Existing comment:
Nicolas Poussin
Achilles on Skyros, 1656
According to classical legend, Thetis, the mother of Achilles, learned that her son was destined to die if he fought in the Trojan War. In an attempt to prevent his death, she sent him to live disguised as a woman with the daughters of King Lycomedes on the island of Skyros.
Learning of this ploy, Ulysses and Diomedes traveled to Skyros and laid a trap in which they presented the young women with jewelry and other finery, as well as a sword, spear and shield. Achilles, shown here dressed in women's clothes, instinctively grasped the sword, identifying himself to Ulysses and his companions as male. The source for Poussin's story was probably the popular Renaissance handbook Mythologiae by Natale Conti rather than Ovid's first century AD account. |