The example of Achilles in Plutarch’s Greek bioi.

The analysis of Plutarch’s bioi shows a sizeable presence of the hero Achilles as a role model for his heroic, moral and physical virtues: the character recurs in seventeen instances across nine bioi; he appears most frequently in the lives of basileis Alexander and Pyrrhus. In particular, in the latter’s bios, Achilles is an ancestor of the king of Epirus, as corroborated by historiographic and iconographic sources. This was meant to ennoble his ligneage and to turn him into a heroic model to whom compare oneself, as was the case with Alexander. As for the Macedonian basileus, Achilles also becomes the god-hero, to whom address sacrifices before embarking upon a military expedition in Asia, which was heavily promoted as the conquer of a new Troy. Overall, owing to a thorough depiction of the hero, Plutarch is arguably very knowledgeable about Achilles, who was a pivotal character in the events surrounding the besiege of Troy. These events were accurately reported in the Iliad, which is often and carefully referenced. Hence, the hero is a fundamental model and a point of reference, in order to emphasize the behavior of those characters that were held in high regard by the Cheronea’s biographer: Achilles is now an educational paradigm, a pious man directing his prayers to the gods, a brave and strong warrior, an example of physical and moral virtues. Particular attention will be devoted to the issue of what sources were used by Plutarch, and at the same time, to the repercussions on the same characters that Plutarch’s opus would have in subsequent historiography.