"L'Achilleide is an unfinished epic poem by Publio Papinio Stazio that was intended to present the life of Achille from his youth through his death at Troy.
Only about one and a half books (1,127 dactylic hexameters) were completed before the Stazio's death.
What remains is an account of the ACHILLE's early life with Chiron the centaur, and an episode in which his mother Thetis disguises ACHILLE as a girl on the island of SCIRO before Achille joins the Greek expedition against Troy, that would lead him to his death.
Based upon three references to the poem in the Silvae, the Achilleid seems to have been composed between 94 and 96 d.C.
At Silvae 4.7.21–24, Stazio complains that he lacks the motivation to make progress upon his "Achilleide" without the company of his friend C. Vibio Massimo who was travelling in Dalmatia (and to whom poem is addressed).
Statius apparently overcame this self-described writer's block, for in a poem from the post-humously published fifth book of the Silvae Stazio refers to an upcoming recitation of a section from the Achilleide
This reference is believed to date from the summer of 95, and Stazio presumably died later that year or early in the next, leaving the Achilleide unfinished.
Stazio's primary models are Omero and the poems of the epic cycle which touch on the life of Achille.
In the opening of the Achilleide, Stazio asks that his poem not stop with the death of Ettore ("nec in Hectore tracto sister", 1.6) as the Iliad does but that it continue through the whole Trojan cycle, invoking these two important models.
Stazio's style in the Achilleid has been seen as far more reminiscent of Ovidio than Virgilio, his major influence in the composition of the Tebaide.
Stazio tried to revise the image of the Homeric Achille with the "Achilleide" just as Ovid did for the Virgilian Enea.
While doing this, both Ovidio and Stazio also exploited the tension between the accepted epic narrative and competing traditions pertaining to the heroes' lives.
On account of its unfinished state, the Achilleide, it is often referred to as a "fragment," but this is a misleading label.
Fragments are typically pieces of writing that have become seriously destroyed in the process of being transmitted to its audience.
Stazio’s Achilleide is a work that is partially completed that had already been polished and presented to the world in his lifetime.
The structure of the narrative is deliberate and balanced.
The first words of the poem are the pseudo-Homeric patronymic that introduces Achille through his father's father, while the last word of the poem is mother.
Achille's childhood experiences are then told in the space left vacant by his two absentee parents.
Book 1
Lines 1-13:
The introduction states the goals and scope of the epic, including the intention to cover the entire life of Achille, not simply up to Ettore's death as was done in the Iliad by OMERO.
The Achilleide opens with a traditional epic invocation of the Muses and Apollo, requesting inspiration for the Stazio's work and outlining the content of the poem to follow.
The Muses are the first to be addressed (Achilleide 1.1–7):
| Magnanimum Aeaciden formidatamque Tonanti progeniem et patrio vetitam succedere caelo, diva, refer. quamquam acta viri multum inclita cantu Maeonio (sed plura vacant), nos ire per omnem— sic amor est—heroa velis Scyroque latentem Dulichia proferre tuba nec in Hectore tracto sistere, sed tota iuvenem deducere Troia. | Of great-hearted Aeacides, the Thunderer's offspring fearsome and forbidden to succeed to his father's heaven, do sing, goddess. Although the man's deeds are much famed in Maeonian song (but more remain), that we traverse the whole— so I crave—hero may you wish, and that hidden in SCIRO we lead him forth with Dulichian trump and do not with ETTORE's drag cease, but lead the warrior down through Troy's whole story. |
As in Virgilio's ENEIDE and Stazio's own Tebaide, the very first words present the poem's primary topic, expanded with a clause joined by the Latin enclitic conjunction -que.
While the structure of the first line puts the Achilleide within the Virgilian tradition of martial epic, we may see the last line quoted above as an indication of Stazio's debt to Ovidio.
Specifically, the choice of the verb "deducere", "to lead down", evokes the invocation in the Metamorphoses in which Ovidio asks the gods to lead down ("deducite") to his own time a "perpetual song" (perpetuum carmen), with which we can compare Stazio's "Troy's whole story" (tota Troia, literally: "all of Troy").
Lines 14-19:
Stazio praises Domiziano and dedicates the epic to this emperor.
Lines 20-94.
Thetis, worrying that the Greek troops preparing to head to Troia will soon come to recruit her son and thus greatly endanger his life (because he is fated to die if he goes to Troy), asks Nettuno if he will sink the Trojan fleet carrying Paride and Elena.
Nettuno denies this request, stating that the war is fated.
Lines 95-197.
Thetis goes to Tessaglia, where the centaur Chironte has been raising and tutoring Achille.
She tells Chiron that she wants to take her son back and then enjoys a night of eating, singing, and drinking with them in his cave.
Lines 198-282.
Thetis decides that she must hide Achille on Lycomedes' island of Sciro and takes him there while he sleeps.
A deep sleep.
Once Achille wakes up, Tetid tries to convince Achille to hide himself there disguised as a girl.
He refuses to accept this plan despite her promises that no one else will ever find out.
