Thebaid

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A Latin epic poem by the Roman writer Statius that recounts the war of the Seven against Thebes ; a district of ancient Upper Egypt centred on the city of Thebes
2. A long Roman epic by Statius telling of the conflict between the sons of Oedipus ; the southern Egyptian region of the Nile valley around the city of Thebes
3. The title of a Latin poem by Statius about the Seven against Thebes ; a historical region in southern Egypt surrounding the ancient city of Thebes

Etymology: The Thebaid is a poem, but the name comes from a place. Ancient Greek "Thēbaïs" was a feminine adjective meaning "of Thebes," the city in Boeotia, and Latin borrowed it as "Thēbais." The word's meaning is therefore a geographic label that grew into a title: it named a body of story about Thebes and then a poem built on that story. The name most readers encounter is attached to Statius, the Roman poet, whose epic "Thebaid" retells the war of the Seven against Thebes, the struggle between the sons of Oedipus for the city. The title signals its subject directly: the poem is about Thebes, and "Thebaid" is simply the Latin form of the Greek adjective, passed into English through Latin. Because the word is a borrowed adjective with its place-name sense intact, a reader who knows the Greek origin can see the connection at once: any poem concerning Thebes could be called a Thebaid, and Statius's work became the one that kept the title.