Characters and Characterizations: General Studies (cf. Prosopography)

Agri, Dalida, "Marching Towards Masculinity: Female pudor in Statius' Thebaid and Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica," Latomus 73 (2014) 721-747
• A study of pudor in Statius and Valerius Flaccus.

Bajard, Sophie, "Pygmées et Amazones dans la Silve I, 6 de Stace," Revue des études latines 88 (2010) 188-205
• The comparison of gladiators fighting dwarfs and women fighting pygmies and Amazons supports Domitian propaganda.

Bessone, Federica, "Feminine Roles in Statius' Thebaid: The Heroic Wife of the Unfortunate Hero," in Marco Formisano and Therese Fuhrer, edd., Gender Studies in den Altertumswissenschaften: Gender-Inszenierungen in der antiken Literatur, Iphis 5 (Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verl. Trier, 2010), 65-93

Bognini, Filippo, "Classical Characters in the First Commentary on the Rhetorica ad Herennium: Unpublished Glosses from Ms. München, BSB, Clm 29220.12," in Forme di accesso al sapere in età tardoantica e altomedievale. 6, Raccolta delle relazioni discusse nell'incontro internazionale di Trieste, Biblioteca statale, 24-25 settembre 2015, ed. Lucio Cristante and Vanni Veronesi [special issue], Polymnia: Studi di Filologia Classica 19 (Trieste: EUT, 2016), 59-74
• Edition and analysis of glosses on the Rhetorica ad Herennium attributable to Menegaldus. The glosses uses characters from Terence, Statius, Virgil, and Sallust in discussions of misericordia e mentitio (Rhet. Her. 2.31.50 and 3.2.3).

Clément-Tarantino, Séverine, "Les personnifications de la peur dans l'épopée latine, de Virgile à Stace," in Sandrine Coin-Longeray and Daniel Vallat, edd., Peurs antiques, Mémoires / Centre Jean-Palerne 38 (Saint-Étienne: Publications de l'Université de Saint-Étienne, 2015), pp. 91-107
• Reviews: Bottineau, Revue des études anciennes 118 (2016) 618-623

Dominik, W.J., Speech and Rhetoric in Statius' Thebaid, Altertumswissenschaftliche Texte und Studien, Band 27 (Hildesheim, 1994)
•Reviews: M. Dewar, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 94.9.8; Hershkowitz, Journal of Roman Studies 85 (1995): 328; Newmyer, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 1995.04.06; P. Tordeur, L'Antiquité classique 65 (1996): 337; S. T. Newmyer, The Classical Outlook: Journal of the American Classical League 72 (1994-95): 143-4; D.E. Hill, Classical Review 46 (1996): 29-30; J. Pucci, The Classical World 89 (1995-96): 514; U. Eigler, Gnomon 69 (1997): 26-9; A.-M. Taisne, Latomus 55 (1996): 923-4. See too W.J. Dominik, "Response: Dominik on Dewar on Dominik," Bryn Mawr Classical Review 95.3.19

Farron, S.G., "The Roman Invention of Evil," StudAnt I (1979-80): 12-46
• The character who embodies evil may be seen as a literary type. Discussion of Sallust's Catiline, Horace's Cleopatra, Virgil's Mezentius, Statius' Capaneus, and Seneca's Atreus.

Franchet-d'Esperey, S.,"Oedipe et Adraste dans le chant I de la Thebaide de Stace," Vox Latina 161 (2001) 29-37

Frings, I., Gespräch und Handlung in der Thebais des Statius, Beiträge zur Altertumskunde, 18 (Dissertation, Uni-Köln) (Stuttgart: Teubner, 1991)
• Review: Ph. Hardie, Classical Review 43 (1993): 274-75

Fucecchi, Marco, "Tematiche e figure trasversali nell'epica flavia," in Alessia Bonadeo and Elisa Romano, edd., Dialogando con il passato: Permanenze e innovazioni nella cultura latina di età flavia, Le Monnier Università, Lingue e Letterature (Firenze: Le Monnier, 2007): 18-37
• Reviews: Ripoll, Revue des études latines 85 (2007): 353-55; Jacobs, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2008.4; Balbo, BstudLat 38.1 (2008): 299-301; Soldevila, ExClass 12 (2008): 415-21; Prioux, Revue de philologie, de littérature et d'histoire anciennes 3 ser. 81.1 (2007): 198-202
• On the use of Trojan motifs in the treatment of the Argonauts and the Seven against Thebes in Valerius Flaccus, Statius, and Silius Italicus, with particular attention to Nestor, Tydeus, Hipsypile, Amphiaraus, Orpheus, and the Dioscuri.

Georgacopoulou, Sophia, 1996, "Ranger/déranger: Catalogues et listes de personnages dans la Thébaide," in Fernand Delarue, Sophia Georgacopoulou, Pierre Laurens, and Anne-Marie Taisne, edd., Epicedion: Hommage à P. Papinius Statius, 96-1996, Publications de la Licorne 38 (Poitiers: La Licorne, 1996): 93-129

Hulls, J.-M., "What's in a Name? Repetition of Names in Statius' Thebaid," Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies of the University of London 49 (2006): 131-44

Jones, Frederick M.A., "Names and Naming in Soft Poetry," in Studies in Latin Literature and Roman History 13, Collection Latomus 301 (2006): 5-31
• On name choice in lyric and elegiac poetry, especially Catullus and the Silvae.

Korneeva, Tatiana, Alter et ipse: Identità e duplicità nel sistema dei personaggi della Tebaide di Stazio, Testi e studi di cultura classica 52 (Pisa: ETS, 2011)

Laguna Mariscal, Gabriel, "El otro griego en la Roma flavia: Estacio y Juvenal," in A. Cruz Casado and M. Raders, edd. Estudios de Literatura General y Comparada. Literatura y alianza de civilizaciones. Prólogo y paratexto. Bohemios, raros y olvidados (Lucena (Córdoba): Ayuntamiento de Lucena, 2009): 45-62

Micozzi, Laura, "Statius' Epic Poetry: A Challenge to the Literary Past," in William J. Dominik et al., edd., Brill's Companion to Statius (Leiden: Brill, 2015), pp. 325-342
• A comparison of the characters in the poem with their predecessors, in particular Ovid's Met, which illustrates the intertextual irony in the poem.

Pyy, Elina, "In Search of Peer Support: Changing Perspective on Sisterhood in Roman Imperial Epic," Arctos 48 (2014) 295-318
• A discussion of the motif of sisterhood in Roman literature: Dido and Anna in Virgil and Silius Italicus, Procne and Philomela in Ovid, and Ismene and Antigone in Statius.

Reitz, Christiane, "Ursprünge epischer Helden: Mythologie, Genealogie und Aitiologie im Argiverkatalog von Statius' Thebais," in Christiane Reitz and Anke Walter, edd., Von Ursachen sprechen: Eine aitiologische Spurensuche = Telling Origins: On the Lookout for Aetiology Spudasmata 162 (Hildesheim: Olms, 2014), pp. 59-77
• Reviews: Chassignet, Anzeiger für die Altertumswissenschaft 67 (2014) 241-244; Fry, Museum Helveticum 72 (2015) 235

Seo, Joanne Mira, "Allusive Characterization from Apollonius to Statius" Dissertation, Princeton, 2004

Seo, Joanne Mira, Exemplary Traits: Reading Characterization in Roman Poetry (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013)
• Reviews: Rimell, Classical Philology 109 (2014) 274-281; O'Hara, Phoenix: Journal of the Classical Association of Canada = Revue de la Société Canadienne des études Classiques 68 (2014) 366-368; Uden, Classical Review N.S. 64 (2014) 466-468; Roman, Journal of Roman Studies 105 (2015) 412-414

Tarleton, N.J., "Aspects of realism in the representation of the herdsman in Latin and Greek literature," diss. Oxford, 1989
• On herdsmen in Apollonius' Argonautica, Vergil's Aeneid, the Thebaid, and Silius Italicus' Punica. It is shown, in particular, that Vergil is not very dependent upon Homer, but that the other authors exploit Homeric connotations on the herdsman-figure, often in an innovative way.

Voigt, Astrid, "The Intertextual Matrix of Statius' Thebaid 11.315-23," Dictynna: Revue de Poétique Latine 12 (2015)
• In Theb. 11.315-323, Statius uses several other passages (esp. Hom. Il. 22.437-476, Verg. Aen. 9.473-480, Theb. 4.562 and 569, Sen. Phoen. 363-367) to depict Jocasta as a pious, grieving, Theban, Roman, and epic mother.

Heroes in General

Bessone, Federica, "The Hero's Extended Family: Familial and Narrative Tensions in Statius' Achilleid," in Nikoletta Manioti, ed., Family in Flavian Epic, Mnemosyne suppl. 394 (Leiden, 2016)
• "Achilleid's family dynamics are much more fluid than Thebaid's, and therefore closer to those of Ovid's Metamorphoses than those of Statius' own earlier work" (from Davis' review). •Review: Davis, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2017.03.04

Caiani, L., "La pietas nella Thebaide di Stazio: Mezenzio modello di Ippomedonte e Capaneo," Orpheus 11 (1990): 260-76
• In Book 11, S. recalls Mezentius as a valorous warrior and fierce tyrant, but also the wounded, affectious father. Using this last trait, S. softens the images of Hippomedon and Capaneus.

Corradi, Maria Teresa, "Lo scudo in Grecia e a Roma: Il sema e la sua rappresentazione," RCCM 53.1 (2011): 87-97
• Different depictions of the shields of the Argive heroes reveal different aspects of the characters in Aeschylus, Euripides, and Statius.

Franchet d'Espèrey, Sylvie, "Massacre et aristie dans l'épopée latine," in Gérard Nauroy, ed., L'écriture du massacre en littérature entre histoire et mythe: des mondes antiques à l'aube du XXIe siècle, Recherches en littérature et spiritualité 6 (Bern/Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 2004): 27-43
• Reviews: Banderier, RBPh 83.3 (2005): 989-91

Franchet d'Espèrey, Sylvie, "Massacre et aristie dans l'épopée latine," in L' écriture du massacre en littérature entre histoire et mythe: Des mondes antiques à l'aube du XXIe siècle, ed. Gérard Nauroy, Recherches en littérature et spiritualité 6 (Bern ; Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 2004), 27-43
• Evolution of Homeric aristeia and massacre in Virgil, Lucan, and Statius.

