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IMMORTAL ACHILLES*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 March 2016

Diana Burton
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During the early archaic period, there was considerable interest in the heroic past and the acts of mythical ancestors, especially as embodied in epic. In particular, there are a number of archaic myths dealing with attempts to evade death and to gain immortality, mostly unsuccessful. All Greek heroes are descended from gods: having at least one god (or goddess) somewhere in the family tree is a prerequisite for achieving anything worthy of note. And in a few heroes, this sliver of divinity may be turned into full-blown immortality. It is a recurring theme in Greek myth, therefore, that there is a narrow window of possibility for a hero to escape his mortal status and not have to die. Behind such myths lies the fiction that, in a past age, immortality had been attainable; the heroes of the past might not have been immortalized often, but the chance had been there. This was contrasted with the present duller age, in which immortality was out of reach.

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 63 , Issue 1 , April 2016 , pp. 1 - 28
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2016 

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Footnotes

*

The following translations have been used: from the Iliad: R. Lattimore (trans.), The Iliad of Homer (Chicago, IL, 1951); from the Odyssey: R. Lattimore (trans.), The Odyssey of Homer (Chicago, IL, 1967); from the Epic Cycle: M. L. West (ed. and trans.), Greek Epic Fragments (Cambridge, MA, 2003); from Diodorus Siculus: C. H. Oldfather (trans.), Diodorus Siculus. Library of History, Vol. II. Books 2.35–4.58 (Cambridge, MA, 1935); from Apollodorus: J. G. Frazer (ed. and trans.), Apollodorus. The Library, vol. II (Cambridge, MA, 1921); from Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns: G. Most (ed. and trans.), Hesiod. The Shield, Catalogue of Women, Other Fragments (Cambridge, MA, 2007); from Lucian: M. D. MacLeod (trans.), Lucian. Dialogues of the Dead, Dialogues of the Sea-Gods, Dialogues of the Gods, Dialogues of the Courtesans (Cambridge, MA, 1961); from Strabo: H. L. Jones (trans.), Strabo. Geography, 8 vols (Cambridge, MA, 1917–32); from Philostratus: J. Rusten and J. König (eds. and trans.) Philostratus. Heroicus, Gymnasticus, Discourses 1 and 2 (Cambridge, MA, 2014). Translations from Arrian are my own. I am grateful to audiences in Sydney and Wellington for helpful discussion, and to Jeff Tatum and the anonymous reader for their constructive comments.

References

1 D. Burton, The Search for Immortality in Archaic Greek Myth (PhD thesis, University of London, 1997), 118–20; Sourvinou-Inwood, C., ‘Crime and Punishment: Tityos, Tantalos and Sisyphos in Odyssey 11’, BICS 33 (1986), 44Google Scholar; E. Vermeule, Aspects of Death in Early Greek Art and Poetry (Berkeley, CA, 1979), 133.

2 O. Taplin, Homeric Soundings. The Shaping of the Iliad (Oxford, 1992), 197, emphasis in original.

3 Achilles predicts it: see above. Thetis refers to it: e.g. Hom. Il. 18.95–6. Achilles’ horses know it: Il. 19.404–17. On Achilles’ death and the structure of the Iliad, see in particular Taplin (n. 2); J. Griffin, Homer on Life and Death (Oxford, 1980), 73–6.

4 Hom. Od. 11.467–540; 24.15–97. A poem by Stesichoros suviving only in fragments may have recounted the death and burial of Achilles; see Garner, R., ‘Achilles in Locri: P. Oxy. 3876 frr. 37–77’, ZPE 96 (1993), 153–65Google Scholar.

5 J. S. Burgess, The Death and Afterlife of Achilles (Baltimore, MD, 2009), ch. 1 passim, esp. p. 9.

6 Apollod. Epit. 3.25–6; Plut. Quaest. Graec. 28 (297d–f); Lyk. 232–42 with Σ Lyk. 232; the latter also presents Tennes as son of Apollo; in the others Tennes is usually a son of Cycnus, but the link to Achilles’ death is still present. See T. Gantz, Early Greek Myth (Baltimore, MD, 1993), 591–2, for discussion.

