User:Faith345/Statius

Statius in the Divine Comedy
In the Divine Comedy, Dante and Virgil meet Statius as they leave the fifth terrace in Purgatorio (reserved for the avaricious and the prodigal) and enter the sixth terrace (reserved for the gluttonous). Statius' redemption is heard in Canto 20 (the mountain trembles and the penitent souls cry out "Gloria in excelsis Deo") and he joins Dante and Virgil as indicated in Canto 21. Scholars have compared his arrival to Jesus’ appearance to the disciples after Resurrection as stated in Luke 24:13–16. Statius then ascends Mount Purgatorio with them and stays with Dante in the Earthly Paradise at the mountain's summit, after Virgil has returned to Limbo. Even though, Statius plays a small role after the disappearance of Virgil, his presence in accompanying Dante through Earthly Paradise till the river of Eunoe and his last mention in Purgatorio 33 serves an important role in the plot line of the Comedy as it underscores Statius’ significant difference from Virgil. This is because Dante’s Statius, a christian poet who draws inspiration from Virgil, represents a model of the "new vernacular Christian Dante-poeta" in Dante’s journey in the Comedy as a protagonist

Dante presents Statius as the author of Thebaid and Achilleid who has a great admiration for Virgil. Statius remarks Virgil’s Aeneid as "it was my mama and my nurse" (Purg 21.98) to express Virgil as his inspiration. In Purgatory, when Dante reveals Virgil’s identity to Statius, he makes a failed attempt to embrace Virgil which parallels with Aeneid’s failed attempt to embrace Anchises in Aeneid 6 700-2. Dante also adds inventive details about Statius’ life to fit with the narrative of the Comedy. As part of the narrative detail, Statius attributes Virgil as his guide for being saved from following the path of vice through reading Polydorus’ murder in Aeneid 3 56-57 and his reason for converting to Christianity through reading Epilogue 4 5-7 .Through the famous lines of Purgatorio "per te poeta fui, per te cristiano " (“through you I was a poet, through you a Christian,” 22.73), Dante’s Statius highlights Virgil was the reason he was saved from Paganism. He states that he kept his Christianity a secret (Chiuso Cristian, “a secret Christian” Purg 22.90) as he lived at a time where Christians were persecuted which resulted him spending 4 centuries in the 4th terrace where the sin of sloth is cleansed.

Dante’s inventive portrayal of Statius embodies three elements of conversion important for the Comedy's tropology of exile. First, his conversion to Christianity symbolizes exodus as humanity was redeemed through Christ. Second, his aversion of vice exemplifies soul’s conversion from sin to grace. Third, his completion of cleansing in Purgatorio allegorizes the soul’s exodus from servitude to eternal glory. In addition, the idea that Virgil was the reason for his conversion simulates how Virgil was a rescuer for Dante in Inferno 1. However, though Statius’s conversion to Christianity is a key positive element in the Comedy, it is also a ‘negative exemplum’ to Dante. This is because, Statius shunned from publicly revealing his Christianity, contrary to Dante, who publicly writes about his faith in the Comedy.

In addition to Statius, himself, characters drawn from his works are also found in the Comedy. Argia who was a character in Statius’ Thebaid and wife of Polynices is mentioned as "de le genti tue  '' (of your people) in Purg 22 109-110. Dante considers her to be a noble woman placing her among the virtuous pagans in Limbo. Capaneus, who is at the center of Thebaid's tragic theme, is placed in the third ring of the seventh circle of Dis where those who committed sins against the Creator are condemned. However, the distinction between Thebaid’s Capaneus and Dante’s portrayal of him is that in the earlier he is viewed to be heroic while in the Comedy, he is a character whose only attributes are physical strength and one fails to accept God’s divine power.