Spontaneous Inspiration:
Rejecting Orpheus in Statius’ Silvae 2.2

Dustin R. Heinen (University of Florida)

Although Quintilian remarks on the extemporaneous qualities of Statius’ Silvae, he cites little on why these occasional poems came to be known as silvae.  Recently Newlands (2002) has supplied a thorough discussion on the occasional aspect of the poems, and how the poem’s title embraces the same “underbrush” significance as its Greek antecedent ὕλη.  Hinds (1998) contributes a brief but insightful view on why the Statius gave such a peculiar name to the poems in his discussion of the oft-cited “sylvan” passages of Ennius (Ann. 175-9) and Vergil (Aen. 6.179-82).  But scholars, both ancient and modern, primarily seek to reconcile the atypical title Silvae through the poems themselves, and few attempt to identify the origin of the term.  Had Statius intended only to emphasize the spontaneous or “raw material” nature of the poems, he could have much more succinctly called his collection occasiones or sarmenta.  In Silvae 2.2, his second epideixis of an Italian villa, Statius employs multiple indirect references to the sources of his extemporaneous poetry by manipulating mythological allusions and literary topoi, and thus allows the reader to not only deduce the nature of his poetry, but even aids to illuminate the title Silvae itself.

While Statius frequently shuns the epic lyre of Orpheus and Apollo (2.1, 3, 7, 5.1, 3), he seems particularly concerned with separating himself from the archetypal epic poet in his praise of the villa of Pollius Felix.  Claiming that Pierian songs are not sufficient to describe Pollius’ magnificent villa (innumeras valeam species cutlusque locorum / Pieriis aequare modis, Silv. 2.2.41-2), Statius rejects the epic poetry of Orpheus—whose center of worship is in Pieria—and instead looks to the spring nymphs for inspiration:  Piplea (2. 37), and Phemonoë in (2.39).

Statius, perhaps regretful that he began with his Thebaid rather than producing lighter poems such as a Culex or Batracho(myo)machia (Silv. 1, pref.), now turns from the weighty muses to the Camenae, the slender sylvan and spring nymphs that inspired Ennius’ Annales (487) and Livius Andronicus’ Odusia (fr. 1).  Statius thus takes advantage of these unconventional sources for his poetry in order to underscore their occasional nature.  Thus turning from Orpheus, who ironically has power over the trees (aut silvis chelys intellecta ferisque, Silvae 2.1.11), Statius seeks his inspiration from the trees themselves in order to compose his Silvae.