Redesigning Achilles

Sophia Papaioannou

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2008
• ISBN:
  9783110204308
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Ancient & Classical Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

The book is a detailed study on the structure and the topics of Ovid's compedium of the Trojan Saga in Metamorphoses 12.1-13.622, the section also referred to as the "Little Iliad". It explores the motives and the objectives behind the selected narrative moments from the Epic Cycle that found their way into the Ovidian version of the Trojan War. By thoroughly mastering and inspiringly refashioning a vast amount of literary material, Ovid generates a systematic reconstruction of the archetypal hero, Achilles. Thus, he projects himself as a worthy successor of Homer in the epic tradition, a master epicist, and a par to his great Latin predecessor, Vergil.

Table of contents

• Frontmatter
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter One Designing ‘Epic’ Beginnings
• Chapter Two Epic Self-affirmation and Epic Self-consciousness: Introducing Achilles (Met. 12.64-145)
• Chapter Three Poetic Memory and Epic (De)Composition: Deconstructing Achilles
• Chapter Four Facets of Elimination: Killing Achilles
• Chapter Five The ‘Judgment of the Arms’: Re-Constructing Achilles
• Chapter Six Fe/Male Sacrifice: Performing the Poetics of Genre- and Gender-Crossing in the ‘Fall of Troy’ (Met. 13.399-575)
• Chapter Seven Memnon’s Fate and Fame: Impersonating Achilles
• Backmatter