Statius and Empedocles: Love and Strife in the Thebaid

Guilio Celotto
University of Virginia

Monday, October 5, 2026, 6:15pm
NYU Department of Classics
Silver Center for Arts and Science, Room 503
32 Waverly Place or 31 Washington Place (wheelchair access)

The reception of Empedocles in Latin epic has long drawn scholarly attention. Studies have examined Ennius’, Vergil’s, Ovid’s, and Lucan’s engagement with Empedoclean philosophy. More recently the scholarly debate has shifted to the question of whether Empedocles’ influence extends beyond the Julio-Claudian Age. In this paper I contribute to this discussion by suggesting that in his Thebaid Statius systematically evokes Empedocles’ cosmology. More specifically, I show that the contention of Pietas and Tisiphone in books 1 and 11 and the encounter of Venus and Mars in book 3 can be interpreted allegorically as representations of Empedocles’ dialectic of Love and Strife. In both cases the agent of Strife conquers, forcing the embodiment of Love to withdraw. This analysis reveals that Statius compares the clash between Eteocles and Polynices with the second phase of Empedocles’ cosmic cycle, in which Strife prevails and Love fades away, and its outcome with the third phase, in which chaos dominates. In this light, Theseus’ intervention in book 12, which aims to recompose the unity of the Theban community, may be viewed, at least on the surface, as the reappearance of Love, and thus as the beginning of a new age for the city. Considering that the fratricidal conflict set in mythical Thebes is commonly interpreted as a reflection of the civil war fought in Rome in 68-69 CE, and the triumph of Theseus is linked to the accession of the Flavian dynasty to the throne of Rome,this Empedoclean reading of the Thebaid sheds new light on the overall political message of the poem.

For more information, contact Evan Wontor Shaal: eaw9144@nyu.edu or Kimiko Adler: kja326@nyu.edu