Ancient - Greek verse - epic - tragedy/historical/mythology

I've looked at lyric poetry as a form of Greek verse, and now I will look at Greek epic poetry.

Surviving Greek epic poems generally follow what is known as the 'Epic Cycle' and relate the story of the semi-legendary, semi-historical Trojan War; including the events that happened before, the causes, some of the main battles, and the long aftermath. Many of the epic works survive today only in fragments and are essentially a distillation in literary form of oral traditions of telling stories from before the Ancient classical period. These stories are based upon Greek mythology and contain references to Greek gods and heroes, but are based upon historical events. 19th century archeology confirmed that the Trojan War had some basis in fact, and occured around the 12th century BC in the ancient city of Troy (Ilium), in modern-day Turkey.

The Epic Cycle includes the 'Cypria', the 'Iliad', the 'Aethiopis', the 'Little Iliad' (its later name), the 'Iliu persis', the 'Nostoi', the 'Odyssey', and the 'Telegony'. The 'Iliad' and the 'Odyssey' are the only poems that are completed, and they were both written by the ancient Greek writer Homer. Some scholars leave both Homeric epics out of the cycle, and use the title 'Epic Cycle' to refer to the non-Homer epic. However, I have placed Homer's epics within the cycle to denote the chronological order of events of the Trojan War.

Virgil and Ovid, Roman writers living centuries after Homer, also wrote about the Trojan War. However, they are not included in the Epic Cycle; that is seen as a solely Greek preserve.

The 'Cypria' begins the cycle, and is largely attributed to Stasinus, a semi-legendary ancient Greek poet. The poem comprises 11 books of epic dactylic hexameter verse and was probably composed around the 7th century BC. It is sometimes seen as a 'prequel' to Homer's 'Iliad', which the author was probably familiar with. The original text only survives in fragments, the rest is provided by a prose summary from the unknown 'Proclus' (possibly a grammarian from the 2nd century AD).

The poem begins with the decision of Zeus, the King of the gods, to relieve the Earth of the burden of population through war. The wars against Thebes ensue, but Zeus is still not content.

A wedding takes place between Peleus, a Greek warrior-hero and King of the Myrmidons, and Thetis, a sea nymph. The gods attend the feast and Poseidon, god of the sea and the brother of Zeus, gives Peleus two immortal horses as a present: Balius and Xanthus. Eris, the goddess of discord, was not invited to the feast because she would have caused mischief. Angered by the snub, she arrives with a golden apple from the Garden of Hesperides, a garden of nymphs in northern Africa. She calls the apple the 'Apple of Discord' and inscribes 'to the fairest' on it, before throwing it at the gods and declaring that it belongs to the most beautiful goddess. Hera, goddess of marriage; Athena, goddess of wisdom; and Aphrodite, goddess of love, all declare that the Apple belongs to them and descend into a jealous rivalry with each other.

Over the years Peleus and Thetis have seven sons, only one of whom survives infancy; Achilles. At Achilles' birth, Thetis is so worried over the fate of her only surviving son that she tries to make him immortal. She takes him to the Underworld of Hades, brother of Zeus and Poseidon and god of the Underworld, and dips him in the river Styx to make him invincible. However, she holds him by his heel, which does not enter the river. Thus, Achilles is invincible except for his heel. Peleus gives his son Xanthus as his horse when he comes of age and Achilles grows up to become perhaps the greatest warrior in the world.

Hera, Athena and Aphrodite remain furiously arguing over the Apple of Discord for many years. They ask Zeus to judge who amongst them is the fairest but he declines this offer, knowing he will win the enmity of the other two whomever he chooses. Zeus declares that Prince Paris, son of the King of Troy, will judge who is the fairest. Paris had recently shown his exemplary fairness in a contest where Ares, the god of war, had appeared in bull form and bested Paris' own prize bull. Instead of becoming angered, Paris had graciously awarded the prize to Ares. After bathing in the spring of Mount Ida before Troy, the goddesses appear naked before Paris and ask him to choose who is the fairest, and to give the Apple of Discord to the one he chooses.

Paris inspects the three goddesses, but thinks them all ideally, and equally, beautiful. The goddesses therefore try to bribe him to give them the Apple; Hera offers him power and to make him King of all of Europe in return for the Apple; Athena offers him wisdom and the greatest skill in war in the world in return for the Apple; and Aphrodite offers him the most beautiful woman in the world as his wife - this is Helen of Sparta, the wife of Greek King Menelaus - in return for the Apple. Paris, enamoured of Helen, accepts Aphrodite's gift and gives the Apple to her. Hera and Athena are furious at Paris for this, and swear vengeance against him and the Trojans in general. This event is known as the Judgement of Paris.

