Achilles in Love: Intertextual Studies

Achilles in Love traces the escapades of Achilles’ erotic history, whether in same-sex or opposite-sex relationships, and how they were developed and revealed, or elided and concealed, in the writing and visual arts following Homer.

The volume investigates how different authors and artists responded to this most controversial aspect of Achilles’ character, in comparison to the fiery personality that was shaped by theIliad and was often considered ’canonical’ for his character. Through analyzing Achilles in love from the time of Homer all the way down to the Latin poets of the first century BC and AD, theIlias Latina, and the authors and iconography of the imperial age, this book makes both novel and productive connections between poetic texts, pictorial images, and literary genres which tried time and time again to capture Achilles’ ever-shifting role within the world of eros.