Achilles (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Elizabeth Cook
- First Published: 2001
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: 1184 (the final year of the Trojan War); 1821 (the last year of John Keats’s life)
- Setting: Troy; England
- Principal Characters: Achilles, Thetis, Peleus, Zeus, Agamemnon, Odysseus, Patroclus, Penthiseleia, Chiron, Deidamia
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: Mythology or myths, Authors or writers, Poetry or poets, Human race, England or English people, War, Death or dying, Revenge, Heroes or heroism, Soldiers, Greek or Roman times, Greece or Greek people, Turkey or Turkish people, Underworld or Hades, Trojan War, Bronze Age
- Locales: England, Troy, ancient
The title page of Elizabeth Cook’s Achilles indicates that it is a novel, yet this is not an entirely accurate description. The work is also not a simple retelling of the life of Achilles, as it emphasizes the vulnerability of its title character and by extension the vulnerability of humanity in general. The expected elements appear: Thetis’s fate is to bear a child destined to overthrow Zeus, and Zeus’s determination is to redirect her to a mortal whose offspring would not pose him a threat. Even from this early stage, therefore, the vulnerability motif is plain, although...
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