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COLOUR TERMS AND THE CREATION OF STATIUS’ EKPHRASTIC STYLE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2021

Lorenza Bennardo
Lorenza Bennardo*
Affiliation:
University of Toronto Mississauga
*
lorenza.bennardo@utoronto.ca
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Abstract

This paper focusses on colour terminology as a tool for achieving ἐνάργεια (pictorial vividness) in the Latin poetry of the first century c.e. After briefly outlining the developments in the concept of ἐνάργεια from Aristotle to Quintilian, the paper considers the use of Latin terms for black in three descriptive passages from Statius’ epic poem, the Thebaid. It is observed that the poet privileges the juxtaposition of the two adjectives ater and niger in a pattern of uariatio, where ater often carries a figurative meaning and repeats established poetic clichés, while niger is part of unparalleled collocations that evoke a material notion of blackness. Further analysis of the uariatio in the context of each passage reveals that the juxtaposition of the two-colour terms enhances the vividness of the objects described not only by increasing their chromatic impact but also by establishing connections with other parts of the poem, and by inviting a reflection on the competing practices of imitation and transgression of poetic models. The analysis of one stylistic feature (the use of colour terms in uariatio) shows that this stylistic feature is used by Statius for achieving ἐνάργεια as an artistic effect, for reflecting on ἐνάργεια as an instrument through which poetic models are challenged, and for tying his own poetic practice to contemporary rhetorical discussions.

Keywords

StatiusThebaidLatin epicenargeiacolour termsaterniger
Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 71 , Issue 1 , May 2021 , pp. 292 - 307
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association

INTRODUCTION

In the language of modern scholarship, the word ἔκφρασις mainly indicates the verbal description of a work of art. In ancient criticism, however, the term broadly referred to any descriptive discourse displaying its content vividly before the audience's mental eye.Footnote 1 Ancient rhetorical handbooks tell us that a variety of topics qualified as subject matter for an ἔκφρασις (descriptions of places, characters, events, actions and even artistic objects); however, what defined a descriptive passage as ἔκφρασις was its effect on the audience's mind. Through the qualities of σαφήνεια (clarity) and ἐνάργεια (pictorial vividness), ἐκφράσεις solicited the imaginative response of readers or listeners, led them to visualize with their mind's eye the content of a verbal representation, and ultimately turned them into ‘eyewitnesses’ of the textual contents.Footnote 2 The idea that certain combinations of words can achieve the effect of ‘placing their subject-matter before the eyes’ (πρὸ ὀμμάτων ποιεῖν) goes back to Aristotle, who, discussing metaphors in the Rhetoric, explains that the ‘visibility’ of a text is the effect of that ‘vigour’ or ‘animation’ (ἐνέργεια) produced by the representation of actions in progress and/or of animated subjects.Footnote 3 In the Poetics, however, Aristotle invites the tragic poet to keep both the μῦθος and the λέξις of his composition in front of his eyes (πρὸ ὀμμάτων) in order to visualize them very vividly (ἐναργέστατα) and find what is appropriate (τὸ πρέπον) to express them.Footnote 4 Modern interpreters acknowledge that Aristotle primarily and systematically associated the concept of πρὸ ὀμμάτων ποιεῖν with ἐνέργεια; however, they also observe that his notion of a ‘vigorous’ and ‘animated’ textual representation tended to encroach upon the idea of ‘vivid’ description endowed with ἐνάργεια. While the contiguity of ἐνέργεια and ἐνάργεια in Aristotelian discussions generated confusion among the philosopher's early interpreters,Footnote 5 it seems clear that, over time, the concept of ‘placing before the eyes’ became increasingly associated with the notion of ἐνάργεια.Footnote 6

For example, the author of the treatise On the Sublime distinguishes between rhetorical φαντασίαι, whose object is ἐνάργεια, that is, to present things vividly, and poetic φαντασίαι, whose aim is to achieve ἔκπληξις (lit. ‘the state of being startled out’);Footnote 7 however, he also applies the comparative ἐναργέστερον (‘more vividly’) to Simonides’ representation, in a lost poem, of Achilles’ epiphany to the Greeks.Footnote 8 The anonymous author's flexibility in handling his rhetorical terminology suggests that, by the late first century c.e., ἐνάργεια was perceived as a larger rhetorical concept applicable to poetry as well.Footnote 9

In his work Περὶ ἑρμηνείας, Demetrius follows Aristotle closely when discussing ἐνέργεια (‘animation’) as a feature of metaphorical discourse; in the same treatise, however, he also develops a detailed non-Aristotelian theory of ‘evidence’ (ἐνάργεια). A component of the plain (ἰσχνός) style, Demetrius’ descriptive ἐνάργεια is achieved through the precision of details (ἀκριβολογία), the use of repetitions and symmetrical structures (διλογία), the gradual (κατὰ μικρόν) introduction of new elements, and the selection of cacophonous or onomatopoetic words to produce phonetic mimesis.Footnote 10 The examples used by Demetrius to illustrate his notion of ἐνάργεια suggest that he understands vividness as a writer's ability to capture impressive facts in a snapshot, a sort of pictura in tabula.Footnote 11

The notion of πρὸ ὀμμάτων ποιεῖν inherited by Roman rhetors has a lot to do with the Demetrian formulation: considered as a standard component of Greek rhetorical theory, ἐνάργεια in Latin rhetoric is the vividness of detailed descriptions that compels the audience to mentally visualize textual objects, and to experience emotional involvement with the text.Footnote 12 The terminology employed in Latin rhetorical works is revealing: Cicero calls ἐνάργεια euidentia; Quintilian uses sub oculos subiectio and the Ciceronian euidentia as synonyms.Footnote 13 For Quintilian, in particular, ἐνάργεια is achieved through the accumulation and precision of details that allows the author to go beyond the mere verbal exposition (dicere) in order to ‘exhibit’ (ostendere) the images represented as if they were things. In other words, Quintilian's ἐνάργεια is a virtue of style by which orators and poets paint with words entire scenes (tota rerum imago quodam modo uerbis depingitur)Footnote 14 inducing their audience to imagine even more details beyond what is actually said.Footnote 15

In different modes, Latin poets of the first century c.e. reflect, in their writing, the interest in visuality that emerges from the Latin rhetorical culture of the same period, and which is defined in Quintilian's work. The ekphrastic style of the Flavian poet Statius, in particular, represents fertile territory for investigating how the notion of ἐνάργεια turns into poetic practice in early imperial literature. The visual quality of Statius’ style, long dismissed as baroque mannerism,Footnote 16 has been re-evaluated in recent studies. Helen Lovatt, for example, defines Statius as ‘the arch-describer’, whose ‘ability to evoke the visual’ and whose ‘relationship to works of art provided fascination and interest’ even when his works were not critically acclaimed.Footnote 17 In the first book-length study of ἔκφρασις in the Thebaid, Francesca Econimo acknowledges that Statius’ style is characterized by a constant attention to visual details and by a pervasive focus on the vividness of verbal expression that is capable of further stimulating the audience's imagination.Footnote 18 Through his constant attention to the vividness of his poetic diction—we can add—Statius’ poetry responds precisely to Quintilian's understanding of ἐνάργεια as a virtue of style.

