Chapter 16, The Trojan War
Previous Page Table of Contents Next Page
♠ Homer, Odyssey 8.499-510
So he spoke, and the minstrel, moved by the god, began, and let his song be heard, [500] taking up the tale where the Argives had embarked on their benched ships and were sailing away, after casting fire on their huts, while those others led by glorious Odysseus were now sitting in the place of assembly of the Trojans, hidden in the horse; for the Trojans had themselves dragged it to the citadel. [505] So there it stood, while the people talked long as they sat about it, and could form no resolve. Nay, in three ways did counsel find favour in their minds: either to cleave the hollow timber with the pitiless bronze, or to drag it to the height and cast it down the rocks, or to let it stand as a great offering to propitiate the gods, [510] even as in the end it was to be brought to pass. Greek Text
♠ Lesches, Ilias Mikra (Little Iliad) fr 9 PEG, with apparatus – Poetae Epici Graeci 1, p. 78, ed. A. Bernabé. Leipzig 1987.
♠ Aristotle, Poetics 23.1459b
The result is that out of an Iliad or an Odyssey only one tragedy can be made, or two at most, whereas several have been made out of the Cypria, and out of the Little Iliad more than eight, e.g. The Award of Arms, Philoctetes, Neoptolemus, Eurypylus, The Begging, The Laconian Women, The Sack of Troy, and Sailing of the Fleet, and Sinon, too, and The Trojan Women. Greek Text
♠ Arktinos, Iliou Persis (Ilii Excidium) argumentum – Poetae Epici Graeci 1, pp. 88-89, ed. A. Bernabé. Leipzig 1987.
Edited by Elena Bianchelli, Retired Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, February 2023
132 total views, 1 views today