The Power of Thetis

The Power of Thetis
Author: Laura M. Slatkin
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 164
Release: 1991
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780520203556

We have long recognized in the Iliad the hallmarks of the oral, traditional poet who chooses among alternative arrangements of formulaic elements. In The Power of Thetis, Laura M. Slatkin makes us aware of another compositional resource, just as crucial to our understanding of the meaning of Homeric epic. Slatkin shows how, through the selection and combination of mythic motifs, Homer interprets mythological traditions and locates his characters within them by allusion or oblique reference. The figure of Thetis, the mother of Achilles, provides an especially revealing example of the way in which such mythological resonance contributes a wider context and meaning to the epic's central themes. Slatkin teaches us to listen for what is unspoken as well as spoken in the poetry of Homer, and thereby confronts us with the larger questions of the function of epic and its boundaries as a genre.

The Staying Power of Thetis

The Staying Power of Thetis
Author: Maciej Paprocki
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 579
Release: 2023-04-27
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 3110678519

In 1991, Laura Slatkin published The Power of Thetis: Allusion and Interpretation in the Iliad, in which she argued that Homer knowingly situated the storyworld of the Iliad against the backdrop of an older world of mythos by which the events in the Iliad are explained and given traction. Slatkin’s focus was on Achilles’ mother, Thetis: an ostensibly marginal and powerless goddess, Thetis nevertheless drives the plot of the Iliad, being allusively credited with the power to uphold or challenge the rule of Zeus. Now, almost thirty years after Slatkin’s publication, this timely volume re-examines depictions and receptions of this ambiguous goddess, in works ranging from archaic Greek poetry to twenty-first century cinema. Twenty authors build upon Slatkin’s readings to explore Thetis and multiple roles she played in Western literature, art, material culture, religion, and myth. Ever the shapeshifter, Thetis has been and continues to be reconceptualised: supporter or opponent of Zeus’ regime, model bride or unwilling victim of Peleus’ rape, good mother or child-murderess, figure of comedy or monstrous witch. Hers is an enduring power of transformation, resonating within art and literature.

The Power of Thetis and Selected Essays

The Power of Thetis and Selected Essays
Author: Laura M. Slatkin
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2011
Genre: Epic poetry, Greek
ISBN: 9780674021433

Slatkin's influential book explores the superficially minor role of Thetis in the Iliad, showing how our awareness of alternative myths brings a far greater understanding of Thetis's place in the Epic's thematic structure. This edition also includes six additional essays, which cover a broad range of topics in the study of the Greek Epic.