Thebaid's Feminine Ending

Abstract

‘Closure: Get Over It’ Miss Manners 12/6/98 ‘I know, it probably doesn't have the sense of closure that you want, but it has more than some of our other cases.’ Agent Dana Scully on ‘The X-Files’ Thebaid12 is a problematic ending to a disturbing poem. Part of the problem is the unsatisfactory nature of the final book. Book 12 is itself concerned with the processes of ending and its problems. The main narrative of theThebaidis the story of the sons of Oedipus, Eteocles and Polynices, and their battle over the throne at Thebes. Their final confrontation occurs in Book 11. This ending is full of closural allusions and very closely linked to the ending of theAeneidand its final battle between Aeneas and Turnus. If the poem is ‘over’ after Book 11, why does Statius write the final book? It's not enough to say—as critics have—that it's just badly structured poetry.

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