Vatic Authority and Poetics

Abstract

Abstract This chapter examines in more depth the question of poetic authority in the Achilleid. The figure of Calchas as the authorial vates of the composition is under scrutiny, and Thetis’ agency is envisioned as adversarial to Calchas. Important questions about the relationship between prophetic status and the status of the poet himself, between violation and violence, between perpetrator and victim, will be considered. Through the examination of the gender-bending elements to Calchas’ characterization, the chapter pays heed to the idea that the Achilleid is characterizable as a feminine composition, and Thetis as its diva. Thetis is therefore interpreted in a new light, a figure of tragic inspiration but also as the artifex behind the poem’s composition, and thus linked to Statius the poet. The chapter ends with an analysis of Thetis against other lamenting mothers in the literary tradition.