Paris then builds ships at Aphrodite's suggestion. Helenus, a Trojan warrior, foretells the future that stealing Helen will cause war, but Paris ignores him. Paris sets sail for mainland Greece with Aeneas, his cousin, and others. In Sparta the Trojans are lavishly greeted and entertained by many Greek heroes, including Tyndareus, Helen's father, and Castor and Polydeuces, Helen's brothers. The next day, King Menelaus departs for Crete, ordering Helen to entertain the guests for as long as they remain. Aphrodite brings Helen and Paris together during Menelaus' departure. Paris and his men then successfully storm Menelaus' palace and Paris takes Helen back with him to Troy as his wife. Some believe Helen went with Paris willingly - he is exceptionally handsome himself; others argue that she was taken by force.

Iris, a goddess messenger, informs Menelaus of Helen's theft at Crete. He returns to Sparta in rage and grief. He soon makes overtures to his elder brother, Agamemnon, the King of Mycenae who is gaining power over the other Greek kings and who some consider the High King of all of Greece. Menelaus pleads with his brother to gather all the Greek kings and plan an attack on Troy to regain Helen and avenge themselves against the Trojans. Agamemnon, who wants to expand his power further, agrees. They decide to bring together all the Greek king. First of all they decide to seek out all the former suitors of Helen, who are among the greatest warriors in Greece, and who all swore an oath to defend the rights of whichever one won her hand in marriage.

They seek out Nestor, King of Pylos and one of Helen's suitors. He was an Argonaut and was the eldest of Helen's suitors. Although he is too old to fight in battle, he agrees to send many Pylos men to Menelaus and Agamemnon's war and to go with them to provide advice. Menelaus and Agamemnon then seek out the rest of the suitors successfully, gathering all of them except for Odysseus, King of Ithaca.

Odysseus tries to avoid the summons of Menelaus and Agamemnon by feigning lunacy. He had heard a prophecy from an oracle that if he went to war, he would suffer a long-delayed return home. Not wishing to suffer leaving his home, wife and young son, he hooks a donkey and an ox to his plough - since they have different stride lengths they cannot plough togethe - and also sows his fields with salt. Agamemnon sends Palamedes, a Greek warrior, to the island of Ithaca to disprove Odysseus' madness. Palamedes places Telemachus, Odysseus' infant son, in front of the plough. Odysseus veers away from his son, thus exposing his sanity. Afterwards, Odysseus finally agrees to go to war with the Greeks, but he holds a grudge against Palamedes for taking him away from his home forever after.

The assembled leaders offer sacrifices at Aulis, where the prophet Calchas warns them that the war will last ten years, and that they will not be able to win it without Achilles, the son of the King of the Myrmidons and perhaps the greatest warrior in the world. The Greek leaders travel to the land of the Myrmidons in mainland Greece. Thetis, Achilles' sea nymph mother, has heard a prophecy that Achilles will either live a long, uneventful life or he will achieve everlasting glory while dying young if he goes to war. Not wanting her son to go, she attempts to disguise Achilles as a woman so the Greek leaders will not recognise him. Odysseus manages to identify the woman as Achilles, because she is the only one of the women who shows an interest in the weapons hidden amongst the gifts the Greek leaders give to the women of the Myrmidons. Odysseus then sounds a battle horn and Achilles clutches a weapon to show his skill in arms and his disguise is lost. Achilles agrees to go with the Greek leaders to war, wanting the everlasting glory prophecised to him. The 'Cypria' ends here.

The next epic to fall in chronological order of the Epic Cycle is Homer's 'Iliad', which takes up the story nearly ten years later, near the end of the Trojan War. There have been many battles and huge losses from both the Greeks and the Trojans, but neither side has managed to prevail over the years and the war has ground to a stalemate. The 'Iliad' (which I will examine at length in another blog post), tells the story of Achilles' argument with Agamemnon, which leads to him taking his Myrmidon soldiers out of the war, before being reconciled to the war effort after Prince Hector, King Priam's eldest son, kills his close companion Patroclus. Achilles then rejoins the war and kills Hector in an epic battle. The 'Iliad' notes many of the battles between the Trojans and Greeks, but stops short of telling the end of the story, although there are glimpses of the end of the war told through prophecy.

After the Iliad comes the 'Aethiopis', which is sometimes attributed to Arctinus of Miletus, a semi-legendary Greek poet. The poem comprises five book of dactylic hexameter, although it is largely lost and survives only in fragments. It was probably composed around the 7th century BC. We are largely dependent on the the summary written much later by the grammarian 'Proclus'.

