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The Thebaid

293 statements
57 feature instances
50 referencing feature instances

The Thebaid	type	TVTItem
The Thebaid	label	The Thebaid
The Thebaid	page	TheThebaid
The Thebaid	comment	The Thebaid is a 1st-century epic by Statius detailing the fated war between Oedipus' son-brothers for the throne of Thebes.Modeled on The Aeneid, The Thebaid repeats and expands upon a classic sequence of stories from Classical Mythology in twelve books of verse. The first six books see the exiled Polynices arrive in Argos as the gods of Olympus and Styx move him to wage war against his brother, King Eteocles. The latter six cover the war itself as Polynices and the rest of the seven against Thebes reckon with their cruel fates.As the title suggests, the history of Thebes is of great importance to the work and there are frequent references to the events that shaped the city. The wanderings of Cadmus, the birth of Bacchus, the blasphemy of Tantalus, the death of Niobe, and especially the tragedy of Oedipus all shape how the gods regard the war, but outside of the distant past, Argos is the city that gets the most focus. The protagonist is a leader of said city and the other six (Amphiaraus, Tydeus, Parthenopeus, Hippomedon, Capaneus, and King Adrastus) all feature prominently in multiple episodes. In terms of Thebes, only Polynices' family and Creon have major appearances in multiple books.Statius would go on to attempt another epic in the style of The Thebaid with his Achilleid, but his death left only a sample of The Achilleid completed. It would be left to readers like Dante Alighieri and Geoffrey Chaucer to truly succeed his work with their own masterworks that bear his influence.
The Thebaid	fetched	2024-03-18T08:30:39Z
The Thebaid	parsed	2024-03-18T08:30:39Z
The Thebaid	isPartOf	DBTropes
The Thebaid / int_1e763245	type	Vice City
The Thebaid / int_1e763245	comment	Vice City: Home to dragon-born men, the alcoholic god, and kings of incest, Thebes is a microcosm of all of man's sin. The whole brutal war against Thebes is brought about because Jupiter is frustrated with just how much evil there is in the world and uses Thebes as a representation of that evil which he can take out his frustration upon.
The Thebaid / int_1e763245	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Thebaid / int_22071825	type	I'm a Humanitarian
The Thebaid / int_22071825	comment	I'm a Humanitarian: The war of Thebes and Argos degrades men even to cannibalism. Itâ€™s brave Tydeus who does the horrid deed, biting into the decapitated skull of an enemy that wounded him.
The Thebaid / int_22071825	featureApplicability	1.0
The Thebaid / int_22071825	featureConfidence	1.0
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The Thebaid / int_25101d1a	type	Post-Victory Collapse
The Thebaid / int_25101d1a	comment	Post-Victory Collapse: After killing forty-nine men who ambushed him, Tydeus realizes he's in terrible pain and drops to the ground, moaning like a lion who's had too much deer carcass to eat.
The Thebaid / int_25101d1a	featureApplicability	1.0
The Thebaid / int_25101d1a	featureConfidence	1.0
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The Thebaid / int_2534ee67	type	In Medias Res
The Thebaid / int_2534ee67	comment	In Medias Res: The Thebaid starts with Statius describing the final duel between the sons of Oedipus, which is only fully told in Book XI. He quickly realizes that's no place to start his song of Thebes and considers beginning from Jupiter's rape of Europa, Cadmus' founding of the city, Amphion's choral wall-building, or the vengeance of the wine god before settling on Polynices' exile as the starting point.
The Thebaid / int_2534ee67	featureApplicability	1.0
The Thebaid / int_2534ee67	featureConfidence	1.0
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The Thebaid / int_2673425b	type	Kid Hero
The Thebaid / int_2673425b	comment	Kid Hero: Parthenopeus can barely grow peach fuzz when Argos goes to war, yet his sheltered upbringing and heroic lineage makes him eager to see the front lines. His mother notices he's left too late to stop him and even with the patronage of Diana, he does not return from the war unscarred.
