The Epic Cycle
Translated
by Gregory Nagy
Proclus’ Summary of the Cypria, attributed to Stasinus of Cyprus
1 Zeus, together
with Themis, plans the Trojan War.
For
Eris, while attending a feast of the gods at the wedding of Peleus, instigates
a feud [neikos] among
Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite about beauty.
They,
by order of Zeus, are led by Hermes to Mount Ida for judgment by Alexandros.
Alexandros
judges for Aphrodite, encouraged by a promise of Helen in marriage.
5 On the advice
of Aphrodite, he has ships built.
Helenos
prophesies to him about what is going to happen.
Aphrodite
tells Aineias [Aeneas] to sail with him.
Then
Kassandra foretells the events of the future.
When
he gets to Lacedaemonia, Alexandros is entertained as a xenos by the sons of Tyndaros,
10 and afterwards by
Menelaos at Sparta.
Alexandros
gives Helen gifts during the feast.
Menelaos
sails off to Crete, telling Helen to provide proper hospitality for their xenoi while he is away.
Aphrodite
brings Helen and Alexandros together.
After
their intercourse, they load up a great many valuables and sail away by night.
15 Hera sends a storm
down upon them.
Landing
at Sidon, Alexandros captures the city.
They
sail to Ilion. Alexandros marries Helen.
In
the meantime, Kastor and Polydeukes are caught stealing the cattle of Idas and
Lynkeus.
20 Kastor is killed by
Idas, but Idas and Lynkeus are killed by Polydeukes.
And
Zeus gives them both immortality on alternate days.
Iris
goes and tells Menelaos what has been happening at home.
He
returns and plans an expedition against Ilion with his brother.
Menelaos
goes to see Nestor.
25 Nestor, in a
digression, tells him the story of how Epopeus seduced and carried off the
daughter of Lykos,
and
the story of Oidipous [Oedipus],
and
the madness of Herakles,
and
the story of Theseus and Ariadne.
Then
they go through Hellas and gather the leaders together.
30 Odysseus pretends to
be insane because he does not want to go to the war.
But
they find him out; on advice of Palamedes, they kidnap his son Telemakhos as a
threat, thus forcing him to go.
The
leaders come together at Aulis to sacrifice.
The
happenings concerning the snake and the sparrows are described.
Kalchas
foretells the future events for them.
35 They put to sea and
land at Teuthrania, and they mistake it for Ilion and destroy it.
Telephos
comes to its aid, and kills Thersandros, son of Polyneikes;
but
he himself is wounded by Achilles.
As
the Achaeans sail away from Mysia a storm comes on them and their ships are
scattered.
Achilles
lands at Skyros and marries Deidameia, daughter of Lykomedes.
40 Telephos, guided by
an oracle, comes to Argos.
Achilles
heals him, in order that he become their guide for the voyage to Ilion.
The
expedition gathers at Aulis for the second time.
Agamemnon
kills a deer on the hunt and boasts that he surpasses even Artemis.
The
goddess gets mênis and holds them back from the voyage by
sending them bad weather.
45 But Kalchas explains
the mênis of
the goddess and tells them to sacrifice Iphigeneia to Artemis.
They
summon her as if for a marriage to Achilles and
are
about to sacrifice her.
But
Artemis snatches her away and carries her to Tauris
and
makes her immortal,
50 meanwhile placing a
deer on the altar instead of the girl.
Then
they sail off to Tenedos.
During
a feast, Philoktetes is stung by a snake
and
because of the bad smell is left behind on Lemnos;
and
Achilles quarrels with Agamemnon
55 because he was
invited too late.
Then
when they disembark at Ilion, the Trojans prevent them
and
Protesilaos is killed by Hektor.
Then
Achilles turns them back and kills Kyknos, son of Poseidon.
And
they bring away the corpses
60 and send an embassy
to the Trojans, demanding Helen and the valuables.
But
since the Trojans do not comply, they besiege them at once.
Going
into the countryside, the Achaeans destroy the surrounding cities.
After
this Achilles longs to have a look at Helen and
Aphrodite
and Thetis arrange a place for them to meet.
65 Then when the
Achaeans are eager to return home, Achilles holds them back.
He
drives off the cattle of Aineias
and
destroys Lyrnessos and Pedasos and many of the surrounding cities
and
he kills Troilos.
Patroklos
takes Lykaon to Lemnos and sells him
70 and from the ransom
Achilles takes Briseis as his prize and Agamemnon, Chryseis.
Then
there is the death of Palamedes
and
Zeus’ plan to relieve the Trojans by pulling Achilles out of the Achaean
alliance
and
a catalogue of all those who fought together against the Trojans.
[The
Iliad follows the Cypria.]
Proclus’ Summary
of the Aithiopis, attributed
to Arctinus of Miletus
[The
Aithiopis, in five
books, follows the Iliad.]
1 The Amazon
Penthesileia, daughter of Ares and Thracian by birth, comes to Troy as an ally
of the Trojans.
In
the middle of her aristeia,
Achilles kills her
and
the Trojans arrange for her funeral.
Thersites,
reviling and reproaching Achilles by saying that he loved Penthesileia, is
killed by Achilles.
5 From this a
quarrel arises among the Achaeans about Thersites’ murder.
After
this, Achilles sails to Lesbos, sacrifices to Apollo, Artemis, and Leto
and
is purified of the murder by Odysseus.
Now
Memnon, son of Eos [Dawn], who owns armor made by Hephaistos, comes to the aid
of the Trojans.
Thetis
tells her son about the outcome of events concerning Memnon.