The 'Aethiopis' begins shortly after the death of the Trojan hero Prince Hector, with the arrival of the Amazon warrior Panthesileia who arrives to support the Trojans. She is glorious in battle against the Greeks, but is eventually killed by Achilles. The Greek warrior Thersites then taunts Achilles, claiming he had been in love with her, and Achilles kills him as well. Achilles is then ritually purified for the murder of Thersites, who was on the same side as him in battle.

Memnon, son of the Titans Eos and Tithonus, leads an Ethiopian contingent into war on the side of the Trojans. The Ethiopians wear armour made by Hephaestus, god of metallurgy. In battle Memnon kills Antilochus, a Greek warrior and son of Nestor, who was a great friend of Achilles. Achilles then kills Memnon, and Zeus makes Memnon immortal at Eos' request. In a rage over Antilochus' death, Achilles pursues the Trojans into the very gates of Troy. He enters the city in glory, but is then killed when Paris, assisted by Apollo, god of the sun, shoots an arrow at him that strikes his heel. Achilles' heel is his one area of weakness where he is not invincible, and the arrow in his heel kills him. Achilles' body is then rescued by Ajax, King of Salamis, and Odysseus, who carry it back to the Greek camp.

The Greeks hold a funeral for Antilochus, and then Achilles. Thetis, Achilles' mother, arrives with her sisters and the Muses to lament over Achilles' body at his funeral. Funeral games are held in his honour, and his armour and weapons are offered as a prize for the greatest warrior in the world. A dispute rages over Achilles' armour between Ajax and Odysseus, who both think they are the most deserving. The 'Aethiopis' ends with this feud unresolved.

The 'Little Iliad' is the next poem in the Epic Cycle. 'Little Iliad' is the later name the poem was given, and it is largely lost and exists only in fragments. It survives mainly in the summary of 'Proclus', written centuries later. It has been attributed to the ancient writers Lesches of Pyrrha, Cinaethon of Sparta, Diodorus of Erythrae and Thestorides of Phocaea. It comprises 4 books of dactylic hexameter, and was probably written in the late 7th century BC.

The 'Little Iliad' opens with the contest between Ajax and Odysseus over Achilles' armour. With the help of Athena, the arms are awarded to Odysseus. Ajax goes insane from the rejection, and attacks the Greeks' herd in his madness. Later, in shame, he kills himself and is buried without full heroic honours because of Agamemnon's fury over the lost Greek herd.

Calchas, the Greek prophect, prophesies that the city of Troy will not fall unless the Greeks recover the arrows of Heracles, the Greek warrior, from the hero Philoctetes, who was left behind on Lemnos when he was bitten by a poisonous snake. Odysseus and Diomedes go to Lemnos to bring back Philoctetes, who is healed of his wounds of Machaeon, a Greek physician.

Philoctetes then fights Paris in single combat and kills him. After Paris' death, Helen is fought over by Deiphobus and Helenus, Paris' brothers. Deiphobus wins and marries her, and the defeated Helenus angrily abandons Troy and moves to Mount Ida.

Odysseus ambushes Helenus and captures him. Helenus, who is also a prophet, reveals that Troy will not fall while it harbours the Palladium, the statue of Athena. Odysseus and Diomedes go into Troy disguised as beggars. They are recognised by Helen, who, wanting an end to the war, tells them where the Palladium is. After killing some Trojans, Odysseus and Diomedes return to the Greek army with the Palladium.

Athena then guides the Greek warrior Epeius to build a giant wooden horse. Odysseus devises a plan to enter the city of Troy: the Greeks will place their best warriors in the horse and then burn their camp, before the bulk of their army withdraws to the nearby island of Tenedos. Once the Trojans bring the horse inside their city the Greek warriors will come out of the horse and open the gates to Troy from the inside, letting the rest of the Greek army (who will return from Tenedos under cover of darkness) into the city.

The Greeks build the horse and hide their warriors within it. They then burn their camp and secretly withdraw to Tenedos. The Trojans see the Greek camp has departed and believe the Greeks have surrendered the war. They see the horse and believe it is a gift from the gods to celebrate their victory. The 'Little Iliad' ends here.

The 'Iliu persis' follows, and tells the story of the sack of Troy. It is sometimes credited to Arctinus of Miletus, but is largely lost. It is written in 2 books of verse in dactylic hexameter and was probably written around the 7th century BC.