The Thebaid / int_2673425b	featureApplicability	1.0
The Thebaid / int_2673425b	featureConfidence	1.0
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The Thebaid / int_347e35d6	type	Grim Up North
The Thebaid / int_347e35d6	comment	Grim Up North: Where else could the God of War sit but the dark north? In fact, Mars' fortress in Thrace is so far north that Mercury starts his journey from the North Pole to get to him in a timely manner. If the latitude and barrenness wasn't enough, the very presence of Mars dims the Sun, so his home will always look suitably deadly.
The Thebaid / int_347e35d6	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Thebaid / int_3495b94d	type	Gendercide
The Thebaid / int_3495b94d	comment	Gendercide: The men of Lemnos had their throats slit by their wives and daughters, who were furious at the men for abandoning them to wage war. The only girl who doesn't partake in the massacre is Hypsipyle, who sneaks her father out of the island.
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The Thebaid / int_36c94bed	type	Person of Mass Destruction
The Thebaid / int_36c94bed	comment	Person of Mass Destruction: In what doubles as an Establishing Character Moment, Mars is introduced riding towards Olympus just after finishing a day of destroying cities and slaughtering foreign nations by his lonesome.
The Thebaid / int_36c94bed	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Thebaid / int_389f6c7b	type	Sugary Malice
The Thebaid / int_389f6c7b	comment	Sugary Malice: Juno's objection to Jupiter is reverent, sure, yet its pretty suspicious that she mentions five different women Jupiter cheated on her with. Even as Juno calls her husband "Most Just of the Divinities," she finds a way it make it clear that she is tired of him punishing evil while never addressing his own sluttiness.
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The Thebaid / int_39c6cac7	type	Shed the Family Name
The Thebaid / int_39c6cac7	comment	Shed the Family Name: In his exile, Polynices hides his incestuous ancestry out of shame. It is only when the king of Argos takes him in that he is obliged to reveal his infamous origin, and even then he mentions his most ancient ancestor, the city he's from, and then his famously gross parents.
The Thebaid / int_39c6cac7	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Thebaid / int_3a4522df	type	PietÃ Plagiarism
The Thebaid / int_3a4522df	comment	PietÃ Plagiarism: A rare villainous example (as well as technically predating the Pieta): a pair of twins among the fifty assassins stop fighting the battle the elder picks up the younger to make sure he's still alive. The younger is mortally wounded and then even moreso when Tydeus pierces his sword through the hearts of both of the twins simultaneously.
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The Thebaid / int_3abfffa4	type	DavidVsGoliath
The Thebaid / int_3abfffa4	comment	David vs. Goliath: Two of the Nemean games pit a hulking brute against a tiny underdog: In the boxing match, the blasphemous Capaneus scares off any challengers due to his sheer size until Alcidimas stands up. Trained by the legendary boxer Pollux, the smaller boxer is able to dodge most of Capaneus' lethal blows and jab him until he nearly goes down. Its the humiliation of that near-knock out that enrages Capaneus to the point of beating Alcidimas to death. His comrades stop the brute and Capaneus is rewarded a palm branch while Alcidimas gets the compensation prize of his life. In the wrestling match, one of Hercules' fatter kids goes up against the Pint-Sized Powerhouse Tydeus. The Herculean is explicitly as big as his dad (although not nearly as strong) and expects his bulk to win the day, which allows Tydeus to totally outmaneuver and exhaust him throughout the fight. Even crushing the little man with his whole bulk doesn't save the big guy, since Tydeus just slips out of his grasp, puts his arms around him, and throws the giant man so hard into the ground that he doesn't get back up.
The Thebaid / int_3abfffa4	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Thebaid / int_3be6d35	type	Rescued from the Underworld
The Thebaid / int_3be6d35	comment	Rescued from the Underworld: Discussed Trope; when a living dude stumbles into the Underworld, Hades/Pluto/Dis assumes he's here to abduct one of his subjects and bring them to the land of the living. Amphiaraus explains he's just a dead soul with a weird death, but Hades is still wary, citing his experiences with Theseus and Orpheus, other examples of this trope.
