ABSTRACT
The representation and presence of the shoe in the myth of Achilles on the island of Skyros is significant. It appears as an iconographic motif in mural paintings, mosaics, sarcophagi and silverware. It distinguishes sexual identity and prominence in the composition. In this mythological episode, it is important to note the presence of Achilles’ famous ‘lost’ slipper, or monosandalos, as a surprising number of works represent this shoe. When Achilles reveals his true identity before King Lycomedes’ court, he always wears one shoe, with his other foot bare. This loss of the slipper is perhaps due to the hero’s hastiness when he took up arms, quickly removing his female disguise and covering himself with the finery of a warlike hero. This loss also draws attention to another important theme: death. Achilles died from an arrow wound received in his heel. His representation barefoot is a way of showing the tragic fate of the Trojan hero. There is an interesting comparison to be made between the literary and artistic sources highlighting the absence or presence of the lost slipper. For example, Pompeian painting does not represent this shoe unlike mosaics or silverware. Although Achilles has a divine nature thanks to his mother Thetis, his heel is a point of vulnerability. The fact that this episode is often represented on sarcophagi is significant. It evokes the transition of a symbolic death with Achilles’ metamorphosis from a woman into a hero-warrior and his real death at Troy. It is not the character of the monosandalos itself that matters, but the idea, the belief that it underpins. This picture of Achilles’ revelation on Skyros therefore expresses a transition, a rite of passage, towards various statuses.
