Achilleid

Often regarded as one of the most striking Latin epics, Statius' Achilleid was left unfinished when the poet died. Even so, its first book and the opening of the second are full of the lightness and liveliness associated with Ovid. The story follows Thetis, a sea-nymph who tries to shield her son from the fate awaiting him at Troy by concealing him on Scyros in female dress. Among the island's women he falls for Deidamia, yet his longing for martial fame never leaves him. Ulysses and Diomedes eventually see through the disguise and, by a ruse, force him to reveal his real warlike ambitions.

The poem questions what gender means and how far epic can stretch, and Statius plays with his own place within the epic tradition and the wider world of poetry. A new introduction by Robert Cowan considers recent scholarship on these questions. It is paired with the textual and philological commentary of O.A.W. Dilke, which takes a more traditional approach. Together the two suit undergraduates and graduate students working through the Latin, and they also give advanced scholars a useful reference.