Styx Dipping: Revisiting a Mother’s Nightmares (Achil. 1.133–34)

In this note, I offer a supplementary reading of lines 133–34 of Statius’ Achilleid, concerned with Thetis’ nightmarish visions that see her dipping Achilles for a second time into the river Styx. I argue that she visualizes herself as carrying the dead body of her son, and submerging him herself into the river’s awful waters. Moreover, while prevailing interpretations have primarily concentrated on the veiled joke lurking behind these lines (namely, that the goddess did not make her son fully impenetrable), I suggest seeing a more direct allusion to Achilles’ mortal destiny.