The Influence of Art on Description in the Poetry of P. Papinius Statius (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1914 edition. Excerpt: ...cunctantis Tyrii primordia belli Iuppiter haud aequo respexit corde Pelasgos, 1Legras: Etude sur la Thebalde de Stace, p. 253. concussitque caput, motu quo celsa laborant sidera proclamatque adici cervicibus Atlas. The note of the Lemaire ed. of Vergil (on Aen. 10, 115) says--iam compara tumorem Statii vn Theb. 3, 4. de love indignante. From this and other notes of the earlier scholiasts it is evident that very early comparisons were made between Statius and Vergil in which the former suffered greatly: and some modern commentators see in Statius' tendency to exaggeration and the seeking of strange effects in description only a determination to rival and surpass Ovid. In his treatment of this motif the details of the earlier version are present, but to further amplify the conception the poet represents Atlas as crying out with the weight that has been added to his shoulders by the commotion in heaven. And thia idea of the weight of the gods as pressing heavily on Atlas is not new in itself: several references are found to it, mostly however in Ovid and Statius. Vid. Theb. 5, 429; Silv. 1, 1, 56; Ov. Met. 9, 273. But in this connection it is new. Two tendencies on the part of the poet can be seen in this--(1) his aptitude for enlarging on material that he finds in other poets, material which is usually the common stock of epic poetry, (2) the peculiar nature of his faculty for description, which places before the mind's eye, as if in a picture or work of sculpture, the object or scene under consideration.1 Statius seizes a striking moment in the scene and fixes it before one, thus giving one, as it were, a photographic view. This is what he has done in the present instance: Atlas is caught crying out, just as the heavens seem to be slipping from...