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The Thebaid / int_3d4d3dc9	type	Humans Are Bastards
The Thebaid / int_3d4d3dc9	comment	Humans Are Bastards: Humans are so inclined to sin that the gods can't punish evil-doers fast enough. Even flooding the whole world and letting the sun-chariot set the skies aflame can't kill enough people to get rid of every villain. If the word of the gods won't convince readers, then the history of incest, murder, envy, and betrayal that defines Thebes should get that theme across enough.
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The Thebaid / int_4b1aa6e5	type	Telephone Polearm
The Thebaid / int_4b1aa6e5	comment	Telephone Polearm: Capaneus is so huge that his weapon of choice is a tree trunk that he wields like a club.
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The Thebaid / int_4ffde1e0	type	Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me
The Thebaid / int_4ffde1e0	comment	Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Mars is armed with a blood-red shield radiating with enough divine light to be mistaken for the Sun.
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The Thebaid / int_52b36340	type	What Measure Is a Mook?
The Thebaid / int_52b36340	comment	What Measure Is a Mook?: The soldiers of Thebes work for the fraudulent king Eteocles and are sinister enough to ambush Tydeus in the night, yet their deaths are written as horrific tragedies. This applies to no one more than the two twins, who Tydeus skewers while the elder is desperately trying to mend the younger's wounds.
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The Thebaid / int_5313c266	type	Bookends
The Thebaid / int_5313c266	comment	Book Ends: The first book begins with Statius thanking and praying to the The Muses and it ends with a character in the story heaping praise upon Apollo, the father of the Muses.
The Thebaid / int_5313c266	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Thebaid / int_53a7089a	type	Pint-Sized Powerhouse
The Thebaid / int_53a7089a	comment	Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Every character Tydeus fights is taller than him and he's described as kind of a runt, but his size disguises his gigantic strength and unbeatable endurance. The guy can lift boulders or demi-gods over his head and throw them like a javelin and still have energy to fight forty soldiers in the dead of night.
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The Thebaid / int_54eceae6	type	Magic Is Evil
The Thebaid / int_54eceae6	comment	Magic Is Evil: The rites of divination are unreliable, unnatural, and traumatic to those who practice them. The narrator takes an aside to ask why humanity developed such an arrogant and evil art when it's obvious the future is unknown to all men.
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The Thebaid / int_55232afa	type	Politically Incorrect Hero
The Thebaid / int_55232afa	comment	Politically Incorrect Hero: Capaneus is an open blasphemer, but he's so fearsome in battle that no one wants to punish him for his crimes against the gods, so Polynices and Adrastus allow him to assist in the war against Thebes.
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The Thebaid / int_55537342	type	Evil Living Flames
The Thebaid / int_55537342	comment	Evil Living Flames: In the final book, the funeral fires of Oedipus' sons inherit the hatred of their corpses and battle each other in a horrible display.
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The Thebaid / int_5768d31	type	Super-Speed
The Thebaid / int_5768d31	comment	Super-Speed: Mars' chariot can fly through heaven as quickly as Jupiter's lightning; its speed also leaves behind streaks of fire through the sky that make a pretty good omen that war is coming.
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The Thebaid / int_5769a98e	type	Heaven's Devils
The Thebaid / int_5769a98e	comment	Heaven's Devils: Oedipus' pious prayers for the death of his sons is answered by the heavenly King Jupiter by sending the Queen of the Pit, the Fury Allecto, to breathe hatred and envy into their souls.
The Thebaid / int_5769a98e	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Thebaid / int_581f6468	type	Hero of Another Story
The Thebaid / int_581f6468	comment	Hero of Another Story: Before settling on singing about Thebes, the narrator admits he'd rather tell about noble Emperor Domitian and how he stayed on Earth to make Rome eternal when he could have left to become a god in Heaven. Problem is, that story is really hard to tell, so Thebes will have to do.
