Quoted By:
Two Excerpts from the <span class="mu-i">Thebaid</span>
Translation by Jane Wilson Joyce
<span class="mu-b">All these towering Hippomedon led and taught to love
goodly Valor. On his head a bronze helmet swayed
with snow-white plumes triple-tiered; beneath his weapons,
iron chain mail chafed his sides; shoulders and chest a
far-flaming disc protected, where lived, in perfect gold,
Danaus’ Night:
In fifty guilty bridal suites glow,
the Furies’ pitch-black torches;
the father himself at the blood-
stained doors praises the heinous crime
and inspects the swords.
Leaving the stronghold of Pallas, a Nemean steed, hooves pounding,
Shying at arms, conveyed Hippomedon; their joint shadow
Flying, immense – mantled the fields as, along the plain, dust rose:
No difference when Centaur Hylaeus, flinging himself headlong
Down from his mountain cave, crashes through woods with
Shoulders and both chests;
Ossa shies at his passage, creatures tame and wild
crouch down in fear; even his own brothers feel alarmed
until, with a prodigious leap, he plunges into
the river Peneus, breasting and damming its mighty stream.”</span>
Statius’ <span class="mu-i">Thebaid</span>, Book IV
<span class="mu-b">Only then
As weapons flashed and men shouted - did the grim snake shift
Its scaly neck.
With huge effort, tall Hippomedon
Heaved up a field stone, a boundary marker, and hurled it
Through empty air <span class="mu-r">with much the same whirlwind effect as
When boulders, lobbed by war engines, leap at bolted gates.</span>
A vain, if heroic attempt: the serpent at once rippled
Its supple neck back and away, spoiling the oncoming blow.
The earth thudded and, deep in uncharted groves, interlaced
Branches sprang apart.
“But” (cried Capaneus) “you’ll not
escape my strike!” and he sprang at the snake with his ashwood spear…”</span>
Statius’ <span class="mu-i">Thebaid</span>, Book V
