The Trojan War: the Story and Its Sources

The story of the Trojan War that follows does not come from a single ancient work. It has been constructed from Homer and from many other authors and traditions that, over the centuries, told the events leading up to and surrounding the fall of Troy in different ways.

The ancient sources do not always agree with one another. The same episode may appear in different versions, and some characters meet different fates depending on who tells their story. This diversity is part of the myth itself: for centuries, the stories of Troy circulated orally, were reshaped by poets and dramatists, and were eventually preserved in works from very different periods.

The narrative that follows selects, combines and, where necessary, links these traditions to create a continuous account. It does not attempt to gather every variant or decide which version is the true one, but rather to respect the spirit of the myth and draw on the richness of its different traditions to tell a coherent and engaging story.

In some passages we also offer our own interpretations where the sources are incomplete, contradictory or leave room for them. These are always presented as possibilities — ‘it is possible that’, ‘we may imagine’, ‘it would not be surprising if’ — and never as ancient testimony.

Its purpose is to serve as an entry point into the world of the Odyssey: to introduce its characters, explain where Odysseus and the other Achaeans are returning from, and ensure that, when his journey begins, the reader already knows something of the story that all of them carry with them.

Each episode is accompanied by its principal ancient and modern sources and, where useful, by comments on variants within the tradition and on the origin of particular details in the narrative.

The Trojan War

The Wedding and the Apple of Discord

The Cypria, one of the lost poems of the Trojan Cycle, told of the Judgement of Paris and the first nine years of the war. That is where our account of the Trojan War begins.

No one, not even the gods of Olympus, could have foreseen that the wedding of Peleus, king of the Myrmidons, and Thetis, the silver-footed Nereid desired by Zeus and Poseidon, would eventually set the Trojan War in motion — all because of an apple. And yet events unfolded in such a way that afterwards it seemed as though nothing could have happened otherwise.

It is understandable that Eris, the goddess of discord, was not invited to the wedding feast, since what was being celebrated was, after all, a marriage. The other gods and goddesses, however, did attend.

Resentful at being excluded, Eris dropped a golden apple into the midst of the feast bearing the inscription ‘for the fairest’. The apple came to rest at the feet of three goddesses: venerable Hera, golden-sandalled, sister and wife of Zeus and queen of Olympus; Athena, glaucous-eyed, daughter of Zeus, virgin goddess of war and wisdom; and sweetly smiling Aphrodite, goddess of beauty, desire and love.

All-powerful Zeus refused to award the apple to any of the three. Perhaps he wished to avoid future reproaches and quarrels on Olympus, but one also gets the impression that he had other reasons he preferred to keep to himself. So he sent his messenger Hermes, he of the winged sandals, to Mount Ida near Troy, together with the three goddesses. There Paris, handsome and curly-haired, was tending the flocks of his father Priam, king of Troy. This mere mortal, who had attracted attention for his beauty, strength and good judgement, was commanded by Zeus to decide which of the three deserved the prize.

The three goddesses appeared before the young Paris. Before giving his verdict, he apologised for his inexperience in divine matters and confessed his fear of making the wrong choice. He then asked the three rivals to undress so that he might judge more fairly.

He began by examining Hera and marvelled at her majestic beauty, her great eyes, her white arms and her perfect figure, while she promised him dominion over all Asia and immense wealth if he chose her. Then came Athena, who offered him victory in war and extraordinary wisdom if he declared her the fairest. Finally Aphrodite approached Paris and knew exactly how to win him over: with a beautiful smile and her breasts revealed, she offered him the love of Helen, the most beautiful woman in Greece and wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta.

Paris was more attracted by the promise of a married woman than by all the power, wealth and wisdom the other goddesses could offer him, and he awarded the prize to Aphrodite. That decision opened the door to catastrophe.

In truth, Aphrodite was as beautiful as she was troublesome. Her smile enchanted men and gods who desired her, often with consequences that were far from fortunate. There is in the contemplation of beauty the promise of an ineffable happiness that can become, without one even realising it, a man’s undoing. That is what happened. Paris’ choice also deeply offended Hera and Athena, who from that moment on were hostile to Troy.

Sources, Comments and Variants

Sources

Cypria, a lost poem of the Trojan Cycle, known chiefly through the summary attributed to the Chrestomathy of Proclus. It is the principal source for the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, the dispute between Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, the journey of the goddesses to Mount Ida, and Paris’ choice of Aphrodite after she promises him Helen.

Apollodorus, Epitome 3.2. Summarises the Judgement of Paris and clearly preserves the promises made by each goddess: Hera offers him sovereignty, Athena victory in war, and Aphrodite marriage to Helen.

Homer, Iliad 24.25–30. Does not narrate the episode, but alludes to the Judgement of Paris as a cause of Hera’s and Athena’s hostility towards Troy.

Euripides, especially The Trojan Women and Andromache. Preserves and reworks the tradition of the Judgement of Paris and the offers made by the three goddesses.

Isocrates, Helen 41. Another ancient version of the contest and of the rewards offered to Paris.

Lucian, The Judgement of the Goddesses. A late but highly detailed and dramatised account: Hermes leads the three goddesses before Paris, who doubts his ability to judge them and examines their beauty. It is one of the most useful sources for the staged details of the contest.

Hyginus, Fabulae 92. A late Latin version of the Judgement of Paris and of the rewards promised by Hera, Athena and Aphrodite.

Colluthus, The Rape of Helen. A late source for very specific details of Aphrodite’s appearance before Paris, including the baring of her breasts.

Note: the golden apple does not appear in the surviving summary of the Cypria. The summary attributed to Proclus’ Chrestomathy speaks of the quarrel caused by Eris, but the apple bearing the inscription ‘for the fairest’ appears clearly in later sources such as Lucian and Hyginus.

Helen and Paris

Paris set sail under Aphrodite’s protection and reached Sparta. There Menelaus, the fair-haired son of Atreus, received him with honour, while Paris gave Helen various gifts and tried to win her favour. Menelaus suspected nothing and soon afterwards had to leave for Crete. The following night, Helen fled with Paris, and together they carried off a large part of the palace’s wealth.

With a favourable wind and calm seas, they reached Troy in only three days.

Before the war began, Menelaus and Odysseus went to Troy to demand the return of the stolen wealth and Helen’s restoration to Sparta. But Helen did not return to Sparta, nor did the wealth, and that was the end of the discussion.

Sources, Comments and Variants

Sources

Cypria, a lost poem of the Trojan Cycle, known mainly through the summary attributed to the Chrestomathy of Proclus. Paris travels to Sparta under Aphrodite’s protection; Menelaus leaves for Crete; Aphrodite favours the union of Paris and Helen; the two leave Sparta taking with them property belonging to Menelaus. The poem also included the embassy sent to Troy to demand the return of Helen and the stolen wealth, and the Trojans’ refusal.

Herodotus, Histories 2.117. Preserves a particularly valuable notice about the Cypria: Paris and Helen were said to have reached Troy three days after leaving Sparta, with a favourable wind and calm seas. This version conflicts with the route through Sidon found in other traditions.

Apollodorus, Epitome 3.2–4. Paris is Menelaus’ guest for nine days; Menelaus leaves for Crete; Helen abandons her daughter Hermione and departs by night with Paris, taking with her a large part of Menelaus’ wealth. Apollodorus then follows the variant involving a storm and a diversion through Sidon, Phoenicia and Cyprus.

Homer, Iliad 3.205–224. Antenor recalls that Odysseus and Menelaus came to Troy as ambassadors on account of Helen, and even describes the impression each of them made on him. This is independent Homeric evidence for an embassy before the fighting began.

Apollodorus, Epitome 3.28–29. Explicitly identifies Menelaus and Odysseus as the envoys who demand the return of Helen and the property; the Trojans refuse and even threaten them, until Antenor protects them.

Homer, Iliad 6.289–292. Refers to Sidonian objects and women whom Paris brought to Troy on the same journey in which he brought Helen, evidence pointing towards a route through Phoenicia and contrasting with the direct three-day voyage.

Variants. The route taken by Helen and Paris was the subject of incompatible traditions: a direct voyage to Troy, a diversion through Sidon, or even the true Helen remaining in Egypt while Paris took only an image or phantom of her to Troy. Our narrative follows here the version of the direct voyage that Herodotus attributes to the Cypria.

The Achaean Alliance

Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, son of Atreus and brother of Menelaus, was appointed commander-in-chief of the Achaean army: a coalition of Greek kings and peoples preparing to sail for Troy and make war.

Agamemnon, Menelaus and Palamedes, son of King Nauplius of Euboea and a man of keen intelligence, travelled to rocky Ithaca to recruit Odysseus, the man of many wiles, who at first did everything he could to escape the expedition: he feared the war would last too long, and he was not far wrong. He pretended to have lost his mind in order to avoid going, but Palamedes exposed the deception by putting the life of Telemachus, Odysseus’ son, in danger and forcing him to reveal that he was only pretending. Once discovered, Odysseus had little choice but to join them.

Calchas, son of Thestor and seer of the Achaeans, also joined the expedition. It was he who advised them to recruit Achilles, the swift-footed and best of the Achaeans — the son, of course, of Peleus and Thetis, whose wedding had led to the apple of discord. Among the warriors who answered the call was the legendary archer Philoctetes, son of Poeas.

Diomedes, son of Tydeus, king of Argos and a formidable warrior, joined the enterprise as well, together with old Nestor, king of Pylos and sweet of speech, who accompanied Agamemnon as an adviser. Ajax, son of Telamon of Salamis, bearer of an enormous shield and bulwark of the Achaeans, joined the army; with him went his half-brother Teucer, a skilful archer, and Ajax son of Oileus, from Locris, expert with the spear.

Hera, the venerable wife of Zeus, remembered very well what she had promised Paris if he chose her as the fairest: to make him lord of Asia and master of immense wealth. Troy controlled access to the Black Sea through the Hellespont and the trade routes between the Aegean and Asia Minor. The Greek cities could not use those routes freely without coming under Trojan strategic control, and among the war’s unspoken motives were the commercial ambitions of both sides. Such interests did not escape the gods, who had preferences of their own. In a sense, they lived on the honour paid to them by mortals: sacrifices, libations and offerings sustained a relationship of honour and reciprocity between gods and men. Hera and Athena had not forgiven Paris for his choice, while Zeus felt particular affection for Troy, for Priam and for his people, who honoured him generously.

When the Achaean fleet reached the islands near Troy, it sacked Tenedos. There Philoctetes was bitten on the foot by a snake, and the wound became infected. The stench and his constant cries of pain became unbearable to the army, and Agamemnon ordered him to be abandoned on the island of Lemnos.

Sources, Comments and Variants

Sources

Cypria, a lost poem of the Trojan Cycle, known mainly through the summary attributed to the Chrestomathy of Proclus. It told of the gathering of the Achaeans, Odysseus’ feigned madness in an attempt to avoid the expedition, the intervention of Palamedes, the mustering of the fleet, and the first episodes of the voyage towards Troy.

Apollodorus, Epitome 3.7–15. The principal source for the recruitment of Odysseus: he pretends to have lost his mind, Palamedes places Telemachus in danger, and Odysseus is forced to reveal the deception. It also records the gathering of the Achaean contingents and much of the composition of the expedition.

Lucian, The Hall 30; Hyginus, Fabulae 95. Preserve variants of the episode of Odysseus’ feigned madness. In the more developed tradition, Odysseus ploughs with mismatched animals and Palamedes places the young Telemachus in front of the plough to force him to stop.

Homer, Iliad 2, Catalogue of Ships. The great catalogue of Achaean contingents and leaders taking part in the expedition: Agamemnon, Menelaus, Nestor, Diomedes, Odysseus, the two Ajaxes, Philoctetes and many others. It provides the basis for presenting the Achaean alliance as a coalition of kings and peoples.

Sophocles, Philoctetes. A fundamental source for the abandonment of Philoctetes on Lemnos. His wound in the foot, its stench and his cries of pain explain why the Achaeans decide to leave him behind. The tradition also appears in Apollodorus and in the Epic Cycle.

Robert Graves, The Greek Myths. Used here for the historical interpretation of the conflict. Graves explicitly argues that, whatever its immediate cause, the Trojan War was also a commercial war: Troy controlled access to Black Sea trade through the Hellespont, and its fall would have opened those routes to the Greeks. He even suggests that negotiations between Agamemnon and Priam may have had as much to do with Greek access to the Hellespont as with the return of Helen.

