All 26 entries tagged Achille
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June 07, 2008
minnow
minnow (2.XXXII.iii).
A minnow is a small freshwater fish (Bib:CALD), suggesting here the size of the plane in the distance and specifically in a term familiar to a fisherman, like Achille, whose viewpoint is given here.
Amanda Hopkins
07 Jun 2008 12:33
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Tags: Achille Animals Characters Fishing Glossary Minnow Water
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she fought her memory
she fought her//memory (3.XXXII.i).
Memory is a key element of classical epic, since the poems are intended as commemorations of past figures and events. In Omeros, characters, such as Achille and Dennis Plunkett, have a longing for communion with the past. Memory brings in the theme of nostalgia and the journey that the characters take in order to find their identity and feeling of home. Memory is also important in the Odyssey, and the loss of it threatens Odysseus from returning home.
Amanda Hopkins
07 Jun 2008 09:18
| Tags: Achille Characters Dennis Plunkett Epic Tradition Identity & Naming Memory Remembering & Commemoration Narrators Mother Nostos Odysseus Odyssey She Fought Her Memory Walcott-The-Narrator
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June 05, 2008
totem
totem (2.XXXI.ii).
A natural object assumed as the emblem for a family, clan &c., especially within Indian tribes. Here its discovery by Achille mirrors his journey of discovery into his own past and the reader’s accumulating knowledge of the island’s history. Totems were sometimes painted on a grave, but here the 'disturbed grave' is probably metaphorical. The fact that 'A thousand archaeologists started screaming/as Achille wrenched out the totem…' illustrates not only the tensions between the island’s inhabitants and the impositions of Westernised tourism, but also links in with the theme of being uprooted.
Amanda Hopkins
05 Jun 2008 13:28
| Tags: Achille Aruac Colonialism Dispossession Glossary History Peoples Religion Totem Tourism
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black dog heel
The black dog did dog-dances//around him, yapping, crouching, entangling his heel (3.XXXI.ii).
One of several references to Achille’s heel. In the classical tradition, Achilles’ heel was often cited as the most vulnerable area of his body, and it was sometimes said that he died when it was wounded. The legend goes that Achilles’ goddess mother Thetis, afraid of losing her child to mortal death, dipped him in the River Styx when he was just a child. This rendered his body totally invulnerable, except a spot on his heel where Thetis had held him (Bib:23).
Amanda Hopkins
05 Jun 2008 08:41
| Tags: Achille Achilles Animals Black Dog Heel Characters Epic Tradition
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July 09, 2007
shut face of thunder
He has seen the shut face of thunder, […] from this life and the other (7.LX.iii).
Like Aeneas, Achille has emerged wiser from the Underworld, and after painful reconciliation with his dead ancestors, he has returned home. Cf.'scarves of the sybil' (7.60.i).
Amanda Hopkins
09 Jul 2007 15:42
| Tags: Achille Aeneas Aeneid Characters Epic Tradition Identity & Naming Journey To The Underworld Shut Face Of Thunder
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vanishing race
the phantom of a vanishing race/of heroes (7.LX.ii).
Once again, Achille is comparable to Aeneas, presiding over the obliteration of the Trojans.
Amanda Hopkins
09 Jul 2007 15:36
| Tags: Achille Aeneas Aeneid Characters Epic Tradition Trojan War Vanishing Race
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memory sent a spear
the memory sent//a spear into his chest (7.LX.i).
Walcott inverts the Virgilian principle of looking to the future to understand one's present: as a postmodernist and a realist, Walcott recognises that this is impossible. Instead, Achille must reconcile his past to understand and appreciate his present.
Amanda Hopkins
09 Jul 2007 14:09
| Tags: Achille Aeneid Characters Epic Tradition Identity & Naming Memory Remembering & Commemoration Memory Sent A Spear Prophecy & Omens
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not Rome but home
like another Aeneas,/founding not Rome but home (7.LX.i).
Compare Aeneas' flight from Troy and journey in Aeneid 1. Aeneas flees with a symbol of the past (Anchises), the future (Ascanius) and his culture (figurines of the gods). Likewise, Achille attempts to flee with his own culture (his fishing boat), and a strong symbol of his past (Philoctete, and his freshly healed wound).
Amanda Hopkins
09 Jul 2007 14:07
| Tags: Achille Aeneas Aeneid Characters Dispossession Epic Tradition Fishing Identity & Naming Not Rome But Home Philoctete Poetics
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betrayed by his calling
he felt betrayed/by his calling (7.LX.i).
Achille's self-questioning is akin to that of his namesake in book nine of the Iliad (9:318). Walcott ultimately appears to agree with Homer that these moments of self-reflection are overcome in times of extreme emotion, and that we cannot deny our innate purpose or destiny; Achille continues fishing to provide for Helen, and Achilleus returns to battle to help his people after the death of Patroklos.
Amanda Hopkins
09 Jul 2007 14:02
| Tags: Achille Achilleus Betrayed By His Calling Characters Epic Tradition Fishing Helen Iliad
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July 06, 2007
Veined mesh of Agamemnon
Veined mesh of Agamemnon (3.XXIX.i).
Contrast here to how Klytaimestra and her lover Aigosthos felt after murdering Agamemnon her husband. The words 'song' and 'twitter' infer joy on Klytaimestra's part, while Helen is mourning with a 'moan' coming from the 'hole in her heart'. Both women are responsible for the deaths of their men (Helen believes Achille has drowned), but display two different reactions.
Amanda Hopkins
06 Jul 2007 14:18
| Tags: Achille Agamemnon Characters Epic Tradition Helen Klytaimestra Odyssey Veined Mesh Of Agamemnon
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