7 Hector: Il. 18.94–6; see Taplin (n. 2), 197–8. Memnon: Proclus’ summary of the Aithiopis states that, when Memnon arrives, καὶ Θέτις τῷ παιδὶ τὰ κατὰ τὸν Μέμνονα προλέγει (‘Thetis prophesies to her son about the encounter with Memnon’). Although the content of Thetis’ speech is unclear (and it is not referenced elsewhere), it is often taken, as in West's translation above, as a prophecy about Achilles’ death: see M. W. Edwards, The Iliad. A Commentary, Vol. V. Books 17–20 (Cambridge, 1991), at 18.95–6, for references and discussion. For the neoanalytic debate over the Aethiopis’ influence on the Iliad, see W. Kullmann, ‘Motif and Source Research: Neoanalysis, Homer, and Cyclic Epic’, in M. Fantuzzi and C. Tsigalis (eds.), The Greek Epic Cycle and Its Ancient Reception. A Companion (Cambridge, 2015), 108–25; A. Rengakos, ‘Aethiopis’, in Fantuzzi and Tsigalis (this n.), 315–17; B. Currie, ‘Homer and the Early Epic Tradition’, in M. J. Clarke, B. Currie, and R. O. A. M. Lyne (eds.), Epic Interactions. Perspectives on Homer, Virgil and the Epic Tradition (Oxford, 2006), 23–36. For the Iliad as earlier, see M. L. West, The Epic Cycle. A Commentary on the Lost Troy Epics (Oxford, 2013), 41–2, 145–56.

8 For the sources, see Gantz (n. 6), 581. On the controversial attribution of the story to the Kypria, see B. Currie, ‘Cypria’, in Fantuzzi and Tsigalis (n. 7), 288–91; West (n. 7), 41, 104.

9 Apollod. Epit. 3.29.

10 On the second set, see Hom. Il. 18.127–44, etc.; as Homeric innovation, see Kullmann (n. 7), 113–14. On the fhe first set: see the discussion by Edwards (n. 70) at Il. 18.84–5.

11 Stat. Achil. 1.133–4, 268–70, 480–1. The tradition is almost certainly earlier: see the discussion in Burgess (n. 5), 9–11.

12 The motif is introduced at an early stage: Hom. Il. 1.415–18, 1.505–6. The ghost of Patroclus informs us that she has given Achilles a golden urn to hold the ashes of them both: Il. 23.91–2. See Taplin (n. 2), 194–6; Burgess (n. 5), 105.

13 Summary from Procl. Chrest.

14 Burgess (n. 5), 41.

15 Pind. Nem. 4.49–50; Pind. Ol. 2.70–1; Ibyc. fr. 291 = Simon. fr. 558; Eur. IT 435–8.

16 D. L. Page, Sappho and Alcaeus (Oxford, 1955), 283. We should not make too much of the difference between these various places; they serve the same purpose and are more or less interchangeable. Note the similarity between Hom. Od. 4.564–9, Hes. Op. 167–73, and Pind. Ol. 2.68–80; see further Burgess (n. 5), 108–10; Vermeule (n. 1), 72 with n. 58; H. Hommel, Der Gott Achilleus (Heidelberg, 1980), 18.

17 Bacchyl. 3.58–62.

18 See Hyg. Fab.; Eratosth. [Cat.].

19 Demophoon: Hom. Hymn. Dem. 231–55; for further sources, see Gantz (n. 6), 65–6. Cf. the myth of Thetis and Achilleus: Gantz (n. 6), 230–1; Mackie, C., ‘Achilles in Fire’, CQ 48 (1988), 329–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Asclepius struck by lightning: Gantz (n. 6), 91–2; deified, Paus. 2.26.1; Hyg. Fab. 224, 251, although the story was certainly earlier. Ino: Hom. Od. 5.333–5; Gantz (n. 6), 176–9, 478.

20 Glaucus: Paus. 9.22.6; Aesch. fr. 28 Radt: ὁ τὴν ὰείζων ἄϕθιτον πόαν ϕάγων (Anecd. Bekk. 1.342.20). Tydeus: Beazley, J. D., ‘The Rosi Krater’, JHS 67 (1947), 4–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar, lists and quotes all sources.