Nine Years of War

The war began, and each side, helped by the gods, inflicted as much damage as it could on the other. Fighting alongside the Trojans were their allies, among them the Dardanians, led by the great Aeneas, son of Anchises and one of the foremost warriors on the Trojan side. At the head of the Trojans stood Hector, of the flashing helmet, son of King Priam.

Protesilaus of Thessaly was the first Achaean to leap ashore ready to attack Troy, but Hector killed him soon after he set foot on land. That death was followed by hundreds more, and for nine years the war seemed endless: the Achaeans raided cities and territories in Asia Minor allied with Troy, while the city held out behind its massive walls.

War brought out the best and the worst in men. According to a later tradition, Odysseus, who hated Palamedes, laid a trap for him: he falsely accused him of treason, made it appear that he had sold himself to the Trojans for money, and forged the evidence. As a result, Palamedes was stoned to death.

In part, it was Odysseus’ revenge for having been forced into a war he had wanted no part in, after Palamedes had once threatened the life of his son Telemachus. But according to some traditions, Odysseus also envied Palamedes’ intelligence and talent and could not endure his mockery.

The unjust death of Palamedes would later have tragic consequences for all those who had taken part in his killing.

Patroclus, son of Menoetius, born at Opus in Locris and brought into the household of Peleus, was Achilles’ Achilles dearest companion. Together with Ajax, son of Telamon, Diomedes and Odysseus, the two of them killed many on the Trojan side.

During one of those raids, in the sack of Thebe under Placus, Chryseis, the fair-cheeked daughter of Chryses, priest of Apollo, was taken captive, and Agamemnon received her as part of the spoils.

We have now reached the tenth year of the war, when the story of the Iliad properly begins.

Sources, Comments and Variants

Sources

Cypria, a lost poem of the Trojan Cycle, known chiefly through the summary attributed to the Chrestomathy of Proclus. After the landing, the Achaeans attacked Troy and raided the surrounding territory and neighbouring cities. Achilles devastated settlements allied with Troy, took booty and received Briseis, while Agamemnon received Chryseis. The poem also included the death of Palamedes and the catalogue of Troy’s allies.

Apollodorus, Epitome 3.30–34. Protesilaus is the first Achaean to land and is killed by Hector; Achilles then campaigns through the Troad, sacks numerous cities and, after nine years have passed, the allies of Troy are listed. Among them are the Dardanians led by Aeneas.

Homer, Iliad 2.815 ff.. Hector appears at the head of the Trojans, while Aeneas, son of Anchises and Aphrodite, leads the Dardanians. The Trojan Catalogue allows us to reconstruct the variety of peoples and allies fighting alongside Troy.

Apollodorus, Epitome 3.8; Hyginus, Fabulae 105. Preserve the version of Odysseus’ revenge against Palamedes: a forged letter from Priam, gold hidden as supposed payment for treason, and Palamedes’ subsequent condemnation to death by stoning.

Dictys of Crete, Diary of the Trojan War 2.15. Offers another version of Palamedes’ death: Odysseus and Diomedes trick him into climbing down into a well and then stone him to death. The account attributes the crime largely to Odysseus’ envy of Palamedes’ talent and prestige.

Gorgias, Defence of Palamedes. It does not set out to narrate the war, but it bears witness to the ancient tradition that made Palamedes the victim of an unjust accusation of treason and develops his defence against Odysseus’ charges.

Homer, Iliad 1. Achilles recalls the sack of Thebe under Placus and the division of the booty: Chryseis was allotted to Agamemnon. This episode directly links the earlier years of the war with the opening of the Iliad.

Variants. Tradition agrees that Protesilaus was the first Achaean to land and die, although not all sources attribute his death to Hector. The death of Palamedes likewise had very different versions: a false accusation of treason, death by stoning in a well, and even drowning while fishing.

The Wrath of Achilles

Chryses came to the Achaean camp prepared to pay a generous ransom for his daughter, but Agamemnon, captivated by Chryseis, refused to return her, even though the other Achaeans urged him to respect the priest and accept the ransom. He kept the girl and sent her father away with threats and harsh words. Chryses walked silently along the shore and prayed to Apollo to punish the Achaeans, reminding the god of the sacrifices with which he had honoured him.

The god came down from the heights of Olympus with his silver bow and quiver over his shoulders. He sat apart from the ships and loosed his arrows upon the Achaean camp. First he struck the mules and dogs, and then the men. Plague spread among the Greeks, and the funeral pyres burned without cease. For nine days, the god’s arrows carried death throughout the camp.

On the tenth day, Achilles called an assembly, fearing that the plague would destroy the Achaean army and force it to return home. Calchas knew the cause of the disaster, but feared Agamemnon’s reaction and first asked for Achilles’ protection. Achilles assured him that no one would harm him while he was there. The seer then revealed that Agamemnon had offended Apollo’s priest, and that the god would not lift the plague until Chryseis was returned to her father without ransom and the Achaeans offered sacrifices in his honour.

The division of the spoils was not a purely material matter: the share allotted to each leader also represented his honour and his standing among the Achaeans. Achilles reminded Agamemnon that the plunder had already been distributed and that there was no common store from which to give him another reward.

Agamemnon reluctantly agreed to return Chryseis to her father, Chryses, but demanded another prize in exchange so that he would not be left without his share of the spoils. In the end, he ordered Briseis, the captive whom the Achaeans had awarded to Achilles, to be handed over to him. Furious at the insult, Achilles withdrew from the fighting and retired beside his ships.

Achilles then asked his mother Thetis to intercede with Zeus. Thetis begged the god to favour the Trojans until the Achaeans understood the insult done to her son and restored the honour due to him. Zeus granted her request. Achilles’ withdrawal, together with that of his Myrmidons and the favour of Zeus, gave fresh confidence to the Trojan army, which gradually drove the Achaeans back and regained the initiative in the war.

Sources, Comments and Variants

Sources

Homer, Iliad 1.1–32. Chryses comes to the Achaean ships carrying a rich ransom to recover his daughter. The other Achaeans believe that the priest should be respected and the ransom accepted, but Agamemnon refuses and sends him away with threats. Chryses then asks Apollo to punish the army.

Homer, Iliad 1.33–52. Apollo hears the prayer, descends with his bow and begins shooting into the camp: first at the mules and dogs, and then at the men. The plague lasts for nine days before Achilles calls the assembly.

Homer, Iliad 1.53–120. Calchas knows the cause of the plague, but fears Agamemnon and asks for Achilles’ protection before speaking. He reveals that Apollo will not relent until Chryseis is returned without ransom and a hecatomb is offered to the god.

Homer, Iliad 1.121–187. The quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon centres on the division of the spoils and on the honour represented by the prize each man has received. Agamemnon agrees to return Chryseis, but demands another share of the booty and decides to take Briseis.

Homer, Iliad 1.188–348. The dispute reaches its height. Agamemnon sends men to fetch Briseis, and Achilles, dishonoured, withdraws from the fighting together with his Myrmidons.

Homer, Iliad 1.348–427. Achilles asks Thetis to obtain from Zeus a restoration of his honour by making the Achaeans suffer while he remains apart from the fighting.

Homer, Iliad 1.493–530. Thetis begs Zeus to favour the Trojans until the Achaeans restore the honour Achilles has lost. Zeus eventually agrees. The plea itself explicitly links the loss of Achilles’ prize with his honour (timē) and with the object Agamemnon has taken from him as a prize or share of the spoils (géras).

Comments and Variants

Honour and booty. The quarrel is not simply about possession of Briseis. In the heroic world of the Iliad, the share of booty received by a leader is a visible expression of his honour and rank. By taking Briseis, Agamemnon does not merely deprive Achilles of a captive woman: he humiliates him publicly.

The War without Achilles

Achilles’ Achilles withdrawal exposed the discontent that had spread through the Achaean camp. Soon afterwards, Agamemnon pretended before the army that he had decided to abandon the war and return to Greece, convinced that the men would object and reaffirm their determination to keep fighting. But the stratagem backfired: the Achaeans welcomed the proposal enthusiastically and rushed towards the ships. Odysseus had to turn them back and summon the assembly once more. There Thersites, an Achaean warrior of no distinguished rank or command, dared to reproach Agamemnon publicly for his greed for booty and for his treatment of Achilles, and again urged the army to return home. Odysseus silenced him by striking him with the sceptre, while the other Achaeans laughed.

Divine intervention became so direct that Diomedes, protected and guided by Athena, wounded Aphrodite in the hand. From the wound flowed ichor, the immortal fluid that ran through the veins of the gods, and her beautiful skin darkened with pain. With Athena’s help, Diomedes even managed to wound Ares himself.

Soon afterwards, Zeus forbade the gods to intervene directly in the battle and threatened to hurl into Tartarus anyone who disobeyed. To leave no doubt about his authority, he declared that not even all the gods together could drag him down from heaven, whereas he alone could lift them all up, together with earth and sea, by means of a golden chain. But the prohibition did not put an end to the gods’ intrigues or to their attempts to favour one side or the other.

During those days, Hector challenged the Achaeans to choose a warrior to face him in single combat. Several volunteered, and the lot fell to Ajax, son of Telamon. The two fought with spears and stones The Strength of the Heroes until night fell, without either gaining the upper hand. The heralds brought the combat to an end and, in recognition of one another’s courage, the two men exchanged gifts: Ajax gave Hector a purple sword-belt, and Hector gave Ajax a sword decorated with silver.

The situation became so desperate that Nestor persuaded Agamemnon that he had to make amends and try to reconcile with Achilles. Agamemnon agreed to repair the wrong and offered to return Briseis, together with many valuable gifts. An embassy made up of Odysseus, Phoenix — Achilles’ aged tutor and adviser — and Ajax went to the ships of the Myrmidons to deliver the offer, but Achilles refused to return to battle and even considered sailing home to Phthia.

Hera still had not forgiven Paris for choosing Aphrodite as the fairest and made no secret of her hostility towards Troy. Zeus had promised Thetis that he would favour the Trojans while Achilles remained out of the fighting, but Hera disliked seeing the balance tipped in their favour. Since she could not openly oppose Zeus, she decided to remove him from the battle for a time. She asked Aphrodite for the embroidered band the goddess wore across her breast, in which resided love, desire and a power of persuasion capable of clouding the judgement even of the wisest. With it she seduced Zeus and, with the help of Sleep, lulled him into slumber while Poseidon came to the aid of the Achaeans. But when Zeus awoke and understood what had happened, he ordered Poseidon to withdraw and sent Apollo to help the Trojans.

Sources, Comments and Variants

Sources

Homer, Iliad 2.1–277. Agamemnon, deceived by the dream sent by Zeus, tests the army by announcing that he has decided to abandon Troy. The Achaeans rush towards the ships and Odysseus has to turn them back. In the assembly, Thersites accuses Agamemnon of greed, recalls the insult done to Achilles and urges the army to return home; Odysseus strikes him with the sceptre while the army laughs.

Homer, Iliad 5.330–430; 5.846–909. During Diomedes’ great assault, Athena allows him to distinguish the gods on the battlefield. Diomedes first wounds Aphrodite in the hand and later, with Athena’s direct assistance, strikes Ares himself. Homer explains that divine wounds shed ichor rather than mortal blood.

Homer, Iliad 8.1–27. Zeus forbids the other gods to intervene in the war and threatens to hurl into Tartarus anyone who disobeys him. To assert his superiority, he invokes the image of the golden chain: all the gods together would be unable to drag him down from heaven, whereas he could lift gods, earth and sea with it.

Homer, Iliad 7.66–312. Hector challenges the Achaeans to single combat. Several heroes volunteer and the lot falls to Ajax son of Telamon. They fight until nightfall without a clear victor. Before parting they exchange gifts: Hector gives Ajax a silver-studded sword, and Ajax gives him a purple sword-belt or girdle.

Homer, Iliad 9.89–713. As the Achaean situation deteriorates, Nestor advises Agamemnon to reconcile with Achilles. Agamemnon acknowledges his error and offers to return Briseis together with abundant gifts. Odysseus, Phoenix and Ajax form the embassy that goes to the ships of the Myrmidons. Achilles rejects the proposal and even considers returning to Phthia.

Homer, Iliad 14.153–353. Hera decides to draw Zeus away from the battle. She obtains from Aphrodite the girdle or band in which love, desire and persuasion reside, seduces Zeus on Mount Ida and, with the help of Sleep, causes him to fall asleep. Meanwhile, Poseidon gives direct support to the Achaeans.

Homer, Iliad 15.1–280. Zeus wakes, understands what has happened and restores the situation he had intended. He orders Poseidon to withdraw from the fighting and sends Apollo to help Hector and the Trojans.