Gervais, Kyle G., "Tydeus the Hero?: Intertextual Confusion in Statius, Thebaid 2," Phoenix: Journal of the Classical Association of Canada = Revue de la Société Canadienne des études Classiques 69 (2015) 56-78
• "A close intertextual reading of Tydeus' monomachy (2.527-723) uncovers a surprising range of self-contradictory heroic and monstrous models for his actions, drawn from throughout Latin epic. This intertextual confusion reflects a failure of traditional heroism in a poem dominated by civil war and Oedipal behavior" (from LAPH).

Jamset, Claire, "Marginal men: gender and epic identity in Statius' Parthenopaeus and Achilles," diss., Oxford, 2005
• An investigation into the intersection of notions of masculinity and the conception of the epic hero in Statius.

Juhnke, Herbert, Homerisches in römischer Epik flavischer Zeit. Untersuchung zu Szenennachbildungen und Strukturentsprechungen in Statius' Thebais und Achilleis und in Silius' Punica, Zetemata; 53 (München, Beck, 1968) (Habil.-Schr, Kiel, 1968)

Klinnert, Th. C., Capaneus-Hippomedon: Interpretationen zur Heldendarstellung in der Thebais des P. Papinius Statius, Diss. Uni-Heidelberg, 1970
• Review: Schetter, Latomus 31 (1971): 228-33

Lovatt, Helen, "Death on the Margins: Statius and the Spectacle of the Dying Epic Hero," chapter 5 of Anastasia Bakogianni and Valerie M. Hope, edd., War as Spectacle: Ancient and Modern Perspectives on the Display of Armed Conflict, Bloomsbury classical studies monographs (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015
• "In this chapter the works of Statius are examined, in order to discuss how the location of a character, within the broader context of a scene, can influence how the reader/listener can react or relate to that character" (from Matthew's review).• Review: Matthew, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2016.07.05

Markus, D.D., "Transfiguring Heroism: Nisus and Euryalus in Statius' Thebaid," Vergilius 43 (1997): 56-62
• With the suicide of Dymas, Statius translates the heroism of Vergil's Nisus and Euryalus into a contemporary paradigm, the ostentatious self-inflicted death. Statius does not call into question the moral standing of his heroes, who are innocent victims of fate.

Parkes, Ruth, "The Argonautic expedition of the Argives: Models of Heroism in Statius' Thebaid," Classical Quarterly N.S. 64 (2014) 778-786
• The Thebaid engages with the Flavian as well as the Hellenistic Argonautica if we assume that Valerius Flaccus's text up to (at least) the depiction of the arrival of the Argonauts at Colchis (5.177) was accessible to Statius. This allows Statius to include nautical images as a pseudo-maritime episode, a common epic theme otherwise missing from the Thebaid. It also enables Statius to reinforce positive and negative character traits.

Ripoll, François, "Ulysses as an Inter (and Meta-)textual Hero in the Achilleid of Statius," in N.Coffee, C. Forstall, D.Nelis, L. Milić Galli, Intertextuality in Flavian Epic Poetry: Contemporary Approaches,Trends in Classics, Supplementary Volume 64 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020), 243-258

Rosati, Gianpiero, "The Redemption of the Monster, or: The 'Evil Hero' in Ancient Epic," in N.Coffee, C. Forstall, D.Nelis, L. Milić Galli, Intertextuality in Flavian Epic Poetry: Contemporary Approaches,Trends in Classics, Supplementary Volume 64 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020), 283-304

Sanna, Lorenzo, "Le similitudini animali nell'epica flavia: Cuccioli ed eroi fanciulli," Paideia 61 (2006): 631-52
• On Statius' and Valerius Flaccus' comparing the young hero to baby animals.

Smolak, K., "Zu Statius und Homer," Wiener Studien n.F. 9 (1975): 148-51
• The death of Hippomedon in 9 has a starkness of death typical of Homer.

ten Kate, R., Quomodo heroes in Statii Thebaide describantur quaeritur (Groningen: Wolters, 1955)
• Reviews: Mulder, MPh 61 (1956): 162-3; Prete, Latomus 16 (1957): 501; Ernout, Revue de philologie, de littérature et d'histoire anciennes 31 (1957): 154; Kytzler, Gnomon 30 (1958): 234-6; Verdière, RBPh 38 (1960): 198-99

Women and Gender Studies

Argenio, R., "Tre figure di madri," RSC 17 (1969): 219-223
• On Silv. 5.3.241-2 and maternal figures in Augustine, Petrarch, Gorki and Brecht.

Asso, Paolo, "Queer Consolation: Melior's Dead Boy in Statius' Silvae 2.1," The American Journal of Philology 131.4 (2010): 663-97
• S. 2.1 shows the social expectations for how grief and love between a man and a boy should be expressed and offers insight into the Roman understandings of sexuality, personal comportment, and public morality.

Augoustakis, Antony, "Per hunc utero quem linquis nostro: Mothers in Flavian Epic," pp. 205-23 of Lauren Hackworth Petersen and Patricia Salzman-Mitchell, edd., Mothering and Motherhood in Ancient Greece and Rome (Austin, TX: University of Texas Pr., 2012)
• In the Thebaid, Valerius Flaccus, and Silius Italicus, non-Roman mothers are depicted as Others, either having destructive powers that undermine the predominant male ideological code, or being a constructive apparatus that affirms the achievements of the male protagonists toward the manufacture of an imperial ideology. These make Romanness an idealized and utopian concept.
•Review: Johnson, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2012.10.55

Augoustakis, Antony, "Burial and Lament in Flavian Epic: Mothers, Fathers, Children," in Nikoletta Manioti, ed., Family in Flavian Epic, Mnemosyne suppl. 394 (Leiden, 2016)
• Study of female lament in Flavian poems and male lament in Thebaid, "arguing that whereas female lament undermines society's structures, male lament confirms them" (from Davis' review). •Review: Davis, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2017.03.04

Augoustakis, Antony, "Achilles and the Poetics of Manhood: Re(de)fining Europe and Asia in Statius' Achilleid," Classical World: A Quarterly Journal on Antiquity 109 (2015-2016) 195-219
• "Examination of the Europe/Asia binarism in Statius's Achilleid as a means of understanding the polarities of male/female, West/East, Greek/barbarian, and ultimately Roman/non-Roman. Helen's abduction by Paris and the discourse on the succession of empires in Statius's poem reflect Thetis's own transformation of Achilles into a woman. Through his cross-dressing and the impregnation of Deidamia, marked in the text as a violent attack, Achilles comes of age on the liminally-other island of Scyros by replicating Paris's rapina. The 'European' Achilles incorporates both the effeminate traits of the East and the warlike manliness of the West; he also ultimately embodies the 'Asian' other, which he is destined to conquer."

Bessone, Federica, "Voce femminile e tradizione elegiaca nella Tebaide di Stazio," in A. Aloni, E. Berardi, G. Besso, and S. Cecchin, edd., Atti del Seminario internazionale 'I Sette a Tebe. Dal mito alla lettura'. Torino 21 - 22 febbraio 2001, Università degli studi di Torino. Pubblicazioni del Dipartimento di filologia, linguistica e tradizione classica 'Augusto Rostagni' 18 (Bologna: Pàtron, 2002): 185-217

Bessone, Federica, "Love and War: Feminine Models, Epic Roles, and Gender Identity in Statius's Thebaid," in Jacqueline Fabre-Serris and Alison M. Keith, edd., Women and War in Antiquity (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015), pp. 119-137
• On the characterization of Argia, comparing Theb. 4.200-210 and 12.134-136 and 177-186 with Plato (Smp. 179) and Ovid (Epist. 13.31-42).
• Reviews: Weiberg, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2016

Bremmer, Jan N., "The Self-Sacrifice of Menoeceus in Euripides' Phoenissae, II Maccabees and Statius' Thebaid," Archiv für Religionsgeschichte 16 (2014) 193-207
• The self-sacrifice of a man has a higher psychological effect than a virgin's would have.

Centlivres Challet, C.-E., "Not So Unlike Him: Women in Quintilian, Statius and Pliny," in F. Bertholet, A.B. Sánchez, and R. Frei-Stolba, edd., Egypte - Grèce - Rome. Les différents visages des femmes antiques. Travaux et colloques du séminaire d' épigraphie grecque et latine de l' IASA 2002 - 2006 (Bern: Lang, 2008): 289-324

Centlivres Challet, Claude-Emmanuelle, Like Man, Like Woman: Roman Women, Gender Qualities and Conjugal Relationships at the Turn of the First Century (Bern: Lang, 2013)
• Reviews: Dressler, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2014; Vandersmissen, L'Antiquité classique 84 (2015) 369-370

De Gussem, Jeroen, "Animal Imagery in Statius' Thebaid: A Common Place for Man and Woman," Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica N.S. 113 (2016) 159-177
• "On the use of animal images in Stazio's Thebaid in relation to male and female figures. Their occurrence is linked to the transgression of qualities or expectations of this kind, for men the corruption of the virile virtus, for women the refusal of their maternal role and the ambition to self-affirm and acquire independence. In both cases the transgression is determined by the anger that dominates the epic poem. Animal metaphors become a point of convergence, a common place where gender roles oscillate and social limina vanish in favor of primitive chaos."

Dietrich, Jessica Shaw, "Death Becomes Her: Female Suicide in Flavian Epic," Ramus: Critical Studies in Greek and Roman Literature 38.2 (2009) 187-202
• "Statius (Th. 12.177-179), Valerius Flaccus (1.749 ff.), and Silius Italicus (2.675-680) all offer up depictions of female characters who take their own lives. But unlike their literary sisters, whose suicides are an aspect of or the result of their gender, the Flavian epic heroines commit suicide despite their gender. These episodes owe more to the historical accounts of suicide in the Julio-Claudian era than to their epic predecessors. This connection may account for why these suicides seem overtly political in their opposition to tyranny. The negative depiction of female suicide may also be indicative of a cultural backlash against the kinds of political suicides prominent in the 1st cent. A.D."

Duke, T.T., "Women and Pygmies in the Roman arena," Classical Journal 50 (1955): 223-4
• The notion that the Romans pitted pygmies against women is an erroneous interpretation of S. 1.6.51-64.

Fögen, Th., "Statius' Roman Penelope: Exemplarity, Praise and Gender in Silvae 3.5," Philologus 151.2 (2007): 256-72
• "Silv. 3.5 and Plin. Epist. 4.19 are stylized as private communications, addressed to two female characters, each of whom embodies the ideal of an honorable wife. Both Statius and Pliny praise the moral qualities of their wives, and, in addition, of two other female figures. Yet by defining all of these women's existence completely in terms of their relationships with men, the authors transform their depiction of the women into an extensive portrayal of themselves. This demonstrates how private and public facets of genres that purport to be occasional or even ephemeral are interconnected. It is precisely the epideictic character of such texts that cautions against reading them as realistic descriptions of their authors' lives."