21 Hom. Il. 20.231–5.

22 Tros misses Ganymede: Hom. Hymn. Aph. 202–17. Heracles: Diod. Sic. 4.38.5–39.1: οἱ μὲν περὶ τὸν Ἰόλαον ἐλθόντες ἐπὶ τὴν ὀστολογίαν, καὶ μηδὲν ὅλως ὀστοῦν εὑρόντες, ὑπέλαβον τὸν Ἡρακλέα τοῖς χρησμοῖς ἀκολούθως ἐξ ἀνθρώπων εἰς θεοὺς μεθεστάσθαι· διόπερ ὡς ἥρωι ποιήσαντες ἁγισμοὺς καὶ χώματα κατασκευάσαντες ἀπηλλάγησαν εἰς Τραχῖνα (‘When the companions of Iolaus came to gather up the bones of Heracles and found not a single bone anywhere, they assumed that, in accordance with the words of the oracle, he had passed from among men into the company of the gods. These men therefore performed the offerings to the dead as to a hero, and after throwing up a great mound of earth returned to Trachis’). Diodorus then goes on to relate Heracles’ adoption by Hera, his marriage to Hebe, and honours among the gods. For other sources (and variants), see Gantz (n. 6), 460–3; see further below.

23 Burgess (n. 5), 101, rightly notes that the verb ἀναρπάζειν implies the removal of something tangible.

24 On Heracles’ apotheosis, see J. Boardman, ‘Heracles in Extremis’, in E. Böhr and W. Martini (eds.), Studien zur Mythologie und Vasenmalerei. Festschrift für Konrad Schauenburg zum 65. Geburtstag (Mainz am Rhein, 1986), 127–32; T. C. W. Stinton, ‘The Apotheosis of Heracles from the Pyre’, in L. Rodley (ed.), Papers Given at a Colloquium on Greek Drama in Honour of R. P. Winnington-Ingram (London, 1987), 1–16. Fire as immortalizing: Burton (n. 1), 131–7; Burgess (n. 5), 102–3.

25 On Achilles buried at Leuke, note Frazer's comment ad loc. that the interment on the White Isle must be an error, whether on the part of Apollodorus himself or a later copyist. Burgess (n. 5), 103, agrees. The Leuke interment is also found in a few later sources (Burgess [n. 5], 153, n. 14).

26 On Achilles’ tomb, see further below.

27 Arctinus, Aithiopis, summary from Procl. Chrest. Here I am dependent on the accuracy of Proclus’ summary; see J. Burgess, ‘Coming Adrift: The Limits of Reconstruction of the Cyclic Poems’, in Fantuzzi and Tsigalis (n. 7), 47–8, 56–7.

28 Hom. Il. 11.1. It has been argued that Tithonus as he appears in the Iliad (immortal and apparently unaging) is representative of another (older?) version of his myth, in which his immortality is less two-edged. Whether this is the case or not does not affect the underlying principle: the immortalized hero is distanced from the living.

29 See also Hom. Od. 11.601–4; Hes. Theog. 950–5. Apollod. Bibl. 2.7.7 does allow him two sons, Alexiares and Anicetus (but nothing further is known). For further sources, see Gantz (n. 6), 460–3. On the problems with dating the first appearance of Heracles’ apotheosis see E. Stafford, Herakles (London, 2012), 173–4.

30 Ganymede: Hom. Il. 20.231–5; for other sources, see Gantz (n. 6), 558–60. Menelaus: Hom. Od. 4.561–70.

31 Hom. Od. 5.135–6, 206–10.

32 Hes. Op. 166–73, with comm. by M. L. West (ed. and trans.), Hesiod. Works and Days (Oxford, 1978) ad loc.; see also Hes. Cat. fr. 155.98–103 Most.

33 Simon. fr. 539, Memnon buried on the coast in Syria; Pind. Ol. 2.83, Achilles consigned Memnon to death; Pind. Nem. 6.51–5, Achilles killed him. Apollodorus’ silence on the subject (Epit. 5.3) is also telling, as he tends to mention any tradition of immortality. The artistic sources also tend to indicate death rather than immortality: see the discussion in Burton (n. 1), 47–56; cf. Burgess (n. 5), 35–8.