Comments and Variants

Unity of the narrative. All these episodes belong to the Iliad. Although they are spread across Books 2 to 15, our narrative selects them in order to follow a single thread: what happens in the war while Achilles remains apart from the fighting.

Patroclus, Hector and Priam

The war among mortals grew fiercer and became a succession of duels between heroes, battles and heaps of dead, until Hector killed Patroclus. Patroclus had gone into battle wearing Achilles’ Achilles armour and leading the Myrmidons, hoping to intimidate the Trojans, who had grown bolder and were gaining ground. Achilles had ordered him to drive them back from the ships, but not to pursue them all the way to Troy. Patroclus, however, was carried away by the fury of battle and kept advancing after he had already accomplished his task, chasing the Trojans as far as the walls. There Apollo drove him back and, when he returned to the fighting, the god struck him from behind, stripped him of his armour and left him defenceless. Euphorbus, son of Panthous and a Trojan warrior, then wounded him with his spear and withdrew; finally Hector dealt the mortal blow.

When Achilles learned that Patroclus was dead, his grief was as deep as the affection he had borne him. Thetis warned him that, if he killed Hector, his own death would soon follow, and brought him new armour forged by Hephaestus, the deformed smith-god and husband of Aphrodite. Achilles accepted his fate, ended his quarrel with Agamemnon and returned to battle determined to avenge Patroclus. He drove the Trojan army back to the walls of Troy.

King Priam opened the gates so that his men could enter and take refuge inside the city, and then had them shut again. Hector remained outside. Priam and Hecuba begged him to come inside, but he chose to stay. Yet when he saw Achilles approaching, fear seized him and he fled. Achilles chased him three times around the walls.

Athena then took the form of Deiphobus, Hector’s brother, and made him believe that they would face Achilles together. When Hector realised that he had been deceived and that the gods had abandoned him, he resolved to face death. Achilles drove his spear through him and, after stripping off his armour, fastened the corpse to his chariot with the sword-belt Ajax had given Hector years earlier after their duel. He then lashed the horses and dragged the body back towards the Achaean camp.

For several days Achilles outraged Hector’s body, dragging it around Patroclus’ tomb. At last Priam, guided by Hermes, entered the Achaean camp by night and came to Achilles’ hut. When the Achaeans had first reached Troy, Priam had fifty sons, and many of them had already died in the war. He knelt before Achilles, kissed the hands that had killed so many of his sons, and asked him to remember his own father, Peleus. He offered a rich ransom for Hector’s body. Priam wept for his son, while Achilles wept for Patroclus and remembered his absent father. Achilles then agreed to return the body and granted the Trojans time to hold the funeral rites.

That is how the Iliad ends: not with the fall of Troy, but with Hector’s funeral. The story of the war continues in other poems of the Trojan Cycle: the Aethiopis, the Little Iliad, the Sack of Ilium and the Nostoi.

Sources, Comments and Variants

Sources

Homer, Iliad 16. Patroclus enters the battle wearing Achilles’ armour and leading the Myrmidons. After driving the Trojans back from the ships, he continues advancing towards Troy. Apollo intervenes, strikes him and strips him of his armour; Euphorbus wounds him with his spear, and Hector finally delivers the mortal blow. Before dying, Patroclus himself recalls that Apollo, Euphorbus and Hector have all played successive parts in his death.

Homer, Iliad 18. Achilles receives the news of Patroclus’ death and gives himself over to overwhelming grief. Thetis warns him that his own death will follow soon after Hector’s. Achilles accepts that fate and decides to return to the fighting; Thetis then goes to Hephaestus to obtain new armour for her son.

Homer, Iliad 19. Thetis brings Achilles the armour forged by Hephaestus, and Achilles publicly ends his quarrel with Agamemnon before returning to battle.

Homer, Iliad 20–21. Achilles returns to the fighting and unleashes a slaughter among the Trojans, who are eventually driven back towards the walls of Troy. These books lead directly to the final confrontation with Hector.

Homer, Iliad 22. Priam and Hecuba beg Hector to come inside the city; Hector remains outside, but flees when he sees Achilles approaching, and the two circle Troy three times. Athena takes the form of Deiphobus and deceives Hector into stopping to fight. Achilles kills him and then outrages his body, fastening it to his chariot and dragging it towards the ships.

Sophocles, Ajax 1029–1039 approximately. Preserves the tradition according to which Hector was dragged specifically with the sword-belt Ajax had given him after their single combat. The tragedy also establishes a grim symmetry: Hector is dishonoured in death by Ajax’s gift, while Ajax will later kill himself with the sword he had received from Hector. This detail does not appear in Homer in the same form.

Homer, Iliad 24. Achilles continues to outrage Hector’s body, although Apollo protects it from decay. The gods eventually intervene to have it returned. Hermes guides Priam to the Achaean camp; the old king reminds Achilles of his own father, kisses the hands that have killed his sons and offers a rich ransom. Achilles and Priam weep together, each for his own dead, and Achilles agrees to return the body and grant a truce for the funeral rites. Priam also recalls that he had fifty sons when the Achaeans arrived.

Summary of the Epic Cycle attributed to the Chrestomathy of Proclus. The Iliad ends with Hector’s funeral. The continuation of the war belonged to other poems now lost: the Aethiopis, followed by the Little Iliad and the Sack of Ilium; afterwards, the Nostoi told of the dispersal and return of the victors.

After Hector

Achilles remained the most relentless enemy of the Trojans and their allies. He faced Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons and daughter of Ares, who had come to Troy’s aid. Achilles first wounded her with his spear above the right breast and, in a second charge, drove the weapon through her horse and struck Penthesilea as well. She fell dead beside her mount. According to one tradition, Achilles looked at her for a moment after killing her and fell in love with her.

Thersites, the Achaean warrior who had railed against Agamemnon in the assembly, mocked Achilles for that strange love, and Achilles killed him with a single blow.

Memnon, king of the Ethiopians, also came to Troy’s aid. He was the son of Eos, rosy-fingered Dawn, and the Trojan prince Tithonus. Memnon was one of the most beautiful men of his age, and some traditions describe him as dark-skinned. He wreaked havoc among the Achaeans and killed Antilochus, son of Nestor. Achilles faced Memnon and ran him through with his sword.

His death left his mother Eos, rosy-fingered Dawn, inconsolable. Some say that Eos asked Zeus to grant her son immortality and that Zeus agreed. Others tell that she went on mourning Memnon, and that her tears are the dew that covers the earth at daybreak.

Then came the day when Achilles fell into an ambush.

According to a later story, Achilles’ heel was his only vulnerable point: his mother Thetis, following her protective instinct, had dipped the child in the waters of the Styx to make him invulnerable, but she held him by one heel, which the water did not touch.

But some say that Achilles’ true weakness was not his heel, but a beautiful young woman. According to different accounts, Achilles secretly fell in love with Polyxena, daughter of King Priam, from the first moment he saw her, when she accompanied her mother Hecuba to the temple of Apollo: slender, with beautiful eyes and long fair hair, she wore a fine priestly robe and gold bracelets and other ornaments. Polyxena also accompanied her father when he went to reclaim the body of her brother Hector in exchange for its weight in gold, and contributed to the ransom by giving up her own jewellery. Achilles, captivated by her beauty, asked for her hand, but Priam insisted on paying the ransom and did not give him his daughter.

Paris, with Apollo’s help, ended Achilles’ life by shooting an arrow into his heel. Some accounts say that on the day of the ambush Achilles went trustingly to the temple of Apollo, where Polyxena, daughter of Priam and sister of Hector, was waiting for him, ready to become his wife if the Achaeans returned home without Helen.

What no one explains is how Paris learned where Achilles was vulnerable. Or perhaps he did not know, and it was enough for Apollo to guide the arrow. But if anyone could have drawn such an imprudent confession from Achilles, it could only have been Polyxena. It is not difficult to imagine that the young woman, eager to avenge her brother Hector, knew how to use her beauty to coax the great Achaean hero into revealing his secret.

Ajax, son of Telamon, and Odysseus, who feared treachery, went in search of Achilles at the temple of Apollo, but arrived too late. A fierce battle then broke out over the hero’s body, until the two men managed to carry the corpse back to the Achaean camp. According to tradition, from that moment it was decided that Polyxena would one day be sacrificed upon his tomb.

The mourning for Achilles lasted seventeen days, and on the eighteenth his body was burned on a funeral pyre. His ashes were mixed with those of Patroclus, and so the two were united for ever.

Sources, Comments and Variants

Sources

Aethiopis, a lost poem of the Trojan Cycle attributed to Arctinus of Miletus and known mainly through the summary attributed to the Chrestomathy of Proclus. It continued the story after Hector’s funeral. It told of the arrival of Penthesilea and Memnon to aid Troy, their deaths at the hands of Achilles, the death of Antilochus, Achilles’ quarrel with Thersites and, finally, Achilles’ own death through the intervention of Paris and Apollo. It also narrated the struggle to recover his body: Ajax carried it back towards the ships while Odysseus held off the Trojans.

Apollodorus, Epitome 5.1–5.5. Summarises much of this tradition: Achilles kills Penthesilea and, according to one version, falls in love with her after killing her; Thersites mocks him and Achilles kills him. Memnon, son of Eos and Tithonus, arrives with the Ethiopians, kills Antilochus and is himself killed by Achilles. Soon afterwards, Paris and Apollo mortally wound Achilles near the gates of Troy. Ajax recovers the body while Odysseus fights off those trying to seize it.

Quintus of Smyrna, Posthomerica 1–3. Develops at length episodes that the Epic Cycle allows us to know only in summary form. Many of the narrative details of the battles against Penthesilea and Memnon, as well as an extended version of Achilles’ death, come from this work.

Homer, Odyssey 11.522. Memnon was still for Homer an exceptional point of comparison for beauty: Odysseus recalls Eurypylus as the most handsome man he had seen after Memnon. The allusion shows that Memnon already belonged to the epic horizon known to the poet.

Ancient tradition concerning Memnon. Various authors developed his identity as the son of Eos, Dawn, and the grief of his mother. Some traditions explained the morning dew as the tears Eos continued to shed for him.

Apollodorus, Epitome 5.3, and the tradition of the Epic Cycle. Achilles’ death is not narrated in the Iliad. In Apollodorus, he is struck in the ankle by an arrow shot by Paris with Apollo’s intervention; other versions attribute the death chiefly to one or the other. Hector himself had prophesied in the Iliad that Paris and Apollo would one day kill Achilles.

Statius, Achilleid 1, and the later tradition concerning the Styx. The idea that Thetis dipped Achilles in the Styx to make him invulnerable belongs to a tradition much later than Homer. Statius alludes to the immersion, although the precise detail of the vulnerable point is developed mainly in later exegetical tradition.

Virgil, Ovid, Servius, Hyginus and other Latin authors. They helped establish the image of Paris shooting the arrow while Apollo guides it towards Achilles’ vulnerable point. The tradition was not uniform: some sources attribute the death to Paris, others to Apollo, and others to both together.

Dictys of Crete, Dares the Phrygian, Hyginus, Tzetzes and the Vatican Mythographers. Preserve different late versions connecting Achilles’ death with his love for Polyxena. In these accounts, his desire to marry Priam’s daughter leads him, trusting and sometimes unarmed, to the temple of Apollo, where Paris prepares the ambush. Some versions have Priam offer Polyxena on condition that Achilles abandon the war.

Excidium Troiae, anonymous Latin narrative, pp. 12–13 and 20 of the edition by Atwood and Whitaker. In this version, Polyxena obtains the secret of Achilles’ vulnerable heel through caresses and displays of affection, and passes it on to her parents.

Philostratus, On Heroes 51. He offers a different version: Achilles and Polyxena fall in love and marriage negotiations are considered, but Achilles dies in the sanctuary of Apollo Thymbraeus. Polyxena then chooses to take her own life on the hero’s tomb. This is therefore not simply another version of the ambush or of a sacrifice imposed by the Achaeans.

Second Vatican Mythographer and later tradition. One such version tells that Achilles saw Polyxena when she contributed her jewellery to the ransom for Hector’s body. This tradition helps explain our narrative of Achilles’ infatuation and Polyxena’s part in the ransom.

Homer, Odyssey 24.58–84. Agamemnon recalls in Hades the funeral rites of Achilles: Achaeans and gods mourned him for seventeen days and on the eighteenth his body was burned. His remains were eventually placed together with those of Patroclus, keeping the two companions united after death.

