Book excerpt: Tirso de Molina has been the subject of less than half as much scholarly research as either of his Golden Age counterparts, Lope de Vega and Calderón de la Barca. Tirso's only mythological play, El Aquiles, remains one of the least studied of his plays, and when studied, is generally considered in isolation from the rest of his dramatic production. The Achillean Hero in the Plays of Tirso de Molina traces the development of the figure of the Achillean hero in three of Tirso's plays, El Aquiles, La vida y muerte de Herodes, and La venganza de Tamar, and in doing so connects the early mythological play to the dramatist's later works.