The Thebaid / int_581f6468	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Thebaid / int_6682d6e4	type	Dying Moment of Awesome
The Thebaid / int_6682d6e4	comment	Dying Moment of Awesome: Amphiaraus doesn't go to Hades by the hand of another soldier; instead, his god opens a chasm in front of him mid-battle and he drives his chariot down through the Earth straight into Hell. The moment is so awe-inspiring that the Fates forget to cut his string when he crashes into the Stygian floor and he spends his first few moments in the land of the dead alive.
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The Thebaid / int_6a2c358d	type	A Death in the Limelight
The Thebaid / int_6a2c358d	comment	A Death in the Limelight: Book VIII focuses almost exclusively on Tydeus' vicious exploits in the war on Thebes and ends with him being abandoned to die after his goddess becomes disgusted by his savagery. Book XI follows on Polynices and Eteocles moreso than any of the books dealing with the war. Of course, it ends with the two brothers crossing arms in unlawful war, as mentioned in the first words of the epic.
The Thebaid / int_6a2c358d	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Thebaid / int_7241785e	type	You Can't Fight Fate
The Thebaid / int_7241785e	comment	You Can't Fight Fate: Most of the gods are horrified to learn that the people of Thebes and Argos will be massacred in a great war and lobby to stop it. Most except Jupiter, who orders his lessers to carry out the decrees of Fate or suffer the wrath of his thunderbolt. Unable to challenge the king of the universe, all the unhappy gods can do is delay the inevitable: Juno is the most successful at fitting fate to her designs, since she leverages Jupiter's many adulteries to make him concede that Argos shouldn't be totally destroyed. Venus stops Mars from rousing the Argive army by breaking into tears in front of his chariot and waxing poetic about how Thebes' destruction will end the bloodline of their child Cadmus. Not wanting to upset his lover, Mars lets the men of Argos laze around for a week or two before Jupiter makes him stop procrastinating. Bacchus orders all his nymphs to dry up their rivers with the exception of one near Nemea. This forces King Adrastus to take his men their and sets up a chain of events that delays the war another few weeks. Phoebus knows a thing or two about fate, so he doesn't work against Jupiter and is content to give one of his doomed oracles a noble death. Diana almost rebels against Jupiter to save the life of one of her devotees, but her twin Phoebus makes sure she doesn't commit suicide like that. Instead, she gives her arrows to the boy who loves her, allowing him to end his life having killed many men in glorious battle.
The Thebaid / int_7241785e	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Thebaid / int_7ba493b0	type	Always Accurate Attack
The Thebaid / int_7ba493b0	comment	Always Accurate Attack: The arrows of Diana never fail to kill game, even in the hands of a boy with his bow squaring off with herds of human prey.
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The Thebaid / int_7c4fdf65	type	Red Is Violent
The Thebaid / int_7c4fdf65	comment	Red Is Violent: The God of War rides into Olympus decked out in blood-red armor that also shoots out lights of the same color. In case his title doesn't sell it, the same crimson armor is adorned with scenes of his brutal conquests and horrifying monsters in battle to get across the this red-clad old man riding through the sky is all about the violence.
The Thebaid / int_7c4fdf65	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Thebaid / int_7cc8d769	type	Sore Loser
The Thebaid / int_7cc8d769	comment	Sore Loser: Neptune will not allow anyone to defeat his descendants, so he causes a earthquake that rocks all of Nemea just so that his equine son can cross a finish line before a competitor. His rider doesn't cross it with him, so Phoebus' champion still legally wins, but Neptune only cares about the horse.
The Thebaid / int_7cc8d769	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Thebaid / int_80251be3	type	How We Got Here
The Thebaid / int_80251be3	comment	How We Got Here: The first line of the poem describes the climax ("brothers crossing swords") and the whole rest of the work builds up to the lethal duel between Eteocles and Polynices, the sons of Oedipus.
