Rewriting epics
The Trojan War in Achilleid Statius
The death of the poet Statius in 96 AD. AD, leaving his unfinished Achilleid, has deprived us of retractatio of the Trojan war epic that should behave. We can therefore consider three questions: what is the place and function of references to the coming war throughout the first song? What are the respective influences of Homer and versions posthomériques in the representation of the conflict? Can you outline what would have been the story of the Trojan War in the remainder of the epic? This analysis reveals a deep representation modernized and Romanized the conflict, in which the narrative of facts is less important than the highlight, through them, the characters' personalities as part of a strategy of delectare which refers readers to their own imagination and their own image .
Plan
1. The Trojan War to the songs I-II Achilleid: counterpoint and parallel
2. The presentation of the Trojan War: Tradition and Innovation
1. The Trojan War to the songs I-II Achilleid: counterpoint and parallel
2. The presentation of the Trojan War: Tradition and Innovation
The Achilleid Statius is not about the Trojan War - not more than the Iliad, elsewhere, but for reasons diametrically opposed: while the epic of Homer off the whole conflict a particular episode (the wrath of Achilles), that of Stace brings the war itself to a sub- across a broader narrative, the life of Achilles (I, 3-7). Moreover, none of these two epics is centered on the conflict itself. The Iliad, an epic "pathetic" after the Aristotelian terminology, is about a passion (anger in question) and its sequels, while Achilleid, epic "ethics" is focus (like the Odyssey) on the personality of the protagonist. This Personenepos (to borrow the terminology of S. Koster) maintains is with the Trojan War a thematic report even more cowardly than the Kriegsepos what the Iliad. The Trojan war there is the backdrop against which is supposed to come off the character of the hero - and yet this painting covers Does not the entire surface of the biography of peleides. Much more: the only part of the epic that the poet has had time to write (devoted to the episode of Achilles Scyros) stops precisely when this war (or at least its preliminary phase) would begin in earnest with the arrival of Achilles at Aulis Achaean camp. Statien the story of the war itself, particularly the segment that intersects with the narrative of the Iliad (a part of the ninth year of the war) we are deprived forever. The fact remains that this war is present in the background throughout this first part of the poem, and its proleptic anticipation has repeatedly noted that due to the memory of the player involved in the windings of the Alexandrian 'épyllion scyrien. I would like So consider this a triple series of questions:
- What is the place and function of allusions to the Trojan War I in this song (and the beginning of II)?
- The representation of the Trojan War Is "Homer" (or, in other words, what part of Homer and respective authors posthomériques in the presentation of the conflict)?
- Can we infer from this that we have the epic how Stace intended to deal with the Trojan War in the rest of his story?
1. The Trojan War to the songs I-II Achilleid: counterpoint and parallel
The composition of the song I shows two plots progressing in parallel from a single trigger and ending by joining together to About two-thirds of the song: the wiles of Thetis to remove her son to war and the mobilization of the Greeks to the conflict. Both plots are triggered by the abduction of Helen by Paris-(I, 20-25 and 397-406). Achilles' mother, educated in the future, responds immediately by putting in place arrangements for take her son away from conflict, maneuvers that are spread over one and a half between ver 20 and v. 396. The preparations of the Greek warriors who started at the same time in response to rapt5, spread over one year between ver 397 and verse 559. The two plots converge with the arrival of envoys to the Achaeans Scyros in v. 675. The first part of this song plays on an opposition to both thematic, emotional and axiological between the two parallel narrative lines before they join.
