The Ancient Greek Rants
TROJAN WAR BOOKS  | AENIED  | ARMOUR  |  MORTALITY
   
11/05/13
TROJAN WAR BOOKS

The books of the Trojan cycle are "Cypria" written by Stasinus about one hundred years after Homer wrote the Iliad, it is the tale of lead up to the war, Paris choosing who gets the apple (Hera, Aphrodite or Athena), Agamemnon sacrificing his daughter to sail to Troy, Briseis and Chyseis becoming slaves, etc. Then there's the Iliad.

After the Iliad is the Aethiopis written around the same time by Arctinus. Here is where Achilles is slain by Paris. Odysseus and Ajax fight over his armor, Odysseus wins, Ajax goes nuts and kills himself.

The Little Iliad rehashes the battle over Achilles' armor and the suicide of Ajax, Paris is killed, Helen marries Deiphobus, and the infamous horse is brought to Troy. Here is where Astyanax (Hector's son) is thrown from the walls and killed and Andromache is taken as a slave. Written by Lesches.

The Sack of Ilium (Troy), written one hundred years before Little Iliad by Arctinus. Priam is killed by Achilles' son Neoptolemos, Ajax the lesser rapes Cassandra, Achilles' son claims Andromache as a slave, and its revealed that Odysseus is the one to murder Astyanax (the reason being he might grow up to avenge his father). Menelaus reclaims Helen.

Next is The Returns by Agias, written about the same time as The Iliad. Everyone returns home, Achilles' ghost tells Agamemnon about his fate, and he is murdered by his children. Helen and Menelaus make it home and live happily ever after.

Then there's The Odyssey, written by Homer twenty five years or so after The Iliad. Then there's the Telegony, written two hundred, three hundred years after the Iliad by Eugammon. Odyssesus returns to Ithica, is killed, and made immortal.

Then there's the Aenid by Virgil, written well after Homer's epics. Here Aeneus founds Rome. And since the Romans then conquer the Greeks, I find that poetic justice!

 
   
 

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