Lactantius Placidus on Infernal Matters

(A selection of passages from his commentary on Statius, Thebaid IV; my translations—lemmas freely expanded to clarify the sense. Translations of the quotes of Statius from D. R. Shackleton Bailey.)

Statius IV.443–472: “Here the aged seer (for well suited is the ground for Stygian rites, the soil fat with living gore is to his liking) gives order that sheep dark of fleece and black herds be stationed, all the finest necks that halter leads. Dirce and sad Cithaeron groaned and the echoing valleys marvelled at the sudden silence. Then with his own hands he twined the fierce horns with garlands dark of hue and at the edge of the familiar wood he first tips lavish draughts of Bacchus into the earth hollowed in nine places and gifts of vernal milk and Attic rain and blood persuasive to spirits. As much as the dry earth will drink is poured. Then they roll up tree trunks and the gloomy priest orders three hearths made for Hecate and as many for the virgin daughters of accursed Acheron. For you, ruler of Avernus, rises into the air a piny mound, though dug into the soil. Next to that is reared an altar of lesser pile to Ceres of the depth. In front and on every side lamented cypress twines. And now the cattle collapse into the strokes, their tall heads marked with steel and pure scattering of meal. Then maiden Manto makes first libation of blood received in bowls and moving thrice around all the pyres after the fashion of her venerable parent offers half-dead fibres and entrails still alive, nor delays to put consuming torches to the black leafage. When Tiresias himself perceived the branches crackling in the flames and the sad piles roaring (for fierce heat pants before his face and fiery vapour fills his hollow orbs), he exclaims (the pyres shuddered, his voice terrified the flame).

Lactantius on 443–444 ‘Here the aged seer (for well suited is the ground for Stygian rites, the soil fat with living gore is to his liking)’: He states the reason why Tiresias sacrifices there, namely because the place is now bloody with the blood of the earthborn, since those below (inferi) delight in blood.

451 ‘earth hollowed in nine places’: for nine trenches made, in which he sets a line (ductus) of water, which is necessary for the rites (sacris).

456 ‘three … for Hecate’: because she is of threefold shape (triformis), or because she is believed to be the same as the Mother of Gods (Deum Mater) and Proserpina or Earth (Terra) or Vesta; so Ovid (writes) about a similar sacrifice:

“Three altars to three Gods he made of turf.
     To thee, victorious Virgin, did he build
an altar on the right, to Mercury
     an altar on the left, and unto Jove
an altar in the midst. He sacrificed
     a heifer to Minerva, and a calf
to Mercury, the Wingfoot, and a bull
     to thee, O greatest of the Deities.” [Metamorphoses IV.752–755; transl. Brookes More]

456 ‘virgin daughters’: the Furies.

456 ‘daughters of accursed Acheron’: born from Acheron, since they are said to be born from Night as their mother and Acheron as their father.

459–460 ‘an altar of lesser pile to Ceres of the depth’: there are three places in sacrifices for the gods, by which we make piation (propitiatory [?] offering): we sacrifice by a little trench made for those below (inferis), atop the earth to terrestrial (gods), to the celestials with raised up hearths. “Altars” are called from this, since we stretch out our hands up above (in altum) when we sacrifice at (these latter).

462 ‘pure scattering of meal (frugum libamine)’: unsullied, unpolluted. But it means salted produce.

463 ‘the cattle collapse into the strokes’: the usage of priests (sacerdotum) is like this, that they either strike the victims themselves – they are also called agones – or someone else thrusts a knife into the victims – they are called victimatores. For this reason he said that the cattle fell into the strokes. […]

464 ‘makes first libation (praelibat) of blood’: first is immolation (i.e. the killing of the victim), then the libation of blood, third the offering, fourth the taking of omens (from the exta, ‘entrails’).

468–470 ‘When Tiresias himself perceived the branches crackling in the flames and the sad piles roaring’: ‘sad piles’, sacrifices, that he may predict the future. But the art of haruspicy (i.e. of taking omens from the victims) also consists of this, to consider the movement and the crackling of the incense and the movement and inclination of the fume, because these signs first show the promises of the exta, if they are good, or, if contrary, they “oppose”, as a book 'About signs of incense' attests, which is ascribed to Tiresias himself.

468 ‘perceived’: because the priest (sacerdos) had no eyes.

Statius IV. 472–487: “‘Dwellings of Tartarus, and dread realm of insatiable Death, and you, cruelest of the brothers, to whom are given the ghosts (manes) to serve you and the eternal punishments of the guilty, you whom the palace of the lowest world obeys, open to my knocking the silent places and the void of stern Persephone. Draw out the multitude laid by in hollow night and let the ferryman retrace Styx with a full boat. All step out together; but let the ghosts (manibus) have more ways than one of returning to the light. Daughter of Perses, separate the pious dwellers in Elysium from the concourse and let the misty Arcadian bring them with his potent rod; whereas for those who died in crime, in Erebus a majority and mostly of Cadmus’ blood, do you, Tisiphone, lead the way: open up the day, shaking out your snakes three times and marching before them with blazing yew; nor let Cerberus block with his heads and turn aside the shades that crave the light.’

