Thēbăid (Thēbăis)Latin epic poem in twelve books of hexameters by Statius. The author, who spent twelve years on the work, published it in AD 90 or 91.
The subject is the expedition of the Seven against Thebes in support of the attempt by Polyneicēs to recover the throne from his brother Eteoclēs (see OEDIPUS). The first three books deal with the preliminaries of the war—the arrival of Polyneices and Tydeus at Argos, the embassy of Tydeus to Thebes and the subsequent attempt by some Thebans to destroy him in an ambush (he fights single-handed against fifty Thebans, 2. 496), and the prophecy of Amphiaraus. Books 4, 5, and 6 include the consultation of the seer Teiresias, the Argive march on Thebes, the episode of Hypsipylē, her account of the massacre at Lemnos, 5. 85, and the funeral games for the child Opheltēs, including the exciting chariot-race, 6. 296. With book 7 the fighting begins, after a vain attempt by Jocasta at mediation. The pious Amphiaraus is swallowed up by the earth; the fighting continues through books 8, 9, and 10, with many incidents: the death of Ismenē's lover Atys, the episode of Tydeus and Melanippus, the feats of Hippomedon, the self-sacrifice (devotio) of Menoeceus, the death of Capaneus by a thunderbolt. Book 11 contains the fatal combat of Eteocles and Polyneices, Creon's refusal of burial to the latter, and Jocasta's suicide. Book 12 completes the story with the meeting between Polyneices' wife Argia and Antigonē, the funeral pyre of the two sons of Oedipus, with its divided flames, the intervention of Theseus, and the death of Creon. At the end, Statius takes leave of his long task, and with a humble reference to Virgil speculates whether his own work will endure.
Statius follows epic tradition in having the gods interfere in men's affairs, writing a catalogue of the forces fighting, describing funeral games, and so on. Many of his incidents and much of his language are imitated from Virgil. The modern reader finds an excess of mythological lore; the occasional lively narrative hardly relieves the tedium of the rest.
Thebaid
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The Thebaid or Thebais (Greek: Θηβαΐδα, Thēbaïda or Θηβαΐς, Thēbaïs) is the region of ancient Egypt containing the thirteen southernmost nomes of Upper Egypt, from Abydos to Aswan. It acquired its name from its proximity to the ancient Egyptian capital of Thebes.
In Ptolemaic Egypt, the Thebaid formed a single administrative district under the Epistrategos of Thebes, who was also responsible for overseeing navigation in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.
During the Roman Empire, Diocletian created the province of Thebais, guarded by the legions I Maximiana Thebanorum and II Flavia Constantia. This was later divided in Upper (Latin: Thebais Superior, Greek: Ἄνω Θηβαΐς, Anō Thēbaïs), comprising the southern half with its capital at Thebes, and Lower or Nearer (Latin: Thebais Inferior, Greek: Θηβαΐς Ἐγγίστη, Thēbaïs Engistē), comprising the northern half with capital at Ptolemais.
Around the 5th century, since it was a desert, the Thebaid became a place of retreat of a number of Christian hermits, and was the birthplace of Pachomius.[1] In Christian art, the Thebaid was represented as a place with numerous monks.
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 | thebaid |
| Dēmogorgon |
| Publius Papinius Statius (Italian poet) |
 | Who does statius address at beginning of thebaid? |
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Mentioned in
- Master of the Triumph of Death (art)
- Stātius
- Teiresias
- Hypsipylē
- Phileas
- Romans d'antiquité
- Karlsruhe Master (art)
- The Thebais
- Thebaid (poems)
- Thebaid (Greek poem)
