The wrath of Achilles and the Trojan War in Byzantine literature: from 12th-century epic and historiography to 14th- and 15th-century romance
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.34624/fb.v0i19.34798Keywords:
Achilles, Wrath, Trojan War, Byzantine Literature, Epic, Historiography, Palaiologan RomanceAbstract
In this paper, I intend to analyze representations of Achilles, his wrath and the Trojan War in some works of Byzantine literature. The analysis will focus on the epic, historiography and romance, especially on John Tzetzes’ Carmina Iliaca, the Synopsis Chronike of Constantine Manasses, the Alexiad of Anna Comnena and the anonymous Aquileid and Byzantine Iliad. Achilles appears in these Byzantine texts according to the conventional portrayal of him in Homeric poetry: the hero par excellence, powerful and ruthless, exceeding all other fighters in war. Regardings the epithets assigned to him, some are of Homeric usage, others, later scholarly constructions. The selective account that Homer provides of the Trojan War differs, however, from the extended view presented by the Byzantine writers, for key episodes of the Iliad, such as Achilles’ wrath, the dispute with Agamemnon, and Briseis “abduction”, are referred to briefly and/or irrelevantly. In these aforementioned works, episodes such as the death of Palamedes, the enmity with Odysseus, the romance with Polyxena, and the murder by Paris and Deiphobus are greater highlighted. Byzantine writers imitate Homer while retelling the Trojan War, adapting it to the circumstances of their own time. Yet they do recognize the authority of the archaic poet. It is this deliberate combination of approximation of and departure from the Homeric tradition that will be emphasized here with regard to the literary representation of Achilles among the Byzantines.
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