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HOMER AND ACHILLES’ AMBUSH OF TROILUS: CONFRONTING THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2018
Extract
A commonly attested episode in ancient art and literature is the brutal death of Troilus at the hands of Achilles. Priam's son is mostly depicted as a defenceless pais (‘young man’ or ‘boy’), slain in a cruel ambush outside Troy while on horseback on some non-military business. The Iliad makes no reference to the slaying of Troilus. The only mention of him is in Book 24, where Priam, after a visit from Iris, the divine messenger, becomes determined to go and visit Achilles in order to ransom the body of Hector. It is at this moment that in an emotional outburst the Trojan king berates his surviving sons for the mere fact that they still live, while Mestor, Troilus, and Hector, his three ‘most excellent sons’, have lost their lives as a result of the war (Il. 24.255–60):
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Footnotes
I would like to thank G&R’s anonymous reviewer for the useful feedback on an earlier draft of this article.
References
1 For a comprehensive discussion of all the available evidence, both literary and pictorial, see Gantz, T., Early Greek Myth. A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources (Baltimore, MD, and London, 1993), 597–603 Google Scholar.
2 In this article, both the Greek text and the English translation of the Iliad are based on Murray, A. T. (ed. and trans.), Homer. The Iliad, second edition, rev. Wyatt, W. F., 2 vols. (Cambridge, MA, and London, 1999)Google Scholar.
3 Cf. Σ (T) Il. 24.257b; Sommerstein, A. H., Fitzpatrick, D., and Talboy, T. (eds. and trans.), Sophocles. Selected Fragmentary Plays, Vol. 1. Hermione, Polyxene, The Diners, Tereus, Troilus, Phaedra (Oxford, 2006), 197Google Scholar.
4 The thematic convergence among early Greek epics that dealt with the Trojan War (e.g. the Cypria, the Little Iliad, and the Sack of Troy) induced ancient readers to think of them collectively as a single entity, the so-called ‘Epic Cycle’. This was either a late classical/Hellenistic reading list forming the basis of a prose summary of the Trojan War poems (see West, M. L., The Epic Cycle. A Commentary on the Lost Troy Epics [Oxford, 2013], 16–26 CrossRefGoogle Scholar) or a Hellenistic compilation created by combining the individual poems in whole or in part (see Burgess, J. S., The Tradition of the Trojan War in Homer and the Epic Cycle [Baltimore, MD, 2001], 7–33 Google Scholar). For a recent and comprehensive overview of the studies on the formation of the Epic Cycle and a re-appreciation of the different stages in its evolution, see Fantuzzi, M. and Tsagalis, C. (eds.), The Greek Epic Cycle and Its Ancient Reception. A Companion (Cambridge, 2015), 7–40 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For a useful discussion of the Cypria, see B. Currie, ‘Cypria’, in ibid., 281–305.
5 Our evidence for the identity and date of Proclus remains largely inconclusive. He was either a second-century ad grammarian or the famous fifth-century ad Neoplatonist: see discussion in Holmberg, I., ‘The Creation of the Ancient Greek Epic Cycle’, Oral Tradition 13.2 (1998), 458Google Scholar; Huxley, G. L., Greek Epic Poetry from Eumelos to Panyassis (London, 1969), 123-4Google Scholar; Severyns, E., Le cycle épique dans l’école d'Aristarque (Liège, 1928), 245Google Scholar; and more recently West (n. 4), 1 and 7-11, who argues for an early-date Proclus.
6 Cypria Arg. lines 61–4 Bernabé=§§10–11 West (=Procl. Chrest.). Henceforth, all citations, quotations, and translations of testimonies and fragments of the Cypria are from West, M. L. (ed. and trans.), Greek Epic Fragments. From the Seventh to the Fifth Centuries bc (Cambridge, MA, and London, 2003)Google Scholar. Citations are also based on the edition of Bernabé, A. (ed.), Poetarum Epicorum Graecorum Testimonia et Fragmenta, vol. 1 (Leipzig, 1987)Google Scholar.
7 A similar sequence of events, yielding the same conclusion, is found in the mythological handbook of Ps.-Apollodorus, which also provides us with a detailed account of the Trojan War: see Epit. 3.32–3. The theft of the cattle of Aeneas, the sack of Pedasos and Lyrnessos, the ambush of Troilus, and the capture of Lycaon might go back to an archaic epic tradition centred on Achilles’ city-sacks and expeditions around Troy, the so-called ‘Tale of Foray’, for which see Leaf, W., Troy. A Study in Homeric Geography (London, 1912), 242–8Google Scholar; see also Nagy, G., The Best of the Achaeans (Baltimore, MD, and London, 1979), 140–1, 272–3Google Scholar; Dué, C., Homeric Variations on a Lament by Briseis (Lanham, MD, and Oxford, 2002), 61–5Google Scholar. For the idea that such operations were initiation tests for young heroes, see Fantuzzi, M., Achilles in Love (Oxford, 2012), 24Google Scholar, n. 10.