Lines 283-396.
Achille is finally convinced to follow his mother's advice when he witnesses the daughters of King Licomedes performing a dance at a festival of Pallas.
Achilles is immediately struck by the outstanding beauty of one of these women, Deidamia, and so agrees to disguise himself as a woman and live among the king's daughters in order to be near to her.
Tetide dresses Achille in women's clothing and teaches him how to act feminine, then presents her "daughter" to King Licomede and asks for him to care for and protect her among his own daughters.
The king agrees to her request.
One of the main themes up through this section, and as an undercurrent for the rest of the book, is that of maternal anxiety on the part of Tetide.
Some authors have made note of the strong emphasis on and significance of Tetide and her concern here, especially as compared to in other Classical works.
The depiction of Achille disguised as a girl as symbolizing his maturation from a child living among women to an adult.
Stazio in fact focuses more on the humorous aspects of the story, thus providing a comedic contrast to the serious tones of war by delighting in the naughty humour of the situation and the deflation of epic pretentiousness..
Lines 397-466:
The Argives (Greeks) in various regions prepare for the Trojan War.
Lines 467-559.
The Greeks muster their forces at Aulide (ancient Greece) but notice that Achille is missing.
The prophet Calchas sees in a trance that Achille has been hidden on Sciro, and Ulisses and Diomede depart to fetch him.
Lines 560-674.
Achille continues to fall in love with Deidamia, who has by now discovered his true identity and is helping him to maintain his disguise.
Achille forces her to have sex with him in a sacred grove and she makes the conscious decision to forgive him for this indiscretion and keep it a secret.
DEIDAMIA becomes pregnant and gives birth to their child (Neottolemo, although he is never referred to by name in the Achilleide).
Lines 675-818.
Ulisse and Diomede arrive at Sciro, are entertained by Licomede, and set out gifts for his daughters.
When Achilles alone is attracted by the shield and helmet and not the more womanly items, his identity is revealed, as Ulisse had intended.
Achille, now convinced to follow the Greek heroes to war, explains for the first time his relationship with Deidamia and their baby son and persuades Licomedes to allow him to officially marry his daughter.
Lines 927-60.
Deidamia sees the future and recites a speech of despair, expressing her hope that Achille will one day return to her.
Book 2
Lines 1-22:
After praying to his mother for forgiveness, Achille sets sail from Sciro with Ulysses and Diomedes.
Lines 23-48.
Deidamia and Achilles each grieve, separately, for the loss of the other.
Ulysses tries to take Achille's mind off of his wife.
Lines 49-85.
Ulysses tells the story of the events leading up to the war on which they are about to embark and expresses his indignation at Paride's reckless abduction of Elena and the threat that he feels toward society as a whole as a result.
Lines 86-167.
Per Diomedes' request, Achille tells of his youth, his hunting exploits, and the teachings of Chiron. The poem ends with the closure of Achilles' narrative.
The Achilleid has generally received far more positive criticism than the Thebaid.
One branch of this focuses on comparisons between the two poems.
Many scholars see a drastic difference between the "serious" and "Iliadic" Thebaid and the playful "Ovidian" Achilleid.
Some have seen the Achilleid as Stazio's attempt to write an entirely new multi-generic type of epic as a challenge to the Virgilian model.
Others have noted the importance of female emotions and feminine characteristics in the poem.
Finally, some have interpreted the character of Achille as a subversive foil for Domitiano.
Critics have also said that the Achilleid was a failure because Stazio wrote it as an attempt to constitute an alternative epic tradition, which he was unsuccessful in doing.
However, it has also been argued that Stazio's alternative epic tradition has influenced some of his successors.
Claudian's De raptu Proserpinae emulated Statius' alternative epic tradition, leaving his work seemingly unfinished.
Claudiano believed that the inevitability of Homeric and Virgilian narrative was the cause of Statius' inability to proceed.
Other writers such as Dante Alighieri borrowed from Stazio and thought highly of his style.
Giovanni Boccaccio was inspired by him (TESEIDE); and Geoffrey Chaucer studied and imitated Stazio. (The Knight's Tale)
The influences of Statius and the Achilleid are also clearly seen in Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, especially in one Canto of Book III.
****************** MELODRAMMA ----
Stazio's Achilleid also had a great impact in the realm of opera in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries across Europe.
These operas raised the issues of transvestitism, biological sex, and social gender.
When a woman played the character of Achille, the audience saw a woman playing the role of a man pretending to be a woman.
When a castrato played Achille, the unveiling of the “girl” forced the observation of a contrast between the fictional character who sheds his false gender identity on Sciro and the singer who cannot.[
Some directors such as Giulio Strozzi, Ippolito Bentivoglio, and Carlo Capece, chose to embody the spirit of Carnival: the greatest hero of antiquity puts on a female disguise to pursue his love and sexual desires.
For later writers such as Pietro Metastasio and Paolo Rolli, the myth teaches that gender is essential, in that the masculinity of Achilles is a primal force of nature that cannot be hidden, and it is a crucial component of his heroism.
