Summer Special - Achilles' (High) Heel

ACHILLES (HIGH) HEEL

Hello, I'm Tom Lee and this is “The Odyssey Odyssey.”  Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote a poem called “Summer Studies” that has been on my mind. Why shouldst thou study in the month of June in dusky books of Greek and Hebrew Lord, when the great teacher of all glorious things passes in hourly light before thy door? There is a brighter book unrolling now fair are its leaves, as is the tree of heaven, all veined and viewed and gemmed with wondrous signs to which a healing Mystic power is given. 1000 voices to its study call from the Fair Hilltop from the waterfall where the birds Singeth and the yellow bee, and the breeze talketh from the airy tree. In other words, gentle listener. I'm on vacation. Which is not to say that I'm not immersed in dusky books of Greek and Hebrew law. There are a few things I enjoy more on a beautiful sunny day. I'm just not in the recording studio. In fact, I'm in my garden every minute that the sun is shining in the months of May and June. So thank you for your patience and thank you to those who are still finding The Odyssey Odyssey every week. I have more people who seem to be starting at the beginning or starting at the end, or maybe re listening to episodes, so it's been great to see that my question is. Who are you? If you have found The Odyssey Odyssey on your own, not through knowing me, or maybe having me perform at your school or museum, I'd love to know who you are and what you think you can drop me a note via my website, which is www.tomleestoryteller.net. And you can link directly to that from whatever platform you're listening to this program on. But I do want to interrupt my summer studies a couple of times to share two stories about Odysseus that aren't included in the Odyssey or the Iliad. They're both referenced very slightly in both of those poems, but they are told at length in works by other authors. The story I want to tell you today is actually a story about Achilles and Odysseus plays. Secondary but very important role in the story. I've always loved this story since I saw it in a painting by Tiepolo that is on display in of all places. The bar at the Waldorf Astoria in Rome, and by the way, this story involves boys dressing up in girl’s clothes. So if you live in one of the. States and our freedom loving land where listening to this could get you arrested. You're on your own. The story comes to us from a Roman writer named Statius, and he was writing about 50 to 75 AD, and what I think is great about that is the Odyssey is already at least 800 years old. By the time Statius takes a crack at retelling the story of Achilles. Is called the Achilleid and he intended to tell the entire life story of Achilles from birth to. Death. Unfortunately, he himself died when he was only 1 1/2 books into the poem, but he leaves us with one of the most fascinating stories about the the childhood of Achilles. So just to recap a little bit of things we've talked about in other episodes, Achilles is the child. Of the C nymph fetus, and she is the daughter of the. Sea God Nereus and the nymph Doris and she was immortal, but because it was prophesied that any child that fetus had would be more powerful than his father, Zeus decreed that fetus the immortal nymph. Had to marry a human, a mortal, so she was forced to marry Pelias. And they did have a child. And that was Achilles. And of course, Achilles was one of the greatest humans who had ever lived, but he was, in fact. Portal and the story, which doesn't appear anywhere in Homer but is clearly already familiar to Statius. In 75 AD, the story says that fetus took the child, the baby down into the underworld and dipped him into the river Styx. To give him immortality. But of course she held him by his heel, by his foot and the waters of the river sticks did not touch his heel, and so that one part of his body was vulnerable. That was where he could, and indeed would be killed. Really fascinating that that never comes up in the Iliad, although Achilles knows that he's destined to die young. Another story says that fetus was given a choice that she could either have a son who would live a very, very long life but be completely forgotten after he died. Or she could have a son who would die young but would never be forgotten. Whose fame would be immortal? And of course, since I'm sitting here on a lovely summer day in a dark studio talking about Achilles, we know which choice she made. She chose immortality through fame and one of the things I love about Achilles as he is portrayed by Statius. Is he's sort of like Marlon Brando in on the waterfront. He he could have been a contender, he tells several people. You know, I I could have been the child of Zeus. I was almost Zeus's child. And fetus tells him that his own life is imbalanced. That she would have protected him forever from death, but because of his mortal father, he must one day die. And this is the driving force behind the story of the achilleas D fetus. The sea nymph is underwater and she. Looks up and sees the keels of many boat. And she knows what's happening. Paris has stolen Helen away from the home of Menaleas and is bringing her from Greece to Troy. And she knows she foresees this is going to be the beginning of the Great War. That will be the death. Of her son. And she's filled with terror and begins to think how she can prevent this, what she can do to prevent Achilles death. She knows that her attempt to dip him into the river Styx was unsuccessful. She knows that he is