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The Thebaid / int_80a247a9	type	Breather Episode
The Thebaid / int_80a247a9	comment	Breather Episode: Book VI glosses over the Theban war that every book before and after it focuses on in favor of detailing a bunch of races, wrestling matches, and other games. No one dies and there's some fun racing and low-stakes fighting, all thanks to the god of war procrastinating.
The Thebaid / int_80a247a9	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Thebaid / int_857d1626	type	Power Glows
The Thebaid / int_857d1626	comment	Power Glows: Amphiaraus's helmet shines like the sun just as Phoebus gifts him with divine power. Its a good sign of the gods' gift and it also helps blind the enemies Amphiaraus is trying to slaughter.
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The Thebaid / int_8658cd14	type	Agent Scully
The Thebaid / int_8658cd14	comment	Agent Scully: Capaneus doesn't believe in anything divine and insults Amphiaraus for his profession as an augur.
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The Thebaid / int_8b1a664	type	Kill All Humans
The Thebaid / int_8b1a664	comment	Kill All Humans: A few world-ending events in Classical Mythology, namely the Great Flood and Phaethon's solar joyride, are explained by Jupiter as failed attempts to wipe out all of humanity's guilty souls (i.e. all of them). Unfortunately, evil so pervades the world that no amount of flood or fire could secure earthly justice.
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The Thebaid / int_91cab736	type	Major Injury Underreaction
The Thebaid / int_91cab736	comment	Major Injury Underreaction: Tydeus walks into the palace of Argos shining with the joy of victory, so absorbed in pride that he barely notices the excruciating pain of all his bleeding and pulsing battle wounds.
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The Thebaid / int_93e52119	type	Belated Injury Realization
The Thebaid / int_93e52119	comment	Belated Injury Realization: The battle between Tydeus and the assassins sees both side brutally injuring each other, but while the assassins die from their injuries, Tydeus is too enraged to even notice the cuts and bruises covering his entire body until he's killed every man gunning for him.
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The Thebaid / int_9bfe4c17	type	Supernatural Fear Inducer
The Thebaid / int_9bfe4c17	comment	Supernatural Fear Inducer: Murder, cannibalism, blasphemy, and betrayal all occur under the infernal influence of a fury named Tisiphone, who invisibly spreads her vipers among men to make them panic and give into fits of violent rage. Almost the entirety of the war in The Thebaid happens under her influence, although getting two brothers to both attempt fratricide requires such passionate malice that she needs to call in her sister Megaera to assist in the deed.
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The Thebaid / int_9e1e14ea	type	Ambition Is Evil
The Thebaid / int_9e1e14ea	comment	Ambition Is Evil: Eteocles and Polynices renounce their father, kill each other and destroy huge swaths of their home in their attempts to take the throne of Thebes. Thebes isn't even a rich, beautiful or even decent city, so their hatred for each other is based on nothing more than a desire for control.
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The Thebaid / int_9e943076	type	One-Man Army
The Thebaid / int_9e943076	comment	One-Man Army: Tydeus is able to single-handedly fight off an ambush of fifty Theban assassins (including several demigods). He crushes five men by throwing a boulder on them, he skewers one of the fiercest assassins by throwing one of the Theban's own lances through his tongue, and he kills forty-nine of the assassins before tiring, allowing a single member of the party to bear the bad news back to Thebes.
The Thebaid / int_9e943076	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Thebaid / int_a2022cc9	type	Killed Mid-Sentence
The Thebaid / int_a2022cc9	comment	Killed Mid-Sentence: One of the mercenaries tries to surrender for Tydeus, only for a javelin to fly into his mouth and cut out his tongue. He bleeds to death from the mouth and falls to the ground.
