DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15100#0133
83
PLATE XXXVI.
ACHILLES IN SCYROS.
This slab is part of the front of a Sarcophagus whereon was repre-
sented the discovery of Achilles concealed among the daughters
of Lycomedes, king of Scyros. The history to which this compo-
sition refers is briefly this. Thetis knowing that her son Achilles,
if sent to the Trojan war, was destined to be cut off in the flower
of his youth, sent him disguised as a female to be a companion
to the daughters of Lycomedes, among whom he went by the name
of Pyrrha. The Greeks having been apprised by Calchas the priest
of Apollo, that Troy could not be taken without the assistance of
Achilles, dispatched Ulysses, Diomedes and Agyrtes to discover
his retreat, and persuade him to join their united forces. Suspect-
ing where he might probably be found, they sailed to Scyros in the
character of merchants, having provided themselves with trinkets,
implements of female industry and a few warlike instruments.
This stratagem suggested by Ulysses succeeded, for, when the
daughters of Lycomedes and their companions saw the articles
of merchandize, they each made choice of various ornaments of
dress; Achilles 1 on the contrary, fired at the sight of the armour,
and forgetting that he had assumed the dress and manners of a
female, with great eagerness seized upon a shield and spear, by
which action he was discovered, and consequently obliged to join
the Greeks in their war against Troy.2 This subject seems to have
1 Statins, Achill. ii. 178, et seqq. 2 Apollodor. Bibliotliec. iii. 13, Ovid.
Met. xiii. 1. 162, et seqq. Hygin. fab. 96. Philostrat. Jun. Icon. i.
PLATE XXXVI.
ACHILLES IN SCYROS.
This slab is part of the front of a Sarcophagus whereon was repre-
sented the discovery of Achilles concealed among the daughters
of Lycomedes, king of Scyros. The history to which this compo-
sition refers is briefly this. Thetis knowing that her son Achilles,
if sent to the Trojan war, was destined to be cut off in the flower
of his youth, sent him disguised as a female to be a companion
to the daughters of Lycomedes, among whom he went by the name
of Pyrrha. The Greeks having been apprised by Calchas the priest
of Apollo, that Troy could not be taken without the assistance of
Achilles, dispatched Ulysses, Diomedes and Agyrtes to discover
his retreat, and persuade him to join their united forces. Suspect-
ing where he might probably be found, they sailed to Scyros in the
character of merchants, having provided themselves with trinkets,
implements of female industry and a few warlike instruments.
This stratagem suggested by Ulysses succeeded, for, when the
daughters of Lycomedes and their companions saw the articles
of merchandize, they each made choice of various ornaments of
dress; Achilles 1 on the contrary, fired at the sight of the armour,
and forgetting that he had assumed the dress and manners of a
female, with great eagerness seized upon a shield and spear, by
which action he was discovered, and consequently obliged to join
the Greeks in their war against Troy.2 This subject seems to have
1 Statins, Achill. ii. 178, et seqq. 2 Apollodor. Bibliotliec. iii. 13, Ovid.
Met. xiii. 1. 162, et seqq. Hygin. fab. 96. Philostrat. Jun. Icon. i.