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The Transvestite Achilles: Gender and Genre in Statius' Achilleid

Heslin, P.J.

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Abstract

Statius' Achilleid is a playful, witty, and open-ended epic in the manner of Ovid. As we follow Achilles' metamorphosis from wild boy to demure girl to lover to hero, the poet 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 been adduced to explain Achilles' transvestism. The study's expansive approach, which includes Ovid and Ovidian reception, psychoanalytic perspectives and theorizations of gender in antiquity, makes it essential reading not only for students of Statius, but for students of Latin literature, and of gender in antiquity. • Provides the first book-length study of Statius' unfinished epic, the Achilleid • Constructs a broad interpretive framework for the unusual myth of Achilles on Scyros • Adopts an interdisciplinary approach of interest to students of Latin literature, myth, gender in antiquity and Baroque opera

Citation

Heslin, P. (2005). The Transvestite Achilles: Gender and Genre in Statius' Achilleid. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.2277/0521851459

Book Type Authored Book
Publication Date 2005-08
Deposit Date Apr 20, 2007
Publisher Cambridge University Press
DOI https://doi.org/10.2277/0521851459
Publisher URL http://www.cambridge.org/uk/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521851459
Additional Information Sample Chapter