Statius, Thebaid 8 by Antony Augoustakis

BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 419 imagery conflicts with Lucretius’ aim of bringing dark subjects before his reader’s eyes. Fratantuono presents a rather bleak view of the DRN, despite its many positive pleasurable aspects and the fact that Lucretius surely intended Epicureanism to appear attractive to his reader. Where the content is less palatable, Lucretius’ reader is armed to feel calm detachment (Epicurean ataraxia). This is overlooked by Fratantuono, perhaps understandably, since his book is “not . . . a primer in Greek philosophy” (x). Yet Lucretius without Epicureanism is scarcely Lucretius at all. Fratantuono suggests the goal of his book might be “to instil a deeper love for Lucretius in his readers” (xi). However, the Lucretius Fratantuono presents, with science divorced from poetry and philosophy subordinate to narrative, is far from the Lucretius this reader knows and loves. Wellington College Matthew Johncock Statius, THEBAID 8. Edited with an Introduction, Translation, and Commentary by Antony Augoustakis. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2016. Pp. lxxv, 449. In the last decade, Antony Augoustakis has contributed significantly to our understanding of Flavian poetry: himself the author of thought-provoking interpretations, he has also engaged other scholars in the task of further defining the “Flavian Renaissance.”1 Now he approaches Statius within the more traditional and, to a certain extent, more rigid compass of a full-scale commentary on Statius’ Thebaid 8 (the first since Caspar von Barth’s handling of the book in his collection of notes on Statius’ works),2 thus adding a welcome and long-awaited contribution to the Oxford University Press’s corpus of commentaries on single books of the Thebaid.3 This detailed and careful volume enriches the landscape of Statian studies with a solid, up-to-date resource and was certainly worth the wait. The volume contains a general introduction, the Latin text with critical apparatus, an English translation, the commentary, and an extensive (but not overwhelming) bibliography . Augoustakis masters an impressive number of primary and secondary sources, and his handling of the bibliography is forward looking. He systematically uses the most recent works on the transmission and reception of Statius4 to assert their relevance in improving our knowledge of the manuscripts and clarifying the poet’s position in the culture of modern Europe. Additionally, he takes into account unpublished or in-progress contributions , allowing us to glimpse future developments in the study of Flavian literature. The introduction balances information and interpretation. Information is provided concisely and effectively, with reference to the most recent critical literature: Statius is 1 He has edited volumes such as Flavian Epic (Oxford Readings in Classical Studies) (Oxford 2016) and Ritual and Religion in Flavian Epic (Oxford 2013). 2 C. von Barth, P.P. Statii quae exstant (3 vols., Zwickau 1664). 3 See M. Dewar (ed.), Statius, Thebaid IX (Oxford 1991); R. Parkes, Statius, Thebaid 4 (Oxford 2012); and K. Gervais (ed.), Statius, Thebaid 2 (Oxford 2017). 4 See especially J. B. Hall, A. L. Ritchie, and M. J. Edwards, P. Papinius Statius: Thebaid and Achilleid (3 vols.; Newcastle 2008); H. Anderson, The Manuscripts of Statius (3 vols.; Arlington 2009); V. Berlincourt, Commenter la Thébaı̈de (16e–19e s.): Caspar von Barth et la tradition exégétique de Stace (Leiden 2013). 420 PHOENIX discussed as poet between two worlds5 and a biography is provided that focuses on the poet’s relationship with his father as its most relevant and securely historical element. In presenting the Thebaid, attention is paid to exemplary critical readings of the poem as a whole, and to links of Book 8 with Books 2, 4, and 7. Augoustakis gathers an exhaustive list of Greek and Latin sources for Amphiaraus’ katabasis and hero worship (xxiv–xxx) and Tydeus’ cannibalism (xxx–xl), and he covers in detail the reception (lviii–lxxiii) of Thebaid 8, from antiquity (noting potential intertexts in Tacitus and Juvenal) to the Renaissance and beyond, with insights into the vernacular tradition, fifteenth-century neo-Latin epic, and the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English translations that so vastly contributed to "the dissemination of the poem to wider audiences” (lxxii). The extent of Statius’ influence on later centuries inevitably limits Augoustakis to providing us with what is chie...

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