In this paper I focus on colour terms as a central element of Statius’ ekphrastic style, appealing to the audience's linguistic awareness and literary memory, creating vivid images that inspire the audience's emotional reaction, and ultimately fulfilling the fundamental goal of ἐνάργεια according to post-Aristotelian rhetorical theories.Footnote 19 I consider Statius’ use of two common Latin terms for blackness, ater and niger, repeatedly juxtaposed in uariatio.Footnote 20 I argue that, by means of this rhetorical device, Statius enhances the chromatic impact of a series of miniaturesFootnote 21 (the polluted sky of a pestilence, the mourning Jocasta, Amphiaraus’ quasi-ghost), and creates an effect of amplificatio that illuminates the relationship between the miniatures and their narrative contexts. I observe that, in the passages considered, ater systematically alludes to poetic models in normative ways,Footnote 22 looking back to established and mostly affective meanings of the term in epic language.Footnote 23 niger, on the other hand, always extends its semantic range to represent a material notion of blackness. I argue that, as a consequence, the uariatio with the two terms is mapped onto the tension between formulaic epic language and the opportunities to break and renew its clichés, while also inviting a reflection on the competing practices of imitation and transgression of poetic models. Importantly, moreover, Statius’ use of niger, while allowing him to reclaim the materiality of the objects that he describes, also fits in the ancient perception of colours as primarily material notions.Footnote 24 In the context of the conservative colour aesthetics of the Early Imperial era,Footnote 25 Statius’ experiments with the semantics of niger allow him to revive and renovate poetic colour clichés by linking them to the perceptible reality. While generating ἐνάργεια in the poet's miniature descriptions, Statius’ poetics of blackness forces the figurative colour clichés of his models into a conversation with the broader cultural pattern that tied ideas of colour to the material world. In particular, Statius’ systematic reappropriation of the materiality of niger suggests that the poet is renegotiating the semantics of colour in between the cultural background of ancient colour perception, the shared knowledge of literary clichés, and his own sensitivity to the potential of colour notation for engaging the audience's emotive response.

ATER AND NIGER IN LATIN POETRY

Among the variety of Latin words and periphrases that express the idea of ‘black’, ater appears to have been, in mid Republican Latin, the standard word for blackness as absence of light and opacity, without affective connotations.Footnote 26 However, since the first century b.c. and especially with Lucretius, ater specialized as a poetic word, developing figurative meanings such as ‘horrid’, ‘terrifying’, ‘mournful’, ‘sad’, with the purely chromatic meaning being eventually effaced.Footnote 27 At the same time, the adjective was replaced by niger in prose and spoken Latin.Footnote 28 Attested as early as ater, niger was initially associated with words implying the idea of splendour, thus indicating a brilliant black; by the Classical period, however, the term became ‘le seul à marquer le noir, dans toute son extension’.Footnote 29 Despite being, by this point, mainly a word of the sermo cotidianus opposed to the poetic ater, niger also began to acquire a range of figurative meanings comparable to those of ater.Footnote 30

In Latin poetry, Virgil played a major role in establishing ater as a poetic word: the term appears seventy-one times in the Aeneid and eleven in the Georgics.Footnote 31 Virgil uses the adjective, often in formulaic line-endings, to qualify themes such as the Underworld,Footnote 32 storms and clouds,Footnote 33 night and darkness,Footnote 34 the Homeric γαῖα μέλαινα and the dust raised by clashing armies,Footnote 35 firesFootnote 36 and blood:Footnote 37 as commentators observe, with several of those themes ater often implies more than just colour. Mostly affective, on the other hand, appears to be Virgil's use of ater for personifications,Footnote 38 ‘deadly’ or ‘mournful’ animals, or dangerous places.Footnote 39

Occasionally, Virgil stretches well-known images by means of unusual collocations, where ater remains suspended between literal and figurative meanings. Such is the case, for example, with the synaesthetic phrase ater odor (Aen. 12.591), twisting the image of dark flames (here, of a fire set to a beehive) but also graphically alluding to blurred sense perception. At Aen. 7.525–6 atra … seges, Virgil intensifies the chromatic oxymoron implied by the image of the crop of weaponsFootnote 40 through the substitution of ater for ferreus: in contrast to the shades of yellow evoked by seges, ater radicalizes the idea of this peculiar ‘crop’ as disturbingly dark, sinister and ultimately deadly.

Except for those cases in which the term substitutes for a metrically impossible ater,Footnote 41 Virgil prefers to use niger when referring to the perceptible darkness of various objects,Footnote 42 sometimes in the context of a colour contrast.Footnote 43

In the first century c.e. the usage of epic poets (with the exception of Silius)Footnote 44 reflects the gradual convergence of ater and niger into a flexible notion of darkness.

Lucan employs ater and niger fifteen times each: either adjective is used to represent the darkness of funeral pyres,Footnote 45 clouds and winds,Footnote 46 and the depths of the sea.Footnote 47 Wounds dark with clotted blood are atra (Luc. 6.750–1 atraque … | uulnera), but putrid blood is elsewhere niger (Luc. 6.547–8 nigram … saniem; 9.772 nigra tabe).Footnote 48 On the other hand, the darkness of night is generally ater, perhaps because it is sinister (Luc. 1.579, 3.424, 9.839), while a number of ‘objects’ actually black are qualified by niger.Footnote 49

Valerius Flaccus, using ater seventeen times and niger fourteen times, describes winds, storms and the like with either niger (2.365 Eurus; 4.578 pontus) or ater (1.81–2 atro | aethere); likewise, for the Homeric γαῖα μέλαινα he has nigra harena (6.716, following Verg. G. 4.291) but also atroque in puluere (6.415). He can use atris imbribus (5.176) for the outpouring of putrid blood, or the Virgilian sanguine atro (6.708), but also nigro tabo (1.815).Footnote 50 He has atra ueste (3.406) and nigramque … pallam (2.106) and, for unearthly creatures, atraeque … Irae (2.205) and niger … | portitor (1.783, of Charon). With metus, Valerius uses niger twice (2.45; 4.404) instead of the expected ater; on the other hand, he conforms to poetic usage preserving ater for ‘black fires’Footnote 51 and niger for black animals (6.111 agmine nigro, of dogs; 1.147 nigro … equo).Footnote 52 When he elaborates on well-known poetic images, Valerius appears to prefer ater: the dying Phaethon becomes an ater globus (5.430); Apsyrtus, descendant of the Sun, rides black horses (6.522–3 atris … equis);Footnote 53 and the Harpies’ squalid filth is represented through the unusual collocation unguibus … atris (4.457).Footnote 54 At 3.499–500 uiden Arctoo de cardine quanta | tollat se nubes atque aequore pendeat atro?, Valerius creates a surprise effect by transferring the colour term: instead of being used to describe a powerful agent looming over the battlefield like a cloud,Footnote 55 ater modifies aequore, suggesting that the blackness has been displaced onto the battlefield itself.

Credited by Bradley as the first poet who creatively handles the transferability of colour terms,Footnote 56 Statius uses ater fourty times and niger fourty-three times in the Thebaid alone,Footnote 57 often clustering the two adjectives with other terms for obscurity and gloom. Both ater and niger are used for sacrificial victims,Footnote 58 for Underworld dwellers and places,Footnote 59 for the darkness of night (or of night-like conditions)Footnote 60 and of clouds.Footnote 61 Occasionally, however, Statius’ use of ater seems to point to the affective meaning of the adjective. For example, rain-producing stars (Theb. 9.461 Oriona), stormy winds (Theb. 5.705 Auster; 8.411 Boreas) and the Ocean battered by them (Theb. 1.686–7) are all qualified by niger; however, at Theb. 3.122–3 ceu nulla prius lamenta nec atri | manassent imbres, the metaphorical ‘rainfall of tears’ (and the only instance of ater being associated with this theme in the Thebaid) encourages us to attach a figurative meaning to the colour term. Describing the ‘black uproar’ rising from the haunted field near Cape Taenarum, Theb. 2.51 stridor ibi et gemitus poenarum, atroque tumultu | feruet ager appears to recall Aen. 2.486 at domus interior gemitu miseroque tumultu,Footnote 62 with Statius’ atroque glossing Virgil's miseroque and echoing the sense of ‘grievous’, ‘distressing’ and ‘terrifying’ from the Virgilian adjective. As a counterpart to the ater tumultus of Cape Taenarum, Theb. 1.368 per nigra silentia describes the deep silenceFootnote 63 of the stormy night through which Polynices is lost on his way to Argos. In the two phrases, a visual element (darkness) is associated with auditory perceptions (or the lack thereof) to create a powerful synaesthesia: while the structural parallelism strengthens the impression that Statius uses ater and niger as interchangeable, the Virgilian model of Theb. 2.51 makes us wonder whether the poet is drawing our attention to the competition between the affective meaning of ater and the material connotations of niger.