Comments and Variants

Achilles’ heel. Homer does not know the story that Thetis made her son invulnerable by dipping him in the Styx. That tradition is later. Nor do the ancient sources fix the exact place of the wound with complete consistency: Apollodorus speaks of the ankle, while later tradition eventually established the heel. Even the side varies: exegetical tradition associated with Statius’ Achilleid identifies the left heel, while other later retellings have spoken of the right or simply of ‘Achilles’ heel’. For that reason, our narrative no longer specifies right or left.

Polyxena and the death of Achilles. The connection between the two belongs to traditions considerably later than the Epic Cycle and takes different forms: love, a marriage proposal, peace negotiations or an ambush in the temple of Apollo. Our narrative combines some elements of these versions in order to create a coherent sequence.

The confession of the vulnerable point. The Excidium Troiae recounts that Polyxena obtains the secret of Achilles’ vulnerable heel through caresses and displays of affection, then passes it on to her parents (pp. 12–13 and 20 of the edition by Atwood and Whitaker). It is a late Latin narrative, distinct from the earlier epic tradition.

Two deaths of Achilles. In practice, we are allowing two traditions to coexist: the older one, in which Paris and Apollo kill Achilles during the war near Troy, and a later one in which his love for Polyxena leads him into an ambush. We do not need to choose one as ‘true’: the combination of both is part of the way the legend of Achilles grew over the centuries.

The Arms of Achilles

Thetis decided that Achilles’ Achilles armour should be awarded to the bravest of the Achaeans still alive. These were no ordinary arms: Hephaestus had forged them for Achilles after the death of Patroclus, and whoever received them would, in a sense, inherit the place left vacant by the greatest of the Achaean warriors.

Only two men could lay claim to them: Ajax, son of Telamon, and Odysseus. Both had risked their lives to recover Achilles’ body. Ajax had carried it on his shoulders through a hail of missiles, while Odysseus held the Trojans at bay with spear and sword and covered the retreat. Each believed the armour should be his.

The decision eventually fell to Agamemnon, an awkward position for the man who had quarrelled so bitterly with Achilles and now had to decide who deserved to inherit his arms. Whatever he chose, one of the two great warriors would be humiliated.

Nestor then proposed an ingenious solution: if the Achaeans could not agree, perhaps their own enemies could say which of the two had shown greater courage. That night they sent spies to the walls of Troy to listen to what the Trojans were saying.

The spies overheard some young women talking on top of the wall. One praised Ajax’s courage: he had carried Achilles’ body away under a rain of arrows. Another disagreed. Ajax, she argued, had the corpse on his shoulders and could use it as a shield, whereas Odysseus had kept the Trojans at bay with spear and sword so that the retreat could succeed.

Agamemnon accepted that testimony and awarded the armour to Odysseus.

There are reasons to suspect that Athena herself had arranged the scene with the Trojan women and shaped their conversation so that the spies would later bring back exactly the report she wanted.

Ajax received the decision as an intolerable humiliation.

Sources, Comments and Variants

Sources

Aethiopis, a lost poem of the Trojan Cycle attributed to Arctinus of Miletus. It ended with Achilles’ funeral and the dispute between Ajax and Odysseus over his armour. The conflict arose precisely because both men had played a decisive part in recovering Achilles’ body.

Homer, Odyssey 11.543–547. In Hades, Odysseus recalls that he defeated Ajax in the contest for Achilles’ armour. He says that Achilles’ mother had set up the prize and that the decision rested with the Trojans and Athena. This is one of the earliest surviving testimonies to the episode.

Little Iliad, a lost poem of the Trojan Cycle attributed to Lesches of Mytilene and known through the summary attributed to the Chrestomathy of Proclus and through several fragments. It is the principal source for the version followed in our narrative: Odysseus wins the armour through Athena’s intervention, while Ajax, humiliated, eventually goes mad and kills himself.

Scholiast on Aristophanes, Knights 1056, citing the Little Iliad. Preserves the most important detail used in our narrative. Nestor proposes sending men to the walls to hear what the Trojans are saying about Ajax and Odysseus. The spies overhear some young women arguing: one supports Ajax because he carried Achilles’ body; another replies that carrying a burden is not the same as fighting, and that Odysseus faced the danger by holding the enemy back. The fragment itself states that this second response was prompted by Athena.

Apollodorus, Epitome 5.6. Preserves another variant: the armour is offered as a prize to the bravest; Ajax and Odysseus compete for it, and the judges are the Trojans or, according to another tradition, the allies. Odysseus is chosen. The tradition preserved in the scholia adds that Agamemnon, reluctant to make such a difficult decision himself, consulted Trojan prisoners to discover which of the two heroes had inflicted greater losses on them.

Pindar, Nemean 8. Offers a different version: the decision was made by the Achaeans themselves in a secret ballot. This tradition stresses the injustice suffered by Ajax and shows how sharply the sources disagree over who determined the result.

Sophocles, Ajax. The tragedy begins after the award of the armour and makes Ajax’s defeat the immediate cause of his downfall. The Achaean leaders, with Agamemnon and Menelaus foremost among them, appear responsible for having awarded the prize to Odysseus. Later, Odysseus himself acknowledges that Ajax was, after Achilles, the best of the Achaeans.

Quintus of Smyrna, Posthomerica 5. Preserves one of the fullest surviving accounts of the judgement. Thetis displays the armour as a prize, Ajax and Odysseus argue their respective merits, and Trojan prisoners decide in favour of Odysseus.

Comments and Variants

Who decided? The sources disagree: Trojans, Trojan prisoners, allies, Achaean leaders, or a vote by the army. What remains constant is that Odysseus wins and Ajax regards the decision as intolerably unjust.

Athena. In the Little Iliad, her intervention is not a modern suspicion. The summary attributed to Proclus’ Chrestomathystates that Odysseus obtains the armour through her, and the fragment involving the young women explicitly says that the second reply was inspired by the goddess. Our narrative can therefore suggest, with good reason, that the conversation overheard by the spies was not entirely spontaneous.

Thetis and the prize. The idea that Thetis sets out the armour as a prize appears clearly in the Odyssey. In other versions of the Cycle, however, the dispute seems to arise directly between Ajax and Odysseus after Achilles’ funeral.

The Tragedy of Ajax

Ajax was convinced that Achilles’ Achilles armour belonged to him. He had carried the hero’s body from the battlefield and could not accept that Odysseus had been judged more worthy than he was. The insult consumed him until he resolved to take revenge on Agamemnon, Menelaus and Odysseus.

But Athena clouded his mind. Believing that he was attacking the Achaean leaders, Ajax turned on the herds in the camp. He killed some of the animals and tortured others, convinced that the men who had dishonoured him were in his hands.

When he recovered his senses and understood what he had done, the shame was even worse than the original insult. Tecmessa, a Phrygian princess who had been taken captive by Ajax and had become his companion, tried to persuade him to think of her and of Eurysaces, their son. Ajax summoned the boy, entrusted him with his enormous shield and arranged for his half-brother Teucer to look after him.

Then he left the camp alone. He planted in the ground, point upwards, the sword Hector had given him after their duel, and threw himself upon it.

But Ajax’s tragedy did not end with his death. Menelaus refused to allow him burial. In his eyes, Ajax had tried to murder the Achaean leaders and had become an enemy within the army itself; he therefore did not deserve the honours reserved for fallen warriors. Teucer confronted him: Ajax had not been Menelaus’ subordinate, but an allied king, and for ten years he had fought and risked his life for the Achaeans.

Odysseus, who had received Achilles’ armour, intervened and urged Agamemnon to distinguish between personal hatred and the justice owed to the dead. He did not deny that Ajax had become his enemy in the end and had tried to kill him, but neither could he deny his greatness. Agamemnon reproached him for defending a man who had wanted him dead. Odysseus replied that hatred should not survive death, and that justice could not be administered out of resentment. Ajax had been his enemy, but he had also been one of the greatest Achaean warriors, and that alone was enough for him to deserve burial.

Perhaps Ajax was a victim of his own greatness. The very qualities that had made him one of the most formidable heroes in the Achaean army — his pride, his sense of honour and his inability to yield — were also the qualities that made it impossible for him to survive humiliation.

In the end, Ajax was allowed to be buried.

Sources, Comments and Variants

Sources

Little Iliad, a lost poem of the Trojan Cycle known through the summary attributed to the Chrestomathy of Proclus. After the judgement over Achilles’ armour, Ajax goes mad, attacks the Achaean herds believing that he is fighting his enemies, and eventually kills himself. This is the basic mythical framework of the episode.

Apollodorus, Epitome 5.6–7. Athena drives Ajax mad, and he rushes sword in hand against the cattle and herdsmen, believing them to be the Achaeans. When he recovers his reason, he kills himself. Apollodorus also preserves a variant concerning his funeral: Agamemnon forbids the cremation of his body, and Ajax is buried in a coffin at Rhoeteum.

Sophocles, Ajax. The principal source for our narrative. The tragedy develops the madness sent by Athena, Ajax’s humiliation when he regains his senses, his relationship with Tecmessa, his concern for Eurysaces and his decision to entrust the boy to Teucer. Ajax also gives his son his great shield, from which Eurysaces takes his name.

Sophocles, Ajax 815 ff.. Ajax plants in the ground the sword with which he is about to kill himself and explicitly recalls that it was Hector’s gift. In this way, the sword exchanged after their single combat in the Iliadultimately becomes the instrument of his death.

Homer, Iliad 7. After fighting without a victor, Ajax and Hector exchange gifts: Hector gives Ajax a sword and Ajax gives him a sword-belt. Later tradition turned both gifts into fatal objects: Hector is dragged with Ajax’s sword-belt, and Ajax kills himself with Hector’s sword.

Sophocles, Ajax 1047 ff.. Menelaus forbids the burial of Ajax because he had tried to attack the Achaean leaders. Teucer replies that Ajax was not his subordinate but an allied king who had come to Troy of his own accord, and that Menelaus had no authority to deny him burial.

Sophocles, Ajax 1318–1400 approximately. Odysseus intervenes before Agamemnon on behalf of the enemy who had tried to kill him. He argues that hatred should not override the justice owed to the dead and acknowledges that Ajax was, after Achilles, the best and bravest of the Achaeans. Agamemnon eventually yields and preparations for the funeral begin.

Comments and Variants

The death of Ajax. The core of the tradition — defeat in the judgement of the arms, madness, slaughter of the cattle and suicide — already belonged to the Epic Cycle. Sophocles turns that plot into a tragedy centred on honour, shame and Ajax’s inability to accept a life he considers dishonoured.

Hector’s sword. The coincidence is deliberately tragic: Ajax kills himself with the gift of his great enemy. Tradition thus turns the friendly exchange of gifts narrated by Homer into a kind of fatal bond between the two heroes.

The burial. The versions do not entirely agree. Apollodorus says that Agamemnon prevented cremation and that Ajax was buried in a coffin; Sophocles, by contrast, turns the dispute over burial into the final great moral question of the tragedy and has Odysseus defend his former enemy’s right to receive funeral honours.

The greatness of Ajax. The sentence in our narrative — ‘Perhaps Ajax was a victim of his own greatness’ — is our own interpretation, but it grows directly out of the conflict constructed by Sophocles: the qualities that make him exceptional — pride, sense of honour and inflexibility — are also those that make it impossible for him to survive humiliation.

The Conditions for Troy’s Fall

After the death of Achilles, victory began to seem beyond the Achaeans’ reach. They had spent years trying to take Troy by force and, despite countless battles and all the men who had died, the walls were still standing. They began to wonder what they were doing wrong and went to consult the seers.

Calchas revealed that Troy could not be taken without Philoctetes and the arrows of Heracles. The Achaeans had to return to Lemnos in search of the very man they themselves had abandoned years earlier because of the festering wound in his foot. They brought him back to the camp, where Machaon, son of Asclepius, god of medicine, and himself both warrior and physician to the Achaean army, succeeded in curing him.

Once recovered, Philoctetes faced Paris in an archery duel and wounded him gravely. Paris then remembered Oenone, the nymph of Mount Ida whom he had loved before he met Helen. Years earlier, when he was preparing to sail for Sparta, she had warned him that if he were ever wounded he should return to her, because she alone would be able to heal him.

Paris was taken to Oenone and begged her to save him. But she had not forgotten that he had abandoned her for Helen and refused to help. Soon afterwards she repented and hurried after him with her remedies. But it was already too late: Paris was dead.