Opposition theme: w. 20-396 recount the steps of Thetis to keep her son the theater of war preparations, w. 397-559 emphasize the efforts of the Greeks to bring in, and this tension between opposing forces gives part of his drive to this song. Emotional opposition: in the narrative maneuvers Thetis, the poet plays on the dramatization, the distancing of the tragic, the introduction of a few buttons and a comic-erotic elegiac mood. New Alexandrian color is predominant. In the evocation of war preparations, the tone is radically different. The most striking case is that of this incredible scene of "divination" (I, 514-537) that recycles all Topical meeting grounds of ecstatic divination and prophecy in the epic and catastrophic tragedy Latin, with a strong presence (directly or indirectly, by Lucan and Valerius Flaccus interposed), the prophecy of Cassandra in the Agamemnon Seneca . Overdramatization of tone, atmosphere criminalization tragic: it is far from the way the poet addresses the fate of Achilles in the rest of the story. Inconsistency? Latent irony? Not at all: in fact this contrast serves to make it more vibrant opposition axiological. Opposition between the point of view "feminine" and anti-heroic in the Thetis conflict, whose empathetic transcription in the absence of any legislative action of the narrator, guiding the whole story in the first part and point of view of epic and manly Achaeans who governs without sharing w. 397-559. Moreover, the structure of the song I allows the poet to see the same events replayed twice after the two opposing viewpoints, with an effect of chiasmus: Thetis said in his initial soliloquy (I, 34-37) the mobilization of the Achaeans Research and Achilles will be told later that, while the prophecy of Calchas reread retrospectively v. 20-396 of the song I (Thetis maneuvers) from the point of view Greeks, outraged by the deception of the anti-heroic goddess. The contrast values that did not emerge more strongly in this controuersia narrativisée: primacy of family values and private cons primacy of the collective interest and heroic values. Two poetic worlds, two value systems, between which Achilles is positioned as the issue of a report by opposing forces: such is the dramatic challenge of singing I. But also, two internal duality universe symbolizing the hero himself, torn between the masculine and feminine, between war and love, between epic and elegy. The allusions to the Trojan War are both counterpoint and counterweight to the logic that dominates female most of the song I.
this contrast effect added an obvious thematic parallels between the collective destiny involved in the Greek-Trojan conflict and destiny of individual heroes. Stace insists in effect (including the mouth of Ulysses) on the coincidence between the place of marriage of the parents of Achilles (who is also the scene of Education of Achilles by Chiron) and place of the quarrel of the goddesses starting point the Trojan War (II, 55-57): all this happened in the same cave of Pelion, which supports, in the arguments of the king of Ithaca, the idea of predestination peleides warrior (and nostri iam tunc promitteris armis). The hero and war have somewhat the same geographical origin. In addition, we can read between the lines in this song I, a tension between the figure of Paris, denounced by all as the responsible leader of the war (I, 67; II, 59), and that of Achilles, called play a decisive role in the outcome of the conflict. A Paris who then takes the face of the adversary by excellence, both collectively and individually. The parallelism between these two figures is the bearer of both antithetical suggestions (on the theme of heroism warrior) and potential convergence (on the theme of passion) in a heavily soaked epic influence erotic-elegiac , Paris appears as both a mirror and a foil Achilles ... especially the young Achilles singing I, with its clear appearance, made a triumphant blend of masculinity and effeminacy (which goes beyond mere disguise: cf. I, 323-335), is not without recall the topical representation of Paris as effeminate seducer in the Latin poetic tradition. And as we all know that Paris, after the Vulgate, is called to be the killer of Achilles, that gives this dramatic confrontation antithetical additional scope: no doubt that the death of Achilles under the arrow of Paris (guided or not by Apollo) was to acquire special importance.
added finally, to complete the parallelism, that the origin of the Trojan War epic gets in Statius the same structural presentation that the youth of Achilles both located upstream of the narrative that begins in medias res in v. 20. It was in both cases a triple series of retrospectives including the first two are brief and partial, before a third fully developed in the early part of the song II. The Education of Achilles is first discussed briefly by Chiron (I, 149-155), and in the mouths of the Greeks in general (I, 476-481) before being told by Achilles himself in detail (II, 96 - 167), and similarly, the causes of the Trojan War are first exposed, in part, by Thetis (I, 31-51), then taken by Agamemnon (I, 400-406), before the most comprehensive speech of Ulysses (II, 50-83). Effect of ascending progression with parallelism, which enhances the game of correspondence between the war as a whole and the main hero.