The tension between the figurative and conventional meanings of ater and the transgressive materiality evoked by niger comes to the fore when the two terms are juxtaposed in uariatio. In such cases, ater tends to occupy the metrically convenient line-ending,Footnote 64 is part of formulaic expressions, and its usage finds parallels in Latin poetry. By contrast, niger is generally positioned with greater freedom in the hexameter and tends to exceed both its normal semantic range and its attested poetic usages. While the repetition of colour details determined by the uariatio adds to the pictorial vividness of the poet's miniatures, the juxtaposed adjectives invite us to contrast figurative with material darkness, conventional epic language with the poet's linguistic experiments, the repetition with the transgression of normative poetic gestures. Structured through the rhetorical device of uariatio, Statius’ use of colour terms thus achieves ἐνάργεια while offering a complex commentary on pictorial vividness in Latin poetry.

MONSTROUS DARKNESS

In our first example, the ἐνάργεια achieved by juxtaposing ater and niger not only makes a specific image conspicuous for the reader's mental eye but has also larger thematic implications regarding the entire episode of Linus and Coroebus.

At Theb. 1.645–8, Coroebus claims responsibility for slaying the monster sent by Apollo to avenge the death of Psamathe and her son Linus:

ego sum qui caede subegi,
Phoebe, tuum mortale nefas, quem nubibus atris
et squalente die, nigra quem tabe sinistri
quaeris, inique, poli.

Coroebus refers to the pestilence that devastates Argos by emphatically clustering words that evoke gloominess (646–7 atris | … squalente … nigra): Coroebus’ speech invites us to visualize the translucent squalor of an infectious daylight, overpowered by concurrent forms of darkness. The accumulation of chromatic details creates ἐνάργεια at a pivotal and original narrative juncture, with the hero confronting ‘face to face’ Apollo in the form of his cult statue.Footnote 65

The epic and formulaic phrase nubibus atris (646, in line-ending) translates the Homeric cliché of a νεφέλη μέλαινα/κυανέη alluding to both the ‘caliginous’ and the ‘mournful’ nature of the pestilential clouds.Footnote 66 As it evokes the material obscurity of the clouds, ater glances at poetic representations of the cause of the plague, that is, the gathering in the affected place of diseased air, frequently represented as a thick and gloomy atmosphere.Footnote 67 At the same time, the formula nubibus atris also echoes the use of emotive ater in association with a noun for ‘plague’.Footnote 68 nigra … tabe (647), on the other hand, is a rare phrase built around a word uncommon in Latin epic.Footnote 69 Statius is fond of using tabes and related words in a literal senseFootnote 70 that suggests decay by liquefaction into putrid matter.Footnote 71 At Theb. 1.647, tabes can be primarily understood as a literal reference to the rain as a ‘liquefaction of clouds’, following Lucr. 1.806 ut tabe nimborum arbusta uacillent. It is niger that, in Statius’ line, reinforces the material connotations of the noun and the visual impact of the image as a whole: on the one hand, the combination of tabes with nigra reminds us that poetic storms are often dark and squalid, sometimes pouring down like ‘black rivers’;Footnote 72 on the other hand, the colour term evokes other disturbing meanings of the noun, such as ‘rotten blood’ and ‘poisonous exundation’, familiar from other usages of tabes in the Thebaid and notably associated with ater in previous poetic occurrences.Footnote 73 In the context of Coroebus’ miniature description of the plague, then, nigra tabe is used to transform the ‘black rain’ pouring down from a malignant sky into a ‘rain of gore’,Footnote 74 contaminating well-known poetic clichés in order to craft a new and effective mental vision of the mortal disease.

The visualization of the Argive plague as a rain of gore is prepared and encouraged by Statius’ insistence, throughout the episode, on the blood of victims (Linus at Theb. 1.589–90; Poine's victims at Theb. 1.618, 1.636) and on the bloodshed caused by the various monsters.Footnote 75 Furthermore, the tainted rain of the contagion contributes a significant detail to the reading of Coroebus’ aition as a miniature of Oedipus’ story,Footnote 76 replicating, for the Argive pestilence, themes used to represent the Theban pestilence. Blackness, for example, is a dominant theme in Seneca's description of the Theban plague,Footnote 77 while in Sophocles the pollution caused by Oedipus’ crime buffets Thebes like a storm, procuring the deadly contagion: ἀνδρηλατοῦντας, ἢ φόνῳ φόνον πάλιν | λύοντας, ὡς τόδ’ αἷμα χειμάζον πόλιν (Soph. OT 100–1). Statius’ nigra tabe thus glances back to several conventional images without repeating any of them but combining them all in a new picture of major visual impact. Introduced in terms of normative epic language (nubibus atris), the pestilence is then described with words exceeding such a norm: the allusive use of niger allows the putrid rain of the contagion to materialize in front of the reader's eyes with enhanced pictorial vividness.

While reflecting, in general, ‘the polluting invasion of Death's disruptive force’Footnote 78 throughout the Thebaid, the accumulation of colour details also discloses the thematic importance of darkness in Adrastus’ tale: a prominent feature of the narrative that precedes the aition of Linus and Coroebus,Footnote 79 darkness establishes internal links and structures the representation of monstrosity throughout the episode.

Darkness is, in the first place, a feature of the primeval monster, Python (Theb. 1.562–9):

postquam caerulei sinuosa uolumina monstri
terrigenam Pythona, deus, septem orbibus atris
amplexum Delphos squamisque annosa terentem
robora, Castaliis dum fontibus ore trisulco
fusus hiat nigro sitiens alimenta ueneno,
perculit, absumptis numerosa in uulnera telis,
Cirrhaeique dedit centum per iugera campi
uix tandem explicitum, …

The opening of the aition is dominated, both visually and grammatically, by the image of the mythical snake: while Statius condenses in a little more than two lines Apollo's destruction of the dragon (1.567–9), the description of Python himself stretches, with abundance of visual details, over four lines, between deus (1.563) and perculit (1.567). Moreover, the miniature description of Python is opened by the Ennian caeruleus, a hyper-epic adjective that establishes the colour theme of the episode by evoking a problematic and elusive shade of darkness.Footnote 80 The dragon's unstable and visually deceptive darkness is then further defined and possibly complicated by another use in uariatio of ater (1.563) for the snake's monstrous body and of the ‘Ovidian’ niger (1.566) for its poison.Footnote 81

Darkness, however, is a consistent feature of monstrosity in Adrastus’ narrative. First, in order to avenge Psamathe's ‘black’ death (Theb. 1.595–6 atro … leto), Apollo summons the monstrous Poine, another dira lues (Theb. 1.601) following the venomous dragon Python and preceding the infection of the plague. As observed by Alison Keith,Footnote 82 Poine is, in general, described with the language of gore and contagion; in particular, her forehead is ferruginea (Theb. 1.600), and she is also black by implication because she rises from the Underworld.Footnote 83 The death of Poine at Coroebus’ hand cannot but generate further darkness, in the form of a pestilence that, as we have seen, is both deadly and hideous in its material appearance. While a persistent darkness links all the monsters appearing in the aition, the precise verbal echo created by the uariatio with ater/niger establishes a specific connection between Python and the pestilence, and between the beginning and the end of the tale. As a consequence, the pollution caused by the plague can be read as a repetition of the primeval infection caused by the dragon,Footnote 84 as the far-reaching result of the dragon's power in generating grief and doom,Footnote 85 and as a reflection of the dark and vengeful side of Apollo's divinity.Footnote 86 While the circular vocabulary of darkness employed in Adrastus’ tale mirrors the circularity of the narrative,Footnote 87 darkness itself becomes the marker of Apollo-related monstrosity, and disturbingly ties together the myth of Apollo's cosmogonic victory over Python with the god's own action as source of death and disorder. Far from being purely decorative, colour notation in the miniature of Apollo's cosmogonic triumph contributes in crucial ways to shape Adrastus’ narrative as a tale of unending divine violence.

