Achilleus and the Early Years of the War (page 596 lower)

Chapter 16, The Trojan War

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Proklos, Kypria epitome – Poetae Epici Graeci 1, p. 42, ed. A. Bernabé. Leipzig 1987.

Lykophron, Alexandra 139-74

Therefore in vain shalt thou twang the noisy bowstring, making melodies that bring nor food nor fee; and in sorrow shalt thou come to thy fatherland that was burnt of old, embracing in thine arms the wraith of the five-times-married frenzied descendant of Pleuron. For the lame daughters of the ancient Sea with triple thread have decreed that her bedfellows shall share their marriage-feast among five bridegrooms.

[147] Two shall she see as ravening wolves, winged wanton eagles of sharp eyes; the third sprung from root of Plynos and Carian waters, a half-Cretan barbarian, a Epeian, no genuine Argive by birth: whose grandfather of old Ennaia Hercynna Erinys Thuria, the Sword-Bearer, cut fleshless with her jaws and buried in her throat, devouring the gristle of his shoulder: his who came to youth again and escaped the grievous raping desire of the Lord of Ships and was sent by Erechtheus to Letrina’s fields to grind the smooth rock of Molpis – whose body was served as sacrifice to Rainy Zeus – that he might overcome the wooer-slayer by the unholy device for slaying his father-in-law which the son of Cadmilus devised; who drinking his last cup dived into his tomb in Nereus – the tomb which bears his name – crying a blighting curse upon the race; even he who held the reins of swift-footed Psylla and Harpinna hoofed even as the Harpies.

[168] The fourth again shall she see own brother of the swooping falcon; him whom they shall proclaim to have won the second prize among his brothers in the wrestling of war. And the fifth she shall cause to pine upon his bed, distracted by her phantom face in his dreams; the husband to be of the stranger-frenzies lady of Cyta.  Greek Text

Scholia to Lykophron, Alexandra 143 – Lykophronis Alexandra, vol. 2, pp. 66-67, ed. E. Scheer. Berlin 1908.

Greek Text

b Scholia to Homer, Iliad 3.140 – Scholia Graeca in Homeri Iliadem vol. 3 pp. 166-67, ed. W. Dindorf and E. Maass. Oxford 1878.

Greek Text

Homer, Iliad 19.325

for the sake of abhorred Helen am warring with the men of Troy.  Greek Text

Proklos, Kypria epitome – Poetae Epici Graeci 1, p. 42, ed. A. Bernabé. Leipzig 1987.

Homer, Iliad 2.688-93

For he lay in idleness among the ships, the swift-footed, goodly Achilles, in wrath because of the fair-haired girl Briseïs, [690] whom he had taken out of Lyrnessus after sore toil, when he wasted Lyrnessus and the walls of Thebe, and laid low Mynes and Epistrophus, warriors that raged with the spear, sons of king Evenus, Selepus’ son.  Greek Text

Homer, Iliad 19.295-96

But thou, when swift Achilles slew my husband, and laid waste the city of godlike Mynes, wouldst not even suffer me to weepGreek Text

Homer, Iliad 1.366-67

We went forth to Thebe, the sacred city of Eetion, and laid it waste, and brought here all the spoilGreek Text

Homer, Iliad 6.414-28

“ My father verily goodly Achilles slew, [415] for utterly laid he waste the well-peopled city of the Cilicians, even Thebe of lofty gates. He slew Eëtion, yet he despoiled him not, for his soul had awe of that; but he burnt him in his armour, richly dight, and heaped over him a barrow; and all about were elm-trees planted by nymphs of the mountain, daughters of Zeus that beareth the aegis. [420] And the seven brothers that were mine in our halls, all these on the selfsame day entered into the house of Hades, for all were slain of swift-footed, goodly Achilles, amid their kine of shambling gait and their white-fleeced sheep. [425] And my mother, that was queen beneath wooded Placus, her brought he hither with the rest of the spoil, but thereafter set her free, when he had taken ransom past counting; and in her father’s halls Artemis the archer slew her.  Greek Text

Edited by Elena Bianchelli, Retired Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, January 2023

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