Achilles Tatius: Encyclopedia II - Achilles Tatius - Analysis

Achilles Tatius - Analysis

The first appraisal of this work comes from Photius' Bibliotheca, where we find: "the diction and composition are excellent, the style distinct, and the figures of speech, whenever they are employed, are well adapted to the purpose. The periods as a rule are aphoristic, clear and agreeable, and soothing to the ear". To this Photius added a moralistic bias that would long persecute the author: "the obscenity and impurity of sentiment impair his judgment, are prejudicial to seriousness, and make the story disgusting to read or something to be avoided altogether." Past scholars have passed scathing comments on the work, as that present in the 11th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1911), which brands the novel's style as artificial and labored, full of incidents "highly improbable", and whose characters "fail to enlist sympathy". Today's judgements tend to be more balanced, valuing the elements of originality that the author introduces in the genre of the romance.

The most striking of these elements may be considered the abandonement of the omniscient narrator, dominant in the ancient romance, for a first person narration. To this is added Achilles Tatius' use of ecphrasis: the novel opens with an admirable description of a painting of the rape of Europa, and also includes descriptions of other paintings such as Andromeda being saved by Perseus and Prometheus being liberated by Hercules.

Achilles Tatius takes pleasure in asides and digressions on mythology and the interpretation of omens, descriptions of exotic beasts (crocodiles, hippopotami) and sights (the Nile delta, Alexandria), and discussions of amorous matters (such as kisses, or whether women or boys make better lovers). His descriptions of confused and contradictory emotional states (fear, hope, shame, jealousy, and desire) are exemplary ("baroque" conceits such as these would be frequently imitated in the Renaissance). There are also several portrayals of almost sadistic cruelty (Leucippe's fake sacrifice and, later, decapitation; Kleitophon chained in prison or beaten by Melite's husband; Prometheus's torture) that share much with Hellenistic sculpture (such as the "Dying Gaul" or the "Laocoön and his Sons").

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