But the fall and destruction of the city is not included. Here the events are narrated from the death of Achilles to the idea of the Greeks to enter Troy through the stratagem of the wooden horse. Little IliadĪfter Aethiopis would follow the four books of the Little Iliad, attributed to Lesches of Pyrrha (city of the island of Lesbos), a poet mentioned by Pausanias and who lived around 700 BC. The events narrated in Aethiopis are among the most popular used by ancient Greek pottery painters. But the Achaeans raise their burial mound and hold funerary games, and a dispute breaks out between Odysseus and Ajax over the armor of Achilles Summary of Aethiopis, Chrestomathy (Proclus) After that, Tethys snatches him from the pyre and takes him to the island of Leuke. Tethys comes with the Muses and their sisters and mourns for his son Achilles.

It starts with the arrival of Penthesileia, the queen of the Amazons (whom Achilles kills in combat), and ends with the death of Achilles and the confrontation between Ajax Telamonium and Odysseus for keeping their weapons. These were five books attributed to Arctinus of Miletus, a legendary poet considered by some as a disciple of Homer, and others as Dionysius of Halicarnassus, the oldest known poet ( Ancient History of Rome, I-68,2).Īethiopis was named after Memnon, the Ethiopian king who fought alongside the Trojans after Hector’s death, and the story begins right where the Iliad ends. AethiopisĪfter Cypria, in chronological order, would follow the events narrated in the Iliad and then the Aethiopis. However, many are convinced that the Catalogue of Trojans, which lists the Trojan warriors and allies in the second book of the Iliad, may be extracted from Cypria. Most experts are inclined to think that it was put into writing later. It is not very clear whether Cypria was composed before or after the Iliad. Herodotus revealed some contradictions between the two works, such as the fact that Cypria mentions that Paris had arrived in Troy directly from Sparta, while the Iliad states that it had previously passed through Sidon:īy these lines and by this passage it is also most clearly shown that the “Cyprian Epic” was not written by Homer but by some other man: for in this it is said that on the third day after leaving Sparta Alexander came to Ilion bringing with him Helen, having had a “gently-blowing wind and a smooth sea,” whereas in the Iliad it says that he wandered from his course when he brought her Herodotus, History II-98 Aerial view of the Trojan site in Turkey / photo nexus 7 – Shutterstock

The poem consisted of 11 books, which narrated the events that had led to the Trojan War, as well as the first nine years of it, ending right where the Iliad begins.

Iliad odyssey