Statius: Achilleid : Edited with Introduction, Translation, and Commentary

Charles McNelis

ISBN 10: 0198871457 / ISBN 13: 9780198871453

Published by Oxford University Press Nov 2024, 2024

About this Item

Neuware - Statius' Achilleid tells the story of the mythical Achilles and, in particular, his time hiding disguised as a girl on the island of Scyros. This new Latin text with facing-page English translation is accompanied by an introduction and commentary exploring the poem's mythical background, literary models, and treatment of gender and sexuality.

Seller Inventory # 9780198871453

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Statius: Achilleid : Edited with Introduction, Translation, and Commentary
• Publisher: Oxford University Press Nov 2024
• Publication Date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0198871457
• ISBN 13: 9780198871453
• Binding: Buch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 237W x 158H x 37D millimeters 237 millimeters width by 158 millimeters height by 37 millimeters depth
• Weight: 852 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Statius' Achilleid is the most extensive treatment of the myth of Achilles hiding disguised as a girl on the island of Scyros. In the Achilleid, the hero, who had been trained to be an outstanding warrior by the centaur Chiron, complies with a scheme devised by his divine mother, Thetis, who does not want him to sail to Troy since her son is fated to die there. She proposes that he dress as a girl in order to hide himself from the Greeks who wish to enlist him in the martial expedition; despite his inclinations developed by Chiron, Achilles acquiesces, but only in order to pursue his desire for the princess Deidamia. Odysseus and Diomedes, sent by the Greek army, come to Scyros to reclaim Achilles, and the poem depicts the struggles faced by Deidamia and Achilles' future comrades as they coax him in opposite directions. While Achilles tries to sort out his desires, he reflects upon love, family, social obligations, and the lessons that have been imparted to him.

Throughout the Middle Ages and up to the current day, Statius' depiction of the great Greek hero has attracted artistic and scholarly attention for its treatment of themes such as education, heroism, fate, and gender and sexuality. Statius' poem, written at the end of the first century CE, also engages deeply with the entirety of the Greek and Roman literary traditions--in particular, epic poems such as the Iliad, the Odyssey, Vergil's Aeneid, and Ovid's Metamorphoses. The Achilleid's reworking of these earlier poems amounts to a tour-de-force reconsideration of the entire genre of epic poetry.

This new edition of the Achilleid contains an extensive introduction (encompassing mythological background, details about Statius' language and meter, and a survey of the reception of the poem since late antiquity), a Latin text (based upon recent scholarship) with facing-page English translation, and the first full-scale commentary in English in nearly 70 years.

About the Author

Charles McNelis, Professor of Classics, Georgetown University

Charles McNelis is Professor in the Department of Classics at Georgetown University.