Lorenza Bennardo

The paper looks at colour terminology as a tool for achieving enargeia in Latin poetry of the first century C.E. I consider the use of Latin terms for black in three descriptive passages from Statius’ Thebaid, where the juxtaposition of 'ater' and 'niger' adds to the vividness of ekphrastic 'objects' such as the pestilential sky looming over Argos (book 1), Python (also book 1), Jocasta (book 7) and the quasi-ghost Amphiaraus (book 8). The pairing of the two colour terms also draws our attention to the intratextual and intertextual connections of each descriptive passage,  showing that Statius uses enargeia not only as an artistic effect, but also as an instrument for challenging poetic models and for tying his own poetic practice to contemporary rhetorical discussions.

Roman philosophical terminology woven in Pluto’s graphic description of his Underworld allows the god to challenge Epicurean ideas about the divine, death and the Underworld, to contradict the praise of elite Epicurean retirement offered by Statius in the Silvae, and to cunningly vociferate against political compromise in Flavian Rome.

The paper argues for 'serunt' as the correct reading in Statius, Theb. 8.26 instead of colourless 'ferunt' accepted in recent editions. First in applying 'serunt' to weaving, Statius elaborates on the connection of the verb with 'series' and with the representation of the Parcae as spinners. References to Statius' line in later readers support the authenticity of 'serunt' and bear witness to different interpretations of Statius’ unique (and debated?) usage of the verb.