Who's the Father? Biological and Literary Inheritance in Statius' Thebaid

Bibliographic Data

ID3939165
AuthorsRuth Parkes (0000-0003-1339-3301, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume63
Issue1-2
Pages24-37
Publication date2009-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePhoenix (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0031-8299 • E-ISSN: 1929-4883
PublisherProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/phx.2009.0061
OpenAlexW2463793407
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited7

Identifying the parentage of characters from classical mythology can be no easy task. Take, for instance, the case of Atalanta. This was the name attributed to two mythological figures:1 one was the daughter of Iasos, an Arcadian and famed huntress; the other was the Boeotian daughter of Schoeneus who ran against her suitors. What is more, the traditions surrounding these Atalantas were sometimes conflated, as demonstrated by Propertius 1.1 where Atalanta, the daughter of Iasos (1.1.10) is described in terms which recall the footrace of her Boeotian counterpart (1.1.15: velocem . . . puellam, swift girl);2 One might similarly consider Parthenopaeus. One tradition viewed him as the child of Lysimache and Talaus;3 other mythological variants held that he was the offspring of Atalanta, by Mars,4 Meleager,5 Milanion,6 or Hippomenes.7 This article examines the complexities of Parthenopaeus' parentage as explored by Statius' Thebaid. Statius makes his character the son of the Arcadian Atalanta but he also admits conflation of the Atalanta legends, attributing the story of the suitors' race to the Arcadian Atalanta in his description of Parthenopaeus at Thebaid 6.563-568

Art · Art history · Character (mathematics) · Daughter · Genealogy · Literature · Mythology · Narrative · Chemical synthesis and alkaloids · Classical Antiquity Studies · History · Organic Chemistry Synthesis Methods · Philosophy

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