Helenus and Cassandra were twin children of King Priam and Queen Hecuba. From childhood, both shared the gift of prophecy. Cassandra was a beautiful young woman, with reddish hair, bright eyes and a delicate mouth, and she attracted the attention of Apollo, who wanted to possess her. She rejected union with the god and, in revenge, Apollo cursed her: from then on she would retain her prophetic visions, but no one would believe them.

Helenus, by contrast, retained the authority of his prophecies and was listened to when he foretold the future.

With Hector and Paris dead, Priam’s family had lost two of its most important sons. Paris also left Helen a widow, and a dispute soon arose over who should take his place. Deiphobus, another of Priam’s sons, wanted to marry her. Helenus claimed her as well, and the two quarrelled bitterly over her. Helen was eventually given to Deiphobus, and Helenus, resentful, left Troy and withdrew to Mount Ida.

Helenus foresaw the fall of Troy. For that reason, his desire to marry Helen is difficult to understand. Many people in the city can hardly have looked kindly on the woman from Sparta, however beautiful she was, or on the royal family’s stubborn determination to keep her almost out of sheer obstinacy, when her presence had been the first cause of a war that now threatened to destroy them all. It is possible that Helenus did not so much want to marry Helen as to prevent her from marrying another Trojan. In that way he might have returned her to Menelaus and tried to stop the disaster he could see approaching. Moreover, according to tradition, Helen hated Deiphobus and may herself already have begun to doubt. Only Helenus could tell us what was passing through his mind, but it is possible that, seeing no way out of that impossible situation, he chose to leave Troy and withdraw to Mount Ida.

It was there that Odysseus captured him and brought him to the Achaean camp. Once in enemy hands, and perhaps moved by resentment, Helenus revealed the conditions that had to be fulfilled before Troy could be taken.

One of them was that Neoptolemus, the young son of Achilles and Deidamia, daughter of King Lycomedes of Scyros, had to fight alongside the Achaeans. Odysseus went to fetch him from Scyros and brought him to the Greek camp during the final days of the war. There he gave him his father’s armour, and Neoptolemus soon proved his courage in battle.

Eurypylus, son of Telephus, came from Mysia to aid the Trojans in the closing days of the war. According to tradition, Priam offered him Cassandra’s hand. Eurypylus was a formidable and very handsome warrior, and his arrival briefly revived Trojan hopes. He killed several distinguished Achaeans, among them Machaon, but Neoptolemus, the young son of Achilles, eventually killed him.

One of the conditions announced by Helenus was rather strange. The Achaeans had to bring to Troy the shoulder blade of Pelops, son of Tantalus, king of Pisa and ancestor of the house of Atreus, to which Agamemnon and Menelaus belonged. The Peloponnese took its name from him.

According to an ancient story, Tantalus had cut up his son and served him to the gods at a banquet. When the gods put Pelops back together and restored him to life, they discovered that part of his shoulder was missing because it had been eaten, and they replaced it with a piece of ivory. After Pelops’ death, that shoulder blade was preserved at Pisa as a relic.

No one could explain how such a relic might contribute to the fall of Troy, but Agamemnon immediately sent messengers to Pisa to bring it to the camp.

Helenus also revealed that Troy could not be taken while the Palladium remained within its walls, an ancient wooden image of Athena, the glaucous-eyed goddess. It was said to have fallen from heaven during the foundation of Troy and to have protected the city ever since.

But before they could seize it, they first had to discover how to enter a city that had resisted the Achaeans for almost ten years. And for that, Odysseus seemed exactly the right man.

Sources, Comments and Variants

Sources

Little Iliad, a lost poem of the Trojan Cycle known through the summary attributed to the Chrestomathy of Proclus. It is the principal source for this phase of the war. Odysseus captures Helenus, who reveals the conditions necessary for the capture of Troy; Diomedes brings Philoctetes back from Lemnos; Machaon cures him; Philoctetes kills Paris; Deiphobus marries Helen; Odysseus brings Neoptolemus from Scyros and gives him Achilles’ armour; Eurypylus comes to Troy’s aid and is killed by Neoptolemus. Later, Odysseus and Diomedes seize the Palladium.

Apollodorus, Epitome 5.8–11. Calchas announces that Troy cannot be taken without the bow and arrows of Heracles. Odysseus and Diomedes go to fetch Philoctetes; in this version it is Podalirius, not Machaon, who cures him. After the death of Paris, Helenus and Deiphobus quarrel over Helen; when Deiphobus is preferred, Helenus leaves Troy and withdraws to Mount Ida. Odysseus captures him, and Helenus reveals three conditions: the remains of Pelops must be brought to Troy, Neoptolemus must join the Achaeans, and the Palladium must be stolen.

Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.12.6. Paris had previously loved Oenone, who possessed healing knowledge. After being wounded by Philoctetes, Paris returns to her; she initially refuses to cure him and, when she repents and goes to him, it is already too late. Tradition preserves several versions of Oenone’s end.

Sophocles, Philoctetes. The capture of Helenus and his prophecies form an essential part of the tragedy’s background. The play presents the return of Philoctetes with Heracles’ bow and the participation of Neoptolemus as conditions for the fall of Troy.

Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.12.5; Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1202–1212. One tradition has Apollo teach Cassandra the art of prophecy in exchange for her favours; she accepts the instruction and then rejects the god. Apollo cannot take back the gift, but causes no one to believe her prophecies.

Anticlides, cited by the scholiast on Iliad 7.44. Preserves a different tradition concerning Cassandra and Helenus as twins: the two children spend the night in Apollo’s sanctuary and sacred snakes lick their sensory organs, giving them prophetic powers. Our narrative combines this tradition with the later story of Apollo and Cassandra.

Dares the Phrygian. A late source for Cassandra’s physical description: of medium height, with reddish hair, a rounded mouth and bright eyes; it also explicitly presents her as having knowledge of the future.

Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.13.8. Achilles, hidden on Scyros, fathered a son named Pyrrhus — later Neoptolemus — with Deidamia, daughter of Lycomedes. This is the genealogical basis for the young warrior whom Odysseus brings to Troy.

Little Iliad and Homer, Odyssey 11.516–521. Eurypylus, son of Telephus, comes to the aid of the Trojans during the final phase of the war and is killed by Neoptolemus. Homer remembers him as an exceptionally handsome warrior. The Little Iliad added that Eurypylus killed Machaon.

Dictys of Crete 4.14 and later tradition. One version says that Priam promised Eurypylus Cassandra’s hand in order to persuade him to come to Troy’s aid. It is a late tradition, but it explains the reference in our narrative.

Pausanias, Description of Greece 5.13.4–6. Preserves the surprising condition concerning Pelops’ shoulder blade: the seers announced that Troy would not fall without Heracles’ bow and a bone of Pelops; specifically, his shoulder blade was brought from Pisa. Pausanias adds that the relic was later lost in a shipwreck and recovered years afterwards.

Pindar, Olympian 1; later mythographic tradition. The story of the ivory shoulder comes from the tradition in which Tantalus dismembered Pelops and served him to the gods; a goddess ate the shoulder and, when the boy was restored, the missing part was replaced with ivory. Pindar knows the motif of the ivory shoulder, although he explicitly rejects the impious version of the cannibal feast and offers another explanation for Pelops’ fate.

Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.12.3 and Epitome 5.10. The Palladium was an ancient image of Athena said to have fallen from heaven and to be bound up with Troy’s protection. Helenus reveals that the city cannot be taken while it remains within the walls.

Comments and Variants

Machaon or Podalirius? The sources disagree over who cured Philoctetes. The Little Iliad assigned the role to Machaon; Apollodorus gives it to Podalirius. Our narrative follows the tradition of the Epic Cycle.

Cassandra and Helenus. Their being twins and receiving the prophetic gift together belongs to the tradition of Anticlides. The story of Apollo’s love for Cassandra and the curse that condemns her prophecies to disbelief comes from another strand of tradition. Our narrative combines the two in order to create a continuous story.

Helenus and Helen. The ancient sources say that Helenus and Deiphobus competed for Helen and that, when Deiphobus was chosen, Helenus left Troy. They do not clearly explain why Helenus wished to marry her. Our suggestion that he may have wanted to prevent another Trojan marriage and open the possibility of returning her to Menelaus is our own interpretation within the narrative.

Helen and Deiphobus. Nor do we have a simple ancient statement that Helen ‘hated’ him, but some later traditions present her as actively collaborating in his death. In the Aeneid, Deiphobus himself accuses Helen of removing his weapons and opening the door to Menelaus and Odysseus during the sack. That tradition makes our comment on Helen’s hostility towards him plausible.

Pelops’ shoulder. Two different traditions converge here: one explains why Pelops had an ivory shoulder; the other turns his actual shoulder blade into a relic necessary for the capture of Troy. Our narrative deliberately links the two.

Odysseus Enters Troy

Odysseus disfigured his face, covered himself in rags and entered Troy alone, pretending to be a beggar. Helen recognised him despite the disguise, but did not betray him. They spoke at length. She gave him information, and Odysseus used his time inside the city to observe everything that might prove useful in taking it. He then returned to the Achaean camp and reported what he had learned.

Soon afterwards, Odysseus and Diomedes went to Troy by night intending to steal the Palladium. Diomedes remained outside while Odysseus entered the city once more. This time he knew where to look. He managed to seize the image, but was discovered while trying to escape and had to fight several guards. In the end, he got out of Troy and fled back to the Achaean camp with Diomedes, carrying the Palladium with them.

Sources, Comments and Variants

Sources

Homer, Odyssey 4.240–264. Helen recalls how Odysseus wounded himself and covered himself in rags in order to enter Troy disguised as a beggar. She was the only person to recognise him, questioned him, bathed him and swore not to betray him. Odysseus eventually revealed the Achaeans’ purpose to her; afterwards he killed several Trojans and returned to the camp with a wealth of information.

Little Iliad, known through the summary attributed to the Chrestomathy of Proclus. Odysseus disfigures himself and enters Troy alone as a spy; Helen recognises him and the two agree on a plan for the capture of the city. After killing some Trojans, Odysseus returns to the ships. He later enters Troy again with Diomedes, and together they remove the Palladium from the city.

Apollodorus, Epitome 5.13. Preserves a version that brings the two episodes even closer together: Odysseus and Diomedes go by night; Diomedes waits outside while Odysseus enters disguised as a beggar, Helen recognises him and helps him seize the Palladium. Odysseus kills several guards and returns with the image, aided by Diomedes.

Virgil, Aeneid 2.163–168. Sinon recalls the theft of the Palladium and attributes the deed jointly to Diomedes and Odysseus. The two kill the guards of the citadel and carry off the sacred image with bloodied hands.

Servius, commentary on Aeneid 2.166. Preserves several particularly interesting variants: Odysseus and Diomedes are said to have entered the city together through tunnels or sewers, killed the guards and stolen the Palladium. He even adds a tradition in which, on the return journey, Odysseus tried to kill Diomedes so that he alone would receive the glory for the theft.

Comments and Variants

Two entries into Troy. The earliest tradition we can reconstruct distinguishes two episodes: first, Odysseus enters alone as a spy; later, he returns with Diomedes to steal the Palladium. Our narrative follows this structure from the Little Iliad.

Helen and Odysseus. Homer says that Helen recognises Odysseus and does not betray him; the Little Iliad goes further and says that the two devise a plan for the fall of Troy. That is why our narrative presents Helen as cooperating with him and providing him with information.

Who actually stole the Palladium? The versions disagree. Some have Odysseus and Diomedes acting together; Apollodorus leaves Diomedes waiting outside while Odysseus enters; other traditions have both men enter the citadel together. Even ancient artistic tradition is uncertain over which of the two should be regarded as the true thief.

Access to the city. A later tradition had Odysseus and Diomedes enter the citadel of Troy through an underground passage. Servius preserves two variants: an excavated tunnel or the city sewers. A lost play by Sophocles seems to have imagined the latter as a narrow, muddy passage. This variant is not incorporated into our narrative.

The Trojan Horse

In the tenth year of the war, Odysseus devised one final stratagem for entering a city that had proved impossible to take by force. He proposed building an enormous hollow wooden horse in which some of the finest Achaean warriors could hide. Epeius, one of the men in the army and a skilled craftsman, undertook its construction under the inspiration of Athena herself.

On one of its sides was carved an inscription dedicating it to Athena as an offering for the Achaeans’ safe return home. When it was finished, Odysseus chose the warriors who were to hide inside. The rest of the army set fire to the camp, boarded the ships and withdrew as far as Tenedos, where they could remain hidden from Trojan sight. Only Sinon, a kinsman of Odysseus, stayed behind as part of the deception.

