aphrodite #hephaistos #thebaid #statius

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sarafangirlart · 10 days

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I wonder how Aphrodite and especially Ares felt about Hera persecuting their grandchildren. Do you know of any sources that detail that at all?

Closest I could find is this part in the Thebaid, since Hera wanted to destroy Thebes.

#greek mythology #ancient greek mythology #greek pantheon #greek goddess #hera #hera goddess #hera deity #hera greek mythology #ares #ares greek god #ares god of war #ares deity #aphrodite greek mythology #aphrodite goddess #aphrodite #ares x aphrodite #thebaid

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phrogarmyinvasion · 2 months

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I am sad to report that I, too, have fallen trap to the Roman empire. It crosses my mind at least 13 times a day. Or at least, that is on a day where I take breaks from thinking about it at all. I think of Rome and Greece so often that my Pinterest is entirely old statues and paintings. The amount of time I have scoured the internet for references to Iphis outside of Metamorphoses is shameful. Literally right now I am taking a break from creating a screenplay adaptation of the Thebaid. And prior to that, I was making phone wallpaper collages of Icarus, Achilles, and other figures.

HELP ME!!!

#ancient rome #roman empire #ancient greece #myth #ancient greek mythology #ancient roman mythology #greek mythology #roman mythology #iphis #collage #thebaid #ovid's metamorphoses #achilles #icarus

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catilinas · 1 year

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statius asking really good questions about at which point extreme mourning turns into a little bit of corpse desecration. sexy!!!

#i’ve only had thebaid book 3 for ten minutes and i’m. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa #a matrona can become a necromancer if she feels like it. it would be sexy of her even!#thebaid #beeps

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verdantlyviolet · 9 months

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“I have deserved Your refusal of mercy. Well then: rattle Your quiver and pluck Your twanging bowstring — dispatch a noble soul to death! But, as I expire, dispel that heavy miasma which hangs, sicky and pale, over Argos.” Those who earn Her respect find that Chance plays fair: impressed by the victim, Leto’s ardent son stayed His hand; won over, He lavished an unwelcome boon on the hero — his life. The evil haze scattered and fled the sky while you, Coroebus, exonerated, left stunned Apollo’s threshold. And so, each year, our solemn feasts repeat the appointed rituals. The honour, renewed, cheers Phoebus’ shrines.

-Thebaid, Statius 1.655

#Arneis #Apollon #Linos #Psamathe #Thebaid #shrines

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frequentpondcrosser · 1 year

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#poetry #robinson jeffers #Thebaid #faith

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medeaofcanva · 2 years

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i did not have "getting peer pressured into reading statius's thebaid" on my summer 2022 bingo card but here we are

#y'all have convinced me....hopefully soon....#tagamemnon #statius #thebaid #latin

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latinthusiast · 2 years

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Statius' Ide

So for the uninitiated, Ide is a mother whose twin sons die in a horrible massacre before the war at Thebes in the Thebaid, and she's described desperately searching for them on the battlefield in book 3 like so:

at vaga per dumos vacuique in pulvere campi magna parens iuvenum, gemini nunc funeris, Ide squalentem sublata comam liventiaque ora ungue premens - nec iam infelix miserandaque, verum terror inest lacrimis -, per et arma et corpora passim canitiem inpexam dira tellure volutans quaerit inops natos omnique in corpore plangit. (Theb.3.133-9)

"but wandering through the groves and in the dust of the empty camp the great mother of the youths, the twins now dead, Ide, lifting up her dirt-caked hair and pressing her pale mouth hard with her fingernail - no longer unlucky and pitiable, there is terror in her tears - through the arms and bodies everywhere she rolls over the uncombed grey on the horrible earth, uselessly seeks her sons, and wails over every corpse."

Now, in book 4 we meet Hypsipyle, who is watching a baby (Opheltes), and I had never noticed this before, but when she puts down Opheltes (below) Statius refers to the myth of Cybele (who, in this case, hides baby Jupiter from his son-eating father by dancing and making music) around Mt Ide:

simul haerentem, ne tarda Pelasgis dux foret, a! miserum vicino caespite alumnum - sic Parcae volvere - locat ponique negantis floribus adgestis et amico murmure dulces solatur lacrimas: qualis Berecyntia mater, dum parvum circa iubet exultare Tonantem Curetas trepidos; illi certantia plaudunt orgia, sed magnis resonat vagitibus Ide. (Theb.4.785-92)

"At the same time, lingering lest she become a slow leader to the Pelasgians -- alas! she places the pitiful babe on the nearby grass -- so the Fates spin it -- and she consoles the tender tears of the boy, as he refused to be placed in the heaping flowers, with a soothing murmur: just so, the Berecyntian mother, while she ordered the nervous Curetes to dance around near tiny Tonans; they pound their competing dances, but Mount Ide nonetheless resounds with the babe's thunderous wailing."

Like, okay, this is just my late-night ramblings (and late-night translations, so sorry if there are mistakes) but like... okay Ide is weeping almost endlessly over this massive pile of corpses and then later this (different) Ide is also, despite Cybele's best efforts, ringing with the sound of weeping. Ironically, Opheltes' tears go unheeded which directly leads to his death (he cries being put down in the spot where a snake crushes him, actually maybe also making him unable to cry) and Jupiter's tears need to be un-heed-able to keep him alive... anyway not to get too into it but the echo of Ide in book 4 has until now totally escaped my notice.

