History Literature / TheThebaid

Modeled off ''Literature/TheAeneid'', ''The Thebaid'' repeats and expands upon a classic sequence of stories from Myth/ClassicalMythology in twelve books of verse. The first six books see the exiled Polynices arrive in Argos as the gods of Olympus and Styx move him to wage war against his brother, King Eteocles. The latter six cover the war itself as Polynices and the rest of the seven against Thebes reckon with their cruel fates.

* {{Gendercide}}: All of the men of Lemnos had their throat slit in the middle of the nights by their wives and daughters who were furious at the men for abandoning the island to wage some foreign war. The only girl who doesn't partake in the massacre is Hypsipyle, who sneaks her father out of the island.

* MagicIsEvil: The rites of divination are unreliable, unnatural, and traumatic to those who practice them. The narrator takes an aside to ask why humanity developed such an arrogant and evil art when its obvious the future is unknown to all men.

* RescuedFromTheUnderworld: DiscussedTrope; when a living dude stumbles into the Underworld, Hades/Pluto/Dis assumes he's here abduct one of his subjects and bring them to the land of the living. Amphiaraus explains he's just a dead soul with a weird death, but Hades is still wary, citing his experiences with Theseus and Orpheus, other examples of this trope.

* PietaPlagiarism: A rare villainous example; a pair of twins among the fifty assassins stop fighting the battle the elder picks up the younger to make sure he's still alive. The younger is mortally wounded and then even moreso when Tydeus pierces his sword through the hearts of both of the twins simultaneously.

* SoreLoser: Neptune will not allow anyone to defeat his ancestors, so he causes a earthquake that rocks all of Nemea just so that his equine son can cross a finish line before a competitor. His rider doesn't cross it with him, so Phoebus' champion still legally wins, but Neptune only cares about the horse.

* RescuedFromTheUnderworld: Hades/Pluto/Dis talks about this trope when a living dude crashes into the Thunderworld and he assumes he's here abduct one of his subjects back to life. Amphiaraus explains he's just a dead soul with a weird death, but Hades is still wary, citing his experiences with Theseus and Orpheus, as mentioned above.

* TheMuse: The poem drops a bunch of dramatic moments it good start telling the story before the narrator says that his mind is aflame with poetic inspiration. He needs to rely on the Goddesses of Song to decide where to start and how to tell such a spiraling tale.

* BreatherEpisode: Book VI glosses over the Theban war that every book before and after it focuses on in favor of detailing a bunch of races, wrestling matches, and other games. No one dies and there's some fun racing and low-stakes fighting, all thanks to the god of war procrastinating.
* BookEnds: The first book begins with Statius thanking and praying to the {{The Muse}}s and it ends with a character in the story heaping praise upon Apollo, the father of the Muses.

* SugaryMalice: Juno's objection to Jupiter is reverent, sure, yet its pretty suspicious that she mentions five different women Jupiter cheated on her with. Even as Juno calls her husband "Most Just of the Divinities," she finds a way it make it clear that she is tired of him punishing evil while never addressing his own harlotry.

* RescuedFromTheUnderworld: Hades/Pluto/Dis talks about this trope when a living dude crashes into the Thunderworld and he assumes he's here abduct one of his subjects back to life. Amphiaraus explains he's just a dead soul with a weird death, but Hades is still wary, citign his expericnes with Theseus and Orpheus, as mentioned above.

* RescuedFromTheUnderworld: Hades/Pluto/Dis [[ConversedTrope talks about this trope]] when a living dude crashes into the Thunderworld and he assumes he's here abduct one of his subjects back to life. Amphiaraus explains he's just a dead soul with a weird death, but Hades is still wary, citign his expericnes with Theseus and Orpheus, as mentioned above.

* RescuedFromTheUnderworld: Dis assumes that the dude who rode a chariot into Hell must be another hero type like Theseus or Orpheus come to abduct one of his subjects. Amphiaraus explains as quick as heavenly Dis' lightning that he's just another dead soul, only one caught up in a bizarre death.

* PowderKegCrowd: Despite how highly then think of themselves, all it takes for the men of Argos to enter into a frothing mob is a hot, dry day. They trample over each other without concern for their fellow men at the first word of a river, showing themselves just as mad as the Thebans who worship Bacchus.

* PietaPlagiarism: A rare villainous example; a pair of twins among the fifty assassins stop fighting the battle the elder picks up the younger to make sure he's still alive. The younger is mortally wounded and then even moreso when Tydeus pierces his sword through the hearts of both of the twins simultaneously.