Note especially that this threefold presentation of the origins of the war is characterized by a process of subjectification, since we do not, on the causes of this conflict, exposed "objective" of the omniscient narrator, but essentially previews mediated indirect point of view of characters and marked by the subjectivity of the latter. Because in this epic "ethical "What the Achilleid, the poet is not interested in the narrative of the facts for themselves, but their echoes in the mind and discourse of the characters. The Trojan War is primarily a catalyst for profound provisions of each: hegemonic role of Agamemnon (I, 399-406), Odysseus' rhetorical skill (I, 785-793, II, 49-83), anguished maternity Thetis (I, 30-51), and of course martial potentialities of Achilles. It is therefore understandable that the epic narrator deliberately refrain from giving "his" version of the causes of war, the better to his characters react to the same events according to their respective ethos. Basically, the Trojan War is only the excuse to paint the characters of his protagonists, at the same time as revealing the nature of each. The conflict has therefore an overall purpose, as in Virgil (and unlike Homer), except that it is no longer an instrument for the fulfillment of a cosmic destiny as in the Aeneid, but the construction of the identity of the heroic main character.
2. The presentation of the war Trojan: Tradition and Innovation
This primacy of emotional and informative on the subject on the subject will help us
better understand the election that the poet Flavian between various versions of the tradition the legendary Trojan War, that is to say that Homer and the authors posthomériques, epic archaic (Songs Cyprians) to Ovid in particular through the Attic tragedy, the Alexandrian poetry, the Aeneid latin14 and lyricism. Indeed, the Trojan War that one can read between the lines in the epic of Stace is not merely that of Homère15, but is enriched with all the sediment that literary tradition has made over the centuries to this initial core, sometimes with substantial changes in fact or in spirit. While the broad outlines of the fabula are almost fixed, and some episodes headlight can provide support for a direct allusion to the Iliad in the form of literary homage, as the anticipation of the fight against Scamander we found in educating the young Achilles (II, 142-153). Similarly, referring to the "theft" by Patroclus arms of Achilles (I, 632-633) can be read as an indirect anticipation tinged with dramatic irony of the song XVI of the Iliad (281 ff.). But even within a proleptic allusion to an episode "Homer" of the war, we can work out which sways substantially rewrite the original. For example, Stace has chosen to make the appointment of ambassadors to the Achaeans Scyros (I, 536-539) a kind of early recurrence "of the Homeric Dolonne (il., X, 218-253), partly by modeling This last statement volunteering Ulysses and Diomedes. A tribute to Homer evident here. But this rewriting is accompanied in the detail of a series of small distortions: explicit reduction to the rank of Diomedes' second 'Ulysses' (I, 539), accentuation of the caution of the latter (I, 538), transfer the reason for the protection of Palladian Diomedes Odysseus to better highlight the only trick as primary contact with the first (I, 547). The rewrite is therefore in the direction of the stylization to enhance compliance with its ethos of Ulysses paradigmatic "brain trade" and the embodiment of cunning, in a literary tradition after Homer but dearer on it. This stylization of the ethos of the characters (we guess also indirectly in the case of Paris) is a key to the approach of Stace: It is necessary that the hero of the Trojan War look like the picture Stace Roman readers are more of them than they really are in Homer; picture obviously depends on a whole tradition posthomérique which operates as a distorting mirror, highlighting the most salient trais characters, between the Iliad and Achilleid.