still vulnerable and can and will die. So what can she do? And she decides to disguise him. She knows that all of the Greek kings, Agamemnon, Menelaus, Odysseus, Nestor, that they're all going to be looking for Achilles because they know how powerful he is, even though he's just a boy and. She's already sort of hidden him away. To an island to live with Chiron and Chiron is the Centaur who is the foster father and the teacher of Achilles, and Chiron is one of the only centaurs who is not prone to obey the animal side of his composition. Centaurs, of course, are half man. And half horse, half beast. And in all the stories about Centaurs, they almost always end up getting incredibly drunk and incredibly violent and having these wild fights. But Kyron lives by himself, and he's very studious, and he's spent years raising Achilles and teaching him poetry and teaching him how to play the liar. This was a a favorite topic of a lot of 18th century painters. This again, this sort of Telemachus, like education of young men in the classical tradition. Chiron was the the example of the great teacher and fetus has sort of dumped Achilles off with Chiron and as far as we know she hasn't seen him since. But now she decides she has to take him away from his foster father and hide him in disguise. So she grabs on to some passing dolphins. And whisks herself off to Chiron's Island Only to find that Achilles is not there and she immediately panics. She suddenly becomes a very involved mother, having abandoned her child years ago. Where is my son? He could be off at at risk. He could be in danger. What have you done? And at that moment, Achilles appears and he has just killed a lioness and he has taken the two lion Cubs away and brought them back to Chiron and he displays them with great pride. And this idea of the lion cub is sort of a metaphor for what Achilles is, because, of course, when the lions are young, they're adorable and cute and cuddly. But the day comes when they reveal their true power, which we all know. Achilles is about to do despite. His mother's best efforts. So Achilles greets his mother, but he's really clearly much more attached to the Centaur. To Chiron, they  sing together, they eat together, and then when it's time for sleep, he actually curls up in the in the fur of this horse man, it's a beautiful. Image of him with his mother right there. He's much more attached to the Centaur and he he nestles in the breast of the  Centaur's body. But fetus, of course, has a plan, and the plan is to steal Achilles away. And she goes to the edge of the sea and she debates where she would do best to hide him, Stacia says. It's like a bird staring at the forest and wondering where would be the best place to build a nest. To protect her young. And she decides on the island of Skyros and Sky. Ross is ruled over by King Lycomedes, and Lycomedes has many, many daughters, but no sons. And fetus determines that she'll bring Achilles to the island of Skyros and disguise him as a girl. And knowing that Achilles will want no part of this, she abducts him while he's sleeping and takes him away with her dolphins and at dawn. They arrive on the island of Skyros. And when Achilles wakes up, he's completely confused. He doesn't know. Where he is. Where is his foster father, Chiron and fetus begins to explain her plan. She reminds him that he is mortal, that he could have been the son of Zeus, but he was not. And it wasn't her fault. And she's brought him here to sit out the war in the guise of a woman. And she makes this remarkable speech where she cites all the great heroes who at one time or another have dressed themselves in women's clothes or. Even assumed the sex of a few. Male. She mentions Heracles, who was sold into slavery to a queen named Omphale, and he was made to do the women's work for this queen, but he was nevertheless a great hero. She reminds him that even Zeus, the great father of gods and men. Who was so in love with Callisto that he transformed himself into a female? He took on the guise of Artemis. Callisto was one of the attendants of this goddess, and of course Artemis and all her attendants swore to strict virginity. They would have nothing to do with men, mortal or immortal. And Zeus, of course, just took this on as a challenge. And the way that he could get close. To Callisto was to transform himself into the guise of the goddess Artemis. And the story says that in this form he made love to Callisto. And Callisto was very surprised when she found out weeks or months later that she was pregnant. And of course, she went to bathe with all the other attendants of Artemis, and her sin was discovered. And in one version of the story, Artemis, of course, is furious. Who was it you had sex with? And Callisto says, well, dear it. It was you. You and I made love. And now, somehow I'm pregnant because of that and Artemis, of course, thinks this is a ridiculous lie, and as a punishment, she transformed Callisto into a bear who was later hunted and killed. Artemis had a way of doing this. And fetus reminds her son about Caenis, the nymph who was raped by Poseidon, and after the fact, Poseidon tried to make it up to her and offered her anything she wanted as a gift. And she said that the thing she most wanted was to be transformed, to have the body of a man so that such a thing would never happen to her again, and Poseidon instantly obliged. And more than this, he made this new male Caenis completely invulnerable to any weapons his body was like steel. He was the original Man of Steel and could never be