Achilles and the Poetics of Manhood: Re(de)fining Europe and Asia in Statius’ Achilleid

Abstract

This article examines the binarism Europe/Asia in Statius’ Achilleid as a means to understand the polarities of male/female, West/East, Greek/barbarian, and ultimately Roman/non-Roman. I demonstrate that Helen’s abduction by Paris and the discourse on the succession of empires in Statius’ poem reflect Thetis’ own transformation of Achilles into a woman. Through his cross-dressing and the impregnation of Deidamia, marked in the text as a violent attack, Achilles comes of age on the liminally other island of Scyros by replicating Paris’ rapina . The “European” Achilles incorporates both the effeminate traits of the East and the warlike manliness of the West; he also ultimately embodies the “Asian” other , which he is destined to conquer.

Writing trans histories with an ethics of care, while reading gender in imperial Roman literature

“…Modern scholars such as Heslin, Antony Augoustakis, Vassiliki Panoussi, Alison Keith and Monica Cyrino have offered very different insights and perspectives on how gender functions in the Achilleid. 38 Since we cannot see the whole system of gender, we can focus on these moments of symbolic slippage to generate meaningful historical analysis. Having identified such a moment of slippage, we can now ask, 'Why is Achilles' gender understood in such different ways?'…”