Achilles and the Poetics of Manhood: Re(de)fining Europe and Asia in Statius’ Achilleid

This article examines the binarism Europe/Asia in Statius’ Achilleid as a means to understand the polarities of male/female, West/East, Greek/barbarian, and ultimately Roman/non-Roman. I demonstrate that Helen’s abduction by Paris and the discourse on the succession of empires in Statius’ poem reflect Thetis’ own transformation of Achilles into a woman. Through his cross-dressing and the impregnation of Deidamia, marked in the text as a violent attack, Achilles comes of age on the liminally other island of Scyros by replicating Paris’ rapina . The “European” Achilles incorporates both the effeminate traits of the East and the warlike manliness of the West; he also ultimately embodies the “Asian” other , which he is destined to conquer.