FEMALE DARKNESS

Darkness also dominates the miniature of Jocasta at the Argive camp in Theb. 7.474–8:

ecce truces oculos sordentibus obsita canis
exangues Iocasta genas et bracchia planctu
nigra ferens ramumque oleae cum uelleris atri
nexibus, Eumenidum uelut antiquissima, portis
egreditur magna cum maiestate malorum.

The ἐνάργεια of Jocasta's Fury-like epiphanyFootnote 88 is achieved through a combination of absence of colour (Theb. 7.475 exangues … genas), faded whiteness (Theb. 7.474 sordentibus … canis) and blackness (Theb. 7.476 nigra … atri, surrounding the line).

Jocasta's mournful olive branch entwined with strands of black wool (Theb. 7.476–7) resonates with multiple literary echoes. While fillets in epic are often white, the phrase uelleris atri suggests that the colour of Jocasta's ornament is inspired by the darkness of Virgilian and Ovidian sacrificial victims: respectively, a lamb offered by Aeneas to the Night, mother of the Eumenides, ahead of his descent to the Underworld (Verg. Aen. 6.249–51 ipse atri uelleris agnam | Aeneas … | ense ferit), and the victim of an offering made by Medea (Ov. Met. 7.244–5 sacra facit cultrosque in guttura uelleris atri | conicit).Footnote 89 Through the memory of these Latin precedents, the wool bands of suppliant Jocasta acquire unusual infernal connections. Moreover, Jocasta's black fillets remind the reader of Euripides’ Jocasta who wears black clothes as a sign of proleptic mourning.Footnote 90 Once more ending the line, ater looks back again to normative poetic language and imagery, while also anticipating the poet's focus on Jocasta's emotions later in the poem.Footnote 91

In the unparalleled bracchia nigra, on the other hand, the colour term substitutes for commoner liueo and its derivatives in describing the bluish-black colour of the self-beaten skin during the pre-emptive planctus that expresses Jocasta's grief for the imminent duel opposing her sons.Footnote 92 Once again, the meaning of niger stretches beyond poetic usage, restoring the dramatic detail of the livid skin to a full sense of colour.Footnote 93 Thrown into relief by its initial position and by the hyperbaton and enjambement that distance it from bracchia, the colour term alerts us to the intratextual and intertextual resonances of Jocasta's intensified blackness. On the one hand, hideous mourning is the queen's distinguishing feature from early in Statius’ poem;Footnote 94 on the other hand, her nigra bracchia connect her to Lucan's grieving mothers in the second book of the Bellum Ciuile. Like Jocasta, Lucan's mothers are in mourning before the Civil War begins and one of them, described as madentis | scissa genas, planctu liuentis atra lacertos (Luc. 2.36–7),Footnote 95 closely anticipates the aspect of Jocasta in the Thebaid. While Lucan relies on the normative and alliterative liuentis lacertos for describing the woman's bruised arms, his use of atra has been interpreted as a reference to the psychological desolation of the matrona, mirroring the desolation of the entire city.Footnote 96 With Lucan's line in the background, Statius’ preference for niger over normative words for ‘livid’ makes the darkness of Jocasta's arms more immediately conspicuous for the reader's mental eye. Literally making Jocasta's bruises darker, niger suggests a peak of self-inflicted brutality and emphasizes the physical outcome of Jocasta's sorrow: her violently blackened skin continues the darkness of her fillets and functions almost as a substitute for the (Euripidean) mourning robe. Through the startling detail of her beaten arms, then, Statius’ queen impacts the reader as a literal embodiment of motherly grief.Footnote 97

As in Coroebus’ aition, moreover, the visual vividness of the queen's figure has larger narrative implications. ‘Black’ Jocasta shows up at dawn,Footnote 98 emerging from the obscurity of Thebes’ last night before the outbreak of war: while accompanied by daylight, at once awaited and feared by the Thebans, the mournful queen protracts the desolated darkness of the city into the following day.Footnote 99 The queen's epiphany, moreover, can be read as Statius’ response to the authorial comment that opened the narrative of the last night of Thebes: quis queat attonitas dictis ostendere Thebas? (Theb. 7.452). The rhetorical question chellenges the poet's ability to make the Thebans’ anguish (attonitas … Thebas) ‘visible’ for the reader: as observed by Smolenaars, the unparalleled phrase ostendere dictis introduces in this authorial address a reference to the concept of ἐνάργεια.Footnote 100 In particular, Statius’ phrasing reminds us of Quintilian's terminology, as the verb ostendere appears in several passages of the Institutio Oratoria to define the enhanced vividness of descriptions characterized by ἐνάργεια.Footnote 101 We may thus suggest that Statius’ choice of rhetorical vocabulary at the beginning of this particular narrative segment reasserts the central role of pictorial vividness in poetic descriptions of emotions. Embodying the grief of an entire city, carrying such grief into the new day, and with her epiphany concluding the narrative of the last night of Thebes before war, Jocasta's appearance functions as an immediate specimen of the poet's ability to turn emotional subjects into vivid pieces of poetic narration. Once more, Statius’ poetics of blackness endows a miniature description with ἐνάργεια, catching the reader's eye and opening up the text to a dense intertextual reading as the poetic tradition is remembered, challenged and surpassed through the use of colour terms.

GHOSTLY DARKNESS

When the Argive seer Amphiaraus abruptly enters the Underworld, swallowed up by the earth before the walls of Thebes, his lack of blackness startles the myriads of the dead (Theb. 8.4–8):

horror habet cunctos, Stygiis mirantur in oris
tela et equos corpusque nouum; nec enim ignibus atrisFootnote 102
conditus aut maesta niger aduentabat ab urna,
sed belli sudore calens, clipeumque cruentis
roribus et scissi respersus puluere campi.

To honour his priest Amphiaraus, Apollo decides to spare him from being killed by human hands, sending him to the Underworld while still alive.Footnote 103 Amphiaraus’ intact body as he enters the Underworld is a scandal (5 corpus nouum): sprinkled with red blood (7–8 cruentis | roribus … respersus) and hot with sweat (7 belli sudore calens), it fails to conform, in general, to the Underworld's dominant colour.Footnote 104 Moreover, the seer non-corpse signals that he has not received the funeral rites required in order to be admitted into the Underworld. Key among the unfulfilled ritual actions is the burning of the corpse on the funeral pyre:Footnote 105 Amphiaraus’ lack of blackness signals that the seer's body also fails to display the colour of a regular corpse. The burning of the corpse on the pyre is, in Statius’ text, referred to through the cliché of the ‘black fires’ and of the formula ignibus atris, first attested in Virgil,Footnote 106 Aen. 11.185–7 huc corpora quisque suorum | more tulere patrum, subiectis ignibus atris | conditur in tenebras altum caligine caelum. While imitating Virgil's placement of the formula in line-ending, and reprising the rhythm generated by ensuing condere, Statius also ‘corrects’ Virgil's surprising representation of the pyre (Aen. 11.187). By choosing to accompany conditur … caelum with the prepositional phrase in tenebras, and by pairing this phrase with subiectis ignibus atris, Virgil creates a paradoxical image in which the shooting up of murky fires is combined with the downward movement of the sky being engulfed in smoke.Footnote 107 In the Thebaid's lines, on the other hand, condere is restored to the more usual construction with the ablative, frequent when the verb means ‘bury’: instead of the expected word for ‘tomb’, however, Statius surprises the reader by placing in the ablative the black fires.Footnote 108 Statius’ ‘mistaken’ association of condere with the pyre is further emphasized by the displacement of a more appropriate referent for the verb in the following line (Theb. 8.6 maesta … ab urna),Footnote 109 a lexical imprecision that mirrors, at the level of language, the ritual inappropriateness of Amphiaraus’ descent. Moreover, as Virgil's lines belong to the account of the normative epic funerals performed by Trojans and Latins during the truce in Aeneid Book 11,Footnote 110 Statius’ close verbal imitation and the reuse of the formula ignibus atris further emphasize Amphiaraus’ failure to be honoured with a proper epic and heroic burial.Footnote 111

