Liminalità e trasformazione dell'identità del personaggio letterario nel mito epico: Achille, figura in limine nella poesia latina di Stazio

This paper reflects on liminality concept applied to Latin epic poetry. The limen is a stimulating subject, useful, in a transversal prospective, to many fields study, including the literary one. Thus, the limit will be identified as a liminal dimension of the mythical character in Latin poetry. In the Achilleid, Statius lingers on the narration of the pre-Iliadic life of the Homeric hero, who lives an in limine experience during his youth and that allows him the metamorphosis from a mythical-literary status to the other. I will also try to interpret the poetic verse in a social and cultural key, reading the adventures ‘at the limit’ of Achilles as a literary expression of the initiation rites of the young ephebes of the ancient Greek civilization.