Franchet D'Espèrey, Sylvie, "Principe féminin et principe conjugal dans la Thébaïde de Stace," in P. Galand-Hallyn and C. Lévy, edd., La villa et l'univers familial dans l'Antiquité et à la Renaissance (Bonchamp-Lès-Laval: PUPS, 2008): 191-204
• Statius ceates a enw form of feminin in the Thebaid: the virile woman who puts her courage to the service of her spouse. This is in contrast to the normally passive women in epic.

Fuhrer, Therese, "Teichoskopie: Der (weibliche) Blick auf den Krieg," Hyperboreus 20 (2014) 23-41
• On ancient "views from the walls" in the Iliad,, Statius, Valerius Flaccus, and Horace. The narrative role is usually given to women (or to individuals who cannot fight, for some specific reason, because of physical weakness or on account of their profession).

Fuhrer, Therese, "Teichoskopia: Female Figures Looking on Battles," in Jacqueline Fabre-Serris and Alison M. Keith, edd., Women and War in Antiquity (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015), pp. 52-70
• Study of the role and function of women in teichoskopias, especially in Homer (Il. 3.426-436), Horace (Carm. 3.2.1-14, Theb. 11.359-365, and Valerius Flaccus (6.503-506, 575-582, 657-663 and 717-720).

Iglesias Montiel, Rosa María, "La importancia de los personajes femeninos en Estacio (a proposito de Theb. 11 y 12)," Homenaje al profesor Luis Rubio Estudios románicos 4-5, 2 vols. (Murcia: Murcia Univ., 1987-1989), 1:633-42

Keith, Alison M., "Sexus muliebris in Flavian Epic," Eugesta 3 (2013) 282-302
• The lexicon of sexual difference in Valerius Flaccus, the Thebaid, and Silius Italicus and explores the dynamics of gender in these long epics. "The Flavian epic poets test the conventions and contradictions of normative Roman femininity (and masculinity) in scenes that rehearse different models of epic femininity: lamenting mother, sacrificial maiden, terrifying witch, faithful wife, and Amazonian warrior. Their narratives repeatedly measure the female sex against the standards of masculinity, and are acutely sensitive to contemporary contestations of the territorial assignments of gender in Flavian Rome" (from LAPH).

Keith, Alison, "Sisters and Their Secrets in Flavian Epic," in Nikoletta Manioti, ed., Family in Flavian Epic, Mnemosyne suppl. 394 (Leiden, 2016)
• Exploration of Statius' representation of sisters and quasi-sisters, both human and divine, in the Thebaid. •Review: Davis, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2017.03.04

Klodt, Claudia, "Die Frauenfiguren in der Thebais des Statius," Habil., Uni-Hamburg, 2002
• Cf. Gnomon 74.4 (2002): 384.

Kytzler, B., "Der Bittgang der argivischen Frauen (Statius, Thebais 10.49-83)," Der altsprachliche Unterricht: Arbeitshefte zu seiner wissenschaftlichen Begründung und praktischen Gestalt 11.1 (1968): 50-61
• Traces the theme from Homer to Virgil, S.I. 7.74, and Statius. Notes on Statius' poetic art, psychological sensibility, and dramatic sense.

La Penna, A., "Tipi e modelli feminili nella poesia dell'epoca dei Flavi (Stazio, Silio Italico, Valerio Flacco)," Atti del congresso internazionale di studi vespasianei, Rieti settembre 1979 (Rieti : Centro di studi varroniani, 1981), 223-51

La Penna, Antonio, "Modelli efebici nella poesia di Stazio," in Fernand Delarue, Sophia Georgacopoulou, Pierre Laurens, and Anne-Marie Taisne, edd., Epicedion: Hommage à P. Papinius Statius, 96-1996, Publications de la Licorne 38 (Poitiers: La Licorne, 1996): 161-84

La Penna, Antonio, Eros dai cento volti. Modelli etici ed estetici nell' età dei Flavi (Venezia: Marsilio, 2000)
• Review: Lévy, Gnomon 80.5 (2008): 401-405

Lesueur, R., "Les personages feminins dans la Thebaide de Stace," BSTEC 189-90 (1986): 12-32
• Women are the only characters who demonstrate humanity.

Lesueur, Roger, "Les femmes dans la Thébaïde de Stace," in L'univers épique: rencontres avec l'Antiquité classique, II, ed. Michel Woronoff, Institut Félix Gaffiot 9, Annales littéraires de l'Université de Besançon 460 (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1992), 229-43
• Women play a more important role in the Thebaid than in other Greek or Latin epics. As mothers and wives, they are the principal victims of the poem and are embody respect, compassion, peace, and justice.

Lovatt, Helen, "The Female Gaze in Flavian Epic: Looking Out From the Walls in Valerius Flaccus and Statius," in R.R. Nauta, H.-J. van Dam, and J.J.L. Smolenaars, edd., Flavian Poetry, Mnemosyne suppl. 207 (Leiden: Brill, 2008): 59-78
• "A study of the teichoscopies performed by Statius' Antigone (Theb. 7 and 11) and Valerius Flaccus' Medea (Book 6). Statius' version is a radical reworking of teichoscopy, where Antigone takes a female oppositional stance toward epic but also becomes a version of the dangerous lamenting fury who perpetuates battle. Medea's perspective and attitudes differ from that of the narrator and his ideal readers. Her contradictions map onto the contradictions of the female gaze."

Marina Sáez, Rosa María, "La construcción de la imagen del poder femenino en la poesía altoimperial: propaganda y denostación," in María Almudena Domínguez Arranz, ed., Política y género en la propaganda en la Antigüedad = Gender and politics in propaganda during Antiquity: Antecedentes y legado = Its precedents and legacy , Estudios Históricos La Olmeda, Piedras Angulares (Gijón: Trea, 2013), pp. 279-297
• Juvenal's, Martial's, and Statius' treatment of the image of women.
• Reviews: López, Archivo Español de Arqueología 86 (2013) 308-310; Gutiérrez, Gerión 31 (2013) 445-447; Huerta, SHHA 31 (2013) 174-180

Markus, D.D., "Grim Pleasures: Statius's Poetic Consolationes," Arethusa 37.1 (2004): 105-35
• Statius co-opts the feminine genre of lamentation-traditionally constructed as dangerous and excessive. he sublimates the expression of human pain and grief into a cathartic consolatio.

McAuley, Mairéad, "Ambiguus sexus: Epic Masculinity in Transition in Statius' Achilleid," Akroterion 55 (2010) 37-60
• "The complex post-Ovidian representation of gender in the Achilleid bears implications for our understanding of Roman epic as a genre. As Achilles struggles toward his literary destiny as the ultimate Homeric warrior, the poem's allusive exploration of gender ultimately reorients the tense relationship of the epic hero to women and amor, and of the epic genre to its own institutionalized masculinity," (from LAPH).

McAuley, Mairéad, Reproducing Rome: Motherhood in Virgil, Ovid, Seneca, and Statius (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016)
• Reviews: Chinn, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2016; Pyy Classical Review N.S. 66 (2016) 423-424

McCullough, Anna, "One Wife, One Love: Coniugalis amor, Grief and Masculinity in Statius' Silvae," pp. 175-91 of Dana LaCourse Munteanu et al., edd., Emotion, Genre and Gender in Classical Antiquity (London: Bristol Classical Pr., 2011)
• Men in the Silvae who display devotion to their wives in life and extreme grief at their death are part of a broader contemporary discourse on masculinity at Rome.
• Reviews: Lateiner, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2012.01.04

McKeown, Niall, "Had They No Shame? Martial, Statius and Roman Sexual Attitudes Towards Slave Children," in Sally Crawford and Gillian Shepherd, edd., Children, Childhood and Society, IAA Interdisciplinary Series, Studies in Archaeology, History, Literature and Art 1, University of Birmingham BAR International Series 1696 (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2007): 57-62

McNelis, Charles, "Similes and Gender in the Achilleid, in William J. Dominik et al., edd., Brill's Companion to Statius (Leiden: Brill, 2015), pp. 189-204
• The first two similes of the poem (1.159-166 and 180-181) create an expectation of Achilles' gender in the rest of the poem. Includes a comparison with Callimachus (Lau.Pall. 17-32) and passages in Virgil.

Micozzi, Laura, "Pathos e figure materne nella Tebaide di Stazio," Maia 50.1 (1998): 95-121
• Feminine figures and maternal love evoke pathos in the poem.

Newlands, Carole Elizabeth, "Mothers in Statius's Poetry: Sorrows and Surrogates," Helios 33.2 (2006): 203-26
• Despite the reverence for the idea of the mother in Roman society, there are no ideal mothers in the poetry of Statius. In the Silvae, Statius envisages an alternative family structure in which men usurp women's traditional role of childrearing. Examples include Theb. 3.135-146, 9.360-362. and 12.791-793; Silv. 3.3.119-121, 5.2.75-79, 5.3.64-66 and 241-245, 5.5.81-85; and other passages.

Panoussi, Vassiliki, "Threat and Hope: Women's Rituals and Civil War in Roman Epic," in Maryline G. Parca and Angeliki Tzanetou, edd., Finding Persephone: Women's Rituals in the Ancient Mediterranean, Studies in Ancient Folklore and Popular Culture (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Pr., 2007): 114-34
• Reviews: Clarot, Les Études Classiques 76.4 (2008): 401-403

Russell, C., "Boy Interrupted: Liminalities of Gender and Genre in Statius's Achilleid and Silvae 3.4," summary available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1608200 (May 14, 2010).

Russell, Craig M., "The Most Unkindest Cut: Gender, Genre, and Castration in Statius' Achilleid and Silvae 3.4," The American Journal of Philology 135 (2014) 87-121
• "The Achilleid and Silv. 3, 4, composed roughly contemporaneously, use their central characters for similar explorations of issues of gender and genre. Similarities in plot, character, and language invite a close reading of both poems together as part of Statius's exploration of the generic boundaries connected with epic's self-definition through gender and masculinity" (from LAPH).

Sanna, Lorenzo, "Ignis, accendo, incendo: Il lussuoso sfarzo del puer nella poesia flavia," Acme: Annali della Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia dell'Università degli Studi di Milano 57 (2004) 287-295
• On the puer delicatus, especially in Statius and Valerius Flaccus.

