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Achilles in fire
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
Extract
The Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius deals with a band of heroes one generation before the great warriors at Troy, and the narrative does not really concern itself directly with the later generation. Some of the familiar heroes of Homer may never seem very far from Apollonius' narrative, but they tend not to appear in the poem themselves. One who does is Achilles, twice in fact: once in the first book and once in the last. Both of these passages deal with his early life: the first when he is in the care of Chiron and his wife (1.553ff.), the second when he is in the family home with Peleus and Thetis (4.869ff). In the former the gods of heaven and nymphs of Pelion are described as watching the departure of the Argo from Thessaly bound for Colchis. Chiron then comes down from Pelion and waves the heroes goodbye. His wife meanwhile holds Achilles on her arm and shows the child to his father Peleus as he departs with the Argonauts. The later passage describes the failed attempt of Thetis to make her son immortal. In this account Thetis addresses Peleus for the first time since their separation (4.856ff.), and then vanishes into the depths of ocean. Their separation occurred some time earlier when she disappeared in anger after her failure to make the young Achilles immortal. She tried to do this by placing him in the fire during the night, and anointing him with ambrosia during the day (4.869–72):
The attempt fails when Peleus happens to see his son's immersion in the flames, and gives out a terrible cry, whereupon Thetis throws the boy down, goes away herself, and does not return (873ff.).
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References
1 References within the Argonauticahave the heroic careers of Jason and Achilles intersecting in various ways: both have Chiron as teacher (Jason, 1.32–4,; Achilles, 1.553fF.; 4.810ff.; cf. Aristaeus, 2.509ff.); and both have an intimate relationship with Medea, although that of Achilles is after his death (4.81 Off.). Jason means ‘healer’, presumably a skill he acquires from Chiron (see Hesiod, Cat.40.2; Pindar, Nem.3.53ff.; Pyth.4.102ff.; cf. Achilles, Il.11.832, and below, pp. 333f); but this aspect seems to play no part in Apollonius’ story of his adventures.
2 Cf. Apollodorus (Bibl. 3.13.6) who basically follows the account of Apollonius, including the fact that the child gasps (a-naipovra, cf. Arg. 4. 874) from the experience; see Frazer (Loeb Text), p. 69, n. 4
3 Schol. Ap. Rhod., 4.816 (C. Wendel, Scholia in Apollonium Rhodium Vetera[1974], p.293). It seems from the scholia that Achilles in the Aegimiusis not actually immersed per sein the cauldron. Despite this one wonders whether the original account of the poem has him rescued from the actual water, rather like his rescue from the flames in Apollonius‘ account. On the Aegimius,see Huxley G. L., Greek Epic Poetry(London, 1969), pp.107–10
4 Note Stat. Achilleid, 1.268–70, in which Thetis utters a lament to Achilles both on the subject of her marriage to a mortal man, and her failure to immortalize her son, ‘si terras humilemque experta maritum te propter, si progenitum Stygos amne seuero armauitotumque utinam!’ cf. Serv., adAen. 6.57. For full references to the various immersions that Achilles undergoes, Escher, RE I s.v. ‘Achilleus’, cols. 225–226.Google Scholar
5 On this subject, seeHalliday, W. R., ‘Note on Homeric Hymn to Demeter 239ff’ CR 25 (1911), 8ff.Google Scholar
6 On this logic the story of the dipping of Achilles in the Styx might have its origin in the Iliad passage too (Scamander/Styx). An important article on this subject (J. Burgess, ‘The Death of Achilles in Ancient Myth‘, CA 14 [1995], 217–43) deals with the failed quest of Thetis to make Achilles immortal, his ’imperfect invulnerability’. This theme, together with the manner of his death, shot in the heel by an arrow, are taken up in some detail in the article, including discussion of early images of his death on vases (on the latter, 226ff.). The conclusion offered is that the dipping of Achilles in the Styx originated in the Hellenistic period, even if the general theme of his immersion in fire or boiling water goes much further back. Burgess does not consider Achilles' immersion in Scamander in this context, although it seems to me appropriate to do so, especially in light of the ‘hellish’ nature of the river in Iliad 21.
7 See Clay J. S., ‘Immortal and ageless forever’, CJ 77 (1981), 112–17.
8 Richardson, N. J., The Homeric Hymn to Demeter(Oxford, 1979), ad237ff.; for a comprehensive list of verbal parallels in the two works, see p. 70, n. 1.Google Scholar
9 See Knaak, RE 5, s.v. ‘Demophon’, col. 148; Preller-Robert, Griechische Mythologie(Berlin, 1894–1926), II, p. 67. On the separation of Peleus and Thetis and 
, see Sch. Kadll.16.222, 18.57,60 (H. Erbse, Scholia Graeca in HomeriIliadem,vol.4 [Berlin, 1969]).Google Scholar
10 Jackson, ‘Apollonius of Rhodes and the corn-goddess: a note on Argonautica 4.869–76’, LCM 15(1990), 53–6.
11 On this subject, see Livrea, E., Apollonii Rhodii Argonauticon Liber 4(Florence, 1973), p. 253; Richardson, Homeric Hymn,pp. 231ff.; M. Campbell,Echoes and Imitations of Early Epic in Apollonius Rhodius(Leiden,1981), pp. 77–8;Vian, F., Apollonios de Rhodes, Argonautiques,vol.3 (Paris,1981), p.178Google Scholar
12 Cf. the brief references in Pindar, Isth. 8.56ff.; Pyth. 3.100ff.
13 For a recent discussion of the final book, Sourvinou-Inwood, C., ‘Reading’ Greek Death (Oxford,1995), pp.94–107, who is against authenticity. On the part of
(Od. 24.71) in the description of Achilles' funeral (used only here in the Odyssey), and a discussion of the vocabulary of fire in the Iliad and Odyssey, see J. B. Hainsworth, ‘No flames in the Odyssey’, JHS 78 (1958), 49–56.Google Scholar
14 Of the warriors who fight at Troy, only Menelaus, who is destined to go to Elysium (Od. 4.561ff.), avoids such a fate. Cf. in the Odyssey, Tithonus, 5.1–2; Ino/Leucothea, 5.333ff.; Heracles, 11.601ff.; Dioscuri, 11.298ff.; Cleitus, 15.249ff.: and in the Iliad, Tithonus, 11.1–2; Ganymede, 20.232ff
15 On this kind of contrast between Homer and the Epic Cycle, I Griffin, ‘The Epic Cycle and the uniqueness of Homer’, MS 97 (1977), 39–53.