But in other places, the poet may simply prefer the Homeric version of the facts a non-Homeric, especially when the latter was eventually supplant the first in the Vulgate, as the relationship between the parents of Achilles or the composition of the Achaean embassy to Scyros. In general, Stace prefer the version most known in the Latin tradition (often after the Attic tragedy and / or Alexandrian poetry) to the Homeric version when they disagree: that, far to cultivate the element of surprise or originality for themselves, he wants to use the version most familiar to his readers for their Roman general reference, we said, a picture of the Homeric world consistent with the idea they have of it, nothing is further from its concern that a project punctilious conformity to the letter and the spirit of the Homeric text for himself. The best example is the scope of "international" that Stace, like Virgil (Aen., X, 90-91), gives the Trojan War as a global conflict between Europe and Asia (cf. I, 82-83, 394, 730): an interpretation of geopolitical conflict that owes nothing to Homer and all of a replay of classical Greece influenced by the context of war Medic, and passed away in the Latin authors. Like Virgil, Statius is certainly represents the Trojans in Homer orientalizing more colors. Which leads, moreover, to redraw the Achaean coalition following a logic that ignores Panhellenic blithely Homeric data: thus the people of the Thracian coast, pro-Trojans in Homer, spend in the Achaean camp in Stace (I , 409-411, cf. also I, 202 to 20,420), an "annexation" which goes even implicitly, to the Asian city of Abydos (I, 204), probably because this border town was considered a sort of "enclave" Greek by the Romans of the first century (see Mela, I, 97). This presentation of the Trojan War in terms of the Panhellenic crusade (I, 397-440) is itself a direct legacy of Euripides (Iph. Aul., 77 ff.) Stace that applies to its contemporary representation of the Hellenic world . But the choice of the Hellenic crusade is not just a principle of fidelity to the Vulgate post-Euripidean, as it has a direct bearing on the tone of this part of the work: it gives up and dynamism in agreement with the "color" the general theme in this epic warrior (A point which I will).
Sometimes, however sometimes Stace to "return" to Homer cons of the Vulgate version, but always with a purpose. The pattern of predestination Achilles playing a decisive role in the fall of Troy (as a murderer of Hector, the bulwark of the Trojans) is a good example. According to the hypothesis of Skyrioi Euripides, the main source of the song I is the result of an oracle recommending Achaeans not take the field without Achilles Agamemnon sent Odysseus and Diomedes to Scyros . This version is based on that of Cypria, which are assigned the first mention of the oracle, Unknown to Homer in the latter, that's worth its Achilles is considered essential to the army (cf. It., I, 282-283 , XI, 117-118, 228-231). But the Oracle has established itself in the tradition mythographic, since in the Pseudo-Apollodorus (Bibl., III, 13,
, one finds this prophecy explicitly attributed to Calchas.'s Position Stace is characterized by a mixture of two traditions . Like Homer, he does not know (but voluntarily him) the prophecy that Achilles could only afford to win the Trojan War: this perspective is mentioned upstream, but reduced to a mere "hearsay" (v. 475: illum unum Teucris Priamoque loquuntur / fatalem); the reason of predestination is victorious Demystifying and streamlined with a triple set of explanations: if the Achaeans Achilles think they need it because of what we already know of him at this stage, that is to say, the harshness of her education, her divine ancestry, and his invulnerability ( 476-481). Stace nevertheless retains the prophecy of Calchas Following the tradition of songs Cyprians, but stripping it of all the transcendent side of its contents (Revelation about the future of war linked to the fate of Achilles), it reduced its stake to a simple question of locating the hero in the present, where Achilles is at this time (cf. v. 505-506)? Stace has made in his sources that the arrangement: the rationalization of predestination ("return" apparent Homer) actually contributes to the tone "medium" and "ethics" of this epic, which highlights the personal potentialities the hero and who likes to stage an Achilles already provided in anticipation of the aura that will own ... once he has actually accomplished feats (a type of "anachronism metaliterary" which are customary Latin poets of the first century). The key is that everything revolves around the hero's ingenium, a real "focus", and that outweighs the immanent transcendent. On the other hand, the integration of the prophecy of Calchas, even half emptied of its contents, keep the interest of presenting a form hyperbolic and dramatized, the radical opposition between the world Scyros and that of war Trojan, as noted above. This logic of selectivity between different traditions should of course be studied passage by passage throughout the work, but it would take too long to take her here. Retain from this analysis that Stace is neither slave nor of the Homeric vulgate posthomérique, but chooses in each case the version that allows him to better highlight is the person of its hero, is the dominant tone of poem (including when, as here, to play on a contrast of tones).
