Ritual and Religion in Flavian Epic

This edited collection addresses the role of ritual representations and religion in the epic poems of the Flavian period (69-96 CE): Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica, Silius Italicus' Punica, Statius' Thebaid, and the unfinished Achilleid. Drawing on various modern studies on religion and ritual, and the relationship between literature and religion in the Greco-Roman world, it explores how we can interpret the poets' use of the relationship between gods and humans, cults and rituals, religious activities, and the role of the seer / prophet and his identification with poetry. Divided into three major sections, the volume includes essays on the most important religious activities (prophecy or augury, prayers and hymns) and the relationship between religion and political power under the Flavian emperors. It also addresses specific episodes in Flavian epic which focus on religious activities associated with the dead and the Underworld, such as purification, necromancy, katabasis, suicide, and burial. It finally explores the role of gender in ritual and religion.LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS ; PREFACE ; TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS USED ; LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ; Introduction: Representing ritual and religion in Flavian epic ; PART A: GODS AND HUMANS ; 1. With (a) god on our side: Ancient ritual practices and imagery in Flavian Epic ; 2. Divine messages and human actions in the Argonautica ; 3. Competing visions: Prophecy, spectacle, and theatricality in Flavian epic ; 4. Argive augury and portents in the Thebaid ; 5. Consider in the image of Thebes: Celestial and poetic auspicy in the Thebaid ; 6. Malae preces and their articulation in the Thebaid ; 7. Hymnic features in Statian epic and the Siluae ; 8. 8 Religion and Power in the Thebaid ; PART B: DEATH AND RITUAL ; 9. Chthonic ingredients and thematic concerns: The shaping of the necromancy in the Thebaid ; 10. Wasted water: The failure of purification in the Thebaid ; 11. Patterns of darkness: Chthonic illusion, gigantomachy, and sacrificial ritual in the Punica ; 12. Back out of hell: The virtual Katabasis and initiation of Silius Minucius ; 13. Ritual murder and suicide in the Thebaid ; 14. The death and funeral rites of Opheltes in the Thebaid ; 15. Epitaphic gestures in Statius and Silius Italicus ; PART C: RITUAL AND THE FEMALE ; 16. Reconcilable differences: Anna Perenna in the battle of Cannae in the Punica ; 17. Medusa, Python, and Poine in Argive religious ritual ; 18. Orphic ritual and myth in the Thebaid ; 19. Dancing in Scyros: Masculinity and young women s rituals in the Achilleid ; BIBLIOGRAPHY ; INDEX LOCORUM ; GENERAL INDEX