34 Polyxena: Sen. Tro. 938–48; Philostr. V A 4.16 (Polyxena committs suicide in order to be with Achilles). Iphigeneia: Lycoph. Alex. 183; Ant. Lib. Met. 27. Helen: Paus. 3.19.13. Medea: Lycoph. Alex. 139–74; Ibyc. fr. 291 = Simon. fr. 558. Hirst, G. M., ‘The Cults of Olbia I’, JHS 22 (1902), 250CrossRefGoogle Scholar, suggests that the match with Medea perhaps arose because she and Achilles are ‘the two semi-divine personages most closely connnected with the Euxine’. On the chthonic links of Iphigenia, Helen, and Polyxena, see S. B. Ochotnikov, ‘Achilleus auf der Insel Leuke’, in J. Hupe (ed.), Der Achilleus-Kult im nördlichen Schwarzmeerraum vom Beginn der griechischen Kolonisation bis in die römische Kaiserzeit. Beiträge zur Akkulturationsforschung, International Archäologie 94 (Leidorf, 2006), 70–1.

35 E.g. Strabo 13.1.32: with Ajax, Patroclus, and Antilochus. Paus. 3.19.13 adds Ajax son of Oileus to these three. Pind. Ol. 2.70–80: with Peleus and Cadmus. Arrian notes that Patroclus also receives offerings alongside Achilles on Leuke (Arr. Peripl. M. Eux. 21.3). It should be noted that the archaeological finds refer only to Achilles.

36 Diod. Sic. 4.38.5–39.1.

37 μέγαν καὶ ἀμύμονα τύμβον…ὥς κεν τηλεφανὴς ἐκ ποντόφιν ἀνδράσιν εἴη | τοῖς οἳ νῦν γεγάασι καὶ οἳ μετόπισθεν ἔσονται.

38 E. Rohde, Psyche. The Cult of Souls and Belief in Immortality Among the Ancient Greeks (Chicago, IL, 1925), 84, n. 29, citing Diodorus’ account of Heracles (4.38.5–39.1) as a parallel. For further references, see Burgess (n. 5), 153, n. 2.

39 W. Schadewalt, Von Homers Welt und Werk, fourth edition (Stuttgart, 1965), 162, n. 2.

40 Burgess (n. 5), 101, cites Rhesus and Memnon as parallels. But Memnon, as we have seen, is immortalized only in the Aithiopis, in which he has no mound; and, in the case of Rhesus, Hector is ready to build a pyre (Eur. Rhes. 959–60) but subsequently the Muse his mother apparently takes his body with her, and there is neither pyre nor burial – in fact, his final fate seems to be a form of hero-cult (962–73). See the discussion in V. Liapis, A Commentary on the Rhesus Attributed to Euripides (Oxford, 2012), at 970–3.

41 The Dioscuri are a special case, as they are either in Hades or on Olympus, rather than in both places at once. Burgess (n. 5), 103, notes the much-debated two forms of Heracles at Hom. Od. 11.601–4, citing G. Nagy, The Best of the Achaeans. Concepts of the Hero in Archaic Greek Poetry (Baltimore, MD, 1979), 208, who interprets this as present death and eventual immortalization for Heracles. I think it more likely that this passage is an interpolation to bring Heracles to Olympus where he belonged without deleting any of the scene with Odysseus in the underworld: see the discussions by W. W. Merry and J. Riddell, Homer's Odyssey, Vol. 1. Books I–XII (Oxford, 1886) at 11.601; A. Heubeck and A. Hoekstra, A Commentary on Homer's Odyssey, Vol. 2. Books IX–XVI (Oxford, 1990) at 11.601–27. For similar passages, see Gantz (n. 6), 460–3.

42 Philostr. Her. 22.1–2.

43 Coldstream, J. N., ‘Hero-cults in the age of Homer’, JHS 96 (1976), 8CrossRefGoogle Scholar. As is equally well known, hero-cult is variable and difficult to define precisely, and there are plenty of exceptions to the very brief and general outline given here. For a good recent survey with further bibliography, see R. Parker, On Greek Religion (Oxford, 2011), ch. 4.

