THE PAGAN GODS IN JOSEPH OF EXETER'S "DE BELLO TROIANO"

Abstract

Discussions of Joseph of Exeter's epic poem on the Trojan War, De bello Troiano,' often refer to the poet's inclusion of pagan gods in his account of Troy's fall. The presence of these deities is in sharp contrast to Joseph's main source of information about the war, the De excidio Troiae historia of Dares Phrygius. Dares had eliminated the gods altogether, writing the story of Troy as historical narrative. Joseph relied on Dares for the facts of the war, but it was to the epic poets of ancient Rome, particularly Virgil, Statius and Lucan, that he turned for inspiration.2 It is evident that he wanted to write a Latin epic in the manner of his classical predecessors, and most of his modern critics agree that he did a creditable job in the task he set for himself.3An important feature of any epic on the Trojan theme is the description of the activities of the pagan gods - that much was evident to Joseph from his reading of Virgil's Aeneid, and the Achilleid of Statius4 - and throughout De bello Troiano we find a number of episodes in which the gods seem to be taking part in human affairs at Troy. That the pagan gods are bona fide characters in De bello Troiano has gone unquestioned, and within the last few years it has been reiterated at least twice. In an article on the satirical elements of the poem, J. Roger Dunkle states at several points that Venus is the divinity most responsible for the downfalls of Priam and Troy.5 More recently A. G. Rigg, in his history of Anglo-Latin literature, writes that Joseph 'introduces pagan spirits and deities (Allecto in Book 11, Juno and Athene in Book v) to motivate the action, much as Chaucer does with planetary gods'.6I believe that the notion that the pagan gods are actual participants in the events described in De bello Troiano is mistaken, although I acknowledge that Joseph has done a masterly job in creating the illusion that they are present. Joseph's literary sleight of hand is so deftly performed that he gives even careful readers of the poem the impression that the gods are real characters in the story and that they have an effect on the actions of the mortal protagonists. An examination of a few examples from the poem will, I hope, show that this is not necessarily the case.There are several episodes in De bello Troiano in which the actions of the sea-goddess Thetis are described, and she appears to be taking an active role in the events of the war just as the gods in classical epic do. In Book v, for example, we seem to find her contributing to the death of Orontes, a Chaldean warrior and Trojan ally. At this point in the poem the newly arrived Greeks are just off the coast of Ilium and are trying to land their ships, while the Trojans are doing everything they can to thwart the invasion. Orontes has waded out into the water to meet the ships. Once there, he stumbles, falls headfirst, and drowns, but Joseph's description of Orontes' drowning gives the impression that Thetis has pushed him (v. 167-70):Stabat in occursu pelagi Caldeus Orontes,Dumque rates inhibere parat suspensus in ictum,Fallit harena pedes et inanes excipit aususPrecipitem mersura Thetis.7The reader infers from precipitem mersura Thetis that the goddess herself is present and is poised to shove Orontes under the water just as he is losing his balance. It is not surprising that Thetis would be hostile towards Orontes, because she favoured the Greeks and he was fighting for the Trojans, but here Joseph gives to a natural phenomenon, the sea, the name of a goddess associated with that phenomenon. It is the sea, not Thetis, that overwhelms Orontes. Thetis herself has not been mentioned as being present until this point in the episode; in fact, the most recent mention of her was some hundred lines earlier (v.68), and there she is merely referred to in a speech made by Agamemnon. Yet, suddenly, she is on the scene and seems to be a major force behind Orontes' drowning. …