39,327
edits
The Trojan Cycle: Difference between revisions
m
Mass update links
m (Dai-Guard moved page The Trojan Cycle (Literature) to The Trojan Cycle over redirect: Remove TVT Namespaces from title) |
m (Mass update links) |
||
Line 1:
{{work}}
Ever heard of an ancient conflict called [[The Trojan War]]? Quite a story, really. And then there's [[
Something's missing -- namely, the first nine years of the war, the actual ''end'' of the war, and associated myths. Surely they weren't just floating about in the [[Oral Tradition]] until [[Aeschylus
As it happens, they weren't. It turns out that the ''The Iliad'' and the ''The Odyssey'' were not the only epics which pulled together the tales of the Trojan War. In fact, there were '''eight''':
* ''Cypria''
* ''[[
* ''Aethiopis''
* ''Little Iliad''
* ''Sack of Ilion''<ref>([[Spell My Name
* ''Returns''<ref>([[Spell My Name
* ''[[
* ''Telegony''
Line 35:
[[Directionless Driver|They get lost]], attack the wrong place, and are scattered by a storm. When they finally reconvene, Agamemnon annoys Artemis and is forced to sacrifice his daughter to her (except the goddess relents and whisks her away instead).
At first this second attempt to reach Troy doesn't go well: a warrior, Philoctetes, is bitten by a water snake and left behind on Lemnos because his comrades can't stand the stench of his wounds. So much for [[No One Gets Left Behind]]. But eventually the Achaeans '''do''' make it to Troy, and the ''Cypria'' follows the events of the war up until the last year, which is then related in the ''[[
Ancient fragments on the ''Cypria'', including Proclus's summary, are avaliable in English [http://omacl.org/Hesiod/cypria.html here].
Line 51:
* [[Disproportionate Retribution]]: Agamemnon claims to surpass Artemis; she forces him to sacrifice his daughter. [[Sarcasm Mode|Perfectly reasonable, right]]?
* [[Divine Date]]: Peleus's marriage to Thetis.
* [[How Do You Like Them Apples?]]: The golden apple Strife uses to cause, well, [[Exactly What It Says
* [[Human Sacrifice]]: Artemis demands that Agamemnon sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia, before she allows the Achaeans to sail to Troy. (Then she changes her mind and snatches her away to Tauris.)
* [[Immortality]]: Either only Polydeuces is immortal, or [[Sibling Team|he and Castor]] share their immortality.
Line 69:
=== Works derived from the myths of the ''Cypria'': ===
* [[
** ''Iphigenia'', a lost play on the sacrifice of Iphigenia at Aulis.
** ''Telephos'', a lost play likely about Telephos, who was wounded and then healed by Achilles when the Achaeans made their first attempt to sail to Troy.
* [[
** ''Iphigenia in Aulis'', recounting how she was lured to Aulis and seemingly sacrificed.
** ''Iphigenia in Tauris'', following her life after Artemis whisks her away to Tauris.
Line 79:
** ''Scyrians'', a lost play concerned with Thetis's hiding Achilles among the daughters of the king of Scyros (knowing that if he went to Troy, he would die), and Odysseus's discovery of him there.
** ''Telephos'', a lost play and Euripides's version of the story of Telephos, also recounted by Aeschylus.
* [[
** ''The Gathering of the Achaeans'', which has also been lost and was probably a satyr play, concerned with the gathering of the Achaeans at Tenedos before setting sail for Troy.
** ''Alexandros'', a lost play probably similar to Euripides's ''Alexandros'', focused on Paris's childhood and his recognition as a son of Priam.
Line 94:
εὔχεαι εἶναι;”|The ''Aethiopis''<ref>“Who and from where (are) you, woman? The child of whom / do you claim to be?”</ref>}}
The ''Aethiopis'' (''Αἰθιοπίς'') follows after the events of the ''[[
Penthesilea, an [[Action Girl|Amazon]] and a [[Divine Parentage|daughter of Ares]], is the first to arrive to aid Troy. She kills countless Achaeans until Achilles bests her. Achilles then strikes and kills a Achaean soldier, Thersites, for jeering at him about an alleged love for the Amazon.