44 E. Kearns, The Heroes of Attica, BICS supplement 57 (London, 1989), 1.

45 Kearns (n. 44), 1–9, gives several examples and discusses possible definitions. See, for example, A. M. Snodgrass, ‘The Archaeology of the Hero’, AION(archeol) 10: La parola, l'immagine, la tomba (Naples, 1992), 20; M. P. Foucart, Le Culte des héros chez les grecs (Paris, 1918), 67 (‘Les Grecs n'ont jamais douté que leurs Héros avaient été des hommes’; ‘The Greeks never doubted that their heroes had been men’); A. D. Nock, ‘The Cult of Heroes’, repr. in Z. Stewart (ed.) Essays on Religion and the Ancient World, vol. 2 (Oxford, 1986), 593 (‘The term heros often meant “minor deity” and not “man who lived and died and subsequently received veneration”’); B. C. Dietrich, Death, Fate and the Gods (London, 1965), 31 (‘The hero was a spirit of the dead who even when alive possessed powers far surpassing those of any mortal’). To discuss this controversial and complicated area in any sort of detail would take rather more space than is available here. Inevitably, much of what follows must be couched in general terms, and not every cult hero will fit this model.

46 Snodgrass (n. 45), 20, emphasis in original. Not all heroes can be regarded as ‘heroized only through death’; Nock (n. 45), 596, n. 81, offers the famous example of the non-human Clouds called ἡρῷναι by Strepsiades (Ar. Nub. 315).

47 R. Seaford, Reciprocity and Ritual. Homer and Tragedy in the Developing City-state (Oxford, 1994), 114. Hence the importance of securing a hero's bones in order to secure his favour: e.g. Orestes in Hdt. 1.67–8. For other examples, see Rohde (n. 38), 143 nn. 35–6.

48 Kearns (n. 44), 139–207 (Appendix 1, ‘Catalogue of Attic Heroes’), gives a good idea of the enormous number of heroes who were offered cult in Attica; a large proportion of these make no appearance in myth (at least, not in surviving sources) outside the ambit of their cult.

49 Examples from Attica: the eponymous heroes received cult at their statues in the agora at Athens; Erichthonius was worshipped on the Acropolis; Herse had a part in the Arrephoria. Kearns (n. 44), Appendix 1, s.v. Ἐπώνυμοι ἥρωες; Ἐριχθόνιος; Ἔρση.

50 For example, the puzzling hero Basile, prominent in Attic cult but for whom no myth is known (Kearns [n. 44], 151; Shapiro, H. A., ‘The Attic Deity Basile’, ZPE 63 [1986], 134–6Google Scholar). Compare unnamed heroes such as ἤρως ἐπὶ τῇ ἁλῇ, ‘the hero of the salt-pan’ (Kearns [n. 44], 144).

51 Agamemnon: Coldstream (n. 43), 10; Hägg, R., ‘Gifts to the Heroes in Geometric and Archaic Greece’, in Linders, T. and Nordquist, G. (eds.), Gifts to the Gods, Boreas 15 (1987), 96–8Google Scholar; C. Antonaccio, An Archaeology of Ancestors (Lanham, MD, 1995), 147–52.

52 Hom. Od. 4.561–70.

53 Catling, H. W., ‘Excavations at the Menelaion, Sparta, 1973–76’, AR 23 (1976–7), 24, 34–7, 42Google Scholar (esp. 36–7, seventh- and sixth-century dedications inscribed to Helen, figs. 25–9); Antonaccio (n. 51), 155–66.

54 Indeed, in Lucian's dialogue, Trophonius appears to be in both places at once. Melanippus, having established that the hero is ‘something neither man nor god, but both at once’, demands of Trophonius, ‘Well, then, where has your divine half gone at present?’ On being told that it is prophesying in Boiotia, the Cynic replies, ‘I don't know what you mean, Trophonius – but I can see quite clearly that all of you is dead’ (Lucian, Dial. mort. 340). This should not, however, be taken as paradigmatic for ‘mainstream’ belief.

55 E.g. Proclus’ summary of the Kypria; Pind. Nem. 10.80–2; Pind. Pyth. 11–61–4. Most literary sources are inconclusive with regard to whether the Dioscuri are together or whether they alternate. Hom. Od. 11.301–4 implies that they are together, but see Lucian, Dial. D. 25 and the discussions in Burton (n. 1), 87–9; Gantz (n. 6), 327–8.

