Statius’ Thebaid and the episode of Nisus and Euryalus

Publius Papinius Statius: a poet of the 1st century CE, (Silver Age of Latin literature) Based on Statius' own testimony, the Thebaid was written c. 80 – c. 92 CE, beginning when the poet was around 35, and the work is thought to have been published in 91 or 92. The poem is divided into twelve books in imitation of Virgil's Aeneid and is composed in dactylic hexameter. The Thebaid describes the siege of Thebes by the seven Argive champions.

Thebaid , 10.347-448 Hopleus and Dymas, squires of Tydeus and Parthenopaeus 10.436-437 Dymas refuses to betray his city & commits suicide over the corpse of Parthenopaeus. 10.445-448 „You too are consecrate, though my songs arise from a less lofty lyre, and will go down the unforgetful years. Perchance too Euryalus will not spurn his comrade shades, and the glory of Phrygian Nisus will not say them nay“ (Statius).

Sensual hints in Statius’ episode 10.378 the bodies of their leaders are a loved burden when they first shoulder them. 10.403-4 (Hopleus) is not yet unmindful of his great leader … and dies holding him, fortunate in that he knows not of the body’s removal and descends thus to the cruel shades. 10.439-41 (Dymas) he throws his breast on the boy, with a final utterance: “Nevertheless gain this burial in the meantime” 10.444 they delight in death 10.442 they die both in the longed for embraces of their chiefs.

Isaak Walraven: 1686-1765: The death bed of Epaminondas. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

The Sacred Band of Thebes was a troop of picked soldiers, consisting of 150 age-structured couples, which formed the elite force of the Theban army in the 4th century BCE. Plutarch records that the Sacred Band was made up of male couples, the rationale being that lovers could fight more fiercely and cohesively than strangers with no ardent bonds.

According to Plutarch's Life of Pelopidas, the inspiration for the Band's formation came from Plato's Symposium, wherein the character Phaedrus remarks: And if there were only some way of contriving that a state or an army should be made up of lovers and their loves, they would be the very best governors of their own city, abstaining from all dishonour, and emulating one another in honour; and when fighting at each other's side, although a mere handful, they would overcome the world. For what lover would not choose rather to be seen by all mankind than by his beloved, either when abandoning his post or throwing away his arms? He would be ready to die a thousand deaths rather than endure this. Or who would desert his beloved or fail him in the hour of danger?