For a woman. Reception of a Homeric topic in the Acts of Paul and Thecla
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.34624/fb.v0i19.34786Keywords:
Agamemnon, love, Achilles, Briseis, revenge, angerAbstract
Briseis, “like golden Aphrodite” (Il. 19.282), one of the main characters in Iliad, is the center of the strife between Agamemnon and Achilles. On Lyrnessus’ attack, Achilles captured the beautiful woman by whom to take a liking. However, the Mycenean’s king wanted to recover the girl Briseis, attitude that increasing the anger of the hero. Achilles blames Agamemnon because he won the girl. To calm down the situation, Nestor, the old man, advises Agamemnon to offer gifts for Achilles. The Athridae delivers Briseis and do a swear: he never slept with her. The Acts of Paul and Thecla, an apocryphal text of the second/third century CE, tell the story of a pretty women named Thecla who lived in Iconium. Thamyris is an important man of the city and Thecla was betrothed to him. When Paul arrives to the city, the plans of the young fiancé change quickly. Thecla break off the engagement and become Christian. She is condemned to the fire. Then, she survives and go with Paul to Antioch of Pisidia. In this city, a relevant man named Alexander wants to conquer her, but with no success. Another condemnation, but Thecla run way again. The purpose of this paper is to study the possible reception of the Homeric topic in the apocryphal Christian text, which a beautiful girl is disputed by several mans that fell love and, at the same time, jealousy and the desire of revenge.
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