The Dark Side of Statius' Achilleid

Abstract

The Dark Side of Statius’ Achilleid explores systematically and for the first time the darker aspects of Statius’ Achilleid, bringing to light the poem’s tragic and epic dimensions. By seeking to position centre-stage these darker elements, the book offers several new readings of the Achilleid in relation to its literary inheritance, its gender dynamics, and its generic tensions. Beneath the surface of a story that ostensibly deals with a lighter subject matter, the cross-dressing of a young Achilles on Scyros, the volume examines in depth the poem’s relationship to its epic and tragic precursors, and explores more serious themes: challenges to traditional epic narratives, Achilles’ complex familial relationships, his deviant and transgressive heroism, the tragic character of Thetis, and frequent glimpses of the horrors that a cataclysmic Trojan War, looming around the corner, will beget. By looking into Statius’ wide-ranging dialogue with his literary predecessors, such as Homer, Sophocles, Virgil, Ovid, Lucan, and Seneca, as well as Statius’ previous epic magnum opus, the Thebaid, the book investigates the multidimensional characterizations of Achilles and other of the poem’s key characters such as Ulysses, Calchas, and Thetis. Far from simply representing a shameful but essentially humorous cross-dressing episode in Achilles’ life destined to be forgotten, the Achilleid will be seen to challenge the very fabric of epic by probing the validity and authority of its literary tradition, as well as putting on view once again its highly innovative and experimental nature.