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The Thebaid	hasFeature	The Thebaid / int_a2022cc9
The Thebaid / int_a52f8fdf	type	Bolt of Divine Retribution
The Thebaid / int_a52f8fdf	comment	Bolt of Divine Retribution: Jupiter complains that dealing divine justice upon humanity has exhausted his supply of thunderbolts, overworked the Cyclops who build them, and worn out the fire they are forged in. For Oedipus' enemies, some subtler form of punishment will have to do. Book X ends with a firsthand account of the bone-melting, wall-crushing power of Jupiter's thunderbolt. After all of Capaneus' arrogance and blasphemies, such an extreme display of divine power the only fitting way he could have been executed.
The Thebaid / int_a52f8fdf	featureApplicability	1.0
The Thebaid / int_a52f8fdf	featureConfidence	1.0
The Thebaid	hasFeature	The Thebaid / int_a52f8fdf
The Thebaid / int_a679184b	type	Due to the Dead
The Thebaid / int_a679184b	comment	Due to the Dead: The conflict of the last book centers around the women of Argos trying to bury their husbands despite King Creon making that a capital crime. Just like in Antigone, the daughter of Oedipus rebel against Creon in order to bury her brother, but unlike in that play, Theseus and the army of Athens arrive to set Creon straight.
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The Thebaid / int_b0ac233d	type	Heaven Above
The Thebaid / int_b0ac233d	comment	Heaven Above: The gods look on and call their wrath upon Thebes from the heavenly globe that surrounds the Earth. There, all the Sky-Dwellers chatter in unending day until Jupiter silences them to focus on matters of justice.
The Thebaid / int_b0ac233d	featureApplicability	1.0
The Thebaid / int_b0ac233d	featureConfidence	1.0
The Thebaid	hasFeature	The Thebaid / int_b0ac233d
The Thebaid / int_b82ca416	type	Rage Against the Heavens
The Thebaid / int_b82ca416	comment	Rage Against the Heavens: Coroebus gives a speech against Phoebus while waiting to be executed in the god's own temple. The speech impresses Phoebus enough for him to spare Coroebus and his men for killing his fiend.
The Thebaid / int_b82ca416	featureApplicability	1.0
The Thebaid / int_b82ca416	featureConfidence	1.0
The Thebaid	hasFeature	The Thebaid / int_b82ca416
The Thebaid / int_bbd981ee	type	Child Eater
The Thebaid / int_bbd981ee	comment	Child Eater: A fiend from Hell slaughters the infants of Argos and eats their entrails to avenge death of Apollo's son. It doesn't take long for the people get upset and kill the fiend as it wanders around sipping intestines from child corpses.
The Thebaid / int_bbd981ee	featureApplicability	1.0
The Thebaid / int_bbd981ee	featureConfidence	1.0
The Thebaid	hasFeature	The Thebaid / int_bbd981ee
The Thebaid / int_bd39588d	type	Desecrating the Dead
The Thebaid / int_bd39588d	comment	Desecrating the Dead: In Book IX, the Thebans do everything in their power to capture Tydeus' corpse and cut it into so many bits that it will be impossible to give him a burial or a pyre. Considering his dying act, their hatred is at least understandable.
The Thebaid / int_bd39588d	featureApplicability	1.0
The Thebaid / int_bd39588d	featureConfidence	1.0
The Thebaid	hasFeature	The Thebaid / int_bd39588d
The Thebaid / int_d3f33049	type	Blasphemous Boast
The Thebaid / int_d3f33049	comment	Blasphemous Boast: Capaneus' whole M.O. is renouncing the gods, so he'll always go into the battle praying to his right hand or mocking others for relying on divine protection. Jupiter doesn't see much reason to deal with it, until Capaneus grows bold enough to boast that the Thunderer was too scared to face anyone that wasn't a defenseless maiden. Then comes the logical conclusion of this trope: the Bolt of Divine Retribution.
The Thebaid / int_d3f33049	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Thebaid / int_d571111f	type	EpicCatalogue
The Thebaid / int_d571111f	comment	Epic Catalogue: The forces allied with Argos are lined out in 300 lines at the beginning of Book Four. Unlike several epic lists, the catalogue is less about listing all the individuals involved as with highlighting the most important characters in the coming story and describing their motivations for going to battle.