Influence versions posthomériques is indeed not only a matter of sources, but also a matter of tone and emotional atmosphere. Epic "Average", the Achilleid made a large part, as critics have noted, the influence erotic-elegiac, especially Ovidian. It is therefore natural to feel that this work of proofreading sentimentalization of Homeric epic poets dear to neo-Alexandrian (but whose origin often dates back to the first Euripidean tragedy). Without the narrative of the loves of Achilles and Briseis, which would probably have confirmed this analysis, and leaving aside the case of Deidamia which is not the Trojan War itself, this approach can be seen at work in the phrase "gallant" in the abduction of Helen by Paris (I, 21: Bland populatus), which removes the question of the treasures of Menelaus described in Homer (il., VII, 350, 363, 389-90, XIII, 626 , XXII, 114) in favor of pure sentimental reason: everything is only a matter of love, with an interpenetration of isotopies typically elegiac and erotic warrior whose Achilleid offers other examples. Again, the choice of contemporary vulgate, ie in terms of the emotional atmosphere, moving in the direction of the dominant tone of the work.
This reinterpretation of the Homeric data, which in the case of Paris (and probably the Achilles later in his love) takes the form of a sentimentalization elegiac notes overall modernization of the words and feelings Homeric hero who is also in some respects, a romanization. This trend is perfectly embodied by Agamemnon. His speech (I, 400-406) is an amplification from the verses of Euripides (Iph. Aul., 77-79) in which Menelaus calls for help former suitors of Helen, but the Latin poet removes the ground Euripidean the oath of prétendants22 to replace him with a speech by legal and moral reach broader mobilizing a very isotopy Roman law (iura, fides) and diplomacy (marketing, Foedera), and rolling up a discreet "punicisation" of Trojans (cf. I, 404: foedus Phrygium; antiphrasis ironic is not without thinking of the famous fides Punica). A speech that would be better placed on the Roman forum in ancient Greece ... If we compare this speech with what we said above about the confrontation East / West, we see that this vision of the Trojan War is at all points of view Roman Homer. The Achilleid gives so much of the Trojan War is not a representation that directly reflects the original Iliad, but rather that of an image already derived and stylized: imaginis imago.
To extend and confirm these remarks, I would now like to examine more closely the question of the causes of the Trojan War. The most detailed presentation is that of Ulysses (II, II, 49-83) stated that the poet has cleverly postponed until the end of the first part of his saga to save a beginning in medias res and do not weaken dynamism of his narrative. So what for the content, could act as a prologue of exposure, is finally playing a role Conclusion: After this, all is said both the preliminaries of the conflict on the early years of the life of Achilles (by his account of his childhood), and the story of the war itself as well as the epic hero's proper can begin. We must not, on the other hand, lose sight of that presentation, as I noted above, is that of Ulysses, not that of Stace (or at least the epic narrator), and that has referred to the internal diegesis performative : To stimulate the furor of Achilles for the coming conflict, hence biases specific narrative vis-à-vis the canonical versions (Homeric or otherwise) that may resemble a form of " deformation history. " Not that the poet wants to reveal Odysseus as a liar or a manipulator for the purpose of moralizing criticism of the character (we are far from the perspective of the tragic, and nothing is further from the draft Stace that the moral evaluation of behaviors), but he comes to appreciate the reader, a point of view of both intellectual and aesthetic the rhetorical skill of a character seen in the Latin tradition as an exemplary teacher of the speaker of "grand style" of art-related volving. All this explains the choice of Ulysses in his account of the causes of war escape the responsibility of gods and minimizing the role of the quarrel between the goddesses (which is mentioned only for the geographical coincidence with the "cradle" of Achilles II, 55-57, a detail not Homeric, however), maximum emphasis on the negative role of Paris, conceived as an anti-Achilles, with