Literature and history

come. Hello and welcome to literature and history.

Episode 71, The Gods Depart.

This program is on the second half of the Thibayet, an epic poem completed by the Roman poet Stacious around 92 CE, about a great war fought at the ancient Greek city of Thebes. We covered the first half of the epic in the previous program. That was episode 70s.

So if you want to hear the story from the beginning, you can start there.

This show will take you through the final six books of Stasis' epic The Thebeid, books in which enemy forces arrive at the city of Thebes, and begin

to besiege and make war on the city.

Now it's been a little while since we heard the beginning of this story so let's first

quickly review the Central Family at the heart of Stacious's Epic and then the famous Seven Against Thebes, those military captains who lead the opposing

forces to war with the city of Thebes. We will begin with the Theban family at the heart of

Stacious as The Bayet, a tragic and doomed set of six people who,

due to divine providence, bad luck, and strong personalities, just don't seem to have it very easy. The father of this

family of six is Oedipus. That famous Greek tragic hero who killed his father and married his mother, and finding out the truth of his marriage gouged out his eyes and abdicated his throne.

Stasis is the Bayet opens not too long after Eppus's awful revelation took place.

Eppus's wife, Jocosta, is equally distraught by the revelation concerning her family.

In Sophocles' edipus plays,

Jocosta kills herself immediately upon learning that she has married her son,

although in Stacious's version of the story, upon learning that she has married her son.

Although in Stacious's version of the story,

our version for today,

Jocosta remains alive, as evidence from the poem suggests,

to try and take care of her children.

...