Achilles on Skyros (Primary Title)
Nicolas Poussin, French, active in Rome, 1594 - 1665 (Artist)
According to classical legend, Thetis, the mother of Achilles, learned that her son was destined to die if he fought in the Trojan War. In an attempt to prevent his death, she sent him to live disguised as a woman with the daughters of King Lycomedes on the island of Skyros.
Learning of this ploy, Ulysses and Diomedes traveled to Skyros and laid a trap in which they presented the young women with jewelry and other finery, as well as a sword, spear, and shield. Achilles, shown here dressed in women’s clothes, instinctively grasped the sword, identifying himself to Ulysses and his companions as male. The source for Poussin’s erudite story was probably the obscure Latin epic the Thebaid by Statius rather than Ovid’s popular first century A.D. account.
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