an assimilation rhetoric Menelaus Achilles (II, 81-83). Admittedly, the questioning by the other characters of Hector is the responsibility of the Homeric legacy (even if Virgil had more or less tried to mitigate the thing), but which reveals the influence of Latin rework the myth, c ' is the same story of the Judgement of Paris taken as the primary cause of the war, in preference to other starting points adopted by tradition, such as the quarrel of the goddesses at the wedding of Thetis and Peleus, or the birth of Helen as in Euripides (Iph. Aul., 49 ff.). This bias, probably inspired Silius Italicus (Pun., VII, 537-473) that this passage is very close, puts a strong emphasis on the responsibility of Hector uituperatio the purpose of morality. The similarities with the speech of Agamemnon (I, 399-406), whose aim was almost the same (stimulate righteous anger of the Greeks against the abductor of Helen) are obvious: the speakers of Greek Stace recycle grounds Topical Roman moralism hostile to Paris for the benefit of their rhetorical strategy. Note, in this perspective, the escalation of Odysseus, who, to accentuate the impiety of character, lends him a sacred timber harvesting (II, 60-62) totally unknown to the legendary tradition, but directly transposed from the Ovidian myth of Erysichthon (Met., VIII, 741 ff.) and / or its Retractationes Lucan (Phars., III, 399 ff.) ... and statienne (Theb., VI, 84-117). The issue here is not that of the "truth" or "lie" for the version of Ulysses. The Homeric poems retractatio Latin admits a margin of differences or innovations that are not necessarily going to be judged as such in terms of a canonical version through a "philological" picky (but sometimes are: it's all about context) But rather to admire the spirit of timeliness with which Odysseus, on the basis of hard evidence of the literary tradition (the slaughter of the forests of Ida for the construction of the fleet of Paris) was able to "recycle" an epic topos, slaughter of sacred wood, which fits perfectly in his remarks. In short, Odysseus and Agamemnon are two speakers "Roman" which, without fundamentally contradicting the Homeric vulgate or posthomérique on the basic facts (but by manipulating a bit to give a "boost" to their cause), rewrite causes of the Trojan War from the perspective of a performative referred to moralism. What is noteworthy, however, also is that the narrator does nothing to deny or relativize their story: we saw that the abolition of the oath of the suitors in favor of a spontaneous reaction of moral outrage at the posterior Abduction of Helen (the rest rooted in much of the literary tradition, including Latin) emanated from both the speeches of Agamemnon and presentation of the narrator (I, 3627). Similarly, the vocabulary of Roman moral indignation vis-à-vis the Paris meeting as well in the mouths of the Achaean chiefs (Odysseus and Agamemnon) as Thetis (I, 43-47) and the narrator (I, 20-24: culpatum iter), and abduction of Paris is still the trigger regardless of the speaker . We can say, to some degree, the optics of Achilleid is resolutely pro-Achaean: not so much that Stace wants to take it personally on the party plane "historico-political" between both sides, but because his poem centered on the "best of the Achaeans," can only be placed from within his camp. The reconfiguration of the Greek-Trojan conflict in terms of confrontation between Asia and Europe also stems in part from this logic: the project's ethical Achilleid implies that the reader (Roman, of course) feels close in sympathy with the hero. Stace also tends to his readers, through its representation of Greek leaders of the Trojan War, a mirror of their own world view to support the strategy of delectare (absent in this epic, didactic and scope of any demonstrative) . If the representation of the Trojan War is somewhat a reflection of Achilles in this play of correspondences between the individual and collective level that we saw earlier, it is also, to a certain degree, a reflection of the mental landscape aristocratic Roman society, perhaps because Achilles himself is in some ways, a mirror of the contemporary elite.
Electronic Reference
François Ripoll, "The Trojan War in Achilleid Statius' rursus [Online], 5 follow these links:
François Ripoll, "The Trojan War in Achilleid Statius' rursus [Online], 5 follow these links:
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