Statius' Paradoxical Style

Paradox is a hallmark of Statius’ style: it arouses tension in the reader, and performs epistemological as well as aesthetic functions. The Thebaid, Achilleid, and Silvae share a taste for paradoxical expression, imagery, and structures: in the sublime, the playful, and the polite registers a rhetoric of wonder is at work. Perversions of language embody the perversions of a war between equals; spectacular illusions transform a cross-dressed hero under our eyes; oxymoronic definitions exalt the excellence of patrons. As he makes words, images, and ideas (or even poetic traditions) collide with each other, Statius intensifies his text and creates an aesthetics of surprise.