| "Heslin's analysis convincingly shows that Statius skillfully employs the literary past to revisit familiar questions and to offer new insights. In the process, Heslin reveals a coherently intriguing and interesting Achilleid." - Charles McNelis, Georgetown University, Classical World
As we follow Achilles' metamorphosis from wild boy to demure girl to lover to hero, Statius brilliantly illustrates a series of contrasting codes of behavior: male and female, epic and elegiac. This first full-length study of the poem addresses not only the narrative itself, but also sets the myth of Achilles on Scyros within a broad interpretive framework. The exploration ranges from the reception of the Achilleid in Baroque opera to the anthropological parallels that have emerged to explain Achilles' transvestism.
The Achilleid, a brief, unfinished epic on the life of Achilles, was composed in Latin by the poet Statius in the first century AD, and focuses on the attempt by Achil les' mother, the goddess Thetis, to save her son from the Trojan War by dressing him as a girl. This first book-length study of the poem offers a detailed interpretation of Statius's narrative and explores the ramifications of this unusual interlude in Achilles' career. It also addresses questions of the poem's reception and of gender in antiquity.
About the Author
P. J. Heslin is a lecturer in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Durham. |