At dawn, the Trojans discovered that the Achaean camp was empty. They came out of the city and found the enormous horse nearby. At first, bewildered, they debated what to do with it. Some wanted to destroy it or burn it; others thought that, since it had been dedicated to Athena, they should bring it into Troy and offer it to the goddess. Cassandra warned that armed men were hidden inside, but, as always, no one paid attention to her words. Laocoön, a Trojan priest of Apollo, also distrusted the gift and advised that it be destroyed.

Sinon allowed himself to be captured by Trojan scouts, who brought him in bonds before Priam. There he pretended to have escaped from the Achaeans and claimed that Odysseus had tried to make him the victim of a sacrifice before the fleet departed. He insisted that the Achaeans had sailed away and that the horse was an offering to Athena.

Laocoön continued to warn against trusting the horse. Soon afterwards, while preparing to offer a sacrifice to Poseidon, two enormous serpents emerged from the sea and attacked him and his sons. Laocoön and one of the boys were strangled to death by the serpents. The prodigy made a deep impression on the Trojans, who interpreted it as punishment for his opposition to the horse and began to believe that Sinon was telling the truth.

The horse was too large to pass through the city gates. At last, after great effort and after pulling down part of the wall, the Trojans managed to bring it inside. Convinced that the war was over, they began to celebrate their victory.

Hidden inside were Odysseus and a chosen group of Achaean warriors. Around midnight, Sinon slipped out of the city and lit a fire on the tomb of Achilles: this was the agreed signal. When Agamemnon saw it from Tenedos, he ordered the fleet to sail back towards Troy.

While the Trojans slept, the warriors crept out of the horse, killed the sentries and opened the city gates. The Achaean army, which had returned in secret, then entered Troy.

Sources, Comments and Variants

Sources

Homer, Odyssey 8.492–520. One of the earliest surviving testimonies to the Horse. Odysseus asks Demodocus to sing of how Epeius built the Horse with Athena’s help, how Odysseus managed to bring it into Troy filled with warriors, and how the Achaeans burned their camp and pretended to sail away while the men hidden inside remained within the Horse.

Homer, Odyssey 4.271–289; 11.523–532. Other memories of the Horse scattered through the Odyssey. Helen recalls the warriors hidden inside it, and Odysseus appears as a central figure in the stratagem. The poem assumes that its audience already knows the story, but does not narrate it continuously.

Little Iliad, a lost poem attributed to Lesches and known through the summary attributed to the Chrestomathy of Proclus. Odysseus devises the Horse and Epeius builds it following Athena’s instructions. The best warriors enter it, the Achaeans burn their huts and sail as far as Tenedos. The Trojans believe the war is over, pull down part of the wall to bring the Horse inside, and begin celebrating their apparent victory.

Apollodorus, Epitome 5.14–18. Preserves one of the fullest versions of the plan. Odysseus proposes building the Horse; Epeius constructs it hollow from timber from Mount Ida; the best warriors hide inside and Odysseus takes command. An inscription is carved on the outside presenting the Horse as an offering by the Greeks to Athena for a safe return home. The army burns its huts, leaves Sinon behind and hides near Tenedos. Cassandra and Laocoön warn of the danger, but the Trojans decide to preserve the Horse as a sacred offering.

Sack of Ilium (Iliou Persis), a lost poem attributed to Arctinus of Miletus and known through the summary attributed to the Chrestomathy of Proclus. The Trojans deliberate over the Horse: some want to throw it from a height, others to burn it, and others to consecrate it to Athena. The last opinion prevails. During the celebrations, two serpents appear and kill Laocoön and one of his sons. Sinon later lights the signal fire, the Achaeans return from Tenedos, and the men hidden in the Horse emerge and attack the city.

Hyginus, Fabulae 135. Laocoön appears as a priest of Apollo who, by lot, had been chosen to offer a sacrifice to Poseidon by the sea. Hyginus has the serpents sent from Tenedos kill first his two sons and then Laocoön himself. The Trojans interpret the deaths as punishment for his attack on the Horse.

Virgil, Aeneid 2.13–267. The most famous and detailed ancient account of the deception. The Achaeans hide at Tenedos; Laocoön distrusts the Horse and even hurls a spear at it; Sinon pretends to have escaped from the Greeks and claims that Odysseus had tried to have him sacrificed. He says that the Horse is an offering to Athena. While Laocoön is sacrificing a bull to Poseidon, two serpents from Tenedos kill his two sons and the priest himself. The Trojans interpret the prodigy as confirmation of the Horse’s sacred character, open the wall and bring it into the city.

Quintus of Smyrna, Posthomerica 12–13. Develops the plan at length. Odysseus proposes building the Horse, hiding the best warriors inside, feigning withdrawal to Tenedos and leaving behind a man capable of convincing the Trojans. Sinon volunteers and withstands even torture without revealing the deception. He says that Odysseus intended to sacrifice him and presents the Horse as expiation for the theft of the Palladium. Cassandra and Laocoön try to prevent it from being brought into Troy. When the city sleeps, Sinon raises the torch that signals the fleet, calls to the hidden men, and they emerge, kill the guards and seize the gates.

Tryphiodorus, The Taking of Ilios. Preserves numerous late details concerning Sinon and the Horse. It is especially interesting because it places Sinon’s signal fire on Achilles’ tomb, a detail followed in our narrative and scarcely attested elsewhere in the surviving sources.

Tradition concerning Sinon. Later sources make him the son of Aesimus and grandson of Autolycus, which would make him a relative of Odysseus. This genealogy explains the reference in our narrative.

Comments and Variants

Laocoön. Our narrative combines two traditions. The Sack of Ilium had Laocoön and one of his two sons die. Virgil and Hyginus have both sons die together with their father. Hyginus also presents him as a priest of Apollo chosen to sacrifice to Poseidon, while Virgil presents him directly as priest of Neptune/Poseidon. Ancient tradition never settled on a single version.

Who sent the serpents? Here too there is no unanimity. In Hyginus it is Apollo, punishing Laocoön for marrying and having children against his will. In other versions Athena intervenes, angered by his opposition to the Horse; for the Trojans themselves, however, the prodigy appears to confirm that Laocoön has committed sacrilege by distrusting the supposed offering.

The wall. The Trojans’ need to open or pull down part of their own defences in order to bring the Horse inside is not a modern detail. It already appears in the summary of the Little Iliad and is later developed by Virgil and other authors. The irony is especially powerful: the city that the Achaeans had been unable to penetrate for ten years ends by opening its own walls to admit its enemies.

The fire on Achilles’ tomb. Sinon’s signal fire belongs to the usual tradition of Troy’s fall; placing it specifically on Achilles’ tomb is a detail preserved by Tryphiodorus. Our narrative follows that version.

The number of warriors. The sources disagree strikingly over how many men were hidden inside the Horse. Apollodorus even transmits incompatible numbers, while other authors give different lists of heroes. For that reason, our narrative avoids giving a number and simply speaks of ‘a chosen group of Achaean warriors’.

The Fall of Troy

The city was sacked, burned and reduced to rubble. Many of its inhabitants were killed and others enslaved. The Trojans still resisted in the streets, houses and temples, but surprise and the entry of the Achaean army during the night had already decided the outcome. While the slaughter continued, Menelaus, accompanied by Odysseus, went in search of Helen at the house of Deiphobus.

Deiphobus fought the two men bravely with his sword. Some say that Helen betrayed him and that she herself even killed him. Menelaus then approached Helen with sword in hand, intending to kill her, but suddenly stopped. She stood before him, her long peplos torn, her beautiful hair loose and her breasts bare, looking directly into his eyes. Menelaus realised that he was still hopelessly in love with her, let the sword fall to the ground and took her with him to his ship. For the two of them, the war ended there.

Neoptolemus had inherited his father’s strength, but not the compassion Achilles had shown towards Priam. The old king who had left Achilles’ hut alive would not survive Achilles’ son.

Neoptolemus killed Polites, one of Priam’s sons, before the old king’s eyes, and then killed Priam himself. The king of Troy had sought refuge beside the altar of Zeus, but not even that sacred place could protect him. Neoptolemus killed him there.

Cassandra also sought refuge beside the image of Athena, but Ajax son of Oileus dragged her away and raped her. The sacrilege outraged even the Achaeans themselves, who wanted to stone him. Ajax then sought refuge at the altar of the very goddess he had just violated. Athena would not forget that offence.

Cassandra, daughter of Priam, was afterwards given to Agamemnon as a slave. Andromache, who had been Hector’s wife, was given to Neoptolemus, and her son Astyanax was thrown from the wall to prevent future revenge. Here too the traditions disagree over who carried out the deed, but they all share the same terrible logic: no son of Hector could be allowed to live who might one day lay claim to Troy.

According to some accounts, Achilles demanded the sacrifice of the beautiful Polyxena and, after his death, a voice from his tomb claimed the share of the spoils that was due to him. If Achilles could not have Polyxena in life, he would have her in death; and, more than simple revenge, the sacrifice could be interpreted as a terrible form of love. Agamemnon, however, refused to accept that a dead man could claim the right to dispose of a woman’s life and opposed the sacrifice. He argued that too much blood had already been shed and that not even the most illustrious of the dead had a right over the lives of women. But the Achaean army protested, afraid that Achilles might take vengeance from beyond the grave, and Polyxena was sacrificed upon his tomb.

The royal family of Troy was destroyed. Hecuba, wife of Priam and queen of Troy, was enslaved, although different traditions tell different stories about her painful end. More uncertain still is the fate of Polydorus, a young and much-loved son of Priam. In the Iliad, Achilles is said to have killed him before killing Hector. Later accounts, however, say that he did not die then, but was sent to Thrace at the beginning of the war to keep him safe. There, however, he was murdered by those who were supposed to protect him, so that they could keep the gold Priam had entrusted to them together with his son. A third story, no less tragic, has Polydorus survive, discover who he is and realise bitterly how many people have died because of him.

Helenus survived the massacre and was also given to Neoptolemus as a slave. They went to Epirus, where Helenus married Neoptolemus’ mother, Deidamia. Others say that he married Andromache. In a strange turn of fate, one of the men who had revealed to the Achaeans how Troy could be taken ended up surviving the destruction of his own city and beginning a new life far from it.

Sources, Comments and Variants

Sources

Homer, Odyssey 8.516–520. Demodocus sings of how, during the sack, Odysseus and Menelaus went together to the house of Deiphobus, where one of the fiercest battles of the night took place. This provides the Homeric basis for their entry into the house where Helen was staying.

Sack of Ilium (Iliou Persis), a lost poem attributed to Arctinus and known through the summary attributed to the Chrestomathy of Proclus. It is one of the fundamental sources for the whole episode: Neoptolemus kills Priam beside the altar of Zeus; Menelaus kills Deiphobus and recovers Helen; Ajax son of Oileus drags Cassandra away from the image of Athena; the Achaeans want to stone him for the sacrilege; Troy is burned; Polyxena is sacrificed on Achilles’ tomb; Odysseus kills Astyanax; and Neoptolemus receives Andromache.

A scholiast on Euripides, Hecuba 41 preserves a variant attributed in the scholarly tradition to the Cypria: during the sack, Odysseus and Diomedes wound Polyxena, and Neoptolemus buries her. The attribution to the cyclic poem is indirect and debated, but the testimony shows that the tradition did not know a single fate for Polyxena.

Little Iliad, fragment preserved by the scholiast on Aristophanes, Lysistrata 155. Menelaus is about to kill Helen, but when he sees her bare breasts he lets the sword fall. This is the most direct ancient source for the episode followed in our narrative.

Hyginus, Fabulae 240. Preserves an even more radical variant: in his catalogue of women who killed their husbands, he explicitly includes ‘Helen, daughter of Jupiter and Leda, [killed] Deiphobus, son of Priam’. This is the source for our observation that some traditions made Helen directly responsible for his death.

Virgil, Aeneid 6.494 ff.. Deiphobus relates in Hades that Helen betrayed him: she removed the weapons from the house, even the sword he kept beside his head, opened the doors to Menelaus and allowed Odysseus to enter as well. Virgil thus develops a tradition in which Helen actively collaborates with the Achaeans during the fall of Troy.

Tryphiodorus, The Taking of Ilios 613 ff.. Odysseus and Menelaus attack the house of Deiphobus together. Menelaus pursues and kills Deiphobus while Odysseus fights those who try to block their way.

