Chapter 16, The Trojan War
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♠ Apollodoros, Epitome 5.19
And when night fell, and all were plunged in sleep, the Greeks drew near by sea from Tenedos, and Sinon kindled the beacon on the grave of Achilles to guide them. Greek Text
♠ Vergil, Aeneid 2.57-59
When Sinon, favor’d by the partial gods,
Unlock’d the horse, and op’d his dark abodes;
Restor’d to vital air our hidden foes,
Who joyful from their long confinement rose. Latin Text
♠ Homer, Odyssey 8.517-20
Of the others he sang how in divers ways they wasted the lofty city, but of Odysseus, how he went like Ares to the house of Deiphobus together with godlike Menelaus. There it was, he said, that Odysseus braved the most terrible fight [520] and in the end conquered by the aid of great-hearted Athena. Greek Text
♠ Pausanias, Description of Greece 10.25-27
Beyond the Cassotis stands a building with paintings of Polygnotus. It was dedicated by the Cnidians, and is called by the Delphians Lesche （Place of Talk, Club Room）, because here in days of old they used to meet and chat about the more serious matters and legendary history. That there used to be many such places all over Greece is shown by Homer’s words in the passage where Melantho abuses Odysseus:—“And you will not go to the smith’s house to sleep,
Nor yet to the place of talk, but you make long speeches here.” (Hom. Od. 18.328)
[2] Inside this building the whole of the painting on the right depicts Troy taken and the Greeks sailing away. On the ship of Menelaus they are preparing to put to sea. The ship is painted with children among the grown-up sailors; amidships is Phrontis the steersman holding two boat-hooks. Homer represents Nestor as speaking about Phrontis in his conversation with Telemachus, saying that he was the son of Onetor and the steersman of Menelaus, of very high repute in his craft, and how he came to his end when he was already rounding Sunium in Attica. Up to this point Menelaus had been sailing along with Nestor, but now he was left behind to build Phrontis a tomb, and to pay him the due rites of burial.
[3] Phrontis then is in the painting of Polygnotus, and beneath him is one Ithaemenes carrying clothes, and Echoeax is going down the gangway, carrying a bronze urn. Polites, Strophius and Alphius are pulling down the hut of Menelaus, which is not far from the ship. Another hut is being pulled down by Amphialus, at whose feet is seated a boy. There is no inscription on the boy, and Phrontis is the only one with a beard. His too is the only name that Polygnotus took from the Odyssey; the names of the others he invented, I think, himself. Continue Reading Greek Text
♦ Knidian Lesche, Delphi: lost painting by Polygnotos of Trojan Sack (known though Pausanias’ description and modern reconstructions)
Reconstruction from C. Robert, Die Iliupersis des Polygnot (1893)
♠ Lesches, Ilias Mikra (Little Iliad) (about Helikaon)
See Pausanias, Description of Greece 10.26.8 in Early Greek Myth p. 595
♠ Homer, Iliad 3.185-86
and there I saw in multitudes the Phrygian warriors, masters of glancing steeds, even the people of Otreus and godlike Mygdon. Greek Text
♠ Homer, Iliad 13.363-73
For he [Idomeneus] slew Othryoneus of Cabesus, a sojourner in Troy, that was but newly come following the rumour of war; [365] and he asked in marriage the comeliest of the daughters of Priam, even Cassandra; he brought no gifts of wooing, but promised a mighty deed, that he would drive forth perforce out of Troy-land the sons of Achaeans. To him the old man Priam promised that he would give her, and bowed his head thereto, and Othryoneus fought, trusting in his promise. [370] But Idomeneus aimed at him with his bright spear, and cast and smote him as he strode proudly on, nor did the corselet of bronze that he wore avail him, but the spear was fixed full in his belly, and he fell with a thud. Greek Text
♠ Lesches, Ilias Mikra (Little Iliad) fr 21 PEG – Poetae Epici Graeci 1, pp. 80-81, ed. A. Bernabé. Leipzig 1987.
♠ Scholia at Aristophanes, Lysistrata 155 — Scholia Graeca in Aristophanem, p. 498, ed. F. Dübner. Berlin 1877.
♠ Lesches, Ilias Mikra (Little Iliad) fr 19 PEG – Poetae Epici Graeci 1, p. 80, ed. A. Bernabé. Leipzig 1987.
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Artistic sources edited by Frances Van Keuren, Prof. Emerita, Lamar Dodd School of Art, Univ. of Georgia, June 2022
Literary sources edited by Elena Bianchelli, Retired Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, February 2023
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