Lactantius on 480f ‘All step out together; but let the ghosts (manibus) have more ways than one of returning to the light’: the harmful, he says, come from Tartarus, the pious from Elysium.

481–483 ‘Daughter of Perses, separate the pious dwellers in Elysium from the concourse and let the misty Arcadian bring them with his potent rod’: He commands Mercury and Libera [= Persephone/Hecate] to call forth the souls of the pious. Now, the reason why Hecate is ‘daughter of Perseus’ is that some consider her not to be Jupiter’s daughter but Perses’, and Hesiod follows this opinion in the books he wrote on the Theogony. Corvilius writes that there are three Mercuries. One, the son of Jupiter and Maia, another of Caelus and the Day (Diei), the third of Liber and Proserpine, the fourth of Jupiter and Cyllene: he was the one who killed Argus. The Greeks say that he was an exile for this reason, but that he taught the Egyptians their letters. Accordingly, they say that Mercury the son of Liber and Proserpine calls forth the souls. […]

484–486 ‘yew’: because the Furies are said to have torches made of this poisonous tree.

483–486 ‘Daughter of Perses … Arcadian … Tisiphone’: […] the sense is this: may Hecate and Mercury lead the pious souls, but Tisiphone the harmful ones.

Statius IV. 488–490; 500–530: “He spoke. The old man and Phoebus’ maiden were all attention. They had no fear, for the god was in their breasts. […] Then Tiresias, since the ghosts were not yet approaching: ‘I call you to witness, goddesses, for whom we have drenched this fire and with left hand given our cups to the torn earth, I can brook no further delay. Am I, the priest, heard for nothing? If a Thessalian witch’s rabid chant were to command you, will you come? Or when a Colchian drugged with Scythian poisons drives, shall Tartarus turn pale and start in fright? And do you care less for me? If I have no mind to raise bodies from tombs or empty urns filled with ancient bones or profane the gods of Erebus and heaven commingled or pursue bloodless faces with the knife and pluck the sick entrails of the dead, do not, I warn you, do not contemn my thinning years and the cloud upon my darkened brow. I too have means to be cruel. For I know whatever you fear spoken or known. I can harry Hecate, did I not respect you, Lord of Thymbra, him too, highest of the triple world, whom to know is blasphemy. Him—but I hold my peace: tranquil eld forbids. And now I—.’ Eagerly Phoebus’ Manto puts in her word: ‘You are heard, father; the bloodless multitude approaches. The Elysian void is revealed, the capacious darkness of hidden earth bursts asunder, woods and black rivers come to view: Acheron ejects livid sands, smoking Phlegethon rolls dark fires in his waters and interflowing Styx bars separated ghosts (manibus). Himself I see, pale upon his throne and around him the Furies, servants of his deadly works, and the stern bower and grim couch of Stygian Juno. Black Death sits on the lookout and counts the silent peoples for her master; a greater series wait their turn. The Gortynian judge shakes them in his harsh urn, demanding truth with threats, forces them to set forth their lives back to their beginning and confess at last the punishments they evaded. Why tell you of the monsters of Erebus, the Scyllas and idly raging Centaurs, the Giants’ chains twisted in solid adamant, and the cramped shade of hundredfold Aegaeon?’

Lactantius on 502 ‘with left hand given our cups to the torn earth’: […] we sacrifice libations to those below with the left hand.

511 ‘pursue bloodless faces with the knife and pluck the sick entrails of the dead’: the immolation of a human being, for the sake of necromancy (divination from corpses/ghosts). Those below (inferi) delight in these things.

515 ‘I can harry Hecate, did I not respect you, Lord of Thymbra’: appropriately—although he would perform magica, he honored Apollo, and on account of his reverence for him, he says that he does not want to abuse his sister through dread of the invocation of a god. Hecate is also said to be Diana.

516f 'highest of the triple world, whom to know is blasphemy. Him—but I hold my peace': [see a previous post, Lactantius Placidus on the Demiurge and Magic]

524 ‘interflowing Styx bars separated ghosts’: by its flow, it separates the manes from those above (superis). […] and for this reason he named her ‘interflowing’.

527 ‘grim couch of Stygian Juno’: Pythagoras says that there are two hemispheres, to which he assigns their own gods, and he makes the king of the upper one Jupiter, and its queen, Juno, and (says) that the (king of) the lower one, Dis, is an infernal Jupiter, but Proserpine an infernal Juno. And (that there are) two Venuses: one supernal and another, (Venus) Libitina (a goddess of corpses). He also organized the other gods by twos: as Dis is a Jupiter, so Hecate is this Stygian Juno. […]