Ritual and Religion in Flavian Epic

The nineteen essays in this volume consider the role of ritual representations and religions in the epic poems of the Flavian period (A.D. 69-96): Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica, Silius Italicus' Punica, Statius' Thebaid, and the unfinished Achilleid. After the editor's thirteen-page introduction to representing ritual and religion in Flavian epic, the papers appear under three major headings: gods and humans (eight), death and ritual (seven), and ritual and the female (four). The contributors include M. Fucecchi on with (a) god on our side--ancient ritual practices and imagery in Flavian epic; G. Manuwald on divine message and human actions in the Argonautica; A. Tuttle on Argive augury and portents in the Thebaid; B. Gibson on hymnic features in Statian epic and the Silvae; F. Bessone on religion and power in the Thebaid; R.Parkes on chthonic ingredients and thematic concerns--the shaping of the necromancy in the Thebaid; N. W. Bernstein on ritual murder and suicide in the Thebaid; A. Keith on Medusa, Python, and Poine in Argive religious ritual; C. Chinn on Orphic ritual and myth in the Thebaid; and V. Panoussi on dancing in Scyros--masculinity and young women's ritual in the Achilleid.