Scioli, Emma Jane, "Incohat Ismene: The Dream Narrative as a Mode of Female Discourse in Epic Poetry," Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 140 (2010) 195-238
• "Ismene's nightmare in Book 8 of Statius's Thebaid is examined by contextualizing it within the epic's narrative, comparing it with the dream narrations of other female characters in epic poetry, and aligning it with other typically female modes of subjective expression in epic, such as weaving, teichoscopy, and lamentation. By exposing the difficulties inherent in retelling a dream, Statius demonstrates sympathy with the female perspective on the war that constitutes the central action of his poem and foreshadows the subsequent inadequacy of words in reaction to its horror," (from LAPH).

Sharrock, Alison R. "Warrior Women in Roman Epic," in Jacqueline Fabre-Serris and Alison M. Keith, edd., Women and War in Antiquity (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015), pp. 157-178
• On woman warriors in Latin epic, esp. Camilla (Aen. 7.805-807 and 11.603-607), sur Callisto and Atalanta (Met. 8.315-325), Hippolyta (Theb. 2.635-638), and Asbyte (Silius Italicus 2.77-81).

Totola, G., Donne e follia nell' epica romana. Virgilio, Ovidio, Lucano, Stazio (Milano: Mimesis, 2002)

Voigt, Astrid, "Female lament in Greek and Roman epic poetry: its cultural discourses and narrative presentation," diss. Oxford, 2004
• Statius redefines grief as the very site of agency and makes female lament the main device for the defence of social values in his poem.

Voigt, Astrid, "The Power of the Grieving Mind: Female Lament in Statius's Thebaid," Illinois Classical Studies 41 (2016) 59-84
• "Statius makes moral agency a feature of female lamentation in the Thebaid and reasserts the social value of grief and its ritual performance. This agency is developed in a vacuum of male values" (from LAPH).

Wood, Susan, "Who was Diva Domitilla? Some Thoughts on the Public Images of the Flavian Women," American Journal of Archaeology 114.1 (2010): 45-57, with plate
• The identity of Domitilla, who had died before the Flavians came to power but who was deified early in the principate of Domitian, remains controversial. Numismatic evidence points to the mother of Domitian as the diua. Silv. 1.1 suggests that it is actually Domitian's sister.

Zeiner, N.K., "Perfecting the Ideal: Molding Roman Women in Statius's Silvae," Arethusa 40.2 (2007): 165-81
• Statius creates portraits of Violentilla (Silv. 1.2) and Priscilla (5.1) that both reflect these historical figures and embody the feminine ideals appropriate to the celebratory occasions and poetic genres in which they appear. Statius exploits his feminine constructs to fulfill his primary poetic purpose, namely to create distinction (symbolic capital) for the poems' male addressees.

Children and Family Life

Bernstein, Neil Warren, "Cui parens non erat maximus quisque et vetustissimus pro parente: Parental Surrogates in Imperial Roman Literature," in Growing Up Fatherless in Antiquity, ed. Sabine Hübner and David M. Ratzan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 241-256
• "Despite its relatively high incidence, fatherlessness presented a social challenge to young aristocratic Roman men who aspired to a political career. Such men often negotiated this challenge by associating themselves with paternal surrogates who had no familial connection to them. The rhetorical strategies used by Statius (Silv. 5.2, an encomium to the fatherless Crispinus) and by Pliny the Younger in his Letters to assert the legitimacy of the political aspirations of the fatherless are explored. Anthropological studies of shared parenthood and fosterage in West African states provide valuable parallels."

Busch, Austin, "Pederasty and Flavian Family Values in Statius, Silvae 2.1," The Classical World 107 (2013-2014) 63-97
• Statius represents Melior's relationship with the boy Glaucias as both paternal and erotic. Statius subtly likens their relationship to the treatment of slave boys that Domitianic moral legislation rendered illicit. Silvae 2 in fact contains a number of consolatory poems that raise questions about the treatment of slaves.

Laes, Christian, "Delicia - Children Revisited: The Evidence of Statius' Silvae," in Véronique Dasen and Thomas Späth, edd., Children, Memory, and Family Identity in Roman Culture (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), pp. 245-72
• In Silvae 2.1,2.6, 3.4, and 5.5, Statius evoques the use of slaves born in houses.

Manioti, Nikoletta, "Becoming Sisters: Antigone and Argia in Statius' Thebaid," in Nikoletta Manioti, ed., Family in Flavian Epic, Mnemosyne suppl. 394 (Leiden, 2016)
• An analysis of sisters-in-law in epic leads to the conclusion that Statius constructs their relationship to be sisterly, with typical sibling competitiveness. •Review: Davis, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2017.03.04

Newlands, Carole, "Fatal Unions: Marriage at Thebes," in Nikoletta Manioti, ed., Family in Flavian Epic, Mnemosyne suppl. 394 (Leiden, 2016)
• "On marriage in Statius. After brief consideration of Deidamia and Achilles, Newlands discusses the unconsummated betrothal of Ismene and Atys, the blighted marriage of Argia and Polynices, and the catastrophic relationship of Jocasta and Oedipus, arguing that polluted marriage is the cause of civil war in Thebes (p. 169)" (from Davis' review).•Review: Davis, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2017.03.04

Vessey, D.W.T.C., "Statius to His Wife: Silvae 3.5," Classical Journal 72 (1977): 134-40
• The poem is a suasoria to get wife to return to Naples, but the true theme is the picture of family life and conubial harmony.

Slaves

Achilles

Abrantes, Miguel Carvalho, "The Mystery of Achilles' Death," Humanitas (Coimbra) 71 (2018) 71-79
• On the myth of the death of Achilles in ancient art.

Andersen Vinilandicus, Peter Hvilshøj, "Wie Melusine den Drachen verdrängte: Eine sagengeschichtliche Untersuchung zum Unverwundbarkeitsmotiv," Fabula: Zeitschrift für Erzählforschung = Journal of Folktale Studies 50.3-4 (2009) 227-46 and plate
• Achilles' heel appears first in Apollodorus and the bathing in the River Styx appears first in Statius. Discussion of Statius' Achilles as a model for Seigfried.

Barchiesi, Alessandro, "Masculinity in the 90's: the education of Achilles in Statius and Quintilian," in Michael Paschalis, ed., Roman and Greek imperial epic, Rethymnon classical studies 2 (Herakleion: Crete UP, 2005), 47-75

Braund, Susanna Morton and Giles Gilbert, "An ABC of Epic ira: Anger, Beasts, and Cannibalism," YClS 32 (2003): 250-85
• Achilles' description of his eating wild animals in infancy (Ach. 2.96-102) indicates a tendency toward aggression and anger. A comparison with Aen. 12.101-109; Lucan 1.204-12; Theb. 1.395-433, 8.383-94, and 12.736-40; and Silius 5.306-315 illustrates this and how ira in epic takes its moral aspect from its context.

Cameron, Alan, "Young Achilles in the Roman World," Journal of Roman Studies 99 (2009): 1-22 and plate
• Common features in the representation of Achilles in Roman poetry and art and, in particular, of Roman interest in his childhood support the hypothesis that illustrated mythographic handbooks existed. Statius' Achilleid bears a relationship to a cycle of scenes representing Achilles' early years known from wall-paintings, mosaics, sarcophagi and the 4th-cent. A.D. Achilles plate from the Kaiseraugst treasure. Although the surviving book of the Achilleid concerns the pre-Troy years, Statius' real focus was the Trojan War itself.

Davis, Peter J., "Statius' Achilleid: The Paradoxical Epic," in William J. Dominik et al., edd., Brill's Companion to Statius (Leiden: Brill, 2015), pp. 157-172
• The generic and thematic paradoxes of the poem, in particular surrounding Achilles.

Dilke, O.A.W., "Magnus Achilles and the Statian Baroque," Latomus 22 (1963): 498-503
• Achilles is young and infantile in comparison to the one at Troy. Statius uses baroque effects to make him larger and give his character force of conviction.

Fantham, Elaine, " Chiron: The Best of Teachers," in André F. Basson, William J. Dominik, edd., Literature, Art, History: Studies on Classical Antiquity and Tradition in Honour of W.J. Henderson (Bern/Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 2003): 111-22
• Reviews: Evans, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2004.10; Ferrari, Circe 2006.10 (2005-2006): 289-95; Létoublon, Gaia 10 (2006): 344-45

Fantuzzi, Marco, "Achilles and the improba virgo: Ovid, Ars am. 1.681-704 and Statius, Ach. 1.514-35 on Achilles at Scyros," in Theodore D. Papanghelis, Stephen J. Harrison, and Stavros Frangoulidis, edd., Generic Interfaces in Latin Literature: Encounters, Interactions and Transformations, Trends in Classics, Supplementary volume 20 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2013), pp. 151-168
• Calchas' speech is a retelling of Ovid's narrative, that Achilles would adhere to his twin destiny as martial hero and great lover. Statius' Calchas has the same tone of indignation over the destiny of the character Achilles that Ovid had in the Ars. There are echoes of this later when Achilles adresses his own transvesticisim (1.619-639). Discussion of the expression improba uirgo at (1.535).
• Reviews: Pieri, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2014; Hudson, Journal of Roman Studies 105 (2015) 414-415

Foucher, Louis, "Stace et les images d'Achille," in Fernand Delarue, Sophia Georgacopoulou, Pierre Laurens, and Anne-Marie Taisne, edd., Epicedion: Hommage à P. Papinius Statius, 96-1996, Publications de la Licorne 38 (Poitiers: La Licorne, 1996): 201-13

Franchet D'Espèrey, S., "A propos du travestissement d'Achille dans l'Achilléide de Stace: Sexe, nature et transgression," in J. Champeaux and M. Chassignet, edd., Aere Perennius. En hommage à Hubert Zehnacker, Roma antiqua (Paris: Presses de l' Université Paris - Sorbonne, 2006), 439-54

Gärtner, Thomas, "Die praemilitaerische Ausbildung des Scipio Africanus," Maia: Rivista di Letterature Classiche 55 (2003) 317-319
• On the description of Scipio's education in Silius Italicus (8.551-558) and its relation to Achilles' education at Ach. 2.110-120.

Harrauer, Christine, "Why Styx? Some Remarks on Statius's Achilleid," Wiener Studien 123 (2010): 167-75
• Statius was responsible for the myth of Thetis dipping Achilles in the River Styx.

