Many great works have been lost to time. Some of the most well-known and respected authors of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome have not been fully preserved, and what could have been their greatest works are gone. Despite the difficulties many of these authors have faced in their conservation, the narratives they tell remain timeless, each reiteration shedding new light onto the subject. One of those timeless tales is that of Achilles, the main hero of the Iliad. The story of Achilles, immortalized in Homeric song, has been expounded upon by many authors, and one of the most striking iterations of the legend of Achilles is found in Statius’ Achilleid. As the last work of Statius’ life, the Achilleid is a short, unfinished account of the Trojan
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In his epic, Statius included only two scenes from Achilles’ early life, which make no appearance in the Iliad itself. These two scenes detail briefly his time as a young warrior in training with the centaur Chiron on Mount Pelion, and explain, in somewhat greater detail, his period of hiding on the Island of Scyros, dressed as a woman. In her book The Transvestite Achilles: Gender and Genre in Satius’ Achilleid, P.J. Heslin argues that Statius purposefully only included these two scenes in an attempt to keep the reader asking “what happens next?”. He purposefully meant to set readers up for the Iliad and to entice them into the story of …show more content…
The accessus serves as an introduction to the work and author before delving deeper into the meaning of the Achilleid. According to this introduction, Achilles’ historic actions and life are a main theme of the poem. Additionally, the accessus states that the purpose of the work is to understand the story of Achilles. In order to understand the story of Achilles, we must understand that the Achilleid is an ethical book. At this time, many authors subscribed themselves to the school of thought of ethics. Paul Clogan asserts in his book, The Medieval Achilleid of Statius, that “the ‘moralitas’ in the poem is to be found in the mother’s solicitude for her son and in the son’s obedience to his mother”, echoing the sentiment that the Achilleid helps us to understand the struggle between Achilles’ loyalty to his mother and his loyalty to his fate. The Achilleid is very much an ethical book, and Achilles’ struggle between his mother and fate serves as a central
In his epic, Statius included only two scenes from Achilles’ early life, which make no appearance in the Iliad itself. These two scenes detail briefly his time as a young warrior in training with the centaur Chiron on Mount Pelion, and explain, in somewhat greater detail, his period of hiding on the Island of Scyros, dressed as a woman. In her book The Transvestite Achilles: Gender and Genre in Satius’ Achilleid, P.J. Heslin argues that Statius purposefully only included these two scenes in an attempt to keep the reader asking “what happens next?”. He purposefully meant to set readers up for the Iliad and to entice them into the story of …show more content…
The accessus serves as an introduction to the work and author before delving deeper into the meaning of the Achilleid. According to this introduction, Achilles’ historic actions and life are a main theme of the poem. Additionally, the accessus states that the purpose of the work is to understand the story of Achilles. In order to understand the story of Achilles, we must understand that the Achilleid is an ethical book. At this time, many authors subscribed themselves to the school of thought of ethics. Paul Clogan asserts in his book, The Medieval Achilleid of Statius, that “the ‘moralitas’ in the poem is to be found in the mother’s solicitude for her son and in the son’s obedience to his mother”, echoing the sentiment that the Achilleid helps us to understand the struggle between Achilles’ loyalty to his mother and his loyalty to his fate. The Achilleid is very much an ethical book, and Achilles’ struggle between his mother and fate serves as a central