The first treatment of the "Achilleid" for the operatic stage was La finta pazza, "the woman feigning madness," performed in Venice in 1641.
Following that was the opera, Achille in Sciro, first performed in Ferrara in 1663.[6]
In ancient epic, women have been portrayed through various roles that help, hinder, and protect characters from disaster.
Greek poets, such as Homer, have generally illustrated women as victims of conflict, the cause of conflict, negotiators among combatant men, and mourners of the dead.
Roman poets, like Virgil, describe women in a similar light, but they also tend to complicate the portrayal of women, often depicting them as hindering a hero’s destiny and stirring conflict among men.
In the Achilleid, classicist P. J. Heslin argues that Statius upholds the Roman trend of portraying women as “heroic blockers” with the development of Thetis' character.
In the Achilleid, Thetis is a prophet, protector, and hinderer to Achilles.
She desperately tries to protect Achilles from going off to fight the Trojan War, knowing that he will die in battle if he goes.
Thetis’s initial reaction of anger to this knowledge (inspiring her idea to sink Paris’s fleet) imitates the classic anger of the goddess Juno.
However, her surge in anger does not help her protect Achilles.
Thetis’s supplication of Neptune mirrors Venus’s supplication of Neptune in the Aeneid, except Thetis’s attempt fails whereas Venus’s succeeds.
Thetis’s maternal instinct to protect her child from danger fulfills one of the typical roles women play in ancient epic.
She also hinders the course of Achilles’ fate by trying to change his destiny, which is to become one of the most glorified heroes in history.
The other major female character in the Achilleid is Deidamia.
Heslin argues that Achilles rapes Deidamia in order to assert his masculinity because dressing and acting like a woman makes him feel belittled.
Deidamia’s rape is just another example from epic tales that shows women as property, ultimately in the control of men.
Her obedience to Achilles is further exemplified by her silence after the rape.
After marrying Achilles, Deidamia then fulfills the role of the faithful wife waiting for her husband to return home from war.
Heslin illuminates how the expectations for the behavior of Roman women during Statius’s life can also be seen in the Achilleid through Thetis’s instructions on how Achilles should act on Scyros.
Thetis criticizes his "masculine" mannerisms and leaves him on Scyros to learn more about how to act in a womanly fashion.
Hence, this instruction on “womanliness” can be interpreted as insight into Rome’s feminine world during Statius’s lifetime.
Notes
Shackleton Bailey (2003a) p. 7 believes that the work was begun as early as 94 since, according to Coleman (1988) xix, Silvae IV was published in 95 and its contents were thus mostly representative of the poet's output from the preceding year. Dilke (1954) 7 argues that the composition of the Achilleid before 95 could not have amounted to more than "a rough draft of the theme of the proposed epic".
- Jump up ^ Silv. 4.7.21–24:
- torpor est nostris sine te Camenis,
- tardius sueto venit ipse Thymbrae
- rector et primis meus ecce metis
- haeret Achilles.
- Jump up ^ Silv. 5.2.161–64; cf. Dilke (1954) 6.
- Jump up ^ Dilke (1954) 6 who thinks that Statius' death "occurred about winter 95–6, certainly before Domitian's death in September 96. Vessey (1982) 563 is more circumspect: "Whether the poet survived to witness the extinction of the Flavian house in 96 is unknown.".
- Jump up ^ Shackleton Bailey (2003a) p. 7.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h Heslin, J.P. (2005).
- Jump up ^ The line numbers refer to the Latin text, as indicated in Dilke (1954) 8–9.
- Jump up ^ That is, Jupiter. A more literal translation of the Latin for this phrase would be: "progeny fearsome to the Thunderer and forbidden etc.
- Jump up ^ The translation is after that of Shackleton Bailey (2003b) 313, which has been altered to correspond more closely to the word order of the original and, in the case of deducere, "lead down", to be more literal. Shackleton Bailey renders deducere as "sing through".
- Jump up ^ Dilke (1954) 79. The first words of the Aeneid are arma uirumque, "arms and a man". The Thebaid opens with fraternas acies alternaque regna, "fraternal battle-lines and alternate reigns".
- ^ Jump up to: a b Hardie (1993) 63 n. 8.
- Jump up ^ Ovid, Met. 1.4
- Jump up ^ Slavitt (1997) p. 86 (in Afterword by Konstan); Mendelsohn (1990) p. 296.
- Jump up ^ Slavitt (1997) p. 86 (in Afterword by Konstan) p. 83.
- Jump up ^ Coleman (2003) pp. 26–7.
- Jump up ^ Coleman (2003) p. 28.
- Jump up ^ Ringler, Richard (April 1963). "Spenser and the "Achilleid"". Studies in Philology. 2 60: 174–182. Retrieved 2013-05-18.
- Jump up ^ Foley (2005). pp. 117–118.
- Jump up ^ Heslin (2005). p. 108.
- Jump up ^ Heslin (2005). pp. 144–145.
- Jump up ^ Heslin (2005). p. 126.
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