The 'Iliu persis' ('Sack of Troy') opens with the Trojans discussing what to do with the giant wooden horse that the Greeks have left behind. Laocoon, a Trojan priest to Poseidon, rules against them bringing the horse into the city. Cassandra, Priam's daughter and Princess of Troy, agrees with him. Cassandra had been a favourite of Apollo, who gave her the gift of prophecy, but when she refused to sleep with him, he cursed her with the fate that no-one would believe her prophesies. Cassandra had prophesied that Paris, her brother, stealing Helen would bring about the destruction of Troy, but no-one had believed her. She had tried to warn him against going to Sparta, but he had ignored her. Later, she had treated Helen with hostility when she first entered Troy, knowing that her presence would cause war and later destruction, and this, coupled with her prophesies that no-one believed, had caused many Trojans to believe her to be mad.

Cassandra prophesied that the Trojan horse contained many Greek warriors, and if they let the horse into the city the Greeks would sack the city and kill many of them. She also predicted that Aeneas, her cousin and a Trojan warrior, would escape the city and later found a new, mightier Trojan city (Rome). However, no-one believed her. The Trojans mocked her and called her a madwoman. Many of the Trojans believe the horse to be a holy relic of Athena, and bring it into the city in a victory parade. Poseidon sends an ill omen of two snakes which kill Laocoon and his sons. Seeing this, Aeneas and his men leave Troy, believing the horse to be a danger (their story is later told in Virgil's 'Aeniad'). Cassandra attempts to set fire to the horse, but she is stopped by the Trojan people.

That night, the Greek warriors inside the horse emerge, and open the city gates to let in the Greek army, which has arrived back from Tenedos in darkness. A massacre occurs as the Greek army sweeps through Troy, ransacking it and burning it to the ground. Many Trojan heroes are taken unawares as they sleep, drunk from the festivities of the previous night, and are killed by the Greeks. Many of the high-ranking Trojan women are taken as captives by the Greeks, to be returned to Greece as concubines.

Menelaus kills Deiphobus and takes back his wife Helen, who he then escorts safely out of the city. Talthybius, the Greek herald, takes Astyanax, Hector's baby son, and throws him from the walls of Troy. Neoptolemus, Achilles' son, then takes Andromache, Hector's wife, as his captive and concubine. The Greeks decide to take Priam's daughter Polyxena back to Achilles' tomb, where she is sacrificed to placate Achilles' angry spirit.

King Priam takes refuge at the altar of Zeus in the main temple of Troy, but Neoptolemus enters and kills him. Priam's daughter Cassandra takes refuge at the altar of Athena, but Ajax 'the Lesser', the Greek king of Locris, drags her from the altar and rapes her. Cassandra is then taken as Agamemnon's captive and concubine.

Troy is destroyed and burnt to the ground by the Greeks, and all the Trojan heroes and warriors are killed and the women are either killed, raped, or taken as concubines. Athena, though an enemy of the Trojans, becomes furious with Ajax the Lesser because of the sacrilege he committed at her altar by raping Cassandra. She demands he be punished, and Odysseus orders that he be stoned to death for his crime. Ajax successfully manages to win enough support to avoid punishment, himself clinging to Athena's statue, but Athena vows revenge against him. The 'Iliu persis' ends with the Greeks victorious in Troy.

The 'Nostoi' ('return home') follows in the Epic Cycle. It is attributed to Agias or Eumelos, semi-legendary poets, but largely only remains in fragments. It comprises 5 books in verse of dactylic hexameter and was probably written around the 6th century BC.

The 'Nostoi' opens with the Greeks victorious in Troy and about to sail back to Greece. Athena is still angered by Ajax the Lesser's sacrilege during the sack of Troy, and Agamemnon remains behind to appease her. Odysseus also remains behind with Athena and Agamemnon, and is given Queen Hecuba, Priam's wife, as a concubine. Neoptolemus is visited by his grandmother, the sea-nymph Thetis, who tells him to remain behind and make many sacrifices to the gods to atone for killing King Priam at the altar of Zeus during the sack of Troy.

Diomedes and Nestor are the first Greeks to leave, and both return safely to Greece. Ajax the Lesser departs, attempting to escape Athena's wrath, but she calls upon both Poseidon and Zeus, who create a storm that hits his ships. He is shipwrecked and killed on the Kapherian rocks in eastern Greece. Menelaus departs with Helen soon after, but they encounter a storm and are blown off course and shipwrecked in Egypt, where they remain marooned.

