Fresco from the House of the Dioscuri in Pompeii depicting Achilles between Diomedes and Odysseus at Skyros
Achilles on Skyros is an episode in the myth of Achilles, a Greek hero of the Trojan War. Not existing in Homer's epic poemIliad, the episode is written down in detail in some later versions of the story, particularly the Achilleid by the Roman poet Statius. The story of how Achilles disguised himself as a girl at the court of the king of Skyros, fell in love with one of the princesses, and married her before leaving for Troy, became a popular topic in arts and literature from Classical times until the middle of the 20th century. The carnivalesque disguises and gender transpositions at the heart of the story were particularly popular in opera, with over 30 different operas on the theme between 1641 and 1857.
Achilles Discovered among the Daughters of Lycomedes was the usual moment shown in art, here by Gérard de Lairesse
Rather than allow her son Achilles to die at Troy as prophesied, the nymph Thetis sent him to live at the court of Lycomedes, king of Skyros, disguised as another daughter of the king or as a lady-in-waiting, under the name Pyrrha "the red-haired", Issa, or Kerkysera. There Achilles had an affair with Deidamia, one of the daughters of Lycomedes, and they had one or two sons, Neoptolemus and Oneiros.[1] Since another prophecy suggested that the Trojan War would not be won without Achilles, Odysseus and several other Achaean leaders went to Skyros to find him. Odysseus discovered Achilles by offering gifts, adornments and musical instruments as well as weapons, to the king's daughters, and then having his companions imitate the noises of an enemy's attack on the island (most notably, making a blast of a trumpet heard), which prompted Achilles to reveal himself by picking a weapon to fight back, and together they departed for the Trojan War. In some versions, Deidamia dressed as a man followed him.[2][3]
The most detailed and elaborate version is that found in the Roman poem Achilleid.[4] In the poem, Thetis resolves to hide Achilles away at the court of Lycomedes. Achilles is quite reluctant, but eventually consents, attracted by the beauty of the king's most fair daughter, Deidamia. Thetis has him dressed up as a maiden and introduces him to Lycomedes as her daughter who would have had an Amazon-like upbringing and now needed to learn feminine ways by living among ordinary girls of her age, so as to prepare for a normal marriage in the future; Lycomedes agrees to take care of the "girl" and his unsuspecting daughters accept Achilles into their company as another fellow maiden. After some time he develops a particularly close friendship with Deidamia and it becomes increasingly difficult for him to hide his romantic and sexual interest in her. Eventually, at a nighttime festival in honor of Dionysus where men are normally not allowed, Achilles gives way to his sexual desires and has a affair with Deidamia.
Afterwards, trying to console her, he discloses his true name and origin; despite being scared by what has happened, Deidamia doesn't want Achilles to suffer punishment from her father and resolves to keep the incident and his identity, as well as the fact that she has conceived a child, a secret. When Odysseus and his comrades arrive at Scyros, Achilles, long annoyed by his female disguise, is about to reveal himself but Deidamia holds him back. Odysseus then performs the trick with the gifts and the trumpet and thereby reveals the secret. Achilles hears Deidamia cry and confesses to Lycomedes that they have been engaged in sexual behavior and have had a child together. As the Achaeans are about to sail off to the war, Deidamia is heartbroken over the impending loss of Achilles and asks if she could go with him, but that seems impossible; she then implores him to keep their son in his thoughts, and to never have children with other women. Achilles swears to one day return to Deidamia, but the reader knows that he will die at Troy.