The Thebaid / int_d571111f	featureApplicability	1.0
The Thebaid / int_d571111f	featureConfidence	1.0
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The Thebaid / int_db912a80	type	The Good King
The Thebaid / int_db912a80	comment	The Good King: Unlike just about everyone else in the story, King Theseus is a good guy. Despite having just returned from a tiring campaign, he welcomes refugees into his kingdom and leads the armies of Athens to force Creon to allow the widows of Argos to give proper Due to the Dead.
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The Thebaid / int_e2ccee25	type	Animal Motifs
The Thebaid / int_e2ccee25	comment	Animal Motifs: Prophecy tells the Argives that their princes will come in the guise of a lion and a boar. It is no coincidence that Polynices and Tydeus are fighting while wearing the skins of those two beasts. Even when they ditch the skins for armor, the two are still consistently compared to a carnivorous lion and a wild boar and sometimes the comparisons are swapped to show the new brothers influence on each other.
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The Thebaid / int_e3b0cd87	type	Morality Pet
The Thebaid / int_e3b0cd87	comment	Morality Pet: As in Sophocles' play, Antigone is devoted to the good of her whole family. She, more than any other, works to keep her brothers from committing fratricide and may have even succeeded in placating Polynices' rage if the Furies weren't inflaming his worst qualities.
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The Thebaid / int_e71886	type	The Muse
The Thebaid / int_e71886	comment	The Muse: The poem begins with the author asking the Goddesses of Song to decide how to tell the story of Thebes and where in its long history to begin
The Thebaid / int_e71886	featureApplicability	1.0
The Thebaid / int_e71886	featureConfidence	1.0
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The Thebaid / int_eba6a077	type	Cain and Abel
The Thebaid / int_eba6a077	comment	Cain and Abel: Polynices and Eteocles are driven to wage war and kill each other each other due to a curse put on them by their father, the intervention of Jupiter, and their hunger for the throne. Of the two, Eteocles is the more like Cain since he betrays the other first, by denying Polynices his promised year as king. That said, Polynices isn't as innocent as Abel despite all his brother's villainy. He manipulates the people of Argos to die on his behalf and although he's the protagonist, he's the protagonist of a tragedy, so that's actually points against him being some innocent Abel.
The Thebaid / int_eba6a077	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Thebaid / int_f373d5e	type	Powder Keg Crowd
The Thebaid / int_f373d5e	comment	Powder Keg Crowd: Despite how highly they think of themselves, the men of Argos start a frothing mob just because the day is hot and dry. They trample over each other without concern for their fellow man at the first word of a river, proving that they are just as illogical as the Thebans who worship the god of madness.
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

The Thebaid	hasFeature	Always Accurate Attack / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Belated Injury Realization / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Blasphemous Boast / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Bolt of Divine Retribution / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Breather Episode / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Cain and Abel / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Child Eater / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	David Versus Goliath / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Desecrating the Dead / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Due to the Dead / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Epic Catalog / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Evil Living Flames / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Gendercide / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Grim Up North / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Heaven Above / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Heaven's Devils / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Hero of Another Story / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Humans Are Bastards / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	In Medias Res / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Infodump / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Kid Hero / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Kill All Humans / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Killed Mid-Sentence / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Legend / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Magic Is Evil / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Major Injury Underreaction / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Morality Pet / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Narrative Poem / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Person of Mass Destruction / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Pint-Sized Powerhouse / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Post-Victory Collapse / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Powder Keg Crowd / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Power Glows / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Public Domain Character / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Rage Against the Heavens / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Red Is Violent / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Rescued from the Underworld / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Shed the Family Name / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Sore Loser / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Sugary Malice / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Super-Speed / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Supernatural Fear Inducer / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Telephone Polearm / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Tempting Fate / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	The Epic / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	The Good King / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	The Muse / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	Vice City / int_594935a7
The Thebaid	hasFeature	What Measure Is a Mook? / int_594935a7

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