Laudes Campaniae

This chapter illustrates the ‘mythicization of everyday life’ through an analysis of Statius’ villa of Pollius Felix (Silv. 3.1) and its seaside location where mythic figures, sea nymphs and satyrs, frolic in the waves, while Neptune and Hercules protect the villa and its fields. The mythical subjects of the frescoes and mosaics decorating the villa itself appear in Statius’ poetry to step out of their setting. In this imaginary Golden Age, Pollius himself has become, like Orpheus and Arion, a mythic civilizing architect. In Flavian Campania the opulent grandeur of Pollius’ villa, and, by extension, of Pollius himself, is heightened and legitimated by interaction between gods and men, presenting a contrast with the cult of archaic simplicity favoured by the Augustan poets.