Education of Achilles
By Selen Frantz
April 15, 2026
April 15, 2026
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Chiron—
emerging from back-
ground to foreground, forearm extended in a sweeping motion, cupping the air above Achilles’ fair complexion and holding the darkness at bay in its distance. The boy / student / proverb—
marble-skinned and studying
the corners formed by a body in motion with his downturned eyes, young and unsure under the intersection of bronze-tipped arrows. Mimicking his mentor, their arms stretch towards each bow, reaching past their sides like a mother over the river. A sourceless light—
falls upon the scene,
highlighting each budding muscle and the curve of a wine-colored cloth. Its contour leads away from the hip, past a supple thigh and towards an ankle outstretched, heel reaching for the lyre, for the edge of darkness— an unknowing step
into certainty. |
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Selen Frantz is an urban planner from Detroit and is currently the William T. Battrick Poetry Fellow at Oberlin College. Their work has appeared in Lucky Jefferson, BarBar, Meniscus, Prime Number Magazine, and elsewhere.
Instagram: @a.j.frantz
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Author’s Note:
This piece was written in response to the painting “Education of Achilles” by Baron Jean Baptiste Regnault, currently housed at the Detroit Institute of Arts. I try to balance ideas of security and the unknown, giving the reader something to hold onto with assonance before disrupting stability through mid-phrase enjambment. I have long been fascinated by myths that involve characters trying to circumvent faith and was taken by how Achilles’ heel is so bare and unprotected in this painting, the viewer’s eye being drawn towards it through Regnault’s lighting and gestural decisions.