Heslin, Peter J., The Transvestite Achilles: Gender and Genre in Statius' Achilleid (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2005)
• Reviews: Bernstein, The American Journal of Philology 128.1 (2006): 142-45; Cowan, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2007.04.53; Delarue, Gnomon 79.8 (2007): 755-57; Lindheim, Classical Philology 102.3 (2007): 323-28; Lovatt, Classical Review 57.1 (2007): 124-26

Heslin, P., "Ovid's Cycnus and Homer's Achilles Heel," in L. Fulkerson and T. Stover, edd., Repeat Performances: Ovidian Repetition and the Metamorphoses (Madison, WI, 2016), pp. 69-99
• Statius' myth of Achilles' heel is derived from Ovid.

Kozák, Dániel, "Si forte reponis Achillem: Achilles in the Ars poetica, the Metamorphoses, and the Achilleid," Materiali e discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici 72 (2014) 207-221

Kozák, Dániel, "Weaving 'Catullan' Song: Achilles' Performances in Statius' Achilleid," Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 56 (2016) 65-80
• Achilles' first song (Ach. 1.188-194) has close parallels to Catullus 64. This intertextual relationship is also apparent in Achilles' other songs (1.572-583 and 2.157-158). All three passages also have weaving metaphors, emphasizing the relationship with Catullus.

Kytzler, Bernhard, "Achill und die Dichter," in Sermones Salisburgenses XII: Zwölf Vorträge zu klassischen Texten und ihrem Nachleben, ed. Bernhard Kytzler, Im Kontext 25 (Anif/Salzburg: Müller-Speiser, 2004), 85-96
• A reprint of Kytzler, Bernhard, "Achill und die Dichter," in Peter Csobádi et al., edd., Europäische Mythen von Liebe, Leidenschaft, Untergang und Tod im (Musik-)Theater: Der Trojanische Krieg: Vorträge und Gespräche des Salzburger Symposions 2000, Wort und Musik: Salzburger akademische Beiträge; 51 (Anif/Salzburg: Müller-Speiser, 2002): 50-61
• A comparison of the Achilleid with the Achilles stories of Goethe, Christa Wolf, and Gottfried Benn.

Marinčič, Marko, "L'angoscia dell'influenza, angoscia della morte: La morte di Achille tra Catullo, Virgilio e Stazio," Incontri di Filologia Classica 10 (2010-2011) 81-96
• Discussion of the depiction of Achilles in Catullus 64.323-380, Eclogues 4 and Georgics 4, and the Achilleid. Achilles is an ambiguous depiction of the Roman leader-statesman pretending to immortality.

Micozzi, L., "A lezione di ars amatoria nell'Achilleide," Materiali e discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici 59 (2007): 127-44
• Statius uses Ovidian elegiac imagery in creating Achilles.

Most, Glenn W., "Das Kind ist Vater des Mannes: Von Rushdie zu Homer und zurück," Gymnasium 115.3 (2008): 209-36
• A comparison between Achilles' wrath in the Iliad and the protagonist in Rushdie's Fury. The portrayal of Achilles as a youth in comparison with the Achilleid shows that Achilles as a youth is seen as a smaller version of the grown Achilles, this the ancient view of a human as having a constant character. Discussion of the role of childhood stories in ancient literature.

Myers, Karen Sara, "Ambiguus vultus: Horatian echoes in Statius' Achilleid," Materiali e discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici 75 (2015) 179-188
• The depiction of Achilles as warrior and passionate lover echoes Horace.

Pavarani, Cecilia, "Un modello di puer: Onorio in Claudiano," Rendiconti dell'Istituto Lombardo, Classe di Lettere, Scienze morali e storiche 144 (2010) 209-234
• Claudian uses the concept of puer from Virgil's fourth Eclogue, and Statius' Parthonopeus and Achilles.

Pavlovskis, Z., "The Education of Achilles, As Treated in the Literature of Late Antiquity," La Parola del passato: Rivista di studi antichi 20 (1965): 281-297
• After S., poets developed an interest in the youth of heroes. Dio Chrystomos exploited it in rhetoric. Only Ausonius reclaimed it for poetry.

Puccini-Delbey, Géraldine, "Sexus ambiguus et viol: Le métamorphose d' Hermaphrodite chez Ovide et le travestissement d' Achilles chez Stace," in J.-M. Fontanier, ed., Amor Romanus. Amours romaines. Études et anthologie, Collection 'Interferences' (Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2008): 175-86

Ripoll, François, "La découverte d'Achille à Scyros dans l'Achilléïde de Stace (I.841-855): De l'iconographie à l'anthropologie," Latomus 71 (2012) 116-132
• I contrast with his sources, Statius takes the scene from a dramatic one to a psychological and anthropological one thanks to showing us the scene through the hero's eyes.

Robertson, D.S., "The Food of Achilles," Classical Review (1940): 177-180
• Tradition suggests that Achilles ate the flesh of not-yet dead animals. So, Ach. 2.100, semianimis lupae, is from the same source. This is contrary to the spiritual education of Chiron.

Villaseñor C., Patricia, "El Aquiles de Estacio," Nova Tellus: Anuario del Centro de Estudios Clásicos 22.2 (2004) 19-39
• The incomplete Achilleid is an epyllion, a small epic that relies more on description than narration, making it different from other Roman epyllions. Two scenes are critical for the transformation of Achilles into a man: his love for Deidamia and his realization of his own mortality.

Admetus

Georgacopoulou, Sophia A., "Indices intertextuels et intergénériques: la présentation des coursiers d'Amphiaraüs et d'Admète au livre 6 de la Thébaïde de Stace (Theb. 6, 326-339)," Mnemosyne, Ser. 4, 49 (1996): 445-52
• An examination of Amphiaraus and Admetus (Theb. 6.326-339), including an analysis of textual references.

Adrastus

Aricò, Giuseppe, "... fugit omnia linquens (Stat. Theb. 11.441): Adrasto come Pompeo?," in Modelli letterari e ideologia nell'età flavia: Atti della 3a giornata ghisleriana di filologia classica (Pavia, 30-31 ottobre 2003), ed. Fabio Gasti and Giancarlo Mazzoli, Studia Ghislerian (Como: Ibis, 2005), 77-95
• The preparation for Adrastus' flight recalls Pompey in Lucan 7.689 ff.

Aricò, G., "... fugit omnia linquens (Stat. Theb. 11, 441): Adrasto come Pompeo?," in Fabio Gasti and Giancarlo Mazzoli, edd., Modelli letterari e ideologia nell' età Flavia. Atti della III Giornata ghisleriana di Filologia classica (Pavia, 30 - 31 ottobre 2003) (Studia Ghisleriana) (Pavia: Ibis, 2005): 77-95

Franchet-d'Esperey, S.,"Oedipe et Adraste dans le chant I de la Thebaide de Stace," Vox Latina 161 (2001) 29-37

Hogenmüller, Boris, "Wann hat das Fest bei Adrastos stattgefunden?: Eine Untersuchung zu Stat. Theb. 1.692-693," Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 57 (2017) 461-70
• Theb. 1.692-693 refers to an actual astronomical event, the fading of a star in Ursa Major.

Van den Broek, Pieter, "The Narrative of Adrastus in Statius' Thebaid as a Case Study of Intratextual Poetics," Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 56 (2016) 43-63
• Adrastus' narrative (Theb. 1.577-668) is full of repetitions of words and is echoed in later parts of the epic, especially in the Nemean episode (Books 4-6). The repetitions of words emphasize motifs that play an important role in the poem and combine characters, events, motifs and episodes. This intratextuality leads to the impression of uniformity, discontinuity, or ambiguity.

Amphiaraus

Caltot, Pierre-Alain, "Terror habet vates (Theb. III, 549): L'effroi du prophète face à la mort chez Lucain et Stace," Bulletin de l'Association Guillaume Budé 1 (2013) 169-201
• A discussion of the originality of the depictions of prophets in Lucan and Statius shows that Statius gives his prophets more autonomy.

Fantham, E., "The perils of prophecy: Statius' Amphiaraus and his literary antecedents," in R.R. Nauta, H.-J. van Dam, and J.J.L. Smolenaars, edd., Flavian Poetry, Mnemosyne suppl. 207 (Leiden: Brill, 2008): 147-62
• In the Thebaid, Statius subordinates the motif of domestic treachery associated with Amphiaraus so as to give full importance to his moment of truth at the taking of the auspices at Argos (Theb. 3.449-496). Three aspects of this episode in relation to the Greek and Roman epic tradition are considered: the forms of divination practiced by Melampus and Amphiaraus, the nature of the portent sent to them by the gods, and the reaction of both prophet and poet to human foreknowledge of evil destiny."

Lovatt, Helen, "Mad About Winning: Epic, War and Madness in the Games of Statius' Thebaid," Materiali e discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici 46 (2001): 103-20
• The theme of madness in the Thebaid, especially in Amphiaraus, Tydeus, and Capaneus, the Funeral Games, and the war itself.

Olivi, M.-C., "Amphiaraos: un exemple de réécriture d'un personnage mythique dans la Thébaide," in Fernand Delarue, Sophia Georgacopoulou, Pierre Laurens, and Anne-Marie Taisne, edd., Epicedion: Hommage à P. Papinius Statius, 96-1996, Publications de la Licorne 38 (Poitiers: La Licorne, 1996): 135-44

Valenti, Veronica, "Stazio e Anfiarao: Effetto soterico della parola," Studi classici e orientali 57 (2011): 261-302
• In Roman literature, the vates inhabits a separate plane from the living and exists vertically, that is, connected with the gods more than with men. In contrast, Statius depicts a shared world, making Amphiaraus' death a programmatic device.

Wenskus, Otta, "Von Statius zu Dante: Amphiaraos' Hadessturz und das Beben des Läuterungsberges," A&A 60 (2014) 141-151
• The earthquake at Purgatorio 20.124-138 recalls Amphiaraus' entry to the underworld.

Apollo

Newlands, C., "Statius' Programmatic Apollo and the Ending of Book 1 of the Thebaid," in L. Athanassaki, R.P. Martin, and J.F. Miller, edd., Apolline Politics and Poetics (Athens: Hellenic Ministry of Culture/European Cultural Centre of Delphi, 2009): 353-78

Noens, Tim, "Cirrhaei in limine templi / constitit (Theb. 1.641-642): A Ritual Reading of the Coroebus Episode in Statius' Thebaid," QUCC N.S. 111 (2015) 125-145
• A study of the myth of Apollo and Coroebus in Book 1 shows that it posits an alternative to the traditional opposition between pietas and nefas. A description of the sacrifice in the light of anthropological theories of A. van Gennep and V. Turner.