Line 116:
* [[Death Is Dramatic]]: Chasing the ''entire Trojan army'' into the city, taken down by Paris only with the help of Apollo? Achilles is just that [[Badass]].
* [[Divine Parentage]]: Multiple characters, notably Achilles and the new Trojan allies, Penthesilea and Memnon.
* [[Doomed
* [[Due to
* [[Dying Moment of Awesome]]: Achilles, while chasing the entire Trojan army into the city.
* [[Either/Or Prophecy]]: Achilles's is fulfilled here. He's [[Doomed
* [[Ending Memorial Service]]: The epic ends with the funeral games of Achilles.
* [[Hot Amazon]]: Penthesilea.
Line 137:
=== Works derived from the myths of the ''Aethiopis'': ===
* [[
** ''Memnon'', a lost play about Memnon's arrival to aid the Trojans, whom Achilles kills. This leads to Achilles's own death at the hands of Apollo and Paris.
** ''Psychostasia'', another lost play on the weighing of souls between Achilles and Memnon.
** ''The Award of the Arms'', a lost play on the contest for the arms of Achilles after his death. Also possibly the first of a trilogy concerned with Ajax's maddness.
* Part of [[
----------
Line 175:
* [[Because Destiny Says So]]: Why the Achaeans need to find Neoptolemus and Philoctetes, and capture the Palladion.
* [[The Chosen One|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''. [[The Aeneid
* [[Darkest Hour]]: The people of Troy have entered theirs.
* [[Dead Person Conversation]]: When Neoptolemus recieves Achilles's armour, he sees the ghost of his father.
Line 196:
* [[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 [[The Aeneid
* [[Starts
* [[Take Up My Sword|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
* [[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.
=== Works derived from the myths of the ''Little Iliad'': ===
* [[
** ''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.
Line 213:
** ''Epeios'', a lost play likely focused on Epeios, the architect of the Trojan horse.
** ''Philoctetes'', a lost play (see Aeschylus's version).
* [[
** ''[[
** ''[[
** ''Lacaenae'', a lost play believed to have followed the theft of the Palladium by Diomedes and Odysseus.
* Part of [[
----------
Line 231:
This third group convinces the others to bring the horse into the city, and the Trojans then celebrate the end of ten years of seige.
During this, two snakes appear and kill Laocoon (a priest of Poseidon) and his two sons. This portent causes [[The Aeneid
The Trojans celebrate into the night, and when the city is finally quiet, the Achaean Sinon signals the others with firebrands. The fleet sails back from Tenedos, the warriors inside the [[Trojan Horse]] are let loose, and the Achaeans fall upon the city.
Line 248:
* [[Death of the Hypotenuse]]: When recovering Helen, Menelaus slays Deiphobus.
* [[Dramatic Irony]]: While the Trojans debate what to do with the horse.
* [[Due to
* [[Exactly What It Says
* [[Fighting for Survival]]: The Trojans.
* [[Final Battle]]: The culmination of ten years of war: the Achaeans are finally within the city and the Trojans are [[Fighting for Survival]]. This is the end.
Line 256:
* [[Kill'Em All]]: The confused Trojans are slaughtered.
* [[Last Stand]]
* [[Libation for
* [[Made a Slave]]: Numerous Trojan women, Hecuba and Andromache in particular.
* [[The Medic]]: Machaon is mentioned in a fragment, though the ''Little Iliad'' [[Continuity Snarl|had him killed in its narrative]].
Line 268:
=== Works derived from the myths of the ''Sack of Ilion'': ===
* [[
** ''Hecuba'', a tragedy set after the fall of Troy, when Hecuba discovers her son, Polydorus's, death and that Polyxena is to be sacrificed at Achilles's tomb.
** ''The Trojan Women'', also set after the fall, which focuses on the death of Astyanax and the allotment of captives to the Achaean warriors.