This part of the Trojan War myths has been the subject of many works of art throughout the centuries. Taken from the point of view of Achilles, Deidamia, or a neutral observer, a number of themes have received attention in the later artwork and stories, ranging from the comical aspects of crossdressing and the misunderstandings it involves, over gender differences, heroism, homosexual and heterosexual love, and initiation rites, to rape, incest, and domestic violence.[3][5]
While most later versions go essentially back to the 1st century CE version of Statius, the story of Achilles on Skyros was known earlier than this. There are references to artworks by Polygnotus and Athenion of Maroneia, and a now lost 5th century BCE play by Euripides.[6]
One of the earliest and best studied Renaissance versions of the story was Tirso de Molina's 1612 play El Aquiles.[3][6][7] It was followed by a number of other Spanish plays on the same topic. One of its foci was the change in Achilles from fleeing war to being a war hero. This was emphasized by the many changes and transformations used in the play. But the more typical themes of gender confusion and homosexual love are also apparent, and strengthened by the indication that the role of Achilles should be played by a woman.[7][8]
It has often been used as the theme for an opera or ballet, with the libretto by Metastasio as the most popular. The first opera based on this story seems to have been La finta pazza by Francesco Sacrati, with a libretto by Giulio Strozzi. It was the first and probably the most popular opera of the seventeenth century. It was first performed at the inauguration in 1641 of the Teatro Novissimo in Venice, the first time ever a building was created specifically to perform operas. Anna Renzi was the main singer. The production then was performed many times all over Italy and abroad, including a 1645 performance in Paris, which was the second time ever that an opera was staged in France.[9]
The Metastasio libretto was first used for an opera in 1736 by Antonio Caldara, at the occasion of the marriage of Maria Theresa with the future Holy Roman Emperor, Francis I. Due to the short notice given for the marriage, the libretto was finished after only 18 days, compared to the three months Metastasio usually needed. Despite this, it enjoyed a reasonable success and was used for decades, set to music by at least 29 composers. Further version include the 1737 opera by Domenico Sarro, used for the inauguration of the Teatro di San Carlo, the opera house of Naples, and starring Vittoria Tesi.[10][11]
The popularity of the theme was due to a number of factors, but a major part was the aspect of disguises and crossdressing, with Achilles dressed as a girl and his role often performed by women. Some librettists, especially the earlier ones like Giulio Strozzi, Carlo Capece and Ippolito Bentivoglio approached this from a carnivalesque point of view, emphasizing the comedy, the masquerade and the (homo-)erotic aspects of it. Others like Metastasio or Paolo Rolli more focused on the failed struggle to conceal the masculinity of the archetypical hero Achilles, and how the inherent nature of the person is stronger than the nurture he receives.[9]
Detail of a princess of Skyros, from a larger scene of the Iliad depicting her and other princesses fawning over Achilles as Odysseus looks on, from the villa of La Olmeda, Spain, 4th-5th centuries CE
Ca. 1st century BCE: Epithalamium of Achilles and Deidameia, anonymous, sometimes ascribed to Bion of Smyrna
1890, Achilles in Scyros by Robert Bridges (2nd edition 1892)
1935: Achille ou le mensonge by Marguerite Yourcenar, also published as Déidamie
1995: "Achilles Speaks of His Deception in the Court of Lykomedes" by Michael Martone, first published in The American Voice, pp. 80–82. Republished in Four for a Quarter: Fictions,[12] pp. 135-137. Martone read the story at the Knox Writers House.[13]
Achilles being adored by princesses of Skyros, a scene from the Achilleid where Odysseus (Ulysses) discovers him dressed as a woman and hiding among the princesses at the royal court of Skyros. A late Roman mosaic from La Olmeda, Spain, 4th-5th centuries AD
1727: Achille in Sciro, anonymous work performed at the opera house of Franz Anton von Sporck in Prague, and probably based on the Bentivoglio libretto
↑ Oneiros is only mentioned by Ptolemy Hephaestion (New History Book 3, summarized in Photius, Bibliotheca, 190); generally, all sources speak of one son, Neoptolemus
↑ Menchelli-Buttini, Francesca (2006). "Achille in Sciro: Drama and Ceremony". In Melania Bucciarelli, Norbert Dubowy and Reinhard Strohm (ed.). Italian Opera in Central Europe, Volume 1. BWV Verlag. pp.253–274. ISBN9783830503811. Retrieved 4 October 2012.
In Greek mythology, Achilles or Achilleus was a hero of the Trojan War who was known as being the greatest of all the Greek warriors. The central character in Homer's Iliad, he was the son of the Nereid Thetis and Peleus, king of Phthia and famous Argonaut. Achilles was raised in Phthia along with his childhood companion Patroclus and received his education by the centaur Chiron. In the Iliad, he is presented as the commander of the mythical tribe of the Myrmidons.
