Achilles Tatius

▪ Greek author

flourished 2nd century AD, Alexandria

      author of Leucippe and Cleitophon, one of the Greek prose romances (Hellenistic romance) that influenced the development of the novel centuries later. Nothing certain is known of Achilles' life. Some Byzantine sources called him a rhetor (“teacher of rhetoric”). In the Suda lexicon of the 10th century AD, he is described as a Christian and—dubiously—as a bishop. His real profession is uncertain.

      The romance, a typical adventure story of love triumphant over innumerable obstacles—shipwrecks, tortures, abductions and attacks by pirates—is related in the first person by Cleitophon himself, whom Achilles claims to have met in Sidon. The work's style is typical of Atticism, with its purity of diction, short unconnected sentences, parallel clauses, detailed descriptions, and frequent declamations and disquisitions, often in antithetical form (e.g., on love for women and pederasty). Achilles shows great ingenuity in inventing coups de theatre (Leucippe apparently dies three times but always reappears), but his characterization is poor, and plot is relegated to the background by irrelevant interruptions. Nevertheless, the work's popularity was demonstrated by its appearance in a number of Egyptian papyri, of which at least one has been dated as early as the 2nd century AD. The romance was admired by Byzantine critics and was widely translated in the Renaissance. (See also Hellenistic romance.)

Additional Reading

English translations appear in Susan A. Stephens and John J. Winkler (eds.), Ancient Greek Novels: The Fragments: Introduction, Text, Translation, and Commentary (1995); and B.P. Reardon (ed.), Collected Ancient Greek Novels (1989). Useful commentary and analysis are included in Ebbe Vilborg, Achilles Tatius: Leucippe and Clitophon: A Commentary (1902, reissued 1962); and Shadi Bartsch, Decoding the Ancient Novel: The Reader and the Role of Description in Heliodorus and Achilles Tatius (1989). Achilles is discussed also in Tomas Hägg, The Novel in Antiquity, rev. trans. (1983, reissued 1991; originally published in Swedish, 1980); and Gareth Schmeling (ed.), The Novel in the Ancient World, rev. ed. (2003).

* * *