The education of Achilles

Jean-Guillaume BERVIC,

after Jean-Baptiste REGNAULT 

France

End of 18th – beginning of 19th century  

Etching on laid paper 

Deposit from the Franco-American museum at the Château de Blérancourt, 1977

Inv. DSa1

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Achilles is the son of Thetis, a Nereid (sea nymph), and of Peleus, king of Phthia in Thessaly. As many other heroes, his education is entrusted to the centaur Chiron. Indeed Chiron, the only immortal centaur, is known for his immense wisdom and his vast knowledge. He teaches Achilles music, medicine and the secret of medicinal plants, but also a moral education based on justice, resisting one’s passions and moderation. Achilles becomes the true model of the “perfect hero”. In order to give him the power of animals, he feeds him some of their parts:  bowels of lions and boars, marrow of wolves and bears.

His teaching also entails a physical education: Achilles must defeat many wild animals bare hands and must know how to use weapons, ride and hunt.

The etching presented here shows Chiron teaching archery to Achilles. At their feet is a lyre and a dead bear, symbolizing the different fields mastered by the Greek hero. Behind them on the stones there is the drawing of a snake, a sacred animal referring to knowledge but maybe also to the island of Leuce, also called Snake Island, where the cult of Achilles was the strongest during antiquity.