* [[
** ''Laocoon'', a lost play about the death of the priest of Apollo.
** ''Ajax the Locrian'', a lost play concerned with Ajax, who has dragged off Cassandra and harmed the image of Athena.
* Part of [[
----------
Line 281:
{{quote|δῶρα γὰρ ἀνθρώπων νόον ἤπαφεν ἠδὲ καὶ ἔργα.|The ''Returns''<ref>For gifts delude the minds and actions of men.</ref>}}
So the [[Trojan War]] has come to an end. The next epic in the cycle, the ''Returns'' (''Νόστοι''), deals with [[Exactly What It Says
As the Achaeans prepare to set sail, Athena causes Agamemnon and Menelaus to argue about the coming voyage. Agamemnon chooses to wait a few days in order to appease the goddess's anger (who did not approve of the Achaeans' impious behavior during the sack of Troy), while Diomedes and Nestor set out and safely reach their homelands.
Line 297:
Both Menelaus and Agamemnon do finally reach their homes, but Agamemnon is murdered by his wife, Clytaemestra, and her [[Your Cheating Heart|lover]] Aegisthus. His son, Orestes, eventually returns to his home and avenges his father's murder by killing his mother and her lover.
Meanwhile, Odysseus's return home is chronicled in the following epic, ''[[
Ancient fragments on the ''Returns'', including Proclus's summary, are avaliable in English [http://omacl.org/Hesiod/ret-telg.html here].
Line 307:
* [[Cycle of Revenge]]: Clytaemestra is unhappy with Agamemnon for (seemingly) sacrificing their daughter, Iphigenia. Orestes takes revenge for his father by killing Clytaemestra.
* [[Dead Person Conversation]]: Death hasn't stopped Achilles from chatting with people yet. This is the third epic in a row, and he died way back in the ''Aethiopis''.
* [[Exactly What It Says
* [[Home, Sweet Home]]: At least some of them reach it.
* [[The Homeward Journey]]: Naturally.
* [[Hostile Weather]]: Athena gets Zeus to send a storm after the Achaeans.
Line 326:
=== Works derived from the myths of the ''Returns'': ===
* [[
** ''[[
** ''[[
* [[
** ''Electra'', a tragedy telling another version of the myth behind Aeschylus's ''Libation Bearers''.
** ''Helen'', a tragedy set during the time Menelaus spends in Egypt. It follows an alternate tradition, where the gods for some reason sent the real Helen to Egypt, and [[The Trojan War]] was fought over a phantom (''eidolon'' in Greek).
* [[
** ''[[
----------
Line 341:
ἤσθιεν ἁρπαλέως κρέα τ’ ἄσπετα καὶ μέθυ ἡδύ.|The ''Telegony''<ref>And Odysseus, being an old man, / ate heartily of abundant meat and sweet wine.</ref>}}
[[Something Completely Different|At this point]], we've pretty much wrapped up everything regarding the actual [[Trojan War]]. The ''Telegony'' (''Τηλεγόνεια'') follows ''[[
The epic begins where ''The Odyssey'' left off, and starts with the suitors being buried by their families. After all those years of making his way back home, you would think that Odysseus would want to settle down in Ithaca again, set his kingdom in order, that sort of thing. He faked insanity to try to get out of leaving, after all!
Line 365:
* [[A Man Is Not a Virgin]]: Odysseus.
* [[Antagonist Title]]: Telegonus could be considered an antagonist of sorts, as he ends up killing his father.
* [[Blade
* [[Directionless Driver]]: Telegonus apparently has no idea where he's going.
* [[Divine Parentage]]: Telegonus, the son of Circe.
Line 372:
* [[Immortality]]: Telemachus and Penelope recieve it.
* [[I Will Wait for You]]: We can only assume this is what Penelope did as Odysseus disappeared for however many years ''again''.
* [[Murder
* [[Oedipus Complex]]: Telegonus ''does'' end up killing his father, after all.
* [[Plunder]]: What Telegonus is up to when he's not actively looking for his father. This doesn't end well.
Line 384:
=== Works derived from the myths of the ''Telegony'': ===
* [[
** ''Odysseus Acanthoplex'', a lost play where Odysseus tries to avert fate by banishing Telemachus after learning he would be killed by his son. [[You Can't Fight Fate|It doesn't work]].
----
| |||