#statius #latin poetry #latin epic #thebaid #ide #ida #hypsipyle #cybele #myth #greek myth #roman myth

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lykeios · 4 months

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Parthenopeus dying!! while he apologizes to his mother!! i am unwell

#thebaid #seven against thebes #tagamemnon #queueusque tandem abutere catilina patientia nostra #classics #classical literature #the aeneid #homer #the iliad #greek mythology #latin literature #roman mythology #aeschylus

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zz7zrm2xosa · 1 year

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Cute babe Carmen Croft in her sexy lingerie gets fucked hard on the couch after sucking dick Dildo Anal amateur She is One Classy HARDCORE Slut sucking dick in a public bathroom (in cleveland hmu) Daylight Woooooork Latina Tranny Bearded man plays with Kims titties before she takes his big cock desi play boy chubby teen big naturals gets big facial on webcam Trailer : Mamadas hasta los huevos, enculadas animales, folladas asesinas Delish has a red pussy orgasm with hitachi

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ironspdr6700 · 3 months

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Me, thinking to read Statious' Thebaid: I'm here to expand my knowledge of the Classical Literature.

My stupid brain obsessed with Homer's Iliad and the Odyssey + Epic the Musical: I'm here for Tydeus (AKA Diomedes' father, AKA the guy that Athena was going to make immortal)

...perhaps the great Tydeus came to stop, who in the same rigor of the insane time, also brought an ugly case to Argos: fleeing for the death of his brother, leaving Calydon and his father, Oeneus....

Me, talking with my brain: Be calm... Be calm... Don't cry as when you met Brian Azarello.

...the Calidonian was small...

My brain: OMG! TYDEUS WAS THE ORIGINAL SHORT-DYSSEUS!!!

#greek mythology #Statius #thebaid #The Iliad #the odyssey #epic the musical #athena #odysseus #diomedes #Tydeus #What if Tydeus was the original Warrior of the Mind?#What is wrong with my brain?

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deathlessathanasia · 5 months

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„Mars, proud of his task, and still aflame in his burning Chariot, tugged the reins leftwards. He had just reached His journey’s end, plunging from the sky, when Venus Took her stand fearlessly there before his horses. They Reared back, their rigid manes subsiding in supplication. Then leaning against the top of the shaft, her tearful face Averted, while the horses bowed their heads and champed The foaming bit before their mistress’ feet, she spoke out:

‘O finest of fathers, war against Thebes, is it war you plan, The destruction of your own descendants? Harmonia’s race, And the union we celebrated in heaven, and these my tears, Do they not deter you, madman? Is this the reward for my Shame? Is this what my lost name and honour, and Lemnos’ Net of chain deserve from you? Go your way, freely, yet Elsewhere Vulcan defers to me, and my wronged husband Though angered, serves me yet. If I ordered him to sweat For me, spending sleepless nights at his everlasting forge, He would be pleased and toil at new weapons, even for you. But you – I seek to move stone, a heart of bronze, with my Requests. Yet regarding this alone I entreat you, simply this: Why did you have me wed my dear daughter, Harmonia, To a Tyrian husband, those fatal nuptials, boasting that Tyrians of Cadmus’ serpent-blood, a race descending From the line of Jove, would be renowned in battle, their Hearts eager for action? How I wish the girl had married Beyond Thrace and Boreas, beneath the Sithonian Bear! Was it not shame enough that Venus’ daughter slithers Across the ground, shedding venom over Illyrian turf? Yet now an innocent people –’

Here the lord of war Could stand her tears no longer. Switching his spear To his left hand he leapt from his tall chariot in a trice, Clasping her to his shield, bruising her in his grip. Then with fond words he attempted to soothe her. ‘O my solace after war, my sacred delight, my soul’s Only peace, you alone of the deities have the power To face my weapons without harm, to stand before These steeds though they neigh amongst the slaughter, And snatch this sword from my hand. I do not forget That marriage of Sidonian Cadmus, nor your loyalty (Seek no pleasure in false reproaches!): I’d sooner, God though I am, be plunged in my uncle’s infernal Deeps, and be led helpless among the pallid shades. Yet, charged with carrying out the Fates’ warnings, And the supreme father’s will (since Vulcan is no fit Choice for the task) how can I oppose Jove or flout His decree? Even now I saw the earth, sky and sea Tremble at his words (what power!) and saw the ranks Of deities cowed. But, have no fear, love, in the end Since no power can prevent it, I will be there when Those two nations battle beneath the walls of Thebes, To aid them, allied in arms. Through blood-drenched Fields you’ll see me seal the Argives doom, nor will I Disappoint you. It is my right, the Fates agree.’”

– Statius, the Thebaid

#statius #thebaid #venus #mars #aphrodite #ares #quotes #excerpts #venus and mars #them ❤️

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brother-emperors · 1 year

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WHAT DOOM FOR YOU?

back again with my Please Read The Thebaid Agenda! I adapted the ending of Book VII into a comic because oh boy. thoughts thoughts thoughts.

There is a horror in having yourself altered to such a degree where you are unrecognizable in your own self, to know that it is happening, to know that you should be dead and yet you are not. You have already seen the moment of your death!!!! (Stat. Theb. 3.537 – 47) There's a horror in knowing, and in it being treated as an act of love when it's really more like a violation. Amphiaraus is spared Creon's decree, but by falling into the underworld, it makes things worse on a cosmic scale.