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Latin Literature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 September 2018

Christopher Whitton
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Extract

‘Statius’ Thebaid’, someone donnishly quipped, ‘has no sufficient reason to exist.’ Kyle Gervais might beg to differ. Like the Thebaid itself, his commentary on Book 2 has grown over many years, and deserves to be taken very seriously. The crisp introduction sets the tone and clearly signals priorities in its four sections, a rising tetracolon for author, problems of editing, intratexts, and intertexts; not a word on style and prosody, and reception is excluded on the ground that Statius’ own imitatio is quite enough to be getting on with. The text is newly constituted, with ample apparatus and text-critical discussion: Gervais joins Barrie Hall's rebellion against the bifid stemma, but fairly questions his view that the Thebaid should be easy reading; he accordingly diverges from his edition nearly a hundred times, and offers a translation which, if less old-falutin’ than Shack's Loeb, does an equally good job of disabusing anyone who thought it would be quicker to read Statius in English. The notes are full and rich: words aren't wasted, but both philological graft and literary interpretation amply attest to fine scholarship, good sense, and long thought.

Type
Subject Reviews
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 65 , Issue 2 , October 2018 , pp. 247 - 253
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2018 

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