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Stanisław Wyspiański Achilleis [ 1st edition, 1903].

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Stanislaw Wyspianski
Achilleis

Kraków 1903 first edition
Printed in the printing house of the Univ. of Jag. by the author
Composition at Gebethner's bookstore
172(2)p., no pre-title page
o. contemporary
p. bdb strengthening pages
For. ca: 19x13.5 cm

"Achilleis. Dramatic Scenes - a drama by Stanislaw Wyspianski based on the Iliad, written in 1903, first performed on stage in 1925.

The plot revolves around the siege and fall of Troy, the construction is loose, based on rapid changes of plan and sharply contrasting scenes in terms of mood. The work is an expression of the continuation of Wyspianski's youthful interest in antiquity, and at the same time of the transformation of views on antiquity from the classical vision (expressed by Winckelmann) to a new one, based on the thought of Friedrich Nietzsche, expressed in The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music, referring more to archaic Greece than Hellenistic Greece and seeing pessimism, tragedy and heroism in it. A manifestation of this change of perspective on antiquity is the departure in Wyspianski's work from the side late Hellenistic myths (Meleager, Protesilas and Laodamia) to the original myths of Homeric heroes. The myth in Achilleis ceases to perform the purely aesthetic and plot-creating function typical of 19th century literature, and instead begins to perform a culture-creating function."