.jpg){kind=logo}
OVERVIEW
"Late Achilles in the Classroom and Court" (LACC) aims to explore the rich literary career of Achilles in both Greek and Roman late antiquity (2nd–6th centuries CE). LACC focusses on a group of largely ignored texts that feature Achilles as a student or as a model (not necessarily a positive one) for students, kings, and other members of the elite.
This project asks in what ways the complex figure of Achilles helps authors and audiences think through ethical challenges, exercise their critical thinking, and teach (or absorb) the cultural values that would allow them to become members of the late Imperial elites.
LACC examines a wide range of late antique texts written in prose and verse that focus on Achilles as the ideal subject for teaching a varied set of skills such as control of the emotions, reasoned argumentation, and how to question the authority of Homer. These late antique texts include both school exercises of a basic level and sophisticated compositions written by or for kings and statesman. We also look at the radically different fates of Achilles among the Empire’s polytheist and Christian communities.
Apart from our work on the late antique Achilles, we aim to publish on other related topics such as the role of encomium and panegyric in ancient societies and the idea of the classical tradition. We will also organize an exhibition at the National Museum of Archaeology in Lisbon and a conference on the reception of Greek heroes and heroics in late antiquity.
Image: Odysseus and Diomedes discover Achilles disguised as a woman among the daughters of King Lycomedes on the island of Skyros. Silver plate from the Seuso Treasure, Hungary National Museum, Late Roman period. Source
.jpg)