56 Lucian Dial. D. 25. Hermes tells him to look for Polydeuces’ boxing scars.

57 See also Hom. Hymn 17, which also addresses them together.

58 Earliest mention: Pind. Nem. 9.24–7, Nem. 10.8–9 (swallowed by earth); Pind. Pyth. 8.38–56 (prophesies to the Epigonoi as they set out). Paus. 1.34.2: the Oropians tell that he rose up through a sacred spring and became a divinity.

59 God and hero: in ancient sources, most famously Hdt. 2.44; see Stafford (n. 29), ch. 6.

60 Troad (discussed below): Strabo 13.596; Philostr. Her. 207 f.; Plin. HN 5.125. Laconia: Paus. 3.20.8 (the heroon may not be entered; youths sacrifice before a contest); 3.24.5 (annual festival); Anaxagoras in Σ Ap. Rhod. 4.814 (divine cult). Croton: Lycoph. Alex. 856–65 (women mourn). Tarentum: Mir. Ausc. 106 (Achilles has his own temple, other heroes share). Astypalaia: Cic. Nat. D. 3.45. Erythrai: Syll. 3 1014.50–2 (cult of Achilles, Thetis, and the Nereids). Pharsalus: Σ Hom. Il. 23.142; Σ Plat. [Sisyphus] 387c; Paus. 10.13.5; Strabo 9.431; Luc. 6.350 (a Thetideion, and Achilles’ homeland). Tanagra: Plut. Quaest. Graec. 37 (299c–e); Paus. 2.1.7. Elis: Paus. 6.23.3 (Achilles has a cenotaph in the Xystos gymnasium, because of an oracle; in the evening at the beginning of the festival, the Elean women honour him especially by bewailing him). Locri: Σ Pl. Phdr. 243a. Miletus: Ath. 2.43d (Aristoboulus) (a sacred spring called Achilles’ Well). Further references: J. Escher-Bürkli, ‘Achilles’, RE, i.221–4; Ochotnikov (n. 34), 49, with n. 1.

61 Athens: Zos. 4.18.1–4; see C. P. Jones, New Heroes in Antiquity, (Cambridge, MA, 2010), 89.

62 For the argument that Achilles’ cult is divine rather than hero-cult, see Hommel (n. 16), on whom see the comments in S. B. Bujskich, ‘Kap Bejkuš – Kap des Achilleus: eine Kultstätte des göttlichen Heros im Mündungsgebiet des Bug’, in Hupe (n. 34), 129. Against Hommel, see J. T. Hooker, ‘The Cults of Achilles’, RhM 131 (1988), 1–7; Burgess (n. 5), 111–16, 128, who sees the cults of Achilles as initially hero-cults, which in some cases later increased in status to divine cult (e.g. in Olbia with the Roman period epithet Pontarches: J. Hupe, ‘Die olbische Achilleus-Verehrung in der römischen Kaiserzeit’, in Hupe [n. 34], 165–234). In this article I am less concerned with the cult's origins than with its form and the early perception of Achilles’ status in it.

63 Eur. Hec. 35–44, 93–5, 108–26, 529–41, etc. See the discussion in Gantz (n. 6), 659. The Persians offer libations to the heroes at Troy before the expedition in 480 bc, but the army is seized by panic at night: Hdt. 7.43.

64 Note, however, the hero-cult-esque iconography of the Polyxena sarcophagus from Gümüşçay: Sevinç, N., ‘A New Sarcophagus of Polyxena from the Salvage Excavations at Gümüşçay’, Studia Troica 6 (1996), 251–63Google Scholar.

65 Strabo 13.1.32 notes the presence of ‘a temple and a monument’ (ἱερόν ἐστι καὶ μνῆμα) of Achilles near Sigeium, ‘as also monuments of Patroclus and Antilochus; and the Ilians offer sacrifices to all four heroes, both to these and to Aias’ (Πατρόκλου δὲ καὶ Ἀντιλόχου μνήματα, καὶ ἐναγίζουσιν οἱ Ἰλιεῖς πᾶσι καὶ τούτοις καὶ τῷ Αἴαντι).

66 Philostr. Her. 53.8–13; Burgess (n. 5), 114–15; but see I. Rutherford, ‘Black Sails to Achilles: The Thessalian Pilgrimage in Philostratus’ Heroicus’, in E. Bowie and J. Elsner (eds.), Philostratus (Cambridge, 2009), 244, arguing that the rite is probably fictional.