As for the use of niger in this passage, a close look at Statius’ lines reveals that the meaning of the adjective is, once more, stretched to express an unusual and vivid (lack of) blackness. niger in the sense of adustus (‘black because consumed by the fire’) is a Statian innovation, used only twice by the poet with reference to inanimate items.Footnote 112 The image of the scorched and blackened body, on the other hand, has a precedent in Valerius’ description of Phaethon in Argonautica 5.430 ater et Eridani trepidum globus ibat in amnem.Footnote 113 Valerius’ choice of a colour term is significant, as, for example, both Ovid and Statius, when describing Phaethon's demise, embed the idea of darkness in the participle fumans, focussing more on a detail of the main process (the burning of Phaethon) rather than on the visible consequences of that process on the character's body.Footnote 114 Valerius, however, is ‘watching’ Phaethon's story as part of the reliefs on the door of Apollo's temple: not only, in the context of an ἔκφρασις, making the colour detail explicit gives vividness to the image of the dying Phaethon, but the entire phrase ater globus pictorially summarizes the Ovidian image of Phaethon falling as a comet-like fireball that consumes and blackens at once the boy's body and the chariot of the sun.Footnote 115 While the Ovidian-Valerian Phaethon falls through the air like a burning comet, Valerius’ selection of ater for the image brings us back to the Virgilian paradox of the ‘black fires’. In depicting Amphiaraus’ strange, non-charred body, Statius exploits the uariatio with ater and niger to provide an articulate response to Valerius’ description of Phaethon as an ater globus. ater, Valerius’ own innovation, is restored by Statius to the normative expression ignibus atris, also a reference to the paradoxical and yet conventional image of the black fires implied in Valerius’ image. On the other hand, while repeating Valerius’ gesture of focussing on colour to create ekphrastic vividness, Statius’ niger carries the inventiveness of the model a step forward by subtracting, instead of adding, a crucial colour detail to the image, thus defying the reader's ekphrastic expectations. In Amphiaraus’ case, it is the absence of colour that makes the image vivid: depending on his visual inappropriateness, on his multi-coloured, un-blackened living body, the ἐνάργεια of Amphiaraus’ miniature foregrounds the poet's success in capturing his character's unique transition into the world of the ghosts.

CONCLUSION

Exploring Statius’ use of colour terms has taken us into the poet's stylistic laboratory as he polishes the instruments of his ekphrastic technique. I have identified one specific stylistic feature (the use of colour terms in uariatio) and I have discussed how this stylistic feature is used by Statius for achieving ἐνάργεια as an artistic effect but also to reflect on ἐνάργεια as an instrument for challenging poetic models. Moreover, I have suggested that, through the use of authorial comments, Statius explicitly ties his poetic practice to contemporary rhetorical discussions of ἐνάργεια. Colour terminology, to conclude, proves to be an essential tool through which the poet makes textual descriptions visible to the audience's mental eye. Moreover, in terms of intratextual relationships, the vividness achieved through the use of colour terms invites the reader to visualize themes (for example black monstrosity) that connect the single episode to the rest of the poem; finally, the ἐνάργεια achieved through the experimentation with colour terms alerts the reader about Statius’ engagement with its poetic past and signals his response to contemporary rhetorical theory. As it is appropriate to a poet imbued of a dense and refined literary culture, Statius’ ἐνάργεια not only engages the audience through visual and emotive gratification; it also gratifies the readers by soliciting their awareness of common cultural patterns and of literary and rhetorical knowledge.

Footnotes

I would like to express my gratitude to the anonymous referees for their careful reading of previous versions of the paper and for their generous and constructive feedback. I also wish to thank Francesca Econimo for allowing me to read a draft of her forthcoming book.

References

1 Such is the definition of ἔκφρασις given by the rhetorical handbooks known as Progymnasmata: according to Theon's handbook (first century c.e.), for example, ἔκφρασις is a λόγος περιηγηματικὸς ἐναργῶς ὑπ’ ὄψιν ἄγων τὸ δηλούμενον (Prog. 2.118.7–8 Spengel). On the broad meaning of ἔκφρασις in antiquity, see Webb, R., ‘Ekphrasis ancient and modern: the invention of a genre’, Word & Image 15 (1999), 7–18CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Elsner, J., ‘Introduction. The genres of ekphrasis’, Ramus 31 (2002), 1–18CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see also Webb, R., Ekphrasis, Imagination and Persuasion in Ancient Rhetorical Theory and Practice (Farnham and Burlington, 2009)Google Scholar, especially 1–9. For the popular image of the mind's eye and its ancient sources, see Squire, M., ‘Introductory reflections. Making sense of ancient sight’, in Squire, M. (ed.), Sight and the Ancient Senses (London and New York, 2016), 1–35Google Scholar.

2 On ἐνάργεια, see G. Zanker, ‘Enargeia in the ancient criticism of poetry’, RhM 124 (1981), 297–311; R. Webb, ‘Mémoire et imagination: les limites de l’enargeia dans la théorie rhétorique grecque’, in C. Lévy and L. Pernot (edd.), Dire l’évidence (Philosophie et rhétorique antiques) (Paris, 1997), 229–48; A. Manieri, L'immagine poetica nella teoria degli antichi. Phantasia ed enargeia (Pisa and Rome, 1998); N. Otto, Enargeia: Untersuchung zur Charakteristik alexandrinischer Dichtung (Stuttgart, 2009); Webb (n. 1 [2009]); H.F. Plett, Enargeia in Classical Antiquity and the Early Modern Age. The Aesthetics of Evidence (Leiden, 2012), especially 8–21; A. Sheppard, ‘Imagination’, in P. Destrée and P. Murray (edd.), A Companion to Ancient Aesthetics (Chichester, 2015), 354–65.

3 See Arist. Rhet. 1411b24; G. Morpurgo-Tagliabue, Linguistica e stilistica di Aristotele (Rome, 1967), 256–66; Webb (n. 2 [1997]), 229–32.

4 Arist. Poet. 1455a23–7; cf. Morpurgo-Tagliabue (n. 3), 260–6.

5 Morpurgo-Tagliabue (n. 3), 262 n. 10; Webb (n. 2 [1997]), 230–1; Manieri (n. 2), 99–104.

6 Morpurgo-Tagliabue (n. 3), 271–83; Manieri (n. 2), 129–43.

7 [Longinus], Subl. 15.2. In On the Sublime, φαντασία indicates both the idea driving certain thoughts and their verbal expressions, and the passages themselves where the author ‘seems to see’ (βλέπειν δοκῇς) what he describes, bringing such sights in front of his audience's eyes (ὑπ’ ὄψιν τιθῇς τοῖς ἀκούουσιν): [Longinus], Subl. 15.1.