Argia

Georgacopoulou, Sophia A., "Argia e il monile di Armonia secondo Stazio," La Parola del passato: Rivista di studi antichi 51 (1996): 345-350
• Statius focuses the legend of the necklace of Harmonia (Theb. 2.269-305) on Argia. The article discusses the narrative effects of the apostrophes to Argia and to Jocasta at the beginning and end of the passage.

Atalanta

Guipponi-Gineste, Marie-France, "Cauchemars de femmes dans l'épopée latine: Atalante, Thétis et Cérès chez Stace et Claudien," in Jean-Marie Husser and Alice Mouton, edd., "Le cauchemar dans les sociétés antiques: Actes des journées d'étude de l'UMR 7044, 15-16 novembre 2007, Strasbourg, Études d'archéologie et d'histoire ancienne / Université des Sciences humaines de Strasbourg (Paris: de Boccard, 2010), pp. 93-109
• On the nightmares of Atalanta (Theb. 9.570-637), Thetis (Ach. 1.127-140) and of Ceres (Claudian, Rapt. Pros. 3.67-116).

Antigone

C. Calcaterra, "La questione staziana intorno al Polinice e al Antigone," and "Gli studi staziani dell'Alfieri 'per la tragica,'" in Il barocco in Arcadia e altri scritti sul Settecento (Bologna, 1950), pp. 209-35 and 237-90

Athamas

Caballero González, Manuel, "Athamas dans une lampe du Musée National Romain de Rome," Revue des études anciennes 116 (2014) 43-59 and plate
• A lamp in Rome (Museo delle Terme, Inv. 62164) is not derived from Seneca's Thyestes but rather from Valerius Flaccus and Statius, as Athamas and not Atreus is the central image.

Atys and Ismene

Micozzi, Laura, "Eros e pudor nella Tebaide di Stazio: Lettura dell'episodio di Atys e Ismene: (Theb. 8.554-565)," in Lucio Cristante, ed., Incontri triestini di filologia classica. 1: 2001-2002, Polymnia: Studi di filologia classica 2 (Trieste: Ed. Università di Trieste, 2003): 259-82
• In the story of Atys and Ismene, just as elsewhere, Statius combines epic and elegy to modify the mythological tradition.

Micozzi, Laura, "Eros e pudor nella Tebaide di Stazio: Lettura dell'episodio di Atys e Ismene (Theb. 8.554-565)," in Incontri triestini di filologia classica 1 (2001-2002), ed. Lucio Cristante, Polymnia: Studi di Filologia Classica 2 (2003), 259-82
• Statius modified the myth to combine epic and elegiac elements.

Cadmus

Venini, P., "Funera Cadmi," Aevum 41 (1967): 327-332
• At Theb. 1.227, the question is whether it is Cadmus or his descendants. At Theb. 11.485, it is clearly Cadmus.

Capaneus

Chaudhuri, Pramit, The War with God: Theomachy in Roman Imperial Poetry (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014).
•An investigation of ancient theomachy as a context for Statius' Capaneus.
•Review: Lovatt, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2015.07.26

Dewar, M., "Mezentius' remorse," Classical Quarterly 38 (1988): 261-2
• Provides support for the reading exilium at Aen. 10.50.

Harrison, S.J., "The Arms of Capaneus: Statius, Thebaid 4.165-77," Classical Quarterly 42 (1992): 247-52
• Capaneus in his first major appearance is an impious gigantomachic character doomed to the failure and death that form a major climax within the poem.

Leigh, M., "The Sublimity of Statius' Capaneus", in Clarke et. al., edd., Epic Interactions: Perspectives on Homer, Virgil, and the Epic Tradition Presented to Jasper Griffin by Former Pupils (Oxford, 2006)

Nau, Robert, "Capaneus: Homer to Lydgate," Dissertation, McMaster U., 2005

Nau, R., "Merit and meruisse in the Thebaid," Latomus 67.1 (2008): 130-37
• The reading meruisse should be seen as more likely than sperare in Theb. 10.938-939. Discussion of the rule of merit in the poem and of the interpretation of the death of Capaneus.

Pontiggia, Ludovico, "La folgore di Giove e la teomachia di Capaneo nella Tebaide di Stazio," Materiali e discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici 80 (2018) 165-192

Ripoll, François, "Adaptations latines d'un thème homérique: La théomachie," Phoenix: Journal of the Classical Association of Canada = Revue de la Société Canadienne des études Classiques 60.3-4 (2006): 236-58
• The topos of the Theomachia (Il. 20-21) appears in four Latin epics. Petronius and Silius try to reproduce the Homeric schems. Virgil renews the topos into political allegory. Statius accentuates the anthropomorphism to enhance the hero Capaneus.

Chiron

Clio

Georgacopoulou, Sophia A., "Clio dans la Thébaïde de Stace: À la recherche du kléos perdu," Materiali e discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici 37 (1996) 167-91
• The role of Clio in the prologue (1.41 ff.) and the suicide of Menoeceus (10.628 ff.) show a combination of epic and tragic elements.

Creon

Hijmans-van Assendelft, M.M., "Aliquot de Creontis persons in litteris Latinis annotationes," AClass 3 (1960): 77-85
• A study of Creon in Seneca and Statius.

Deidamia

Sanna, Lorenzo, "Achilles, the Wise Lover and His Seductive Strategies (Statius, Achilleid 1.560-92)," Classical Quarterly n.s. 57.1 (2007): 207-15
• In Statius' Achilleid love becomes the central experience in relation to the development of the young Achilles. The rape of Deidamia at Ach. 1.560-592 symbolizes the determining link of the ephebic transition, that is, of the evolution of the hero's personality. The violence of the stuprum represents the result of the seduction tactics recommended by Ovid in his Ars, but at the same time mark the departure from such strategies.

Vinchesi, Maria Assunta, "Imilce e Deidamia, due figure femminili dell' epica flavia (e una probabile ripresa da Silio Italico nell' Achilleide de Stazio)," Invigilata lucernis 21 (1999): 445-52

Diana

Lesueur, Roger, "Diane et l'Arcadie dans la Thébaïde de Stace," Pallas 59 (2002): 303-13
• Like Virgil, Statius removes Diana's cold cruelty but makes her more sensitive to the brutality around her. This adds to the misanthropic nature of the Thebaid.

Dymas

Fucecchi, M., "'Cavalli al pascolo' nella notte di Eurialo e Niso. Rovesciamento e reimpiego di uno scolio omerico nell'Eneide (con un' appendice su Stazio)," Rivista di filologia e di istruzione classica 127.2 (1999) 206-22

Erinyes

Georgacopoulou, Sophia A., "Les Erinyes et le narrateur épique ou La métamorphose impossible (Stace Theb. 11.576-579)," Phoenix: Journal of the Classical Association of Canada = Revue de la Société Canadienne des études Classiques 52.1-2 (1998): 95-102
• The final address to the Erinyes illuminates the tragic intertext and the narrator's unsuccessful attempt to transform these chthonic deities into supernal Eumenides as a catharsis for fratricide.

Eteocles and Polynices

Bonds, W.S., "Two combats in the Thebaid," Transactions of the American Philological Association 115 (1985): 225-235
• The parallels between the battle between Polynices and Tydeus in Book 1 and that between Polynices and Eteocles in Book 11.

Coffee, N., "Eteocles, Polynices, and the Economics of Violence in Statius' Thebaid," The American Journal of Philology 127.3 (2006): 415-52

Franchet d'Espèrey, Sylvie, "Les deux conflits de la Thébaïde: Perspective dramatique et perspective épique," Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 33 (1990-1992) 105-109
• Polynices and Etheocles personify the conflict between Thebes and Argos and this is subjective and dramatic since it determines the destiny of two peoples. This structural dynamic prevents the epic from having an optimistic orientation.

Korneeva, Tatiana, "Il velo dell'indovino: Ambiguità linguistica e aberrazione familiare nel sogno di Eteocle (Stat. Theb. 2.89-127)," Studi classici e orientali 50 (2004): 341-61
• The ambiguity of the scene of Laius' ghost adds to the dramatic tension.

Luipold, H.-A., Die Bruder-Gleichnisse in der Thebais des Statius, Dissertation, Uni-Tübingen, 1970

Nagle, R., "Polynices the Charioteer: Statius, Thebaid 6.296-549," Échos du monde classique = Classical Views 18.3 (1999): 381-396
• "Statius' portrait of Polynices as a charioteer is a metaphor, bolstered by a series of patronymics, for his ambition to follow in Oedipus' footsteps and assume the Theban throne. The analogy drawn between Polynices and Phaeton highlights the problems in trying to succeed a famous father."

Obrycki, K., "De Eteocle et Polynice in Statii Thebaide," [in Polish; summary in Latin] Meander 31 (1976): 481-497
• Characters of the two characters, compared with those in Seneca.

Pavan, Alberto, "Polinice, Ippolito mancato e Arione cavallo visionario: Una proposta di lettura intertestuale tra epica e tragedia di St. Theb. VI 491-517," Aevum(ant) n.s. 4 (2004: 577-600
• In the chariot race in Theb. 6.491-517, Polynices takes on aspects of Phaethon and Hippolytus, showing an intersection os epic and tragedy.

Hercules

Esteves, Aline, "Color epique et color tragique dans la Thebaide de Stace: Recits de nefas et strategies narratives (VIII, 751-765 et XI, 524-579)," Latomus 64.1 (2005): 96-120
• Statius uses color motives as part of his description of the evolution of the hero. Special focus on Tydeus and Polynice.

Leite, Leni Ribeiro, "Arquitetura de uma poética nova: Estácio, Silvae, 3.1," Phaos: Revista de Estudos Clássicos 12 (2012) 29-44
• Silv. 3.1, Statius describes the dedication of a temple of Hercules in Sorrento. The new temple is sung in a new way by a poet who, writing a work that is characterized by the mixture of genres, has been identified by recent criticism as an icon of a literary and cultural change carried out during the Flavian era. A reading of 3.1 is offered as the celebration not only of the Temple of Hercules but also of the new imperial poetics.

Hippolyta

Hypsipyle

Álvarez Morán, María Consuelo and Rosa María Iglesias Montiel, "La Hipsípila de Estacio leía a Eurípides," in Francesco De Martino and Carmen Morenilla, edd., El teatro clásico en el marco de la cultura griega y su pervivencia en la cultura occidental 16, Teatro y sociedad en la Antigüedad clásica: palabras sabias de mujeres, Le Rane 59 (Bari: Levante, 2013), pp. 15-45
• Evidence that the fragmentary Hypsipile of Euripides was known to and used by Statius.