10 When a battle
occurs, Antilochos is killed by Memnon
but
then Achilles kills Memnon.
At
this, Eos asks from Zeus the dispensation of immortality for him [Memnon], and
it is granted.
But
Achilles, while routing the Trojans and rushing into the citadel, is killed by
Paris and Apollo.
When
a heated battle starts over the corpse,
15 Aias [Ajax] picks it
up and carries it off to the ships
while
Odysseus fights off the Trojans.
Then
they hold funeral rites for Antilochos
and
lay out Achilles’ corpse;
Thetis
comes with the Muses and her sisters and makes a lament [thrênos] for her son.
20 After that, Thetis
snatches him off the pyre and
carries
him over to the island Leuke.
But
the Achaeans heap up his burial mound and hold funeral games
and
a quarrel breaks out between Odysseus and Aias over the armor of Achilles.
Proclus’ Summary of the Little
Iliad, attributed to
Lesches of Mytilene
[The
Little Iliad, in four
books, follows the Aithiopis.]
1 There is the
judgment for the armor, and Odysseus wins by the machinations of Athena,
but
Aias goes mad and defiles the herds of the Achaeans
and
kills himself.
After
this Odysseus goes on an ambush and captures Helenos,
5 and as a
result of Helenos’ prophecy about the city’s conquest
Diomedes
fetches Philoktetes from Lemnos.
Philoktetes
is healed by Makhaon;
he
fights in single combat with Alexandros and kills him.
The
corpse is mutilated by Menelaos,
10 but the Trojans
carry it off and hold funeral rites.
After
this Deiphobos marries Helen.
Odysseus
fetches Neoptolemos from Skyros;
he
gives him his father’s armor,
and
the ghost of Achilles appears to Neoptolemos.
15 Eurypylos the son of
Telephos comes to the aid of the Trojans as an ally,
and
while he is having his aristeia
Neoptolemos kills him.
Troy
is under siege.
Epeios
constructs the wooden horse, under direction of Athena.
Odysseus,
disfiguring himself, goes into Ilion as a spy.
20 He is recognized by
Helen;
jointly,
they plan the capture of the city.
Odysseus
kills several Trojans and returns to the ships.
After
this Odysseus and Diomedes carry the Palladion out of Ilion.
The
aristoi of the
Achaeans climb into the wooden horse;
25 the rest burn their
tents and sail away to Tenedos.
The
Trojans conclude that they have been released from the siege.
Pulling
down part of the wall,
they
accept the wooden horse into the city,
and
they feast as if they had conquered the Achaeans.
Proclus’ Summary of the Ilioupersis,
attributed to Arctinus
of Miletus
[The
Ilioupersis (Destruction of Ilion), in two books,
follows the Little Iliad.]
1 The Trojans,
suspicious about the horse, stand about wondering what they should do.
Some
want to push it off a cliff,
some
want to burn it,
and
some say that it is hieros
and want to dedicate it
to Athena.
5 In the end,
the opinion of the third group wins.
They
give over to merriment, feasting as if they had been released from the war.
At
this point two serpents appear and destroy Laokoon and one of his sons.
Aineias
and his followers grow uneasy at this marvel, and withdraw to Mount Ida.
Sinon,
who previously joined the Trojans as a pretense, lights signal fires for the
Achaeans,
10 who sail back from
Tenedos,
and
those in the wooden horse fall upon their enemies.
They
kill many and take the city by force.
Neoptolemos
kills Priam, who has taken refuge at the altar of Zeus Herkeios.
Menelaos
murders Deiphobos,
15 he finds Helen and
leads her down to the ships.
Aias
son of Oileus takes Kassandra by force, dragging her away from the wooden
statue [xoanon] of
Athena.
The
Achaeans, angry at this, want to stone Aias to death,
but
he takes refuge at the altar of Athena,
and
so is preserved from the immediate danger.
20 The Achaeans put the
city to the torch.
They
slaughter Polyxena on the tomb of Achilles.
Odysseus
kills Astyanax,
and
Neoptolemos takes Andromache as his prize.
The
rest of the spoils are distributed.
25 Demophon and Akamas
find their mother Aithra and take her with them.
Then
the Achaeans sail off,
while
Athena plots destruction for them on the seas.
Proclus’ Summary of the Nostoi, attributed to Agias of Trozen
[The
Nostoi (Songs of
Homecoming), in five books, follows the Ilioupersis.]
1 Athena causes
a quarrel between Agamemnon and Menelaos about the voyage from Troy.
Agamemnon
then stays on to appease the anger of Athena.
Diomedes
and Nestor set sail and arrive back home safely.
After
them, Menelaos sets sail.
5 He reaches
Egypt with five ships, the rest having been lost in a storm at sea.
Meanwhile,
those who followed Kalchas and Leonteus and Polypoites travel by land to
Kolophon, and they arrange a funeral for Teiresias, who died there.
As
for those who followed Agamemnon, the image [eidôlon] of Achilles appeared to them as they
were sailing off, and
it
tried to prevent them from going on by prophesying future events.
Then
the storm at the rocks called Kapherides is described,
10 and the destruction
of Lokrian Aias.
Neoptolemos,
warned by Thetis, makes his journey by land, and,
coming
to Thrace, meets Odysseus at Maroneia, and
then
finishes the rest of his journey,
after
arranging a funeral for Phoinix [Phoenix], who dies along the way.
15
He himself arrives in the
land of the Molossoi and
is
recognized by Peleus.
Then
comes the murder of Agamemnon by Aigisthos and Klytaimestra [Clytemnestra] and
the
vengeance of Orestes and
the
safe return of Menelaos.