The War with God: Theomachy in Roman Imperial PoetryBy examining literary accounts of theomachy (literally "god-fight"), The War With God provides a new perspective on the canonical literary traditions of epic and tragedy, and will be of great interest to scholars in Classics as well as those working on the European epic and tragic traditions. The struggle between human and god has always held a prominent place in classical literature, especially in the closely related genres of epic and tragedy, ranging from the physical confrontation of Achilles with the river-god Scamander in Iliad 21 to Pentheus' more figurative challenge to Dionysus in Euripides' Bacchae. Yet perhaps the most intense engagement with theomachy occurs in Latin literature of the 1st century AD, which included not only the overreachers of Ovid's Metamorphoses and Hannibal's assault on Capitoline Jupiter in Silius Italicus' Punica, but also, in the richest and most extended treatments of the theme, the transgressive figures of Hercules in Seneca's Hercules Furens and Capaneus and Hippomedon in Statius' Thebaid. This book, therefore, explores the presence of theomachy in Roman imperial poetry, focusing on Seneca and Statius, and sets it within a tradition going back through the Augustan age all the way to archaic Greece. The central argument of the book is that theomachy symbolizes various conflicts of authority: the poets' attempts to outdo their literary predecessors, the contentions of rival philosophical views, and the violent assertions of power that characterized both autocratic authority and its opposition. By drawing on evidence from literature, politics, religion, and philosophy, this project reveals the various influences that shaped the intellectual and cultural significance of theomachy: from Stoic and Epicurean debates about the gods to the divinization of the emperor, from poetic competition with Vergil and Homer to tyranny and revolution under the Julio-Claudian and Flavian dynasties. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Theomachy in Greek Epic and Tragedy | 15 |
The Origins of Roman Theomachy Lucretius and Vergil | 56 |
Theomachy as Test in Ovids Metamorphoses | 82 |
Deification and Theomachy in Senecas Hercules Furens | 116 |
Theomachy in Historical Epic Disenchantment and Remystification in Lucans Bellum Civile | 156 |
Paradigms of Theomachy in Flavian Epic Homer Intertextuality and the Struggle for Identity | 195 |
The War of the Worlds | 231 |
Theomachy and the Limits of Epic Capaneus in Statius Thebaid | 256 |
The Politics of Theomachy | 298 |
Epilogue | 322 |
| 329 | |
| 357 | |
| 375 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Achelous Achilles Acoetes Aeneas Aeneid Ajax alludes allusion Aloidae Alps Amphiaraus Apollo aristeia Athena Augustan Augustus Bacchus battle Book Caesar Caligula Capaneus Chapter characterisation claims context contrast deification describes Diomedes divine divinisation Domitian earlier emperor emphasises epic Epicurean Epicurus episode Erysichthon especially Euripides Fama father Feeney fight figure Flaminius Flavian Giants Gigantomachy gods Greek Hannibal Hannibal's Hardie heaven Hercules hero Hippomedon Homer human Iarbas Iliad imperial impiety impious important intertextual Juno Juno's Jupiter Jupiter's Leigh literary Lovatt Lucan Lucr Lucretius Lycaon madness Metamorphoses metapoetic Mezentius Moreover mortal myth mythological narrator Ovid Ovid's particular passage Patroclus Pentheus Phaethon philosophical play poem poet poetic poetry political Pompey Punica reading rhetoric river Roman Rome Scamander scepticism Scipio Seneca Silius simile speech Statius sublime suggests Theb Thebaid Thebes theme theological theomachy Theseus threat thunderbolt tion tradition tragedy Trebia Trojans Vergil Zeus δὲ καὶ