killed. And his life finally ended in a great battle with as it happens, a bunch of drunken centaurs who tried again and again to stab him but couldn't. Not with the point of the sword or the side of the sword. So instead they started uprooting enormous trees and they piled these trees on top of Caenis's body. Until the weight was so great that it pushed him through the earth into Tartarus. But he emerged according to Ovid in his metamorphoses, where everybody emerges as something else. Caenis emerged as a beautiful bird to live on. But maybe one of the most compelling characters that Thetis mentions, as she's trying to convince Achilles to dress up as a woman is the God Dionysus. And Dionysis hasn't had too much mention here on The Odyssey Odyssey, which is a shame because he's a fascinating character. Sometimes he is oversimplified to be the God of wine, the God of drunkenness. The Romans named him Bacchus, and actually when he changed from a Greek God to a Roman God, everything about him changed. The Roman God Bacchus is this sort of a beast. Man, whereas the Greek Dionysus is always display. It has this gorgeous young man and everything about Dionysus breaks rules, breaks boundaries, challenges assumptions. Dionysus is incredibly handsome and incredibly beautiful. His gender is is not quite. Fluid, but he doesn't really seem. To care if he's often dressed in a golden dress and his long golden hair has a feminine. Look, and the worshippers of Dionysus, the main ads. This was a a very sacred ritual that was only performed by women, and it was performed in secret. No men were allowed to see this, and this is the subject of Euripides’s great and. Play the back high, which takes place in Thebes, where nothing good ever happens, and King Pentheus. Is away and the women of Thebes begin a great ceremony to worship Dionysus, including Pentheus's own mother and his aunts, and they're going to leave the city, and they're going to completely break every social constraint that applies to women. In the city of Thebes, they're going to dance, they're going to feast, they're going to drink, they're going to be drunk. It's going to be this wild, frenzied time only for women, and when Pentheus returns and hears that this is. Happening and he. Determines he's going to bring thieves back to a place of of morality, and he's going to shut down this frenzied, drunken worship of the God. And don't try that at home or anywhere, of course, Dionysus. Hears of this and comes to Pentheus disguised as a. Human and just begins to wrap King Pentheus around his little finger to prepare for his complete destruction, Dionysus offers Pentheus the opportunity to spy on the ceremonies worshipping Dionysus, and he says the only way you could do this, of course Is to dress yourself up as a woman and there's this wonderful, weird scene where Dionysus coaches Pentheus on how to dress and act like a woman, and Pentheus seems to shed his moralistic ideas pretty quickly and and embrace the movement and the appearance of a woman, but of course, Dionysus only has. Punishment and revenge in mind. And when Pentheus disguised as a woman is discovered by the true female worshippers of Dionysus, they literally tear his body limb from limb, and it's actually Pentheus his mother who. Rips off his head and all of this happens off stage, of course, but she comes on stage holding her sons. Head not quite realizing what she's done. She's been so deranged that she thought this was a wild animal and she was going to rip it apart and eat its flesh. And then she sees clearly that this is her son Pentheus. So once again, gentle listener. Don't mess with the gods and fetus reminds Achilles of all of these episodes where gods and heroes took on the persona of women. But according to Statius, it's not any of these. Rather dubious role models that convince Achilles to Don the woman's disguise, but rather when he sees one of King Lycomedes daughters, Deidamia shines head and shoulders above all the other daughters of like comedies and. Achilles instantly falls hopelessly in love with her and agrees to live on this island. His mother is delighted. She thinks he's willing to take this disguise to save his life, when in fact the only reason he's disguising himself is so that he can get close to Princess de. Amia, but the story tells us how fetus coached Achilles on how. To wear his. How to hold it up above his heels. How to walk like a woman to get rid of all of those powerful, heroic, masculine attitudes that he'd spent his young life. Evolving and to exchange them for the behaviors of a woman. And she presents him to King Lycomedes and says, oh, this is my daughter. This is Achilles sister. And I wanted her to spend time here with you. She's turning into a little Amazon. She's running wild, and I want you to bring her up with your daughters so that she can become more feminine. And Lycomedes is more than happy to oblige. And before leaving, he just cautions him two things in particular. I understand sometimes the girls will wrestle naked. Don't let her do that. And wherever she goes, keep her away from the harbour. There may be ships passing to this war. You may have heard about and I don't want my daughter to see any of those, and with that fetus leaps into the ocean and. And as it happens, the plot of fetus is. In a way, over almost as soon as it begins, because. At first, the daughters of like comedies are enchanted by this new arrival, and they find her rather fascinating. They notice that she's not a very good dancer, and she doesn't move very gracefully. She's