16 Pindar, Cf., Olymp. 2.68ff. (Achilles in the Isles of the Blessed), Nem. 4.49–50 (Achilles on the White Island). For Achilles and the White Island in a Black Sea location (Achilles Pontarches), see H. Hommel,Der Gott Achilleus(Heidelberg, 1980); Hooker J. T., ‘The cults of Achilles’, RhM 131 (1981), 1–7; Pinney G. F., ‘Achilles Lord of Scythia’ in Moon W. G. (ed.), Ancient Greek Art and Iconography(Madison,1983), pp.127–146; Hedreen G., ‘The cult of Achilles in the Euxine’, Hesperia 60 (1991), 313–330. For Achilles' relationships with Helen and Iphigeneia in later sources, see Hedreen, p. 320, n. 49; for Achilles and Medea in Elysium, see Arg. 4.81 Off.Google Scholar
17 For Asclepius in Hesiod, where there appears to be a similar version of his crime and punishment, see Merkelbach and West, Fragmenta Hesiodea (Oxford, 1967), frr. 50,51,53, 58,60.
18 Coronis' crime is to be unfaithful to Apollo by sleeping with Ischys, an Arcadian
19 On this subject,Mackie, C. J., ‘Achilles’ teachers: Chiron and Phoenix in the Iliad', G&R 44 (1997), 1–10Google Scholar
20 For a wide-ranging discussion of fire in a cross-cultural context, with extensive bibliography, see The Encyclopedia of Religion (ed. Eliade), vol. 5 (New York, 1987), s.v. 'Fire', pp. 34 Edsman.
21 On this, see Richardson, Homeric Hymn, pp. 234,240, 315.
22 For the notion of mastery over fire as a great heroic achievement in the Iliad, cf. Diomedes' suggestion to the princes that if he had Odysseus with him, for whom Athena has a great love, the two of them 'could come back from blazing fire
10.246–7)
23 Fire thus saves Achilles from a terrible death. For such attitudes to drowning, cf. //. 21.273ff.;Od. 5.299ff.; and Hesiod, Works and Days 687,
24 Erbse, Scholia Graeca, vol.5, ad21.343 and 365. It is worth comparing the fire that burns around the Titans during their clash with Zeus (Theog.687ff.). Because they are divine, however, they are able to keep on fighting (712).
25 Likewise one may ponder on the question of why the child Achilles is not burnt by the fire in which Thetis places him (as opposed simply to his gasping, Arg. 4.869ff.; cf. Apollod. Bibl., 3.13.6). But that would introduce notions of realism that miss the point of the description.
26 The scholia compare the way Scamander keeps the Trojans in his flow (at 21.238–9).On the subject of fire in Homer,,Le feu dans illiade et I Odyssee(Paris,1965); on the critical connection between Achilles and fire in the later books of the Iliad,see the detailed textual references in N. Richardson, The Iliad: A Commentary,vol.6: Books 21(Cambridge,1993), ad22.317321.See too Schadewaldt W., Von Homers Welt und Werk(Stuttgart, 1959), p. 320; C. Whitman, Homer and the Heroic Tradition(Cambridge, MA,1967), pp. 128 ff and esp. pp. 136 ff.;
27 Others of note are his spear (from Chiron, 16.141–4 = 19.388–91) and his armour (from Hephaestus, 18.369–617); note too his horses (from the gods or from Poseidon; 16.381, 867; 17.443ff.; 23.277ff., etc.). On this subject, W. R. Paton, 'The armour of Achilles', CR 26 (1912), l–4.
28 Cf. Hera's point to Poseidon that Troy itself will be burnt by the Greeks (//. 20.315–7 = 21.374–6). The life of a city, like that of a warrior, ends in consuming fire. Rome's emergence from the ashes of Troy is, of course, an important underlying notion in Vergil's Aeneid (note esp. 2.298–804 passim).
29 M. W Edwards, The Iliad: A Commentary, vol. 5: Books 17–20 (Cambridge, 1991), adopts
30 Cf. Aristotle, Metaphysics III 4 12 1000 a 9ff., '(those in the school of Hesiod, and all the theologians, say that) whatever did not eat of nectar and ambrosia became mortal'
31 It is worth noting in this context that on his funeral pyre in the Odyssey Achilles has immortal clothing
and burns in divine clothing, ointment, and honey
32 Note Frazer's discussion, Adonis Attis Osiris (London, 1907), pp. 146ff., including Iamblichus' contention (De mysteriis v.12) that 'fire destroys the material part of sacrifices, it purifies all things that are brought near it releasing them from the bonds of matter and, in virtue of the purity of its nature, making them meet for communion with the gods
33 Although it is worth comparing Diomedes (esp. //. 5.Iff.), on which see above, n. 29. But Diomedes' fire associations are nothing like as emphatic as those of Achilles (see too above, n. 26).
34 I am grateful to CQ's anonymous referee, and to the editor Dr Heyworth, for helpful comments and criticisms.