Little Iliad

"''Ἴλιον ἀείδω καὶ Δαρδανίην εὔπςλον, ἧς πέρι πόλλα πάθον Δαναοὶ θεράποντες Ἄρηος."

- The Little Iliad

The fourth installment in The Trojan Cycle, a lost work.

The Little Iliad (Ἰλιὰς μικρά) follows, dealing with the question of how the Achaeans will take Troy now that Achilles is dead. Similarly to the Aethiopis, it seems to have been written sometime in the seventh century BC.

With the funeral games of Achilles ended, his armour is given to Odysseus according to Athena's wish. Ajax, who perhaps justly feels he deserved to receive the armour, is enraged by this. Athena drives him insane so that attacks the Achaean's livestock rather than the Achaean leaders themselves, and he eventually commits suicide, leaving the Achaean army short two powerful warriors instead of one.

Odysseus then captures the Trojan seer Helenus, who prophesies what they must do in order to capture Troy. The Achaeans do as he says, sending Diomedes to bring Philoctetes back, whom they abandoned nine or so years ago during the expedition to Troy. Somehow Philoctetes is convinced to rejoin them, where his wound is finally healed. The warrior is quick to kill Paris once he is brought to Troy, and Deiphobus, another prince of Troy, marries Helen.

Odysseus, meanwhile, goes to Scyros where Achilles had fathered Neoptolemus after the Achaean fleet was scattered on its first journey. He brings the boy to Troy and gives him his father's armour, and Neoptolemus sees the ghost of Achilles. Neoptolemus slays another newly arrived Trojan ally, Eurypylus, the son of Telephos.

Because the Achaeans still can't get into the city, Athena inspires Epeios to construct the Trojan Horse. A disguised Odysseus sneaks into Troy to gather information and encounters Helen, who does not alert the Trojans but rather agrees with Odysseus for the Achaeans to take Troy.

Odysseus kills more Trojans on his way out, and then he and Diomedes carry out Helenus's prophecy by stealing the Palladion, a statue of Athena upon which Troy's safety depended.

The major Achaean warriors are hidden in the Trojan Horse and, with all the pieces in place, the Achaeans destroy their campsites and pretend to withdraw for good.

The Trojans believe they are finally freed of the years of war, and they take the Trojan Horse into the city -- dismantling part of their wall to do so!-- and begin to celebrate.

Proclus's summary ends here, but other works say that the Little Iliad ended with an account of the sack, with slight differences from the account given in the Sack of Ilion.

Ancient fragments on the Little Iliad, including Proclus's summary, are available in English here.


 * Achaean Army Cliffhanger: According to Proclus's summary, the epic ends with the Trojan guard down and the Achaeans poised to ravage the city.
 * The Archer: Because Philoctetes is back.
 * Arranged Marriage: Helen's marriage to Deiphobus was probably this.
 * Because Destiny Says So: Why the Achaeans need to find Neoptolemus and Philoctetes, and capture the Palladion.
 * The Chosen Ones: It's prophesied that Troy won't fall to Greece without the aid of Neoptolemus and Philoctetes.
 * Continuity Snarl: The sack narrated in this epic is slightly different from the one in the Sack of Ilion. Aeneas, for instance, is captured by the Achaeans and taken by Neoptolemus, and the son of Achilles is the one to kill Astyanax.
 * Darkest Hour: The people of Troy have entered theirs.
 * Dead Person Conversation: When Neoptolemus receives Achilles's armour, he sees the ghost of his father.
 * Dramatic Irony: Oh so much.
 * Driven to Suicide: Ajax.
 * Guile Hero: Odysseus.
 * Hollywood Healing: Philoctetes has been wounded for nine years. He arrives at Troy and suddenly, he's healed.
 * Insane Equals Violent: Ajax, who briefly goes mad and attacks the Achaean's plundered flock.
 * The Infiltration: Odysseus's recon of Troy.
 * I Surrender, Suckers: The Achaean's feigned retreat.
 * Made a Slave: Many after the sack, such as Hecuba and Andromache.
 * The Medic: Machaon, who successfully heals Philoctetes's nine year old wound.
 * No One Gets Left Behind: They come back for Philoctetes! So it's all good, right?
 * One Sided Battle: Probably the case when the Achaeans emerge from the Trojan Horse.
 * Playing Both Sides: Helen seems to be doing this. When she realises the Achaeans are going to take the city, she's perfectly happy to let them.
 * Rape, Pillage and Burn: The sack of Troy.
 * Red Shirt: Probably plenty of people, particularly the Trojans Odysseus slays on his way out of Troy.
 * Right Under Their Noses: When Odysseus sneaks into Troy.
 * Romancing the Widow: When Paris is killed, the Trojans don't conclude that maybe they should finally return Helen. Nope; Paris's brother, Deiphobus, marries her instead.
 * Schmuck Bait: The Trojan Horse, built tall enough that the Trojans need to dismantle part of their wall if they want to get it into the city.
 * Seers: Helenus.
 * Sole Survivor: A surviving quotation from the epic specifies that Aeneas was spared (odd considering that the Achaeans slew all the men of Troy) and was taken by Neoptolemus.
 * Starts with a Suicide: Namely, Ajax's.
 * Take Up My Armour: Neoptolemus is given Achilles's armour and brought to aid the Achaeans against Troy.
 * Trojan Horse
 * Turncoat: It seems Helen couldn't care less about Troy after Paris is killed.
 * What Happened to Philoctetes?: Remember him, from the Cypria? Apparently he's just been chilling on Lemnos for nine years, with a wound that refuses to heal...
 * Would Hurt a Child: A quotation from the epic describes Neoptolemus throwing Hector's child, Astyanax, from the walls.
 * You Killed My Father: Paris killed Achilles (with Apollo's help). Neoptolemus arrives at Troy and nearly immediately kills Paris.


 * Aeschylus's
 * Philoctetes, a lost play about the Achaeans' attempt to get Philoctetes to Troy.
 * The Phrygian Women, a lost play seemingly part of a trilogy about Ajax's madness.
 * The Salaminian Women, a lost play and possibly the third part of a trilogy about Ajax's madness and suicide.
 * Euripides's
 * Epeios, a lost play likely focused on Epeios, the architect of the Trojan horse.
 * Philoctetes, a lost play (see Aeschylus's version).
 * Sophocles's
 * Philoctetes, yet another version of the story also done by Aeschylus and Euripides.
 * Ajax, a tragedy about the madness of Ajax after Achilles's armour is awarded to Odysseus rather than him, and his subsequent suicide.
 * Lacaenae, a lost play believed to have followed the theft of the Palladium by Diomedes and Odysseus.
 * Part of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Book XIII includes the debate over Achilles's arms and Ajax's subsequent death.