8 [Longinus], Subl. 15.7; Manieri (n. 2), 58 and n. 171.

9 Morpurgo-Tagliabue (n. 3), 268; Manieri (n. 2), 58–9.

10 Demetr. Eloc. 209–22; cf. Manieri (n. 2), 133–7.

11 Morpurgo-Tagliabue (n. 3), 280–1.

12 Morpurgo-Tagliabue (n. 3), 271–4; Manieri (n. 2), 137–43.

13 See e.g. Cic. Orat. 3.202; Quint. Inst. 6.2.32, 8.3.61, 9.2.40.

14 Quint. Inst. 8.3.64.

15 On ἐνάργεια as a virtue of style, see Manieri (n. 2), 137; Morpurgo-Tagliabue (n. 3), 277, 283.

16 For the problem, see C. Criado, ‘A reflection upon the application of mannerism and historical baroque concepts in Roman literature’, GRM 50 (2000), 299–332.

17 H. Lovatt, ‘Statius’ ekphrastic games: Thebaid 6.531–47’, Ramus 31 (2002), 73–90, at 73.

18 F. Econimo, La parola e gli occhi. L'ekphrasis nella Tebaide di Stazio (Pisa, forthcoming).

19 For colour terms generating vividness in poetry, see M.M. Sassi, ‘Perceiving colours’, in P. Destrée and P. Murray (edd.), A Companion to Ancient Aesthetics (Chichester, 2015), 262–73; Manieri (n. 2), 83–5. On colour terms in antiquity, see J. André, Étude sur les termes de couleur dans la langue latine (Paris, 1949); E. Irwin, Colour Terms in Greek Poetry (Toronto, 1974); N.V. Baran, ‘Les caractéristiques essentielles du vocabulaire chromatique latin (aspect général, étapes de développement, sens figuré, valeur stylistique, circulation’, ANRW 2.29.1 (Berlin and New York, 1983), 321–441; M. Bradley, Colour and Meaning in Ancient Rome (Cambridge, 2009); R.B. Goldman, Color-Terms in Social and Cultural Context in Ancient Rome (Piscataway, N.J., 2013); M. Bradley, ‘Colours as synaesthetic experience in antiquity’, in S. Butler and A. Purves (edd.), Synaesthesia and the Ancient Senses (London and New York, 2014), 127–40.

20 On the use of rhetorical figures involving repetition and/or symmetry for achieving ἐνάργεια, see Manieri (n. 2), 139. For uariatio with colour terms, see André (n. 19), 317–19; Bradley (n. 19 [2009]), 76. Statius’ use of uariatio with ater and niger mirrors at the level of language the poet's fondness for dual patterns, for which see, in general, A.-M. Taisne, L'esthétique de Stace: la peinture des correspondances (Paris, 1994), 5.

21 Statius’ writing by miniatures (miniaturizing poetic models, producing miniature ἐκφράσεις) is discussed, for example, by Lovatt (n. 17), 73; S. Rebeggiani, The Fragility of Power. Statius, Domitian, and the Politics of the Thebaid (Oxford, 2018), 207 and Econimo (n. 18).

22 On ‘normative’ allusion and its formal character, see, recently, C. Chinn, ‘Nec discolor amnis: intertext and aesthetics in Statius’ shield of Crenaeus (Theb. 9.332–338)’, Phoenix 64 (2010), 148–69, at 150.

23 On the figurative meaning of ancient colour terms, see André (n. 19), 43–52; Baran (n. 19), 324–5; J.R. Clarke, ‘Colours in conflict: Catullus’ use of colour imagery in C. 63’, CQ 51 (2001), 163–77, at 163.

24 See Bradley (n. 19 [2009]).

25 Cf. Bradley (n. 19 [2009]), 228.

26 André (n. 19), 43–52.

27 André (n. 19), 48–51, 362–3.

28 André (n. 19), 58.

29 André (n. 19), 54.

30 André (n. 19), 56.

31 André (n. 19), 50. ater is absent from the Eclogues.

32 E.g. with reference to infernal rivers (as in G. 1.243; Aen. 9.105 = 10.114; Aen. 6.132) or to the infernal kingdom/king (as in Aen. 6.127 atri ianua Ditis); cf. also the unprecedented collocation atra silex (Aen. 6.602).

33 E.g. G. 1.236, 1.323 (line-ending formula imbribus atris) and Aen. 4.248, 10.264 (line-ending formula nubibus atris).

34 E.g. Aen. 1.89, 2.360, 4.570, 5.721, 6.272, 6.866.

35 For the γαῖα μέλαινα, see atro puluere (Aen. 2.272–3) and atram | … humum (Aen. 10.730–1); and cf. Aen. 4.633 cinis ater (the soil of Dido's homeland and the incinerated body of her nurse). For the dust of the battlefield, see e.g. Aen. 9.36, 11.876.

36 As literally black (clouds of) smoke (G. 2.309; Aen. 3.572, 8.258, 9.239) or, with ignis (Aen. 4.384, 8.198, 11.186; cf. fax: Aen. 9.74, 10.77; see also Aen. 5.666 fauillam; 7.456 lumine), implying the paradoxical notion of ‘dark flames’. For ‘dark flames’ and the Virgilian formula ignibus atris, see below.

37 Either sanguis (G. 3.221, 3.507–8; Aen. 3.28, 3.33, 3.622) or cruor (Aen. 4.687, 9.333, 11.646) but also tabum at Aen. 3.626 and 9.472, and, perhaps metonymically, uulnus at Aen. 9.700.

38 E.g. Aen. 9.719 atrumque Timorem; 12.335 atrae Formidinis.

39 E.g. serpentes (G. 1.129; Aen. 4.472); their ingluuies (G. 3.430–1), hiatus (Aen. 6.576, of the Hydra) and uenena (G. 2.130; Aen. 2.221); a tiger (G. 4.407); the fleece of a sacrificial sheep (Aen. 6.249). For ‘deadly’ or ‘sinister’ places, see Aen. 1.60 speluncis … atris; 1.240–1 atris | faucibus (the Underworld's entrance); 7.565–6 atrum | … latus nemoris (= 11.523–4); 9.105 (= 10.114) atra … uoragine.

40 One of Virgil's favourite images: see e.g. Aen. 3.45–6, 11.601–2, 12.663–4; cf. G. 2.142 (without any indication of colour).

41 E.g. G. 4.468 nigra formidine; Aen. 4.514 nigri … ueneni; Aen. 5.516 nigra nube; Aen. 7.414 nigra nocte; Aen. 9.34 nigro … puluere; Aen. 11.596 turbine nigro.

42 Plants (a number of cases in the Georgics; Aen. 8.599, 9.381), the soil (cf. G. 2.203, 2.255 with terra, 3.243, 4.291 with harena; also at Aen. 9.714), water (cf. G. 4.126; Aen. 6.238); winds and storms (G. 1.320–1, 3.278; Aen. 5.696); animals (sheep: G. 4.546; Aen. 3.120, 5.736, 6.153; chelydris: G. 2.214; the swallow: Aen. 12.473); fire (Ecl. 7.50 adsidua postes fuligine nigri). In the Georgics, see also niger with aëra (G. 1.428), amurca (G. 1.194), hebenum (G. 2.116–17), bitumen (G. 3.451), limus (G. 4.478).

43 With candidus: Ecl. 2.16, G. 3.388; with albus: Ecl. 2.18, Aen. 3.120; with niueus: Ecl. 6.54.

44 Silius follows Virgil in his preference for ater, appearing ninety-six times in the Punica, as opposed to niger (twenty times).

45 ignibus atris in line-ending: Luc. 2.299, 3.98; niger: Luc. 3.505, 6.535–6 (nigroque … fumo instead of the metrically impossible atroque).