Briguglio, Stefano, "Ipsipile tra Ovidio e l'epica flavia: Ritratti di signora," in Federica Bessone and Sabrina Stroppa, eds., Lettori latini e italiani di Ovidio: Atti del convegno, Università di Torino, 9-10 novembre 2017, Quaderni della Rivista di cultura classica e medioevale 18 (Pisa: Fabrizio Serra editore, 2019), 41-49• "Valerius Flaccus offers a glorifying epic variation on Hypsipyle's story, following Apollonius. Almost as a response to that, Statius took the Ovidian material and narrative techniques as his starting point. Thus, as Hypsipyle remembers, expands, and corrects her elegiac past, Statius creates an ambivalent tale and seems to instigate suspicion about narrative truthfulness, something Ovid is well known for," from rev. by Pere Fagrave;bregas Salis, Bryn Marw Classical Review 2020.03.13

Casali, S., "Impius Aeneas, Impia Hypsipyle: Narrazioni menzognere dall'Eneide alla Tebaide di Stazio," Scholia: Studies in Classical Antiquity 12 (2003) 60-68

Cecchini, E., "Giovanni Boccaccio da Dante a Stazio," in R. Raffaelli, R.M. Danese, M.R. Falivene, and L. Lomiento, edd., Vicende di Ipsipile da Erodoto a Metastasio. Colloquio di Urbino, 5-6 maggio 2003, Letteratura a Antropologia 9 (Urbino: Edizioni Quattro Venti, 2005): 217-26.

Delarue, Fernand, "Hypsipyle et Lemnos dans la Thébaïde de Stace," in Marc Baratin et al., Stylus: La parole dans ses formes: mélanges en l'honneur du professeur Jacqueline Dangel, Rencontres 11 (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2010), pp. 775-788
• On the Hypsipyle episode (4.646-6.946). As she is outside the norm, she allows Statius to rewrite the myth as a lesson on human responsibility.

Falcone, Maria Jennifer, "Nostrae fatum excusabile culpae: Dal modello elegiaco ovidiano all' Ipsipile di Stazio," Athenaeum 99.2 (2011): 491-98
• The Hypsipyle passage used the language of the abandoned heroine adopted from elegy, which highlights the ideological distance: the passionate love of the protagonist is completely absent.

Frings, Irene, "Hypsipyle und Aeneas - Zur Vergilimitation in Thebais V," in Fernand Delarue, Sophia Georgacopoulou, Pierre Laurens, and Anne-Marie Taisne, edd., Epicedion: Hommage à P. Papinius Statius, 96-1996, Publications de la Licorne 38 (Poitiers: La Licorne, 1996): 145-60

Gibson, Bruce John, "The Repetitions of Hypsipyle," in Latin Epic and Didactic Poetry: Genre, Tradition and Individuality, ed. Monica R. Gale and Ray J. Clare (Swansea, Oakville (CT): Classical Press Of Wales, 2004), 149-180
• "The Hypsipyle episode in the Thebaid involves Statius in elaborate self-positioning in and against the background of literary history, conducted in part through the presentation of Hypsipyle herself as an epic narrator."

Götting, M., Hypsipyle in der Thebais des Statius, Dissertation, Uni-Tübingen 1966-1970 (Weisbaden: Saendig, 1969)
• Review: A.J. Gossage, Classical Review 22 (1972): 110-12

Gruzelier, Claire E. "The Influence of Virgil's Dido on Statius' Portrayal of Hypsipyle," Prudentia 26.1 (V.J. Gray, ed., Nile, Ilissos and Tiber: Essays in honour of Walter Kirkpatrick Lacey) (1994): 153-65

Heslin, Peter, "A Perfect Murder: The Hypsipyle Epyllion," in Nikoletta Manioti, ed., Family in Flavian Epic, Mnemosyne suppl. 394 (Leiden, 2016)
• On the genre of epic vs epyllion in Statius and Statius' critique of Valerius' Argonautica.•Review: Davis, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2017.03.04

Iglesias, Rosa María; Álvarez, María Consuelo, "El treno de Hipsípila en la Tebaida de Estacio," in José Francisco González Castro, Antonio Alvar Ezquerra, Alberto Bernabé, et al., edd., Actas del XI congreso español de estudios clásicos (Santiago de Compostela, del 15 al 20 de septiembre de 2003) (Madrid: Sociedad Española de Estudios Clásicos, 2005) 2: 895-902
• Alanysis of Theb. 5.608-635, illustrating the influence of Euripides.

Kytzler, Bernhard, "Sola fida suis: Die Hypsipyle-Erzählung des Statius (Thebais, Buch 5)," Journal of Ancient Civilizations 11 (1996): 43-51
• The story is not just derived from the epic tradition, but also serves to underscore the theme of Pietas. The lengthy narrative has roots in epic tradition. The examination of a character's personal history provides a sympathetic response to her.

López Cruces, Juan Luis, "Licurgo en la Hipsípila de Eurípides," in Francesco De Martino and Carmen Morenilla, edd., El teatro clásico en el marco de la cultura griega y su pervivencia en la cultura occidental. 17, Teatro y sociedad en la Antigüedad clásica: a la sombra de los héroes, Le Rane 60 (Bari: Levante, 2014), pp. 161-188 with plates
• On the depiction of Licurgus in Euripides. The version in Statius Theb 5.653 represents an archaic tradition.
• Reviews: Marques, Humanitas (Coimbra) 67 (2015) 242-244; González Vázquez, Minerva 28 (2015) 385-389; Frade, Euphrosyne N.S. 43 (2015) 414-415

Newlands, Carole E., "Impersonating Hypsipyle: Statius' Thebaid and Medieval Lament," Dictynna: Revue de Poétique Latine 10 (2013) (unpaginated)
• A study of the uses of the laments in Statius, especially Theb. 5.48-548, in medieval literature.

Soerink, Jörn, "Tragic/Epic: Statius' Thebaid and Euripides' Hypsipyle," in Antony Augoustakis, ed., Flavian Poetry and its Greek Past, Mnemosyne Suppl. 366 (Leiden: Brill, 2014), pp. 171-191
• A comparison of the Nemean episode (4.646-7.104) with Euripides's Hypsipyle. "[The] Thebaid is profoundly tragic not only in that it reworks several Greek tragedies, but also in that its poetic universe is more like Seneca's nefas than the teleological world of Virgilian epic," (from LAPH).• Reviews: Davis, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2014; Manioti, Classical Review N.S. 65 (2015) 466-468; Dominik, Euphrosyne N.S. 43 (2015) 313-320; Ripoll L'Antiquité classique 85 (2016) 323-325

Ismene

Jocasta

Dietrich, Jessica Shaw, "Dead Woman Walking: Jocasta in the Thebaid," in William J. Dominik et al., edd., Brill's Companion to Statius (Leiden: Brill, 2015), pp. 307-321

Micozzi, Laura, "Pathos e figure materne nella Tebaide di Stazio," Maia 50.1 (1998): 95-121
• Feminine figures and maternal love evoke pathos in the poem.

Simms, Robert C., "Chronology and Canonicity in Jocasta's Intercessions in Statius' Thebaid," Illinois Classical Studies 39 (2014) 171-189
• Comparison with Jocasta's efforts to prevent the conflict between her sons in Statius with Stesichorus, Euripides, and Seneca. Statius's is unique, as Jocasta never stands between her sons. This modification of a traditional narrative creates uncertainty, adding to the suspense of the duel.

Smolenaars, J.J.L., "Een vrouw met een tragisch verleden: Iocaste's optreden in Statius Theb. 7.470-533," [in Dutch; summary in English] Lampas 19 (1986): 272-287
• Statius changes her role from that in Euripides and Seneca.

Smolenaars, J.J.L., "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, Harm-Jan van Dam, Ruurd R. Nauta (edd.), The Poetry of Statius, Mnemosyne Suppl. 306 (Leiden: Brill, 2008): 215 ff.

Ugolini, G., "L'ethos di Giacosta tra Stesicoro e i tragici," Lexis: Poetica, Retorica e Comunicazione nella Tradizione Classica (1990) 5-6, 57-75
• History of the presentation of Jocasta in Attic theater, with witnesses from Statius and Seneca.

Jove

Criado, C., "Jupiter, emperador romano: La lectura politica de la Tebaida de Estacio," Minerva: Revista de Filología Clásica 14 (2000): 87-106
• Jupiter, presented as a malevolent god, could refer to Domitian. This is used to test the difference of opinion between European and Anglo-American schools regarding whether the poem is anti-Flavian.

Criado, Cecilia, "Teologías y teodiceas épicas: Estacio y la perspectiva ovidiana," Emerita 79.2 (2011): 251-75
• Jupiter in Statius is a mixture of Ovid's rector Olympi and Seneca's ciuitatis rector, making the figure theological and political.

Criado, Cecilia, "La inevitable inconsistencia del Zeus/Júpiter épico," Cuadernos de filología clásica, Estudios latinos 35 (2015) 263-277
• The inconsistencies in Jupiter in the Thebaid are not due to the poet's carelessness but have more to do with the modern reader's expectations.

Hill, D.E., "Jupiter in Thebaid 1 again," in J.J.L. Smolenaars, Harm-Jan van Dam, Ruurd R. Nauta (edd.), The Poetry of Statius, Mnemosyne Suppl. 306 (Leiden: Brill, 2008): 129-42

Licurgus

Lycomedes

Ripoll, F., "Regum placidissimus: le roi Lycomede dans l'Achilleide de Stace," Vox Latina 177 (2007): 50-62

Maeon

Gärtner, Thomas, "Selbstmord in der römischen Epik der Nachaugusteischen Zeit," Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 48.3-4 (2008) 365-385
• Comparison of suicide in different authors. In Lucan (4.520-574) the fanatical, furor-like suicide of the Caesarians is a way out of a desperate situation. Suicide in Valerius Flaccus presents itself as a rationally planned act, which serves to attain personal peace. Statius is particularly familiar with defiant suicide, through which the powerless individual expresses his inner autonomy vis-à-vis the mighty tyrant. Silius Italicus had all these types in mind and combined them. With him, however, the moral judgment is overlaid by his strong bias in favor of the Romans.

Menoeceus

Heinrich, Alan John, "Longa retro series: Sacrifice and Repetition in Statius' Menoeceus Episode," Arethusa 32.2 (1999): 165-95
• In the Thebaid, Statius actively resists presenting a coherent world, projecting instead a world whose violence challenges our understanding. This is shown in Menoeceus' self-sacrifice in 10.748-751 and 10.765-772, which defies traditional narrative technique through repetition, demotion from integral unit to digression, and presentation as a failed deuotio through juxtaposition with the Capaneus episode (10.879-882). The work repeatedly undermines its own claim (1.15-17) that it will exclude the Theban past.

