Chapter 16, The Trojan War
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♠ Pausanias, Description of Greece 3.22.1
Before Gythium lies the island Cranae, and Homer says that when Alexander had carried off Helen he had intercourse with her there for the first time. Greek Text
♠ Strabo, Geography 9.1.22
This island, they say, is mentioned by the poet where Alexander says to Helen: “Not even when first I snatched thee from lovely Lacedaemon and sailed with thee on the seafaring ships, and in the island Cranaë joined with thee in love and couch”; for he calls Cranaë the island now called Helene from the fact that the intercourse took place there. Greek Text
♠ Lykophron, Alexandra 110-11
And in the Dragon’s Isle of Acte, dominion of the twyformed son of earth, thou shalt put from thee thy desire. Greek Text
♠ Homer, Iliad 3.67-72
But now, if thou wilt have me war and do battle, make the other Trojans to sit down and all the Achaeans, but set ye me in the midst and Menelaus, dear to Ares, [70] to do battle for Helen and all her possessions. And whichsoever of us twain shall win, and prove him the better man, let him duly take all the wealth and the woman, and bear them to his home. Greek Text
♠ Homer, Iliad 7.362-64
my wife will I not give back; but the treasure that I brought from Argos to our home, all this am I minded to give, and to add thereto from mine own store.” Greek Text
♠ Kypria , Argumentum – Poetae Epici Graeci 1, pp. 38-43, ed. A. Bernabé. Leipzig 1987.
♠ Kypria fr 12 PEG – Poetae Epici Graeci 1, p. 51, ed. A. Bernabé. Leipzig 1987.
♠ Herodotos, Historiae 2.117
These verses and this passage prove most clearly that the Cyprian poems are not the work of Homer but of someone else. For the Cyprian poems relate that Alexandrus reached Ilion with Helen in three days from Sparta, having a fair wind and a smooth sea; but according to the Iliad, he wandered from his course in bringing her. Greek Text
♠ Diktys of Krete 1.5
♠ Apollodoros, Epitome 3.3-4
For nine days he was entertained by Menelaus; but on the tenth day, Menelaus having gone on a journey to Crete to perform the obsequies of his mother’s father Catreus, Alexander persuaded Helen to go off with him. And she abandoned Hermione, then nine years old, and putting most of the property on board, she set sail with him by night. [4] But Hera sent them a heavy storm which forced them to put in at Sidon. And fearing lest he should be pursued, Alexander spent much time in Phoenicia and Cyprus. But when he thought that all chance of pursuit was over, he came to Troy with Helen. Greek Text
Edited by Elena Bianchelli, Retired Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, January 2023
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