46 Clouds: Luc. 3.409 (nubibus atris, in line-ending), 6.518; winds: Luc. 5.608–9, 9.320.

47 Luc. 5.564–5 niger inficit horror | terga maris; 1.547–8 atra Charybdis | sanguineum fundo torsit mare.

48 On Luc. 9.772 as a model for Statius, see below; cf. also Luc. 1.615 diffusum rutilo nigrum pro sanguine uirus.

49 See Luc. 1.234 nigrae … robiginis; 3.411–12 … nigris | fontibus; 4.310 nigro … limo; 9.930 nigris … medullis; cf. also 10.303 nigris … colonis (of the skin colour).

50 Cf. Ov. Met. 2.760–1 inuidiae nigro squalentia tabo | tecta, rewriting Verg. Aen. 3.626 atro cum membra fluentia tabo.

51 Val. Fl. 2.236 ignibus, in line ending; 3.96 faces; 7.572 atros … fluctus; but cf. 2.332 nigris … iugis, of rocks blackened by the effects of volcanic eruptions.

52 For agmine nigro, cf. Enn. Ann. 187 V2 it nigrum campis agmen (of elephants) and Verg. Aen. 4.404 (of ants); for nigro … equo, cf. Soph. Trach. 838 and Ov. Met. 12.402.

53 For the paradox of dark solar horses, cf. Prop. 2.15.32 nigros sol agitabat equos; 3.5.34 solis et atratis luxerit orbis equis.

54 In uariatio with the description of the Harpies as a niger … nimbus (Val. Fl. 4.451–2).

55 As it is said, for example, of Hector in Hom. Il. 17.243 and of Hannibal in Sil. Pun. 5.379; cf. also the god Mars in Valerius’ own passage.

56 Bradley (n. 19 [2009]), 204.

57 In the Siluae, ater occurs seven times and niger six; the unfinished Achilleid has one instance of each adjective.

58 Theb. 6.87 atra piacula; 4.445–6 armentaque … | atra; but 1.506–7 nigri greges.

59 E.g. Theb. 4.521–2 nigra flumina but 7.782–3 atra flumina; 6.375 nigrae Sorores (the Parcae) but 11.75 atra soror (Megaera).

60 nox atra (Theb. 1.346, 2.153, 7.454, 8.691), but note also Theb. 3.415–16 nox … | nigroque polos inuoluit amictu; 5.152–3 lucus … | … niger ipse; 12.233–4 nemorumque arcana (sereno | nigra die); cf. also 12.254 nigrantes … tenebras.

61 E.g. Theb. 1.464 nubibus atris, 2.106 nigra sub nube; cf. the discussion below.

62 See K. Gervais, Statius, Thebaid 2. Edited with an Introduction, Translation and Commentary (Oxford, 2017), 80.

63 Cf. S. Briguglio, Fraternas acies. Saggio di commento a Stazio, Tebaide 1, 1–389 (Alessandria, 2017).

64 For the metrical convenience of ater at line-ending, see André (n. 19), 268–9.

65 Coroebus’ act of self-offering is a Statian innovation: see G. Aricò, Ricerche staziane (Palermo, 1972), 83–4; C. McNelis, Statius’ Thebaid and the Poetics of Civil War (Oxford, 2007), 33. On the accumulation of details in this passage, see Taisne (n. 20), 246 and n. 31.

66 For ater applied to clouds and for the formula nubibus atris, see André (n. 19), 49, 368; for the Homeric cliché, see Irwin (n. 19), 88–9.

67 See e.g. Sen. Oed. 47 grauis et ater incubat terris uapor; Sil. Pun. 14.594 ater picea uapor expirabat in aethra; cf. also Ov. Met. 7.528–9; Luc. 6.89–90. For the idea that virulent contagions originate from the clouds above or the putrid earth below, see e.g. Lucr. 6.1097–101; Verg. G. 3.478–9; Stat. Theb. 2.274–5.

68 See e.g. Sen. Oed. 166 atra Mors (caused by the Theban pestilence), 1060 atra Pestis; Sil. Pun. 7.356 lues agit atra, 14.613–15 Acherusia pestis … fert atra laborem.

69 nigra tabes only appears elsewhere in Luc. 9.772 nigra destillant inguina tabe. On the rarity of tabes in Latin poetry, see A. Estèves, ‘Color épique et color tragique dans la “Thébaïde” de Stace: récits de “nefas” et stratégies narratives (VIII, 751–765 et XI, 524–579)’, Latomus 64 (2005), 96–120, at 108 n. 52.

70 Cf. Gervais (n. 62), 65.

71 See e.g. Theb. 8.760–1 ecce illum effracti perfusum tabe cerebri | aspicit.

72 See e.g. the squalid storms of Lucretius (4.169, 6.253–9) and Virgil (G. 1.320–4). For torrential black downpours, see e.g. Lucr. 6.256–7 niger … nimbus, | ut picis e caelo demissum flumen; Verg. Aen. 5.695–6 ruit aethere toto | turbidus imber aqua densisque nigerrimus Austris; Sil. Pun. 12.619–21.

73 OLD s.v. 3a (‘rotten blood’), 3c (‘poisonous exundation’). For ater as the colour of putrid blood (especially sanguis ater or tabum atrum), see André (n. 19), 48–63; Baran (n. 19), 339, 344. niger, however, is associated with putrefaction in a plague at least since Lucr. 6.1200–1 ulceribus taetris et nigra proluuie alui | posterius tamen nunc tabes letumque manebat; see also Sen. Oed. 189–90 stillatque niger naris aduncae | cruor (of the Theban pestilence).

74 On the rain of blood as a literary topos and a ‘standard ingredient in portents’, see G. Schmeling, A Commentary on the Satyrica of Petronius (Oxford and New York, 2011), 461.

75 On which, see Taisne (n. 20), 246 and n. 32.

76 See e.g. D.T.W.C. Vessey, Statius & the Thebaid (Cambridge, 1973), 106; F. Ahl, ‘Statius’ Thebaid: a reconsideration’, ANRW 2.32.5 (Berlin and New York, 1986), 2804–912, at 2824.

77 Cf. Sen. Oed. 29–79, especially 44–5 obscura caelo labitur Phoebi soror, | tristisque mundus nubilo pallet nouo; 47–9 grauis et ater incubat terris uapor | obtexit arces caelitum ac summas domos | inferna facies.

78 D. Feeney, The Gods in Epic (Oxford, 1991), 381.

79 See Ahl (n. 76), 2852.

80 caeruleus is now generally understood as a peculiar shade of blue, dark (Bradley [n. 19], 9–11) and mutable (see e.g. E. Romano, ‘Il lessico latino dei colori: il punto della situazione’, in S. Beta and M.M. Sassi [edd.], I colori nel mondo antico. Esperienze linguistiche e quadri simbolici [Fiesole, 2003], 41–53, at 51–3). On caeruleus as a normative epic adjective, see André (n. 19), 166, 360; Bradley (n. 19 [2009]), 10 n. 50.

81 Cf. Ov. Met. 1.444 effuso per uulnera nigra ueneno. On Statius’ Ovidian intertext, see McNelis (n. 65), 29–30; A. Keith, ‘Medusa, Python, and Poine in Argive religious ritual’, in A. Augoustakis (ed.), Ritual and Religion in Flavian Epic (Oxford, 2013), 303–17, at 308–10; for a full list of verbal echoes between Ov. Met. 1.436–44 and Theb. 1.562–71, see now K. Gervais, ‘Parent-child conflict in the Thebaid’, in W.J. Dominik, C.E. Newlands, K. Gervais (edd.), Brill's Companion to Statius (Leiden, 2015), 221–39, at 222 n. 5.

