Achilles

Author(s)

    • González González, Marta

Bibliographic Information

Achilles

Marta González González

(Gods and heroes of the ancient world)

Routledge, 2019 , c2018

  • : pbk

Available at  / 2 libraries

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Note

"First published 2018 by Routledge" "First issued in paperback 2019" --t.p. verso

Includes bibliographical references (p.[140]-146) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Achilles is the quintessential Greek hero, but that does not mean that he is a conventional hero. His uniqueness is dictated by his birth, as the son of a sea goddess, and his education at the hands of a centaur. The hero's exceptional nature also forms part of the tension that both unites and opposes him to Apollo. Achilles presents the different episodes in the life of this hero conventionally, in chronological order, based primarily on the Greek sources: birth, education, deeds in Troy, death and subsequent destiny as a figure of worship. On the other hand, this study employs the hero Achilles to reflect on various issues, all of them crucial for historians of the Greek world: what it meant to be and become a man in ancient Greece, what a hero's arete consisted of, how the Greeks represented the concepts of friendship and camaraderie, what moved them to revenge or reconciliation, what hopes they harboured as they faced their fate, how they imagined something as difficult to conceive of as a human sacrifice, and how they developed their ideas about the afterlife and hero cult.

Table of Contents

Series foreword Acknowledgements List of illustrations Why Achilles? 1. Introducing Achilles A Mythological "Biography"? Who is Achilles? Evidence for Achilles The Best of the Achaeans, Apollo's Antagonist The Scope of this Book Brief overview of each chapter Key Themes 2. The Origins of The Trojan War, The Origin of Achilles Introduction The Origins of the Trojan War: Achilles and Helen The Birth and Childhood of Achilles Achilles' Teachers Overview 3. A Men's World: Achilles' Emotions Introduction Emotions and scenarios of action Achilles' anger as the Iliad's leitmotif Achilles and Ajax. A shame culture The Myrmidons Overview 4. Achilles' Sacrificial Victims Introduction Ambush, Pursuit and Sacrifice of Troilus Young Trojans on the Pyre of Patroclus The Hawk Chasing a Dove: The Death of Hector A Last Sacrifice in Honour of Achilles: Polyxena Overview 5. Gender And Sexuality Introduction Achilles on Skyros: Becoming a Man in Ancient Greece Achilles and Patroclus in Love? Tears of Heroes Sexual Violence on the Trojan Stage Overview 6. The Fury Subdued: To Forget, To Forgive Introduction Agamemnon's guilt Kissing Achilles' Hands Achilles with no Shadows Overview 7. The Death And Cult Of Achilles Introduction The Tradition of Achilles' Death in the Epic. Echoes of the "Homeric Question" Achilles' Heel, Achilles' Ankle: the Death of the Hero Achilles in the Underworld. The Island of Leuke The Cults of Achilles. Archaeological and Literary Evidence Overview 8. Philosophical, Political and Ethical Debates Introduction Achilles and the tortoise Not life but a good life. Achilles as model for Socrates Healing anger Justice and revenge More hateful than the gates of Hades is the man who hides one thing in his heart and says another Overview 9. Achilles In Modern Literature In English Introduction When there was peace, before the coming of the sons of the Achaians (Il. 22.156) Never More Shall a Second Grief thus Reach my Heart (Il. 23.45-46) And laid his manslaughtering hands over the chest of his dear friend (Il. 23.18) And kissed the hands that had killed so many of his sons (Il. 24. 478-479) Overview Further reading Bibliography Index

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