ABSTRACT
Combining this text with epigraphic and other literary evidence, D.D. Hughes argues that late antique citizen bodies and other social groups continued to worship their national heroes as a means of legitimising territorial claims or bolstering their received religious traditions against the rising tide of a new universal faith. 2 It is along the lines of the latter hypothesis that I would interpret the growing popularity of Achilles in late antiquity. Indicative of this is the considerable number of dishes, domestic utensils and private objects in marble, silver, bronze, terracotta and other materials which present scenes from the hero's life cycle1 or refer to specific events in his career.4 To these can now be added a superb series of ivory plaques with an
Achilles life-cycle from the 360s, discovered in 2002 in Eleutherna (Crete) by Petros Themelis.5 Not merely a symbol of sanctity, but an active benefactor of humanity through his miracles, Achilles acquired a privileged position at the epicentre of Neoplatonic piety. In A.D. 375 the Eleusinian hierophant Nestorius received instructions in a dream that the city of Athens should offer Achilles public honours, and after his failure to persuade the authorities to do so, he fashioned a miniature temple with a statue of the hero and placed it at the feet of the cult statue of Athena at the Parthenon. Subsequently Nestorius performed the traditional rites - n:A.wv 8£ rft 8£0 ra ouv~81'] Kara raurov Kat rQ ~pun ra £yvWGf.Hfva oi Kara 8EGf10V Errpan£ - and thereby saved Attica from the effects of an earthquake. This important event was duly celebrated by the Neoplatonic diadochus Syrianus in the now lost hymn he composed in honour of Achilles." Of all the Homeric heroes it was the two central figures of the epic, Achilles and Odysseus, who were re-interpreted as holy figures struggling through life's tribulations to achieve spiritual perfection, and worshipped as such within the framework of monotheistic paganism.7
