Writing during the reign of the Emperor Domitian, Statius composed two epics on lofty, ambitious topics: the Thebaid, which describes the violent war between Oedipus’s sons (or brothers) and the Achilleid, which fills in the early years of the Homeric hero Achilles. The Achilleid is tragic without being overwrought, balanced and even playful at times. Unfortunately the epic is unfinished and contains only two of the four books that Statius had intended to write but what we do have is a very important part of the tradition of the Trojan cycle. For instance, the story of Achilles being anointed in the river Styx by his mother who holds him by the heel which is the only vulnerable part of his body, is first mentioned by Statius. In only 1100 lines (it can be read in under an hour), Statius fills in the gaps of the Achilles story that makes the hero of those other epics seem more human, and more tragic.
Originally written in Latin, and most recently translated by Peter Heslin, Hackett, 2015
A Personal Anthology 