Family in Flavian Epic

Abstract

Flavian epic offers a rich exploration of the family, and Flavian studies have embraced this accordingly, with a large number of publications including articles, chapters, and two seminal monographs. 1 The reader of the four surviving epics (Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica, Statius' Thebaid and Achilleid, and Silius Italicus' Punica) will not be surprised to find in them scores of examples of filial piety, maternal concern and sisterly affection, parents lamenting the death of their children, brothers vying for succession and taking up arms against each other. 2The myths of the Argonautic expedition, the war against Thebes, and Achilles' stay on Scyros treat such themes from their earliest appearance in literature and art. 3 At the same time, these poems consciously engage with an epic tradition which revels in these and similar myths, and consequently in depictions of families.Finally, not only Silius' historical poem, but also Valerius' and Statius' mythological endeavours are a product of their Roman, and specifically Flavian context, for which the family both as an institution and in its imperial manifestation has a central place. 4 Family is an important feature in the life of epic heroes. 5 The very plot of the Homeric poems is motivated by a man's desire to be reunited with his wife and son (Odysseus' nostos) and another man's wish to reclaim the wife stolen from him and 1 E.g.