No Audio for Statius
-
- Textkit Fan
- Posts: 282
- Joined: Wed Jan 10, 2007 6:35 pm
- Location: Regina, SK; Canada
- Contact:
No Audio for Statius
I noticed there seem to be no audio-editions of Statius' Thebaid out there. It is easy enough to find an audio edition of Virgil or Ovid. Why do scholars neglect Statius?
-
- Textkit Fan
- Posts: 231
- Joined: Thu Mar 12, 2009 6:31 pm
- Location: Chicago
Re: No Audio for Statius
Good question: Statius was very popular in Medieval and Renaissance times, and most Latinists then ranked him among the best of Latin poets. His fortunes have seriously declined since then.... I don't remember the reasons, but I know that G. B. Conte has an interesting discussion of Statius' reception in his Latin Literature: A History. I don't have my copy with me at the moment; but if I get time later, I'll post a summary of the salient points.
Dic mihi, Damoeta, 'cuium pecus' anne Latinum?
- thesaurus
- Textkit Zealot
- Posts: 1012
- Joined: Mon Oct 02, 2006 9:44 pm
Re: No Audio for Statius
Just glanced at the section on "reception" on Google Books.Damoetas wrote:Good question: Statius was very popular in Medieval and Renaissance times, and most Latinists then ranked him among the best of Latin poets. His fortunes have seriously declined since then.... I don't remember the reasons, but I know that G. B. Conte has an interesting discussion of Statius' reception in his Latin Literature: A History. I don't have my copy with me at the moment; but if I get time later, I'll post a summary of the salient points.
Conte notes that the Thebaid is "an epic that was probably copied more often in the Middle Ages than it has been read in modern times." Apparently, "the Thebaid was appreciated by medieval readers for its allegorical personifications and for its stark moral conflict between the forces of good on Olympus and those of evil in the Underworld."
However, he doesn't posit any reason for the decline: "Statius contnued to influence Renaissance occasional lyric and, to a far lesser extent, epic, but his forutunes began an inexorable decline that has continued to our own days."
I have not read Statius, but I allegorical personifications and stark moral conflicts aren't the kind of thing most readers are interested in nowadays.
Horae quidem cedunt et dies et menses et anni, nec praeteritum tempus umquam revertitur nec quid sequatur sciri potest. Quod cuique temporis ad vivendum datur, eo debet esse contentus. --Cicero, De Senectute