a head taller than any of them and rather broad shoulders, but they're all willing to embrace her and and take her into their. But this new arrival is a particular friend of Princess de Deidamia. They seem to spend all of their time together, and when the time comes. That they will actually be celebrating these rights toward Dionysus, so only women will be allowed to participate in these rights. They  leave their father's palace and they go off into a deserted place in the island and Achilles and disguise, of course, goes with them. And he reveals himself to Princess Deidamia, and he can hold out no longer. And as the moon and stars shine down on the young people sleeping in the forest. Achilles gains his desire and de Deidamia cries out, and her sisters aren't sure if this is some part of the Dionysian revel or not. But in the morning, Deidamia acknowledges that she is very much in love with Achilles and she will help. Him preserve his secret even when she becomes pregnant, and they convince the nursemaid to hide damage pregnancy. And when the child is born from this union that the nurse helps hideaway the child so. The King knows nothing about this. He doesn't know that his daughter was pregnant. He doesn't know that the New Girl is in fact, a man, and more than a year goes by. During which the Trojan War is gathering force, the Greek armies are heading to Troy. There's a magnificent description of forests being felled to the ground to make the masts for all of the ships that are sailing to Troy that the sails of these ships. Are devouring all of the wind. And they're of course, going to sail right past the island of Skyros, but no one knows where Achilles has been hidden. So who you gonna call? You need someone crafty. You need someone tricky. You need Odysseus. And Odysseus asks calculus and calculus is a character that turns up in the Iliad. He's the the result. Seer in the Greek army. He's old and he's blind, but he goes into these trances and the will of the gods is made clear to him and they go to caucus and they say find Achilles. And if you think that Game of Thrones. Trance visionary thing was original it. Caucus goes into this wild trance. The veins in his neck are throbbing and his eyes rolled back in his head. His hair stands on end and he sees through his blindness. He sees Achilles in disguise, on the island of Skyros. And Odysseus the trickster determines he's going to. Bring him back. So Odysseus sets sail for the island of Skyros, along with his companion Diomedes, who's going to appear at length in the Iliad, but he loads up his ship with jewels and beautiful fabrics and perfumes. And all manner of gifts that might appeal to young women and diabetes is a little puzzled by this how he's going to use these to find Achilles among the daughters of King Lycomedes. But they arrive with great pomp and great ceremony. And of course. Guest arrives. There has to. Be a feast. And at the height of the feast, like comedies boasts about his beautiful daughters, and Odysseus is keeping his eye peeled on every one of them, trying to find the one who's maybe a little taller, maybe a little more broad shouldered, maybe. Who doesn't quite walk. As delicately as the rest of the women, but Achilles has rather perfected his skills by this point and Odysseus's puzzle. So Odysseus starts to talk about the coming war and he talks about how every brave man, everyone who would be known as a hero, everyone who would want immortal fame, is going to Troy to fight. And he watches the daughters. Listening to this and Is to dress herself up as a woman, and there's this most of them, of course, are repelled by this idea. This testosterone dripping idea, except for one who seems to be really quite interested, and Odysseus begins to think that this must be Achilles. But we're told that. Deidamia the Princess. Is Achilles away from this conversation? She seems to know exactly what's on Odysseus's mind, but like comedies, boasts to Odysseus about his daughter's dancing abilities and the beauty of the religious rites that they perform. And he offers to have them give us sort of command performance. For Odysseus, the next morning, and Odysseus says he'll be delighted to watch this. He's even brought some gifts for the girls. And Stacy's can't resist the joke about. Greeks bearing gifts, even though the Trojan horses many years in the future, he he says that Lycomedes hasn't yet learned about accepting gifts from Greeks. So the next morning, at dawn, the daughters of Lycomedes appear and they beat the drum, which is another very feminine. Pastime playing the drum and they drum and they dance and it's absolutely beautiful. There's one daughter who's a little clumsier than the others, and this is more proof for Odysseus's theory. But the dancing continues and Odysseus applauds and then invites all of the daughters to come and receive gifts, and Diomedes has taken all of these jewels and perfumes and beautiful cloth. And he's laid them out in king, like comedies hall. Buried underneath all of these is a great shield, a shield that's actually splattered with a little bit of blood. And a sword and all of the daughters come forward to take these gifts. And this is the moment that 18th and 17th century painters couldn't resist. There must be a dozen different versions of this of this painting, where the women are holding up pearls and ribbons and feathers and and one. Burl has found the shield and has pulled this out and this is the moment where Achilles can no longer resist the truth. The story says that the the women's