"Chironis exemplum": on teachers and surrogate fathers in "Achilleid" and "Silvae"

If Statius studied in his own father's school, he will have been well read not only in Homer but in Greek poetry from Pindar to Hellenistic epic and other genres. So one of his early memories may have been the moment in Apollonius when Chiron comes down from Mount Pelion to the shore to send off his pupil Jason, dipping his feet (human feet, not hooves) in the sea foam, wav ing his broad hand and repeatedly bidding the Argonauts a safe and trouble free return (vocttov 6Treucj)T||i/r|(iev a/in] pea vux CTo^evoiaxv); with him came Chariclo holding up the infant Achilles to display him to his father on shipboard. (Arg. 1.553 8). Archaic Greek tradition knew two versions of Achilles' upbringing: in one Peleus and Thetis reared him together as a young child, bringing him to Chiron only as a young lad for advanced education; in the other Thetis left Peleus, and she alone brought the infant to Chiron to rear.2 Naturally this version was more in keeping with the focus of Statius' Achilleid, which moves from Thetis's fears of the Greek expedition to her counter meas ure of hiding Achilles on Scyros. In general — given the ancient fascination with adolescent boys the imagination of poets was kindled by the young hero's preparation for manhood rather than by his infancy. Different Greek traditions had included among the disciplines taught by Chiron medicine (since Homer), mousike (poetry sung to the lyre), astronomy, and the physical arts of hunting and combat along with the moral precepts of the Hesiodic Chironos Hypotheke. All these recur in Statius' comple mentary narratives of Achilles' education, which would remain favourite reading in late antiquity and the Middle Ages.3 Statius'