8 Cypria fr. (dub.) 41 Bernabé = fr. 25* West.
9 The meaning of hippiokhármēs is ambiguous: see discussion below, pp. 83–4.
10 Ibyc. fr. S224.7–8 SLG and PMGF: παίδα] θ̣εοῖς̣ ἴ̣κ̣[ελον τῶ]ν περγάμω̣ν / ἔκτοσ̣θεν Ἰλίο̣[υ κτάνε·]. Although παίδα] and [υ κτάνε·] are not in the lemma, they can be made out of the scholia with some confidence: see Sommerstein, Fitzpatrick, and Talboy (n. 3), 199, n. 12. For a thorough discussion of this fragment, see Jenner, E. A. B., ‘Troilus and Polyxena in Archaic Greek Lyric: Ibyc. fr. S224 Dav.’, Prudentia 30.2 (1998), 1–15 Google Scholar; and Cavallini, E., ‘Note a Ibico’, Eikasmos 5 (1994), 39–52 Google Scholar.
11 Protocorinthian aryballos: LIMC, ‘Achilleus’, n. 332a; cf. a relief vase-fragment: LIMC, ‘Achilleus’, n. 280, c.680–670.
12 Protocorinthian aryballos: LIMC, ‘Achilleus’, n. 331. There is something in Troilus’ hand – spear or sword – but he is certainly not fully armed. In the surviving images of the late archaic period, Troilus sometimes holds a spear but, as Gantz (n. 1), 599, points out, he is depicted with defensive armour (shield, helmet, and sword) only once, on a cup by Oltos: LIMC, ‘Achilleus’, n. 369, c.520–510.
13 In the editions of Bernabé and West, the A scholia on Il. 24.257b are tentatively assigned to the Cypria as fr. (dub.) 41 and 25*, respectively. The exact date of the Cypria remains uncertain. Some scholars date it to the seventh century bc and others to the sixth (see Currie [n. 4], 281). However, it would be more accurate to say that the Cyclic epics, including the Cypria, developed in performances during the archaic age, drawing their material from a long-standing mythopoetic tradition, and acquired their written form by the end of this period: see Burgess (n. 4), 8–12.
14 On the generalizing references made by ancient commentators to ‘the more recent authors (hoi neṓteroi)’, see Fantuzzi and Tsagalis (n. 4), 27–8.
15 See Holmberg (n. 5), 459.
16 It has been supposed that the legend was already referred to in Bacchides’ model, Menander's Dis Exapaton: see Pearson, A. C. (ed.), The Fragments of Sophocles (Cambridge, 1917)Google Scholar, ii.255; but contrast Sommerstein, Fitzpatrick, and Talboy (n. 3), 201–2, n. 24.
17 See Little Iliad Arg. lines 15–18 Bernabé=§4 West (=Procl. Chrest.), together with [Apollod.] Epit. 5.10 and Pap. Rylands 22 (in Bernabé [n. 6], 75).
18 Sommerstein, Fitzpatrick, and Talboy (n. 3), 202, n. 28, argue that ‘the presence of Athena as a supporter of Achilles in several archaic presentations of episodes of the Troilus story…may indicate that already at that time there was a tradition according to which Troilus’ death was a sine qua non of Greek victory in the war: in the Iliad and the epic tradition generally, Athena's concern is to secure such a victory, rather than to promote the interests or glory of Achilles or any other individual hero (except Odysseus)’. See e.g. the François Krater: LIMC, ‘Achilleus’, n. 292, c.570–560.
19 Contrast Servius on Verg. Aen. 1.474, whose version is that Achilles lured Troilus with a gift of doves but accidentally killed him while embracing him.
20 The tragedians of the fifth century show great interest in exploring Achilles’ erotic side: see Fantuzzi (n. 7), 16. In general, the dramatists of classical Athens turn their attention to mythological episodes and character traits of Achilles that Homer does not include: see Michelakis, P., Achilles in Greek Tragedy (Cambridge, 2002), 13–16 Google Scholar.