clothes fall from his body. Odysseus sidles up to him and and whispers in his ear. We know who you are. You are the foster child of Chiron. You are the great hero, Achilles. You are destined to join us in this war. Abandon this disguise and come to Troy with me. And just to seal the deal, Odysseus has arranged to have a war trumpet blast at this very moment, and when the daughters of like comedies hear this, they  scream, they drop the jewels and they they run in terror. And of course, Achilles is ready for battle. And I do make a point of telling a young women when I'm performing this in schools that it is one of the most sexist stories they're likely to hear, and they don't have to take it at face value. And when all is revealed, Deidamia the Princess throws herself at Achilles feet. She begs him not to leave, and they confess. To her father that in fact she's known all along that this girl was no girl, that this was Achilles. And like Cometes is furious. But Achilles presents him with his grandson and he says I'm already a member of your family. And so they're to have one night. As a truly married couple, Achilles and Deidamia are married that morning, and they're given one night of married happiness day. Deidamia weeps and she says I know you're going to forget all about me. You'll go off to those. Trojan women and you'll you'll have affairs with them. You'll marry someone else. And the story of Deidamia will just be a story when you're an old man, you'll tell your slaves about the Princess that you seduced and abandoned on the island of Skyros. But of course, we know. That Achilles is never going to be an old man. He's going to meet his death at Troy. The child Neoptolemus grows up away from the war. He grows up on the island of Skye. Us only to be brought to Troy after Achilles is dead by Odysseus. Odysseus will return to Skyros to take the boy Neoptolemus because it is said that without someone from Achilles family line, the war will never end. And there's actually a tradition. That it is Neoptolemus that kills the King of Troy. King Priam, and this is particularly strange because Achilles had very famously, he had the opportunity to kill Priam himself. But instead, King Priam and Achilles weep over the loss of their two best beloveds. It also doesn't make sense, because Neoptolemus would only be 10 years old. But anyway, that's the tradition and Neoptolemus goes on to marry the daughter of Helen of Troy. So as you see. The Odyssey Odyssey really does tell all the stories that lead up to and away from the Odyssey. In addition to paintings, the story of Achilles on Skyros was a very popular opera subject in the 18th century, handle wrote a beautiful. Opera called Deidamia.  Winton Dean, who is the foremost biographer of andle. He actually disparages this opera, he says handle ends on a on a very sort of weak note. He's just sort of cranking out this final opera. I I love it. I think it's absolutely beautiful. And I mentioned the many, many paintings of this. I'll put a number of them on my website as I always do every episode of the Odyssey. Odyssey has artwork and literature that's connected to the episode you can find on my website, www.tomleestoryteller. Dot net and you can also. I'll shamelessly plug if you want to contribute financially to the success of this program, you can make a donation. There and one last little trickle down of the story of Achilles on Skyros I'd like to mention is a story from the brothers Grim. It's not one of their more famous stories. It's called the 12 Huntsman. It tells the story of a beautiful Princess who is abandoned by her lover. A king who's going to marry another woman and she goes to his palace accompanied by 11 of her handmaidens, and they disguised themselves as men. They disguise themselves as Huntsmen. And this king has, for reasons that are not explained at all, he has a lion who always tells the truth. And the Lion says to the king, those huntsmen of yours aren't really huntsmen. They're women in disguise. And the king doesn't believe this. And the lion says if you cover the floor. Of your chamber with peace, you will see that they are women because when they walk delicately, as women do, they will scatter the peas in all directions. And the Princess gets wind of this from a loyal servant, and she tells her disguised handmaidens that they have to force themselves to walk firmly and tread solidly on these peas, which they do, and and none of them scatter. And the king doesn't believe that they are women, and the lion tries again and says well. Bring spinning wheels into your chamber. Spinning wheels and weapons, you'll see that these women, as they truly are, will not be able to resist the spinning wheels. They'll rush over to them, and again, the Princess learns of this, and she tells her handmaidens force yourself. Not to look at the spinning wheels, but go instead and examine the swords and the weapons that the king has left out for us so they get away with their plot and the story ends when the new bride who's going to marry this king arrives, and the Huntsman Princess is so overwhelmed with grief that she. She passes out and the king rushes to his loyal Huntsman and Unbuttons his jacket to help him in his faint, and discovers that of course his Huntsman is not a Huntsman at all. It's his true bride. He has forgotten about. They fall in love and live happily ever after. So that's our first summer special on the Odyssey, Odyssey. We'll have one more, which is going to be the story of Odysseus and Philoctetes. As always, thank you for listening.