After a few months Neoptolemus follows his grandmother's advice and returns home with the Myrmidons by land, slowly, paying penance to the gods as he goes. He eventually arrives home, where he is welcomed as a hero by his grandfather King Peleus, and is finally forgiven by the gods.

Odysseus decides to remain behind for a little longer, but Agamemnon decides to leave after believing he has adequately quenched Athena's wrath. He sets sail to depart home to Mycenae with his concubine, Cassandra. Cassandra prophecies that both she and Agamemnon will be killed by Agamemnon's wife and her lover when they return home. She also tells Odysseus that he will spend ten years wandering before he returns home to Ithaca. Both Agamemnon and Odysseus do not believe her.

As Agamemnon prepares to leave, the ghost of Achilles appears to him and corraborates Cassandra's story, telling him he will be killed by his wife and her lover when he returns home, but Agamemnon does not believe him either. Sure enough, when Agamemnon returns home he finds that his wife Clytemnestra has taken Aegisthus, a Greek warrior who refused to go to Troy, as her lover. Clytemnestra and Aegisthus then kill Agamemnon and Cassandra. Aegisthus declares himself King of Mycenae and rules for several years, before he and Clytemnestra are killed by Orestes, Agamemnon and Clytemnestra's son, who avenges his father.

Menelaus and Helen are marooned on an island off Egypt for several years before then manage to return home to Sparta.

Odysseus is the last to leave Troy. His concubine Hecuba goes mad at the thought of all her dead children and is turned into a dog by the gods so she can escape. She runs off across the beaches of Troy, and Odysseus lets her go. When Odysseus eventually does leave Troy he takes the longest by far to return to Greece. The 'Nostoi' ends where, and gives no account of Odysseus' later story.

Odysseus' ten-year journey from Troy to Ithaca is told in detail in Homer's 'Odyssey', which forms the next tale in the Epic Cycle. The Odyssey (which I will describe in another blog) tells the story of Odysseus' long return from Troy, where he encounters a cyclops, sorceresses, sirens, monsters and sea nymphs, before eventually returning home. When he arrives back in Ithaca he finds his wife Penelope, who has remained faithful to him, surrounded by suitors who want to marry her and claim themselves King of Ithaca. Odysseus and his son Telemachus successfully defeat the suitors and Odysseus reclaims Penelope and Ithaca.

The 'Telegony' ends the Epic Cycle. It is attributed to Eugammon of Cyrene, a semi-legendary Greek poet, although it only remains in fragments. It is written in two books of verse in dactylic hexameter and was written around the 6th century BC.

The 'Telegony' opens with the burial of Penelope's suitors, who have been killed by Odysseus and his son Telemachus. Odysseus has reclaimed Ithaca and Penelope, and now rules in peace. A few years later Odysseus travels to Thesprotia, the most westerly point of Greece, at the behest of the spirit of Tiresias, who he saw in the Underworld on his visit there during his travels. Tiresias told him to make sacrifices to the gods here, which Odysseus does. He then fights for the Thesprotians in a war against the neighbouring Brygoi. Ares attempts to destroy them, but Athena, ever Odysseus' champion, counters this. Apollo intervenes between the battling gods and the Thesprotians are victorious. Odysseus then returns to Ithaca.

Meanwhile, it transpires that Circe, the sorceress that Odysseus lived with for a year and who was his lover for a time, has given birth to his son, Telegonus, who has grown up with Circe on the island of Aeaea. Athena advises Circe to tell Telegonus the name of his father. She gives him a supernatural spear to defend himself which is tipped with the sting of a poisonous stingray made by Hephaestus.

Whilst Telegonus is out sailing a storm forces him onto Ithaca. Starving, he begins stealing Odysseus' cattle. Odysseus defends his property and fights Telegonus. During the fight, Telegonus stabs Odysseus with his spear, fulfilling Tiresias' prophecy that Odysseus would meet his death from 'out of the sea' (the poison of the stingray). As Odysseus is dying Telegonus recognises him as his father and laments his mistake. Telegonus brings Odysseus' body, Penelope and Telemachus back to Aeaea, where Odysseus is buried with full heroic honours and Circe makes the others immortal. Telegonus marries Penelope and Telemachus marries Circe.

In other versions of the story Telegonus sails with Odysseus to Aeaea before he dies, and Circes saves him from death. He, Circe, Telegonus, Penelope and Telemachus remain on Aeaea, where they live peacefully. Telemachus later marries Circe, but Telegonus is happy remaining unwed. Odysseus dies later, when he reaches a very old age, and is buried with full heroic honours. This fulfils Tiresias' other prophecy that Odysseus would die a 'gentle death', when he is in 'sleek old age'.