Vessey, D., "Menoeceus in the Thebaid of Statius," Classical Philology 66 (1971): 236-43

Neptune

Oedipus

Briguglio, Stefano, "Perversa vota: Edipo, Tisifone e la poetica della Tebaide," Studi Italiani di Filologia Classica 4 ser. 12 (2014) 235-250
• Oedipus' prayer to Tisiphone has a rich tradition and sets the scene for the themes of the Thebaid. Oedipus is presented as a authorial figure with a poetic conscience.

Dangel, Jacqueline, "Genre, genericité et transgenericité: Le personnage d'Oedipe en enigme tensionnelle de la tragédie de Seneque à l'epopée de Stace," Bulletin de l'Association Guillaume Budé 2011.1 (2011) 154-73

Li Causi, Pietro, "Dimenticare Colono: Tracce e metamorfosi del mito di Edipo nella letteratura e nella cultura romane," in Patrizia Pinotti and Massimo Stella, edd., Edipo: Margini Confini Periferie, Testi e studi di cultura classica 57 (Pisa: ETS, 2013), pp. 21-70
• On the themes of Oedipus - the Sphinx, patricide, incest, and fratricide, in Roman literature.

Ripoll, François, "La mutilation oculaire: formes et sens d'un motif guerrier de la Pharsale aux épopées flaviennes," in Fabrice Galtier and Rémy Poignault, edd., "Présence de Lucain, Caesarodunum bis 48-49 (Clermont-Ferrand: Centre de recherches A. Piganiol-Présence de l'Antiquité, 2016), pp. 259-280
• Influence of Lucan on Statius and Silius Italicus.

Simms, Robert Clinton, "Iam pater est: Oedipus in Statius's Thebaid," Illinois Classical Studies 43.1 (2018) 234-57

Orpheus

Chinn, Christopher Matthew, "Statius, Orpheus, and Callimachus: Thebaid 2.269-96," Helios 38.1 (2011) 79-10

Liddell, Erik, "The Figure of Orpheus in Silvae 2.7, the Genethliacon Lucani ad Pollam," New England Classical Newsletter 30.1 (2003): 22-32
• Statius uses the story of Orpheus and Eurydice as a point of comparison for the story of Lucan and Polla, and the poem must be read in this light.

Lovatt, Helen, "Statius, Orpheus, and the Post-Augustan Vates," Arethusa 40.2 (2007) 145-63

Lovatt, Helen, "Statius, Orpheus, and the Post-Augustan Vates," Arethusa 40.2 (2007): 145-63
• "The figure of Orpheus can be put together with the idea of the uates to explore the poetics of the Silvae. Statius struggles to be a serious and political poet. Orpheus is a reflection of both the power and the powerlessness of poetry: the poet and the patron in the world of the Silvae have intermittent power over the natural world, but neither has control over grief. The Orpheus of Statius's poems of lament is a voiceless vates: the effectiveness of poetry in the world is severely limited. Poems considered are 2.2-2.7, 3.1, 5.1, 5.3, and 5.5.

Paris

Ripoll, François, "Réécritures d'un mythe homérique à travers le temps: Le personnage de PÂris dans l'épopée latine de Virgile à Stace," Euphrosyne n.s. 28 (2000): 83-112
• Virgil tries to resuscitate the hero. The Ilias latina revalorises Paris. Silius Italicus has a moral lens, contrasting the choice of Paris (uoluptas) with Scipio (uirtus). In Statius, the antitheses of Paris and Achilles leads to uituperatio.

Parthenopaeus

Campana, Pierpaolo, "Gli occhi di Fileto e l'elmo di Partenopeo (su Stat. silv. 2.6.42)," Philologus 152.2 (2008): 352-59
• Read, blandique seuero igne oculi (similis demissa casside uisu Parthenopaeus erat) simplexque.

Monno, Olga, "Tenuissima virtus di corridori, inseguitori e fuggiaschi in Virgilio e Stazio," InvLuc 32 (2010): 105-13
• Servius ad Aen. 9.556 suggests that Virgil is the source for Th. 6.568 and hence Turnus is a model for Parthenopeus in this scene.

Parkes, R., "Men Before the Moon: The Relevance of Statius Thebaid 3.275-284 to Parthenopaeus and his Arcadian contingent," Classical Philology 100 (2005): 358-65

Parkes, Ruth, "Men from Before the Moon: The Relevance of Statius Thebaid 4.275-84 to Parthenopaeus and his Arcadian Contingent," Classical Philology 100 (2005) 358-365
• "Statius' seemingly irrelevant digression on primeval Arcadian customs at Theb. 4.275-284 contributes to the wider themes of the work, especially the idea of decline."

Parkes, R., "Who's the Father? Biological and Literary Inheritance in Statius' Thebaid," Phoenix: Journal of the Classical Association of Canada = Revue de la Société Canadienne des études Classiques 63.1-2 (2009): 24-37
• "The accounts of Parthenopaeus' footrace in Book 6 and boar-hunt in Book 4 evoke previous literary representations of characters who are, or might be held to be, his parents, specifically Hippomenes, Meleager, the two Atalantas from Ovid's 'Metamorphoses', and Milanion as depicted in Gallan elegy."

Sanna, Lorenzo, "Partenopeo e Podeto: due pueri dell'epica flavia e l'ossimoro arma-puer,: Prometheus: Rivista Quadrimestrale di Studi Classici 30 (2004) 261-268
• On similarities between Statius' Parthenopeus and Silius Italicus' Podetus (Pun. 14.492-515) and the relation with his sources.

Sanna, Lorenzo, "Partenopeo e Podeto: Due pueri dell'epica flavia e l'ossimoro arma-puer," Prometheus 30.3 (2004): 261-68
• On the sources for and a comparison between Statius' Parthenopeus and Silius' Podetus (Pun. 14.492-515).

The Parthian King

Grosso, F., "Aspetti della politica orientale di Domiziano, II: Parti e Estremo Oriente," Epigraphica 17 (1955 [1957]): 33-78
• What we know about Domitian and the Parthians on Statius' authority, from the Sybilline oracles, epigraphical evidence, and a diploma (Welkov, BIAB 4 [1926-27]: 69-81).

Hollis, A.S., "Statius' Young Parthian King (Thebaid 8,286-93)," Greece & Rome 41 (1994): 205-12
• The evidence of Parthian coins suggests that the Parthian king in Statius' simile is Pacorus II, who was contemporaneous with Statius.

Polyxo

Finkmann, Simone, "Polyxo and the Lemnian Episode: An Inter- and Intratextual Study of Apollonius Rhodius, Valerius Flaccus, and Statius," Dictynna: Revue de Poétique Latine 12 (2015)
• A comparison of Polyxo in Apollonius of Rhodes (1.668 and 675-696), Valerius Flaccus (2.316 and 322-325), and Theb. 5.103-142 shows the critical role she plays in the Lemnian episode. In contrast with others, Statius has her share in the frustration of the Lemnians.

Teiresias

Baldini Moscadi, Loretta, "La magia nell'epica latina: Funzionalità e trasgressione (a proposito di Virgilio e Silio Italico, Lucano e Stazio)," Mene 4 (2004): 33-49
• Comparison of the episodes of Dido (Aen. 4.474 ff.), Hannibal (Sil. Ital. 1.70-139), Erictus (Lucan 6.413-830) and Tiresias (Theb. 4.406-645) and their role in epic tradition.

Nagle, R., Properatur in hostem more fugae: A Study of the Comparisons in the Thebaid of Statius, Dissertation, Harvard U., 1995
• Summary in DAI 56 (1995/1996) 2666-A/2667-A

Theseus

Braund, S.M., "Ending Epic: Statius, Theseus and a Merciful Release," Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society 42 (1996): 1-23
• Theseus is a model for the Roman emperor in his controlled indignatio and his excercise of clementia.

Coffee, N., "Statius' Theseus: Martial or Merciful?" Classical Philology 104.2 (2009): 221-28
• "In Theb. 12, Theseus is identified with Mars and contrasted with the Altar to a greater extent than has yet been recognized. Through the figure of Theseus, Statius expresses significant reservations about the use of kingly power even in the service of a virtuous cause."

Criado, Cecilia, "The Constitutional Status of Euripidean and Statian Theseus: Some Aspects of the Criticism of Absolute Power in the Thebaid," in William J. Dominik et al., edd., Brill's Companion to Statius (Leiden: Brill, 2015), pp. 291-306
• On the presence of Theseus in the Thebaid (especially 12.464-808) and its relationship with Euripides' Supplicants.

Newmyer, Stephen Thomas, review of Dewar, M., Statius, Thebaid IX (1991), The American Journal of Philology 113 (1992): 641-43

Thetis

Parkes, Ruth, "Sed tardum (Ach., 1.47): Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica as Prequel to Statius' Achilleid," Materiali e discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici 63 (2009): 107-13
• An intertextual analysis shows how Statius relies on Valerius to explain the futility of Thetis' efforts to save Achilles.

Tisiphone

Criado Boado, C., "Tragicidad y epicidad de la Tisífone estaciana", Cuadernos de Filología Clásica: Estudios Latinos 16 (1999), 141-61
• In contrast with Virgil and other ancient sources, Statius gives the Furies preeminence and makes them the cause/impetus of events.

Esteves, Aline, "'Evidentia' rhetorique et horreur infernale: Le portrait de Tisiphone chez Stace," Bulletin de l'Association Guillaume Budé 2001.4 (2001): 390-409

Tydeus

Ulysses

Perutelli, Alessandro, "Ulisse a Sciro (e Giasone in Colchide): Stat. Ach. 1.734 ss.," Materiali e discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici 56 (2006): 87-91
• A comparison of Ulysses' arrival in Scyros with Jason's arrival in Colchis shows the innovation of the Achilleid against the models of Valerius Flaccus. Statius constantly innovates the narrative form and strategy to increase the psychological depth of his characters.

Venus

Bussi, Chiaffredo, "L'ira di Venere tra Stazio e Apuleio," Acme 60.2 (2007): 281-94
• The passages Theb. 5.57 ff. and Apul. Met. 4.29 ff. are influenced individually by Seneca's De ira.

Micozzi, Laura, "Pathos e figure materne nella Tebaide di Stazio," Maia 50.1 (1998): 95-121
• Feminine figures and maternal love evoke pathos in the poem.