67 See Rohde (n. 38), 143, nn. 35–6, for references.

68 Achilleion: Strabo 7.4.5, 11.2.6 (town with temple to Achilles). Racecourse of Achilles: first in Hdt. 4.55, 76; for the problematic sanctuary here see I. V. Tunkina, ‘Arcivmaterialien aus dem ersten Drittel des 19. Jhs. über das Achilleus-Heiligtum auf der Landzunge von Tendra’, in Hupe (n. 34), 89–110. Cults in Olbia: A. S. Rusjaeva, ‘Forschungsgeschichte des Achilleus-Kultes in der russischen und ukrainischen Wissenschaft’, in Hupe (n. 34), 19–48; Bujskich (n. 62), 111–54.

69 On the Leuke cult, see Ochotnikov (n. 34).

70 Alc. fr. 354.

71 Hupe (n. 62).

72 Dio Chrys. Or. 36.9 and 14. Hedreen, G., ‘The Cult of Achilles in the Euxine’, Hesperia 60 (1991), 315CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

73 Bujskich (n. 62), 133–43, for a summary of recent finds in Cape Beikuš.

74 Grove and temple: Bujskich (n. 62), 131, n. 178, citing A. S. Rusjaeva, ‘Religija antičnych gosudarstv Severnogo Pričernomor'ja’ (The Religion of the Ancient Cities of the Northern Black Sea), in S. D. Kryžickij (ed.), Archeologija Ukrainskoj SSR II. Skifosarmatskaja i antičnaja archeologija (Kiev, 1986), 552 (unfortunately unavailable to me at the time of writing).

75 E.g. Cape Beikuš, Area A: Chiot, Attic, Corinthian, North Ionian and Fikellura ware: Bujskich (n. 62), 135, 143–4, pl. 33.1, 37–8.

76 A few examples from many. From Beikuš, Vertiefung no. 9, clay disc made from Chiot amphora with incised snake, branch, lines (waves?), inscr. ΑΧΙΛΛΕΥΣ (Bujskich [n. 62]135, pl. 34.8). From Beikuš, Grube no. 13, Chiot amphora fragment sanded smooth with stick figure, arrow, inscr. Α (Bujskich [n. 62], 136, pl. 35.2). From Beikuš, Rusjaeva's Group II includes clay discs from amphorae, one with a graffito of man and fish, inscr. Α, another with graffito of a sword, inscr. Α and MAXA (μαχαίρα?) (A. S. Rusjaeva, ‘Kul'tovi predmety z poselennia Beikush poblyzu o-va Berezan’ [Ritual Objects from the Settlement of Beikuš near the Island of Berezan], Arkheolohiia fasc. 2 [1971], 23, fig. 1). Her Group III includes a disc with a stick figure on one side, and on the other a small sailing vessel with a raised prow (ibid., 23–4, fig. 2). Achilles the hoplite: a large ceramic fragment (height 8 cm) of an Ionic amphora, sanded smooth, warrior with sword, helmet, round shield, inscr. ΑΧΙΛΛΕΙ | ΠΑΡΚ[—] | ΠΑΩ[—] or ΠΑC[—] (Bujskich [n. 62], 140–1, pls. 35.1, 36.1). See further on the discs, Rusjaeva (this note), 22–8; V. P. Yailenko, ‘Graffiti Levki, Berezani I Ol'vii’ (Graffiti from Leuke, Berezan, and Olbia), VDI 152 (1980), 72–99; Bujskich (n. 62), 133–43, pls. 32–6.

77 See also a bronze ring found on Leuke showing a snake inside the temple: Ochotnikov (n. 34), pl. 15.25, 69, noting that Thetis also has a connection with snakes.

78 Hedreen (n. 72), 317–18. See also Ochotnikov (n. 34), 73–4: bone ‘dice’ with numbers on the sides were also found in Leuke. On Achilles and board games, see Vermeule (n. 1), 80–2; on the setting (Troy, Aulis, Hades?), see Woodford, S., ‘Ajax and Achilles Playing a Game on an Olpe in Oxford’, JHS 102 (1982), 180CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Against this interpretation of the finds, see Bujskich (n. 62), 130. For other suggested uses, see Rusjaeva (n. 76), 26 (religious objects? spindles?), who also notes that their function may differ from site to site.

