1807.] 
Under a reign like that of Domitian, 
sensiments like these could not fail to be 
highly acceptable. 
It is a principal defect in the Thebais, 
that it has no personage who can pro- 
perly be said to be its hero. There is, 
consequently, not that just subordination 
in the characters, which we find in other 
poems of thesame description. Nor are 
they so happily diversified as in Homer. 
The heroes of Statius are drawn as savage 
and as cruel as. they are known to be in 
history. Though they sometimes have 
distinguishing features, yet a general 
character of courage mingled with rage, 
revenve, violence, and impiety, reigns in 
Tydeus, Hippomedon, Capaneus, and 
Polynices. A&dipus displays throughout 
the fury of a blustering bully, instead of 
that patient submission and pathetic re- 
morse, so observable in Sophocles, and 
so suited to his melancholy condition. 
The two brothers are impious and un- 
natural, and Polynices is made to resign 
the crown with as ill a grace, as Eteocles 
retains it beyond the term agreed. 
Adrastus, indeed, is a mild and noble 
character, and occasionally appears with 
all the qualities ef a wise and religious 
prince, a tender parent, and a prudent 
general, Amphiaraus, is precisely the 
reverse of Achilles. Fach knows his fate 
to be unavoidable; but Achilles brayely 
meets it, while Amphiaraws meanly ilies 
from it. The one is with reluctance 
disguised by a fond mother, and placed 
among the women; the other, when be- 
trayed in his retreat by the avarice ot his 
wife, im revenge devotes her to death, 
and adds to his infamy by making his son 
a parricide. ‘The gods make as cruel a 
figure as the men. Jupiter, is himself 
the author and promoter of the war. 
He listens to the distracted fury of 
/Edipus, when he iunplores the divine 
vengeance on his unnatural sons, and 
dispatches the fury Tisiphone to sow dis 
cord among them. 
Statius is more successful in his ma- 
chinery, which he in general introduces 
on proper occasions, and where it consi- 
derably embellishes and enlivens the 
narration. We shall cite one or two mn- 
stances. The army of the allies marching 
against Thebes, is greatly in want of 
water; the cause is thus poetically con- 
trived by Statius. Bacchus, returning 
from Scythia and Thrace, where he 
had been celebrating his orgies—as he 
draws near his native city, discovers 
the enemy’s forces, ‘and, finding its ruin 
decreed by fate, resolves at least to 
Montnay Mac. No. 163. 
Lyceum of Ancient Literature —The Thebais. 
255 
defer the calamity. This is something 
like the conduct of Juno in the neid. 
He summons the nymphs and river-gods, 
and commands them to stop their 
springs and dry up their streams. The 
whole is finely illustrated by a compari- 
son of the Nile not overflowing the 
country in Egypt at its usual time. 
Sic ubi se magnis refluus suppressit in undis 
Nilus, et Eoz liquentia pabula brumz 
Ore premit, fremant deserte gurgite valles, 
Et patris undosi sonitus expectat hiulca 
4Egyptus, donec Phariis alimenta rogatus 
Donat agris, magnumque reducat messibus 
annum. Lib. 4. 
Tn the first book a council of the gods 
is held, in which Jupiter declares his ree 
solution to destroy the houses of Cad- 
mus and Tantalus. Juno interposes in 
behalf of her favourite Argos, but the 
father of the gods severely silences her, 
confirming his decree by a solemn oath; 
and dispatches Mercury to raise the 
ghost of Laius, who is sent to prevail 
on Eteocles not to resign the crown. 
The dress and departure of Mercury are 
beautifully described by the poet. 
Paret Atiantiades dictis genitoris, et inde 
Summa pedum propere plantaribus illegat alis, 
Obnubitque comas}; et temperat astra galero. 
Tum dextra virgam inseruit, qua pellere 
dulces 
Aut suadere iterum somnos; qua nigra subire 
Tartara, et exangues animare. assueverat 
umbras ; 
Desiluit, tenuique exceptus inhoruit aura. 
Nec mora, sublimes raptim per inane volatus 
Carpit,.et ingenti designat nubila gyro. Lio.1. 
The tenth book opens with another 
machine. Juno, moved by the prayers 
of the women of Argos for the safety of 
their husbands and children, sends for 
Tris, commanding her to seek the abode 
of the God of Sleep, and direct him te 
spread his heavy mautle overthe Theban 
camp. The palace, its situation, and all 
the attendants of the lazy gods, offer a 
scene pleasing, and picturesque, but too 
long for msertion. 
The descriptions are sometmes equally 
poetical, but in these Statius is the pro- 
fessed admirer ard imitator of Virgil. As 
they present nothing original, it is un 
necessary to notice them here. One 
only we select, en eek evideutly 
copied from Virgil, is not inferior, if it 
does not excel the parallel passage in the 
dneid. It describes the fatal sleep, on 
the night when all the men of Let™nos 
are killed. 
Primg decrescunt .nurmura noctis 
Cum gonsanguinei mixtus caligine Leti, 
SA ; 
Rore 