In Greek mythology, Neoptolemus, originally called Pyrrhus at birth, was the son of the mythical warrior Achilles and the princess Deidamia, and the brother of Oneiros. He became the progenitor of the ruling dynasty of the Molossians of ancient Epirus. In a reference to his pedigree, Neoptolemus was sometimes called Achillides or, from his grandfather's or great-grandfather's names, Pelides or Aeacides.
In Greek mythology, Lycomedes, also known as Lycurgus, was the most prominent king of the Dolopians in the island of Scyros near Euboea during the Trojan War.
In Greek mythology, Deidamia was a princess of Scyros as a daughter of King Lycomedes.
Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi, better known by his pseudonym of Pietro Metastasio, was an Italian poet and librettist, considered the most important writer of opera seria libretti.
Opera seria is an Italian musical term which refers to the noble and "serious" style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1710s to about 1770. The term itself was rarely used at the time and only attained common usage once opera seria was becoming unfashionable and beginning to be viewed as something of a historical genre. The popular rival to opera seria was opera buffa, the 'comic' opera that took its cue from the improvisatory commedia dell'arte. An opera seria had a historical or Biblical subject, whereas an opera buffa had a contemporary subject.
Skyros, in some historical contexts Latinized Scyros, is an island in Greece. It is the southernmost island of the Sporades, an archipelago in the Aegean Sea. Around the 2nd millennium BC, the island was known as The Island of the Magnetes; later, it was consecutively known as Pelasgia, Dolopia, and finally Skyros. At 209 km2 (81 sq mi), it is the largest island of the Sporades, and had a population of about 3,000 in 2021.
The Achilleid is an unfinished epic poem by Publius Papinius Statius that was intended to present the life of Achilles from his youth to his death at Troy. Only about one and a half books were completed before the poet's death. What remains is an account of the hero's early life with the centaur Chiron, and an episode in which his mother, Thetis, disguised him as a girl on the island of Scyros, before he joined the Greek expedition against Troy.
Deidamia is an opera in three acts composed by George Frideric Handel to an Italian libretto by Paolo Antonio Rolli. It premiered on 10 January 1741 at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, London.
Gaetano Pugnani was an Italian composer and violinist.
Domenico Natale Sarro, also Sarri was an Italian composer.
Didone abbandonata is an opera in three acts composed by Domenico Sarro to a libretto by Pietro Metastasio of the same name which was based on the story of Dido and Aeneas from the fourth book of Virgil's Aeneid. The opera premiered on 1 February 1724 at the Teatro San Bartolomeo in Naples.
Pietro Chiarini was an Italian composer.
Antonio Maria Mazzoni was an Italian composer.
Gennaro Manna was an Italian composer based in Naples. He was a member of the Neapolitan School. His compositional output includes 13 operas and more than 150 sacred works, including several oratorios.
Achille in Sciro is an opera seria by composer Domenico Sarro. The opera uses an Italian language libretto by Pietro Metastasio. It was commissioned for the opening of the Teatro di San Carlo by King Charles VII of Naples, later known as Charles III of Spain. The work premiered at the inauguration of the theatre on 4 November 1737, Charles's name day. It is based on the story of Achilles on Skyros.
The Song of Achilles is a 2011 novel by American writer Madeline Miller. Set during the Greek Heroic Age, it is a retelling of the Trojan War as told from the perspective of Patroclus. The novel follows Patroclus' relationship with Achilles, from their initial meeting to their exploits during the Trojan War, with focus on their romantic relationship. In 2012, The Song of Achilles was awarded the Orange Prize for Fiction.
La finta pazza is an opera composed by Francesco Sacrati to a libretto by Giulio Strozzi. Its premiere in Venice during the Carnival season of 1641 inaugurated the Teatro Novissimo. It became one of the most popular operas of the seventeenth century.
Achilles is a ballad opera by John Gay, first performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in 1733, a year after Gay's death, with Gay's associate John Rich as producer.
Achille in Sciro is an opera and libretto by Pietro Metastasio telling the story of Achilles on Skyros. It was first set to music by Antonio Caldara in 1736, and premiered at the wedding of Maria Theresa and Francis of Lorraine in Vienna. In 1772, Johann Anton Koch translated the libretto to German under the name "Achilles in Scyro".
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