79 J. Hupe, ‘Introduction’ in Hupe (n. 34), 16: the cult is archaeologically visible from the first half of the sixth century.

80 Pausanias’ accuracy does not extend to the description: the island could never have been wooded and was most unlikely to be abounding in animals (Ochotnikov [n. 34], 57–8). Arrian's account of ‘a few goats’ which supplied offerings for Achilles (Peripl. M. Eux. 21.2) is more realistic.

81 Birds sweeping the temple: Philostr. Her. 54.9; see further Ochotnikov (n. 34), 58 for sources, 71 for a connection between birds and the souls of the dead. Snakes: the modern name of the island, Zmeinyj, means ‘snake island’, perhaps given on account of the number of sea-snakes there (Ochotnikov [n. 34], 57, 69).

82 Arr. Peripl. M. Eux. 32; Philostr. Her. 54.10–11.

83 Yailenko (n. 76), 84–5, 98, fig. 3.1–1a; Hedreen (n. 72), 319, with n. 42; Ochotnikov (n. 34), pl. 10.7–8, 16.1a–b.

84 On the temple, see Ochotnikov (n. 34), 58–61.

85 S. B. Ochotnikov, and A. S. Ostroverkhov, ‘Les sources historiques et archéologiques de l’île Leuké’, in O. Lordkipanidzé and P. Lévêque (eds.), Sur les traces des Argonautes. Actes de 6e Symposium de Vani (Colchide) (Paris, 1996), 273, fig. 1, and 274, fig. 2.7; Ochotnikov (n. 34), pl. 5.1–2.

86 For the anchors, see Ochotnikov (n. 34), 65–6.

87 Ochotnikov (n. 34), 67–75.

88 Arr. Peripl. M. Eux. 34.

89 Or, perhaps, ‘I, Glaukos, ask with submission to be permitted to sail in’: see Ochotnikov (n. 34), 74.

90 Arr. Peripl. M. Eux. 34.

91 Hupe (n. 79), 16.

92 For the role of the cult in the establishment of Olbian territory, see Bujskich (n. 62), 150–2.

93 Bujskich (n. 62), 148: ‘den griechischer Kult eines griechischen Heros und Gottes auf dem Territorium einer griechischen Polis’ (emphasis in original). On the debated origin of the cults of Achilles in the Black Sea area, see Ochotnikov (n. 34), 67–8; Bujskich (n. 62), 147–52.

94 ‘À cette haut époque, le nom de l’île ne désignait pas un endroit concret: c’était un lieu mythique’ (D. D. Kačarava, ‘L’île Leukè’, in O. Lordkipanidzé and P. Lévêque [eds.], Religions de Pont-Euxin. Actes de VIIIe Symposium de Vani [Colchide] 1997 [Paris, 1999], 61). Burgess (n. 5), 126. Bujskich (n. 62), 145, notes also that the Greeks associated the far west with the underworld, an association which might well extend to the Black Sea area: he notes the orientation of Achilles’ cult sites to the west. On the dating of Aithiopis, see Rengakos (n. 7), 313–14.

95 Singing and playing: Philostr. Her. 55.2–3; Max. Tyr. 9.6–7. Sounds of horses, clash of armour, war cries: Philostr. Her. 56.2. The racecourse: Lycoph. Alex. 192–200; Plin. HN 4.83; Pomponius Mela 2.5. Priam's descendant: Philostr. Her. 56.6–10. Love songs to Helen: Philostr. Her. 54.12.

96 E.g. Achilles and the deaths of Priam's sons in the Iliad: Griffin (n. 3), 119–20, 113 n. 20; note also the sacrifice of Polyxena at the behest of Achilles’ eidolon (Ilioupersis in Procl. Chrest.; Eur. Hec. 107–29, 304–5, 389–90). Another example may be found in the relationships which affect his cult at Tanagra (Plut. Quaest. Graec. 37 [299c–e]).

97 Helen and Achilles in Cypria: summary in Procl. Chrest.; Currie (n. 8), 292–3.