The Transvestite Achilles

As we follow Achilles'' metamorphosis from wild boy to demure girl to lover to hero Statius brilliantly illustrates a series of contrasting codes of behavior: male and female epic and elegiac. This first full-length study of the poem addresses not only the narrative itself but also sets the myth of Achilles on Scyros within a broad interpretive framework. The exploration ranges from the reception of the Achilleid in Baroque opera to the anthropological parallels that have emerged to explain Achilles'' transvestism.