Achilles and the Stern Waters of Styx

Author: Statius

Time Period: 1 CE–500 CE

Country or Culture: Rome

Genre: Myth

PLOT SUMMARY

In Statius’s Achilleid, an unfinished Roman poem of the first century CE, the link between the Greek hero Achilles (Akhilleus)and the River Styx is not elaborated as an explicit event but is alluded to as part of the larger myth of Achilles’s life and death. Statius intended to represent the life of Achilles until his death in the Trojan War at the hands of his enemy Paris, who stole Helen, the wife of Menelaus, and thus precipitated the conflict between the Greeks and the Trojans. The completed portions of Statius’s poem recount the failed attempts of Thetis, mother of Achilles, to protect her son from joining the Greek forces and meeting his death.

The poem begins with Thetis, a sea nymph, who laments the presence of the war ships traveling to Troy. Thetis has learned from a prophecy that her son Achilles will be called to fight and that if he goes to war, he will meet certain death. To prevent this, she first appeals unsuccessfully to Neptune, god of the sea, to destroy the ship carrying Paris and Helen. She then goes to retrieve Achilles from his guardian, the centaur Chiron (Kheiron). She hides him on the island of Scyros (Skyros) and urges him to disguise himself by dressing as a girl. Achilles refuses until he encounters the beautiful Deidamia, daughter of King Lycomedes, at which point he agrees to cross-dress so that he may become closer to the object of his love.

Disguised as a girl, Achilles is entrusted to the care of King Lycomedes, and Thetis departs. Eventually, Achilles and Deidamia develop a love relationship. She conspires to maintain his disguise, becomes pregnant, and bears a child. During this time, the Greek warriors travel to gather forces and become aware of Achilles’s absence. When a prophet reveals the young man’s presence on Scyros, the Greek heroes Ulysses and Diomede expose Achilles’s true identity by offering him weapons as gifts, which he readily accepts. Achilles and Deidamia are then married, after which Achilles departs for war. The story breaks off in book 2 after Achilles recounts his youthful years and his rearing by Chiron.

In the narrative, Statius alludes to the River Styx in relation to Achilles several times. The first appears in book 1 when Thetis entreats Chiron, begging him to reveal the whereabouts of her son Achilles. In this scene, Thetis laments that her sleep has been troubled, and she has had “terrible portents from the gods and fearful panics” (519) because she senses the doom to come. She states, “I seem to take my son down to the void of Tartarus, and dip him a second time in the springs of Styx” (519). She refers to the magical river later in book 1 when she attempts to convince Achilles to disguise himself as a girl. She urges him to acquiesce and accept the disguise “if at thy birth I fortified thee with the stern waters of the Styx” (529). The final reference appears as the Greek warriors wonder at the absence of the great Achilles, describing him as follows: “Whom else did a Nereid take by stealth through the Stygian waters and make his fair limbs impenetrable to steel?” (545). In these passages, Statius refers to a long-established Greek myth according to which Thetis, learning the prophecy of Achilles’s early death, attempts to protect her infant son by immersing his body in the Styx, a supernatural river bordering the earth and the underworld. The waters make Achilles invulnerable to mortal wounds, but he remains vulnerable on his left heel, where his mother held him as she dipped the rest of his body in the enchanted water.

SIGNIFICANCE

One of the most important mythological heroes in Western civilization, Achilles appears most prominently in Homer’s Iliad, an eighth-century BCE Greek epic poem that highlights the conflicts of Achilles with his Greek comrades and with the enemy Trojans. A Roman poet writing centuries after Homer in the first century CE, Statius (like many Roman poets) adapted Greek mythological material partly in an attempt to create a Latin literary tradition worthy of the Greek epic models. Thus, the myths surrounding Achilles, who was already a major hero by the time Statius wrote, offered appropriate subject matter, and the Achilleid aims to develop the hero’s life by recounting his youth with his mother prior to the war.

The story of Achilles’s vulnerability clearly became a central part of the Greco-Roman mythological tradition. Interestingly, however, neither Homer nor Statius recount the death of Achilles, which, according to myth, occurs at the hands of Paris, who shoots a poisoned arrow into Achilles’s unprotected left heel, causing him to die. Other prominent writers do offer this part of the story, including the Roman poet Ovid, who recounts the hero’s death in book 12 of the Metamorphoses.

Whereas the ancient story of Achilles’s heel emphasizes the literal sense of the hero’s weak mortal spot, the legacy of this myth has proved most enduring for its medical and metaphorical significance. As the myth survived into the modern age, his heel was applied to anatomy: the calcaneal tendon of the lower leg, which extends and attaches the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles to the bone, is commonly referred to as the Achilles tendon. Perhaps most powerful, however, is the metaphorical significance of “Achilles’ heel,” which has come to signify any flaw or weakness that in the context of great strength can lead to failure or ruin. Just as the great Greek hero died because of a small yet fatal flaw, people and even societies are sometimes described as possessing an Achilles’ heel—a single, powerful weakness that can precipitate downfall or disaster.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cook, Elizabeth. Achilles. New York: Picador, 2002. Print.

Corey, Dale. From Achilles’ Heel to Zeus’ Shield. New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1993. Print.

Fantuzzi, Marco. Achilles in Love: Intertextual Studies. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2012. Print.

Heslin, P. J. The Transvestite Achilles: Gender and Genre in Statius’ Achilleid. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2005. Print.

Homer. The Iliad. Trans. Edward McCrorie. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2012. Print.

Ovid. Metamorphoses. Trans. A. D. Melville. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1986. Print.

Statius. Statius. Vol 2. Trans. J. H. Mozley. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1989. Print.