Quintus of Smyrna, Posthomerica 13. Menelaus finds Deiphobus in Helen’s chamber and kills him with his sword. Helen, meanwhile, has hidden herself. This is another of the principal variants of the scene.

Virgil, Aeneid 2.526 ff.. The principal source for the scene involving Polites and Priam: Neoptolemus pursues Polites through the palace and kills him before his father’s eyes; shortly afterwards he kills Priam himself beside the altar. The Epic Cycle already had Priam die at Neoptolemus’ hands, but Virgil dramatises the prior killing of Polites.

Apollodorus, Epitome 5.21–23. Neoptolemus kills Priam at the altar of Zeus; Menelaus kills Deiphobus and recovers Helen; Ajax son of Oileus rapes Cassandra while she clings to Athena’s image; afterwards the captive women are divided up: Cassandra falls to Agamemnon and Andromache to Neoptolemus.

Sack of Ilium and later tradition concerning Cassandra. The cyclic version had Ajax tear Cassandra away from Athena’s statue with such violence that even the divine image was affected. The Achaeans, horrified, decided to stone him; Ajax saved himself by taking refuge in the goddess’s own sanctuary. The sexual assault is made explicit in Apollodorus and other later sources.

Little Iliad, fragment transmitted by the scholiast on Lycophron and by Pausanias. In this version, Neoptolemus tears Astyanax from his nurse’s arms and throws him from a tower; afterwards he receives Andromache as part of the booty.

Sack of Ilium, by contrast, made Odysseus the killer of Astyanax. Euripides, in The Trojan Women, retains Odysseus as the political instigator: he is the one who persuades the Achaeans that Hector’s son must die so that he can never rebuild Troy or avenge his father.

Euripides, Hecuba. The ghost of Achilles appears above his tomb and demands Polyxena as his reward. The army is divided: Agamemnon opposes the sacrifice, while others support it; eventually Odysseus persuades the Achaeans and Neoptolemus carries out the sacrifice. Euripides also connects Agamemnon’s opposition with his interest in Cassandra.

Seneca, Troades. Develops Agamemnon’s opposition even further. Against Neoptolemus, he argues that victory does not grant unlimited rights over the defeated and resists the sacrifice of Polyxena until Calchas declares that fate requires it. This is the text that best supports the moral tone of our Agamemnon: ‘too much blood had already been shed’.

Servius, commentary on Aeneid 3.322; Hyginus and other late traditions. Preserve the variant in which a voice from Achilles’ tomb demands a share of the spoils, eventually identified with Polyxena. Other versions have Achilles appear in dreams to Neoptolemus or Agamemnon.

Quintus of Smyrna, Posthomerica 14. Achilles himself appears after death and demands Polyxena as his share of the booty, threatening storms and preventing the Achaeans’ return if his will is not obeyed.

Homer, Iliad 20.406 ff.. Knows of a Polydorus, son of Priam, young and much loved, whom Achilles kills during the war. This is the first version mentioned in our narrative.

Euripides, Hecuba; Virgil, Aeneid 3; Ovid, Metamorphoses 13. Another tradition has Priam send Polydorus to Thrace with great wealth in order to keep him safe. When Troy falls, his host Polymestor murders him to keep the gold.

Hyginus, Fabulae 109. Preserves the third version used in our narrative. Iliona, Polydorus’ sister and wife of Polymestor, exchanges her own son for the Trojan boy. Polymestor believes he has killed Polydorus but in fact kills his own son. Polydorus survives, consults the oracle, eventually discovers his true identity and takes revenge on Polymestor.

Apollodorus, Epitome 6.12–13. Helenus travels with Neoptolemus to Molossia, founds a city there and receives Deidamia, Neoptolemus’ own mother, as his wife. This extraordinary union is attested by Apollodorus and appears to be absent from the other surviving ancient authors.

Euripides, Andromache 1226 ff.; Virgil, Aeneid 3; and Servius. Another tradition has Helenus marry Andromache after the death of Neoptolemus and rule with her in Epirus.

Comments and Variants

Helen and Deiphobus. Our narrative combines several ancient strands. Homer knows that Odysseus and Menelaus attacked his house together; the Epic Cycle has Menelaus kill him; Virgil makes Helen an active accomplice; Hyginus goes so far as to say directly that Helen killed Deiphobus. The sentence ‘some say that Helen betrayed him and that she herself even killed him’ is therefore well supported.

Helen’s breasts. This is not a modern embellishment. The Little Iliad already told how Menelaus dropped his sword when he saw Helen’s bare breasts. Our narrative expands the scene visually — torn peplos, loose hair — but the core of the tradition is ancient.

The death of Priam. The Sack of Ilium had Priam killed by Neoptolemus beside the altar of Zeus. Virgil adds the particularly cruel episode of Polites being killed before his father, which we have also incorporated into the narrative.

Cassandra. The sources agree on the violence committed by Ajax, although they do not always describe it in the same way. The Epic Cycle emphasises above all the sacrilege of dragging a suppliant away from Athena’s statue; Apollodorus also makes the rape explicit. The wording ‘dragged her away and raped her’ preserves both dimensions.

Astyanax. The disagreement over his killer is ancient: Odysseus in the Sack of Ilium, Neoptolemus in the Little Iliad. Euripides shifts the emphasis towards the collective decision to prevent a future avenger of Troy from surviving. Hence the formulation in our narrative: ‘they all share the same terrible logic’.

Polyxena. Several explanations converge here: honour owed to the dead, a claim to his share of the booty, the need to obtain favourable winds and, in Seneca, even a kind of marriage with Achilles in the afterlife. Our reading — ‘if Achilles could not have Polyxena in life, he would have her in death’ — fits particularly well with Seneca’s version.

Polydorus. The sources preserve three almost incompatible stories: Homer kills him during the war; Euripides and Virgil have him die through betrayal in Thrace; Hyginus allows him to survive through Iliona’s substitution and later discover who he is. The coexistence of these versions shows how freely myth could transform a character’s fate.

Helenus. His marriage to Deidamia is an exceptional tradition preserved by Apollodorus. Much better known is the version in which he ultimately marries Andromache and rules with her in Epirus. Our narrative preserves both explicitly as variants.

The Homecomings

soon as possible, while a favourable wind was still blowing, but Agamemnon preferred to keep the army there and offer sacrifices to appease Athena. The goddess was still angered by the sacrileges committed during the sack, especially by what had happened to Cassandra. In the end, the Achaeans split up and began the journey home at different times and by different routes. The war was over, but many of them would still pay a high price for victory.

Ajax son of Oileus was among the first. During the voyage home, his ship was wrecked, but he managed to reach the Gyraean rocks and save himself. He would have survived, despite Athena’s anger, had he not committed one final act of recklessness. Believing himself out of danger, he boasted that he had escaped the sea even against the will of the gods.

Poseidon heard him. He struck the rock on which Ajax stood with his trident and split it in two. The fragment gave way beneath his feet and fell into the sea with him. The waves swept him away and he drowned.

But not all the Achaeans’ misfortunes were caused by the gods. Nauplius, grieving over the death of his son Palamedes, had spent years preparing his revenge. He had travelled through the Peloponnese and Attica telling the wives of men connected with his son’s death that their husbands intended to abandon them and marry the Trojan captives they were bringing home. Some believed him and took lovers during their husbands’ long absence.

It cannot be said that Nauplius’ words were entirely false. After ten years of war, many Achaean leaders had lived in the camp with captive women who had become part of their daily lives. Agamemnon himself had compared Chryseis with Clytemnestra, his wife, and had not judged her inferior; and when he was forced, reluctantly, to return her to her father, he took Briseis in exchange. Now he was also returning with Cassandra. From far away, their wives could easily imagine that these women might end up taking their place.

Nauplius carried his revenge even further. One night he lit a fire on Cape Caphareus, on the coast of Euboea, so that Achaean ships would mistake the light for a signal marking the way to a safe harbour. Several sailed towards it and were wrecked on the reefs.

He also spread his rumours to Aegialeia, the wife of Diomedes. When Diomedes returned to Argos, he discovered that she was living with Cometes. He understood that the home he had hoped to return to was no longer there for him and eventually left Greece. After further adventures, he settled in Italy, where several cities claimed him as their founder.

Teucer, the archer and half-brother of Ajax, son of Telamon, returned with his fleet to Salamis. But Telamon did not allow him simply to resume his place there. He blamed him for returning without his brother and for not having done everything in his power to save him. Teucer defended himself by recalling that Ajax had taken his own life and that he had done all he could after his death: he had confronted Menelaus and Agamemnon to prevent them from leaving the body unburied and had ensured that Ajax received funeral rites. He could not avenge as murder a death Ajax had inflicted upon himself. Telamon refused to listen. He also reproached Teucer for not returning with his son’s remains, nor with Tecmessa and Eurysaces, and forbade him to land on Salamis. Teucer went instead to Cyprus, where he founded another city which he also called Salamis.

Calchas did not return to his homeland either. He travelled overland with some companions to Colophon, where he met Mopsus, son of Manto, who was also famous for his prophetic gifts. Calchas decided to test him and asked how many figs a wild fig tree would produce. Mopsus gave an exact number and was proved right. Mopsus then challenged Calchas to predict how many piglets a pregnant sow was carrying and when they would be born. Calchas was wrong, while Mopsus was right again. Unable to endure the fact that another seer had seen further than he had, Calchas died of shame.

Neoptolemus, by contrast, had the prudence to offer sacrifices to the gods and to the spirit of his father before setting out. Following the advice of Helenus, he also avoided the great storm that struck other Achaeans. After various adventures, he received the kingdom of his grandfather Peleus, although he eventually settled in Epirus together with Andromache.

The return of Idomeneus is more confused. During his absence, as part of his revenge against the Achaeans, Nauplius had persuaded Idomeneus’ wife Meda to take Leucus as a lover. Leucus eventually killed both her and her daughter, seized ten cities in Crete and took power. When Idomeneus returned from Troy, Leucus drove him into exile.

Other accounts said that Idomeneus was caught in a great storm during the return voyage. To appease Poseidon’s anger, he promised to sacrifice the first person he met on landing in Crete. It was his own son. According to some versions, he carried out the sacrifice; according to others, he was only preparing to do so. In either case, the Cretans eventually expelled him. Some sources linked his exile with an epidemic said to have struck the island after the sacrifice. Idomeneus then went to Italy, where one tradition placed him in the Salento, at the south-eastern tip of the peninsula.

Menelaus endured one of the longest homecomings. A storm sent by the gods destroyed most of his fleet, and only five ships survived. For years he wandered through Cyprus, Phoenicia, Ethiopia, Libya and Egypt, because whenever he tried to return home the winds drove him off course again.

At last he reached the island of Pharos, off the coast of Egypt. There, with the help of Eidothea, a sea nymph and daughter of Proteus, he managed to make the old sea god reveal why the gods were preventing his return. Proteus told him to go back to Egypt and offer the sacrifices he had omitted. He also told him the fate of some of the Achaeans who had returned from Troy.

Menelaus obeyed. He offered the required sacrifices, and at last the winds began to blow in his favour. After eight years of travelling, he finally returned to Sparta: eighteen years had passed since his departure, ten before Troy and eight wandering on the way home.

Philoctetes returned to Meliboea in Thessaly, but he found no peace there either. He was driven from his homeland and went to southern Italy, where he founded several cities and dedicated the bow of Heracles. There he ended his days, far from Thessaly.

Sources, Comments and Variants

Sources

Nostoi / Homecomings, a lost poem of the Epic Cycle known through the summary attributed to the Chrestomathy of Proclus. It provides the fundamental structure for this section: the disagreement between Agamemnon and Menelaus over when to depart; the safe return of Nestor and Diomedes; Menelaus reaching Egypt with only five ships; Calchas travelling overland towards Colophon; the storm at Cape Caphareus causing the death of Ajax son of Oileus; and Neoptolemus avoiding the disaster by taking a different route home.

Homer, Odyssey 4.499 ff.; Apollodorus, Epitome 6.6. Ajax son of Oileus initially survives the shipwreck and boasts that he has escaped despite the gods; Poseidon strikes the rock on which he has taken refuge with his trident, splits it apart and Ajax dies in the sea.

Apollodorus, Epitome 6.7–11. The principal source for Nauplius’ revenge: he lights the false beacon at Cape Caphareus to cause shipwrecks and, before that, travels through Greece encouraging the wives of those responsible for Palamedes’ death to be unfaithful. Clytemnestra, Aegialeia and Meda are explicitly named.