21 Translation from Olson, S. D. (ed. and trans.), Athenaeus. The Learned Banqueters, Vol. 2. Books 3.106e–5 (Cambridge, MA, and London, 2006), 275Google Scholar. The phrase παίδα] θ̣εοῖς̣ ἴ̣κ̣[ελον in Ibyc. fr. S224 SLG and PMGF may be taken to refer to Troilus as a ‘divinely beautiful youth’ and parallels the strong emphasis placed upon his beauty in Ibycus’ Polycrates poem: see 282a.40–5 PMG (see also Quint. Smyrn. 4.415 and 430; Strato, Anth. Pal. 12.191). Both suggest that by the sixth century bc Troilus had already become an archetype of male adolescent beauty.
22 See Σ (T) Il. 24.257. For a thorough discussion of the version followed by Sophocles, see Sommerstein, Fitzpatrick, and Talboy (n. 3), 203–16.
23 See Pearson (n. 16), 254; and Robertson, M., ‘Troilus and Polyxena: Notes on a Changing Legend’, in Descœudres, J.-P. (ed.), Eumousia. Ceramic and Iconographic Studies in Honour of Alexander Cambitoglou (Sydney, 1990), 67Google Scholar.
24 See Pearson (n. 16), 255; Storey, I. C. (ed. and trans.), Fragments of Old Comedy (Cambridge, MA, and London, 2011)Google Scholar, iii.224, 256.
25 Bronze shield-band: LIMC, ‘Achilleus’, n. 377, c.590–580 (see also Schefold, K., Myth and Legend in Early Greek Art [London, 1966], 86Google Scholar, fig. 34). On the identification of the two figures as Achilles and Troilus, respectively, see Gantz (n. 1), 598.
26 See Robertson (n. 23), 67; Jenner (n. 10), 8; and Sommerstein, Fitzpatrick, and Talboy (n. 3), 201, n. 23.
27 Troilus is often depicted as a child put to the sword or decapitated by Achilles on the altar of Apollo. Moreover, in some sixth-century representations of the incident, the body or the head of Troilus is shown as being brandished or thrown towards the Trojans. Gantz (n. 1), 560, provides a helpful overview.
28 See Edwards, A. T., Achilles in the Odyssey (Königstein, 1985), 15–41 Google Scholar.
29 For a comprehensive discussion of the poetics of ambush in the early epic tradition, see Dué, C. and Ebbott, M., Iliad 10 and the Poetics of Ambush. A Multitext Edition with Essays and Commentary (Washington, DC, Cambridge, MA, and London, 2010), 31–87 Google Scholar.
30 Cf. Il. 20.97–100, where Aeneas says that ‘It is not possible that any warrior can face Achilles in fight…. His spear flies straight, and ceases not till it has pierced through the flesh of man.’
31 Dué and Ebbott (n. 29), 43.
32 See ibid ., 36, 44, 68–9.
33 See ibid., 76–7, n. 72, and 83–4 with n. 81.
34 Cf. Σ (T) Il. 21.37.
35 Cf. Σ (AbT) Il. 1.227.
36 Trans. from Dué and Ebbott (n. 29), 45.
37 Sommerstein, Fitzpatrick, and Talboy (n. 3), 197.
38 See Il. 4.509, 5.608, 7.218, 7.285, 12.389, 14.101, 16.823, 17.161, and 17.602.
39 See Il. 4.222, 8.252, 12.203, 12.393, 13.82, 13.104, 13.721, 14.441, 15.380, 15.477, 17.103, 17.759, 19.148; Od. 22.73.
40 See Heubeck, A. in Heubeck, A. and Hoekstra, A. (eds.), A Commentary on Homer's Odyssey. Books 9–16 (Oxford, 1989), 93Google Scholar, on Od. 11.259.
41 See Od. 19.471.
42 See Il. 3.51, 6.82, 10.193, 14.325, 17.636, 23.342, 24.706; Od. 6.185.
43 Cf. Σ (D) Il. 24.257; Etym. Magn. and Pseudo–Zonaras, Lexicon, s.v. ἱππιοχάρμης. Similarly ambiguous is the meaning of hippiokhármēs in Od. 11.259 and Hes. fr. 7.2 Most and M.-W.
44 See Sack of Troy Arg. lines 13–14 Bernabé=§2 West (=Procl. Chrest.).
45 Cf. Il. 24.582–6.
46 See I. Lambrou, ‘Homer and the Epic Cycle: Dialogue and Challenge’, PhD thesis, University College London (2015), 68–119.
47 Lycaon is so tragically unfortunate as to face Achilles for a second time, after he was captured and ransomed once: see Il. 21.34–135.