p.i
ACHILLES
Achilles is a complex hero. His brief, brilliant life is sacrificed to avenge the death of his beloved friend. He is a consummate warrior, yet he is childlike in his rage; and outside the Homeric Iliad we learn that he was dressed as a girl to escape being sent to fight at Troy. Marta Gonzlez Gonzlez explores the many facets of this fascinating figure, deftly applying insights from modern theories, literary and psychological, to help bring him into focus. It is a pleasure to read.
Professor David Konstan, New York University, USA
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 heros 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 heros aret 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.
Marta Gonzlez Gonzlez is Profesora Titular of Greek Philology at Mlaga University (Spain). Her main research interests are Greek literature (particularly tragedy), Greek religion and epigraphy. She is the author of a monograph on the Greek epigrammatist Nossis of Locri (2006) and of a co-authored book, with Ana Iriarte, Entre Ares y Afrodita. Violencia del erotismo y ertica de la violencia en la Grecia Antigua (2008, reprinted, 2010). Her most recent publications include articles on Greek religious vocabulary of funerary inscriptions.
p.ii
Gods and Heroes of the Ancient Worl
Series editor: Susan Deacy, University of Roehampton, London, UK
Uniformly excellent... The amount of information compactly conveyed is exceptional. ( Times Higher Education )
Deacy is to be credited with developing the concept and format for an engaging and informative series. ( Bryn Mawr Classical Review )
Routledge is pleased to present an exciting new series, Gods and Heroes of the Ancient World. These figures from antiquity are embedded in our culture, many functioning as the source of creative inspiration for poets, novelists, artists, composers and filmmakers. Concerned with their multifaceted aspects within the world of ancient paganism and how and why these figures continue to fascinate, the books provide a route into understanding Greek and Roman polytheism in the 21st century.
These concise and comprehensive guides provide a thorough understanding of each figure, offering the latest in critical research from the leading scholars in the field in an accessible and approachable form, making them ideal for undergraduates in Classics and related disciplines.
Each volume includes illustrations, time charts, family trees and maps where appropriate.
Available:
Artemis
Stephanie Lynn Budin
Herakles
Emma Stafford
Aphrodite
Monica S. Cyrino
Apollo
Fritz Graf
Perseus
Daniel Ogden
Athena
Susan Deacy
Zeus
Ken Dowden
Prometheus
Carol Dougherty
Medea
Emma Griffiths
Dionysos
Richard Seaford
Oedipus
Lowell Edmunds
Ishtar
Louise Pryke
Achilles
Marta Gonzlez Gonzlez
Forthcoming:
Hermes
Arlene Allan
Diana
Fay Glinister
Theseus
H. Alan Shapiro
Susan Deacy is Principal Lecturer at the University of Roehampton. She is especially interested in ancient Greek religion and mythology and ancient Greek gender, sexuality and violence and continues to be intrigued by the question that Simonides thought he would be able to answer within a day: what is a god? Her publications include the co-edited volumes Rape in Antiquity (1997) and Athena in the Classical World (2001) and the forthcoming monograph A Traitor to Her Sex? Athena the Trickster .
www.routledge.com/classicalstudies/series/GHAW
p.iii
Marta Gonzlez Gonzlez
p.iv
First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
2018 Marta Gonzlez Gonzlez
The right of Marta Gonzlez Gonzlez to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-67701-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-55983-4 (ebk)
Typeset in Utopia Std
by Swales & Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon, UK
p.v
To my dearest Teresa, in tribute to her unwavering friendship, her joie de vivre and her bravery in the face of death. She, with her brilliant mind, continues to accompany me in the life of the mind. For Teresa, a true hero of my ancient world.
(19712014)
p.ix
My Weariness of Epic Proportions from New and Selected Poems, 19622012 , by Charles Simic. Copyright 2013 by Charles Simic. Used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Excerpts from Memorial: A Version of Homers Iliad , by Alice Oswald. Copyright 2011 by Alice Oswald. Used by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. and Faber and Faber Ltd.
