Facing Achilles in two lessons, heroic characterization in Quintus of Smyrna, Posthomerica 1 and 2

The Posthomerica of Quintus of Smyrna narrates the end of the Trojan War in 14 books that are generally considered to be episodic. However, the overall plot coherence of the epic is carefully designed to go well beyond a dry succession of individual stories. This article offers a comparative study of the first two books, which treat the heroic deeds of the Amazon queen Penthesilea and Eos' son Memnon, respectively. The remarkably parallel composition of both books is in stark contrast with the strikingly dissimilar characterization of the two protagonists. As such, the beginning of the Posthomerica proposes a diptych of two failing attempts to face Achilles. Both performances indirectly refer to each other and reflect on good and bad practices of heroic behaviour. Simultaneously, they introduce the next episode of the Trojan story, Achilles' own death, and hence reinforce the plot coherence of the epic as a whole.

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