Apollodorus, Epitome 6.9–10; Dictys of Crete 6.2. Aegialeia takes Cometes as a lover and Diomedes encounters hostility on his return to Argos. Later tradition has him leave Greece and places much of his subsequent story in Italy, where several cities claimed Diomedes as their founder.

Euripides, Helen 87–105; Pausanias 8.15.7. Teucer is expelled from Salamis by his father Telamon after returning without Ajax. Euripides has Teucer explicitly say that his father exiled him because of his brother’s death; he later founds another Salamis in Cyprus.

Later tradition preserved by Servius. There is also a variant that expands Telamon’s reproach: Teucer had failed to bring back Tecmessa and Eurysaces. This detail belongs to a later tradition, not to Euripides’ version.

Hesiod, Melampodia, fragment preserved by Strabo 14.1.27; Pherecydes and later tradition. Calchas meets in Mopsus a seer superior to himself. Hesiod preserved the test involving the figs; another tradition added the pregnant sow. Calchas dies of grief at having been surpassed.

Nostoi and later tradition concerning Neoptolemus. The summary attributed to the Chrestomathy of Proclus says that Thetis advises him to return by land; Servius preserves a variant in which Helenus warns him of the shipwreck that will strike the Achaean leaders and advises him to avoid the sea route. Our narrative combines the two traditions.

Apollodorus, Epitome 6.9–10. Nauplius induces Meda, Idomeneus’ wife, to take Leucus as a lover; Leucus kills Meda and her daughter, seizes ten Cretan cities and expels Idomeneus when he returns.

Servius, commentary on Aeneid 3.121, and post-Homeric tradition. A completely different story tells of Idomeneus’ vow during a storm: he promises to sacrifice the first person he meets if Poseidon allows him to return safely; that person is his own son, the sacrifice causes a plague, and he is eventually expelled from Crete. Homer, significantly, knew a happy return for Idomeneus.

Homer, Odyssey 4.76–89 and 4.351 ff.. The essential source for Menelaus: eight years of wandering, five surviving ships, Egypt, Pharos, Eidothea and Proteus. Proteus explains that the gods are detaining Menelaus because he has failed to offer the proper sacrifices and orders him to return to Egypt to perform them.

Traditions preserved by Strabo, Pseudo-Aristotle and Lycophron. Philoctetes returns to Meliboea but is driven out by a revolt; he settles in southern Italy, where foundations such as Crimisa, Petelia and Macalla, as well as the dedication of Heracles’ bow, were attributed to him.

Comments and Variants

Teucer. Different variants converge here. In Euripides, Telamon expels him because he failed to save Ajax; the specific reproach that he did not return with Tecmessa and Eurysaces belongs to a later tradition.

Neoptolemus. Here too there are two advisers: Thetis in the Nostoi and Helenus in Servius. Our narrative follows the Helenus variant; the sources preserve the alternative.

Idomeneus. He is a particularly striking example of changing tradition: in Homer he returns safely; in Apollodorus he loses Crete because of Leucus’ usurpation; in the Latin tradition he loses his homeland because he sacrificed — or intended to sacrifice — his own son.

Back Home

But if there was one tragedy remembered above all others, it was surely that of Agamemnon when he reached Mycenae after a stormy voyage home. His wife, Clytemnestra, had been told that he was returning and, believing the rumours spread by Nauplius, had taken Aegisthus as her lover. She also feared that Cassandra, the beautiful Trojan captive Agamemnon was bringing back with him, might eventually take her place.

Clytemnestra also hated Agamemnon for what had happened to Iphigenia, their daughter. At Aulis, when the fleet had been unable to sail for Troy, Calchas had announced that Artemis demanded the girl’s sacrifice before she would restore the winds to the Achaean ships. It was never entirely clear what became of Iphigenia, or whether she truly died there. But Clytemnestra had no doubt: Agamemnon had sacrificed their daughter as the price of allowing the expedition to continue towards Troy.

Clytemnestra planned the betrayal carefully. She welcomed Agamemnon with every honour and then led him to the bath. Cassandra was among his attendants, but stopped before entering the palace. She knew that death was waiting for her inside and, once again, no one believed her. At last she entered. While Agamemnon was bathing, Clytemnestra trapped him in a net and killed him with Aegisthus’ help. Clytemnestra then killed Cassandra, while Aegisthus murdered Teledamus and Pelops, the twin sons born to Cassandra and Agamemnon. Aegisthus’ men then killed Agamemnon’s followers.

Aegisthus knew that Orestes, Agamemnon’s only son, might one day become his avenger and wanted to eliminate him while he was still a child. It was said that his sister Electra secretly removed him from the palace and entrusted him to an old servant of their father. The man took him to Phocis and placed him in the care of Strophius, who raised him alongside his own son, Pylades.

Another, more dramatic version told how a nurse gave up her own son in Orestes’ place, and Aegisthus killed the child believing that he had destroyed Agamemnon’s heir.

In any case, Orestes grew up far from Mycenae and beyond Aegisthus’ reach. He formed a friendship with Pylades that would become inseparable from his legend. Electra, meanwhile, remained at home with her sister Chrysothemis, under the power of Aegisthus and Clytemnestra.

Aegisthus ruled Mycenae for seven years. When Electra reached marriageable age, he feared that she might marry some nobleman and bear a son who would one day avenge Agamemnon. He even considered killing her, but Clytemnestra prevented him. Aegisthus therefore decided to marry her to a poor farmer, convinced that no child of such a union would ever be powerful enough to challenge him.

Electra never stopped waiting for her brother’s return. During the years Orestes remained in Phocis, she kept the memory of their father alive in the hope that one day he would come back to avenge him.

Orestes finally returned with Pylades. First he took the precaution of concealing his identity by spreading the false report of his own death. Some say that brother and sister recognised one another beside Agamemnon’s tomb; others that the deception continued until Electra was made to believe that Orestes’ ashes had arrived in Mycenae; and others again that they recognised each other in the humble house where Electra lived, far from the palace.

Orestes killed Aegisthus first. Then came the most terrible moment: killing Clytemnestra, his own mother. She tried to stop him by reminding him that she had carried him in her womb and raised him. Orestes hesitated, but Pylades reminded him of Apollo’s oracle, which had ordered him to avenge Agamemnon’s death.

The killing of Aegisthus avenged Agamemnon; the killing of Clytemnestra, however, created a new blood debt. The Erinyes, divine powers who especially pursued crimes committed within the family, began to hunt Orestes for shedding his mother’s blood.

Orestes sought Apollo’s protection, but even obedience to the god was not enough to erase the matricide. At last he reached Athens, where Athena established a court to judge him. Apollo defended the accused, while the Erinyes demanded punishment.

The judges’ votes were tied. Athena cast her vote in Orestes’ favour, and he was acquitted. But the story did not end simply with the defeat of the Erinyes. Athena persuaded them to accept a place and new honours within the city. The ancient avengers of family bloodshed were thus incorporated into the order of Athens and worshipped as protective divinities.

Not every homecoming ended so tragically. Old Nestor, always respectful towards the gods and whose principal role in the war had been to advise and encourage his companions, enjoyed one of the most fortunate returns. After the fall of Troy, the Achaeans argued over when to begin the voyage home. Nestor decided to leave without delay. He first reached Tenedos, where he offered sacrifices to the gods, and from there continued with Diomedes. Menelaus eventually caught up with them at Lesbos.

There they were uncertain which route to take and asked the gods for a sign. The answer led them directly across the Aegean towards Euboea. A favourable wind drove their ships to Geraestus, where they again offered sacrifices, this time to Poseidon. On the fourth day Diomedes reached Argos; Nestor continued towards Pylos, and the wind never ceased driving his ship until he reached his homeland.

There he resumed his place as king, surrounded by a large family and offering sacrifices to the gods.

Ithaca, by contrast, was still waiting. Rumours also circulated about Penelope, wife of Odysseus, casting doubt on her fidelity. And while other Achaeans had returned, died or found a new homeland, no news of Odysseus had yet arrived. It was said that Nauplius sent Anticleia, Odysseus’ mother, the false report that her son had died at Troy, and that in a moment of despair she took her own life.

It would not be surprising if he had also told Penelope that Odysseus would return home with a Trojan captive destined to take her place. Nauplius had every reason to regard Odysseus as one of the chief men responsible for the death of Palamedes.

Sources, Comments and Variants

Sources

Homer, Odyssey 3, 4, 11 and 24. This is the earliest surviving tradition concerning Agamemnon’s return: Aegisthus seduces Clytemnestra, prepares an ambush and kills Agamemnon; Clytemnestra kills Cassandra. In Hades, Agamemnon tells Odysseus the tragedy of his homecoming and turns his own death into a warning about the dangers that may await at home.

Aeschylus, Agamemnon. The principal source for our scene. Clytemnestra receives Agamemnon solemnly; Cassandra understands that both of them are going to die; Agamemnon is trapped in a garment or net from which he cannot escape, and Clytemnestra kills him. The tragedy makes Clytemnestra, rather than Aegisthus, the principal agent of the murder.

Pausanias 2.16.6–7. Preserves the tradition according to which Agamemnon and Cassandra had twin sons, Teledamus and Pelops, who were killed while still children by Aegisthus after he had murdered their parents.

Epic Cycle, Aeschylus and Euripides on Iphigenia. The sacrifice of Iphigenia explains Clytemnestra’s hatred of Agamemnon. The versions differ even over whether the girl actually died or whether Artemis substituted another victim at the last moment; hence the wording in our narrative: ‘It was never entirely clear what became of her.’

Apollodorus, Epitome 6.23–25; Sophocles and Euripides. Electra saves Orestes and sends him to Phocis, where Strophius raises him alongside Pylades. Orestes later returns with his inseparable companion to avenge Agamemnon.

Pherecydes and the tradition preserved in the scholia to Pindar. Another variant has a nurse — Arsinoe or Laodamia, depending on the source — give up her own son to save Orestes; Aegisthus kills the child believing that he has eliminated Agamemnon’s heir.

Euripides, Electra 1 ff.. The source for Electra’s marriage to a poor farmer. Aegisthus fears that a powerful husband might father with her a future avenger; Clytemnestra prevents him from killing her, and Aegisthus marries her to a man of humble means.

Aeschylus, Libation Bearers. Orestes and Electra recognise one another beside Agamemnon’s tomb. Apollo has ordered Orestes to avenge his father; he kills Aegisthus and, when he hesitates before Clytemnestra, Pylades reminds him of Apollo’s oracle. This is exactly the core of our version of the mother’s death.

Sophocles, Electra. Orestes spreads the report of his own death and arrives with an urn supposedly containing his ashes. Electra believes her brother is dead until Orestes reveals his identity.

Euripides, Electra. Moves the recognition scene to the poor farmer’s house. An old servant recognises Orestes by a scar. This is the source of the third variant mentioned in our narrative.

Aeschylus, Eumenides. The Erinyes pursue Orestes for matricide. Apollo protects him and sends him to Athens. Athena establishes a court; the votes are tied and Orestes is acquitted. Athena then persuades the Erinyes to accept a new place and new honours within the city.

Homer, Odyssey 3.130–200. An almost literal source for Nestor’s fortunate return: departure from Troy, Tenedos, meeting Menelaus at Lesbos, consultation of the gods, direct crossing of the Aegean, sacrifices to Poseidon at Geraestus; on the fourth day Diomedes reaches Argos, while Nestor continues without interruption to Pylos.

Homer, Odyssey 11.202 ff.. Anticleia tells Odysseus that she died consumed by longing for her son. Hyginus and the tradition preserved by Eustathius offer another version: Anticleia kills herself after receiving false news of Odysseus’ death; Eustathius attributes the deception to Nauplius as part of his revenge for Palamedes.

Comments and Variants

Agamemnon. Our narrative follows Aeschylus above all: the bath, the net-like trap and Clytemnestra as the direct killer do not correspond exactly to the Homeric account.

The three recognition scenes of Orestes. Aeschylus — tomb and tokens —, Sophocles — the false urn — and Euripides — the farmer’s house and the scar — tell the same return in different ways. Our narrative deliberately presents these possibilities as variants.

Anticleia. Here too the distinction must remain clear. Homer does not say that Nauplius deceived her: she herself attributes her death to longing for Odysseus. The false report and suicide belong to a later tradition.

Penelope and Nauplius. No surviving ancient source states that Nauplius told Penelope that Odysseus would return with a captive woman. This is an inference from the method tradition attributes to Nauplius with Clytemnestra, Aegialeia and Meda; for that reason the narrative explicitly presents it as a possibility: ‘It would not be surprising if he had also told Penelope...’.