Abstracts are invited for the conference ‘Statian chelys, Horatian lyra: New horizons for an intertextual Thebaid’
When/Where: Monday 22nd of June and Tuesday 23rd of June 2026, in London at Senate House.
Conference Aims/Themes
This conference aims to investigate the ways in which Statius’ Thebaid, a poem long recognized for its densely intertextual character, adopts a particularly Horatian mode of composition.
Current scholarship has just started to show interest in the interaction between Greco-Roman lyric and Statius’ Achilleid, while the same angle seems understudied in relation to Statius’ Thebaid (Keith, A. 2017. ‘Lyric Resonances in Statius’ Achilleid’, in F. Bessone / M. Fucecchi eds.The Literary Genres in the Flavian Age: Canons, Transformations, Reception, Berlin, 283-95). In the Achilleid, Statius is said to engage with the generic opposition between epic and lyric to signal a ‘delicacy’ of style that complements epic’s traditional grandeur (Keith 2017, 285). This dynamic tension is found, for instance, in the characterisation of Achilles, where the lyric elements emphasise Achilles’ youth and his similarity to Apollo, god of both poetry and war. Federica Bessone explores further the self-representation of Statius as a lyric vates across the Silvae, the Thebaid and the Achilleid, and draws attention to the role played by Augustan lyric and elegy in shaping it formally and thematically (Bessone, F. 2014. ‘Polis, Court, Empire: Greek Culture, Roman Society, and the System of Genres in Statius’ Poetry’, in A. Augoustakis ed. Flavian Poetry and Its Greek Past, Leiden, 215-233).
These critical approaches focus especially on the Achilleid, and construe Horatian poetry as predominantly ‘Apolline’ and lending a solemn, vatic voice to Statius as an epic bard. Horace’s poetic voice is, also, marked by tensions, impotence, poses of failure and lack of ability, along with the dangerous and wilder ‘Bacchic poetics’. We would like to ask how this Horatian poetics interact with (1) Statius’ Thebaid, (2) its focus on a continuing and troubling myth/history of civil strife, and (3) Statius’ vatic voice. Our proposed reading of the interaction between Horace and Statius would be strongly rooted in Statius’ reception of the Theban fratricidal war and of the Actian civil war of the 30s BC as, respectively, mythical and historical parallels for the political turmoil of 69 AD (Donovan Ginsberg, L./ Krasne, D. A. 2018. After 69 CE. Writing Civil War in Flavian Rome, Berlin).
Among the chief areas identified for further inquiry are:
- How does Statius understand the problem of gender, if filtered through the lens of a Horatian interlocutor?
- Should we understand Horace’s influence directly, or rather indirectly through mediating voices such as Pindar, Callimachus, Vergil, and Lucan?
- Finally, since this preliminary panel was limited in its scope – focusing on the Odesand Epodes – what can be said of other Horatian influences (Satires, Epistles, or the Carmen Saeculare)?
Confirmed Speakers include Christopher Chinn, Helen Lovatt, Carole Newlands, Ruth Parkes.
Submission Information and Deadline
Please submit a 250-300 abstract to l.sperindio@ucl.ac.uk by Friday 30th of January 2026. Papers should aim to be 20 minutes long and will be followed by a 10 minutes discussion. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by mid-February 2026.
Note: this is not a Classical Association event – please contact the organisers directly with any enquiries.