82 Keith (n. 81), 313.

83 Lactantius glosses ferruginea as nigra; on the adjective as linking Poine to the Underworld, see André (n. 19), 109–10. For Poine's infernal origin, see Theb. 1.597–8 and cf. Taisne (n. 20), 245; McNelis (n. 65), 36. For the conventional blackness of the Underworld, see e.g. André (n. 19), 47, 341–2.

84 The description of Python as caeruleus might also be read as anticipating the last, ‘rainy’, monster, given the association of caeruleus in Latin with rain, water and the sea: see Bradley (n. 19 [2009]), 10 n. 43; Bradley (n. 19 [2014]), 132; Sassi (n. 19), 268.

85 Cf. Gervais (n. 81), 222; Taisne (n. 20), 262–3.

86 On Apollo as creator of monsters in the aition, see e.g. Ahl (n. 76), 2854; Keith (n. 81), 315; H. Lovatt, ‘Following after Valerius: Argonautic imagery in the Thebaid’, in W.J. Dominik, C.E. Newlands, K. Gervais (edd.), Brill's Companion to Statius (Leiden, 2015), 408–24, at 418, comparing the god to a ‘malignly creative poet figure’.

87 On the circular narrative of the aition, see Ahl (n. 76), 2853; McNelis (n. 65), 32, 36; Rebeggiani (n. 21), 215.

88 On Jocasta as a Fury, see e.g. A. Keith, Engendering Rome: Women in Latin Epic (Cambridge, 2000), 96; A. Augoustakis, Motherhood and the Other. Fashioning Female Power in Flavian Epic (Oxford, 2010), 62–4; J.S. Dietrich, ‘Dead woman walking: Jocasta in the Thebaid’, in Dominik, W.J., Newlands, C.E. and Gervais, K. (edd.), Brill's Companion to Statius (Leiden, 2015), 307–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 308.

89 For these parallels, see J.J.L. Smolenaars, Statius Thebaid 7: A Commentary (Leiden, 1994), 222–3.

90 Cf. Eur. Phoen. 324–6, possibly a rare verbal memory from Euripides’ tragedy (cf. Vessey [n. 76], 274). On the relevance of Euripides’ Phoenissae for Statius’ treatment of Jocasta, see e.g. J.J.L. Smolenaars, ‘Statius’ Thebaid 1.72: is Jocasta dead or alive? The tradition of Jocasta's suicide in Greek and Roman drama and in Statius’ Thebaid’, in J.J.L. Smolenaars, H.-J. Van Dam and R.R. Nauta (edd.), The Poetry of Statius (Leiden, 2008), 215–37.

91 Cf. Theb. 11.170–1 non si atra parens, miseraeque sorores | in media arma cadant (where the colour term is paired with miserae to describe an emotional state); Theb. 11.461–2.

92 On the normative colour of self-beaten skin, see André (n. 19), 172–3; Clarke, J.R., Imagery of Colour and Shining in Catullus, Propertius, and Horace (New York, 2001), 94Google Scholar; in Statius, see e.g. Theb. 6.133–4 sustentant liuida nati | bracchia (Hypsipile); Ach. 1.132 nunc planctu liuere manus (Thetis). For bracchia nigra as an unparalleled phrase, see Smolenaars (n. 89), 410; however, cf. Silu. 2.6.82–3 non saeuius atros | nigrasset planctu genetrix tibi salua lacertos, with C. Newlands, Statius Siluae Book II (Cambridge, 2011), 220.

93 Cf. Clarke (n. 92), 94 on liueo gradually losing its sense of colour owing to cliché use for bruised skin.

94 Cf. e.g. Theb. 2.440–1.

95 For Lucanian elements in Statius’ Jocasta, see Dietrich (n. 88), 309.

96 See Gagliardi, D., ‘Ater in Lucano (per lo studio della lingua della Pharsalia)’, SIFC 4 (1986), 64–7Google Scholar.

97 On Jocasta's awareness of her Fury-like appearance, see e.g. Theb. 11.339–40 stabo ipso in limine portae | auspicium infelix scelerumque inmanis imago; cf. also Manolaraki, E., ‘“Consider the image of Thebes”: celestial and poetic auspicy in the Thebaid’, in Augoustakis, A. (ed.), Ritual and Religion in Flavian Epic (Oxford, 2013), 89–107CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 99.

98 Theb. 7.470–3. Dawn is here a functional detail introduced by Statius to reinforce the choice of having Jocasta alive this late in the plot: see Smolenaars (n. 89), 218; cf. also Dietrich (n. 88), 307.

99 For the desolation of Thebes’ last night, see Theb. 7.453–9; on the Thebans’ fear and desire of a new day, see Theb. 7.465 lucemque timent lucemque precantur.

100 See Smolenaars (n. 89), 203.

101 See Quintilian's passages collected above. On ostendere as a keyword in discussions of euidentia, see B.F. Scholz, ‘“Sub oculos subiectio”: Quintilian on ekphrasis and enargeia’, in V. Robillard and B.F. Scholz (edd.), Pictures into Words: Theoretical and Descriptive Approaches to Ekphrasis (Amsterdam, 1998), 73–99, at 78.

102 I follow Hill's choice of atris instead of artus: cf. D.E. Hill (ed.), P. Papini Stati Thebaidos Libri XII (Leiden, 19962); for the reading atris, see also M. Dewar, ‘Review of R. Lesueur (ed. transl.), Stace, Thébaïde, Livres V–VIII. Texte établi et traduit (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1991)’, CR 42 (1992), 194; R. Nau, ‘A note on Statius Thebaid 8.5’, CQ 59 (2009), 664–5 and A. Augoustakis, Statius, Thebaid 8. Edited with an Introduction, Translation and Commentary (Oxford, 2016). artus, a plural accusative of respect attached to conditus, is recorded by the majority of the manuscripts and printed by most of the modern editors (see the full discussion in Augoustakis [this note], 63–4).

103 See Theb. 7.691–8, 7.775–7.

104 On ‘black’ as a cliché colour for the Underworld, see above. On Amphiaraus’ inappropriate physicality, see Masterson, M., ‘Statius’ “Thebaid” and the realization of Roman manhood’, Phoenix 59 (2005), 288–315Google Scholar, at 309.

105 For a list of the unfulfilled rites, see Theb. 8.9–13, with Augoustakis (n. 102), 61–3; cf. also J.M. Seo, Exemplary Traits. Reading Characterization in Roman Poetry (Oxford, 2013), 165.

106 André (n. 19), 369.

107 See TLL 4.149.44–7 for the meaning of condere with in and the accusative.

108 For Statius’ conflation of pyre and burial here, see Nau (n. 102), 665; Augoustakis (n. 102), 63–4.

109 maesta further echoes the Virgilian intertext, where ignibus atris is glossed by maestum ignem at Aen. 11.189.

110 See N. Horsfall, Virgil, Aeneid 11. A Commentary (Leiden, 2003), 145–55.

111 For Amphiaraus’ disappointment in having been denied a heroic funeral, see Theb. 8.111–15.

112 Cf. Theb. 10.929 et clipei niger umbo cadit (Capaneus’ shield) and 12.424–5 hic tenuem nigris etiamnum aduiuere lucem | roboribus (the logs of Eteocles’ pyre).

113 Michael Dewar per litteras kindly drew my attention to this parallel.

114 See Ov. Met. 2.324 excipit Eridanus fumantiaque abluit ora; Stat. Theb. 12.413–14 Phaethonta sorores | fumantem lauere Pado.

115 On Phaethon falling as a comet, see F. Spaltenstein, Commentaire des Argonautica de Valérius Flaccus (livres 3, 4, et 5) (Brussels, 2004), 500, quoting Ov. Met. 2.319–22.