La metamorfosi per amore dell'eroe in armis acerrimus. La fabula di Achille e Polissena in Darete Frigio.

in the rewriting of epic material proposed in the "De excidioTroiae" and in the "Ephemeris belli Troiani", the romance between Achilles and Polyxena is one of the most important innovations. This contribution proposes a comparative reading of this fabula within the two works, identifying consonances and dissonances. The reinterpretation of the Homeric Achilles in the elegiac perspective conducted in the "De excidio Troiae", the intertextual interferences (mainly Ovid) and the topic of erotic literature put an end to the heroism of Achilles and put him closer to anti-heroic characters, such as Andromache, inclined to love rather than to war. The choice of the Homeric hero even to start negotiations for peace with the enemy because of his love for Polyxena, results in the parodic degradation of the heroic universe: there is a symmetry, emphasized by linguistic indicators, with the best-known romance between Paris and Elena, which is the cause of the Trojan War