Challenging Gender Roles: Two Fragments of Accius on Achilles, Accius, fr. 28 & 304

Name: Accius  Date:   170 – 86 BCE Region:   Umbria [modern Italy] Citation:  fragment 28, 304

1) Achilles on Skyros: 

...cum virginali mundo clam pater

--Accius fr. 28, quoted in Festus

[Achilles], a father hiding in a maiden’s dress...

This fragment of early Latin poetry refers to the period of time prior to the Trojan War when Achilles lived as a maiden on the island of Skyros and impregnated the princess Deidamia. Together they will have a son named Neoptolemus / Pyrrhus, who will fight in the Trojan War after the death of his father.

2) On the Death of Patroclus:

Achilles: Mors amici subigit, quod mi est senium multo accerrimum.

--Accius fr. 304, quoted in Nonius

The death of a friend has overpowered me; it is by far the most bitterest grief.

Accius [Lucius Accius; 170 – 86 BCE, modern Italy]  was a freeborn child of a freedman parent. He was born in Pisaurum, Umbria [modern Italy] but later moved to Rome. He wrote several tragedies based on Greek myths, but only fragments remain of them.