Epic Cycle

For the epic cycles of incarnations in Meitei mythology, seeMoirang Shayon.

TheEpic Cycle(Ancient Greek:Ἐπικὸς Κύκλος,romanized:Epikòs Kýklos) was a collection ofAncient Greekepic poems,composed indactylic hexameterand related to the story of theTrojan War,including theCypria,theAethiopis,the so-calledLittle Iliad,theIliupersis,theNostoi,and theTelegony.Scholars sometimes include the twoHomeric epics,theIliadand theOdyssey,among the poems of the Epic Cycle, but the term is more often used to specify the non-Homeric poems as distinct from the Homeric ones.

Unlike theIliadand theOdyssey,the cyclic epics survive only in fragments and summaries fromLate Antiquityand theByzantine period.

The Epic Cycle was the distillation in literary form of anoral traditionthat had developed during theGreek Dark Age,which was based in part on localisedhero cults.The traditional material from which the literary epics were drawn treatsMycenaeanBronze Ageculture from the perspective of Iron Age and later Greece.

In modern scholarship, the study of the historical and literary relationship between the Homeric epics and the rest of the cycle is calledNeoanalysis.

A longer Epic Cycle, as described by the 9th-century CE scholar and clergymanPhotiusin codex 239 of hisBibliotheca,also included theTitanomachy(8th century BCE) and theTheban Cycle(between 750 and 500 BCE), which in turn comprised theOedipodea,theThebaid,theEpigoni,and theAlcmeonis;however, it is certain that none of the cyclic epics (other than Homer's) survived to Photius' day, and it is likely that Photius was not referring to a canonical collection. Modern scholars do not normally include the Theban Cycle when referring to the Epic Cycle.

Contents

Title	Length (books)	Most common attribution	Content
Cypria	11	Stasinus	The events leading up to the Trojan War and the first nine years of the conflict, especially theJudgement of Paris
Iliad	24	Homer	Achilles' rage against first kingAgamemnonand then the Trojan princeHector,ending with Achilles killing Hector in revenge for the death ofPatroclusandPriamcoming to Achilles to ransom Hector's body
Aethiopis	5	Arctinus	The arrival of the Trojan allies,PenthesileiatheAmazonandMemnon;their deaths at Achilles' hands in revenge for the death ofAntilochus;Achilles' own death
Little Iliad	4	Lesches	Events after Achilles' death, including the building of theTrojan Horseand the Awarding of the Arms to Odysseus
Iliou persis( "Sack of Troy" )	2	Arctinus	The destruction ofTroyby the Greeks
Nostoi( "returns" )	5	AgiasorEumelus	The return home of the Greek force and the events contingent upon their arrival, concluding with the returns ofAgamemnonandMenelaus
Odyssey	24	Homer	The end ofOdysseus' voyage home and his vengeance on his wifePenelope's suitors, who have devoured his property in his absence
Telegony	2	Eugammon	Odysseus' voyage toThesprotiaand return toIthaca,and demise at the hands of an illegitimate sonTelegonus

Evidence

Herodotusknew of theCypriaand theEpigoniwhen he wrote hisHistoryin the mid-5th century BCE. He rejected the Homeric authorship for the former and questioned it for the latter.

The Epic Cycle was not "mentioned as a whole" (including the Theban Cycle) until the 2nd century CE, but knowledge of a "Trojan cycle" is apparent from at least the 4th century BCE asAristoxenusmentions an alternative opening to theIliad.

Aristotle,in hisPoetics,criticizes theCypriaandLittle Iliadfor the piecemeal character of their plots:

But other poets compose a plot around one person, one time, and one plot with multiple parts; like the composer of theCypriaand theLittle Iliad.As a result, only one tragedy is made out of theIliadand theOdyssey,but from theCypriamany, and from theLittle Iliadmore than eight…

The Libraryattributed toApollodorusand the 2nd century CE LatinGenealogiaattributed toHyginusalso drew on them. Furthermore, there are also theTabula iliacainscriptions that cover the same myths.

Most knowledge of the Cyclic epics comes from a broken summary of them which serves as part of the preface to the famous 10th centuryIliadmanuscript known asVenetus A.This preface is damaged, missing theCypria,and has to be supplemented by other sources (theCypriasummary is preserved in several other manuscripts, each containing only theCypriaand none of the other epics). The summary is, in turn, an excerpt from a longer work,Chrestomathy,written by a "Proclus." This is known from evidence provided by the later scholar Photius, mentioned above. Photius provides sufficient information about Proclus'Chrestomathyto demonstrate that the Venetus A excerpt is derived from the same work.Little is known about Proclus. He is certainly not the philosopherProclus Diadochus.Some have thought that it might be the same person as the lesser-known grammarianEutychius Proclus,who lived in the 2nd century CE,but it is quite possible that he is simply an otherwise unknown figure.

In antiquity, the two Homeric epics were considered the greatest works in the Cycle. ForHellenisticscholars, theCyclic poets,the authors to whom the other poems were commonly ascribed, were νεώτεροι (neōteroi"later poets" ) and κυκλικός (kyklikos"cyclic" ) was synonymous with "formulaic."Then, and in much modern scholarship, there has been an equation between poetry that is later and poetry that is inferior.

The tales told in the Cycle are recounted by other ancient sources,notablyVirgil'sAeneid(book 2), which recounts the sack of Troy from a Trojan perspective, andOvid'sMetamorphoses(books 13–14), which describes the Greeks' landing at Troy (from theCypria) and the judgment of Achilles' arms (Little Iliad).Quintus of Smyrna'sPosthomericais another source, which narrates the events after Hector's death up until the end of the war. The death ofAgamemnonand the vengeance taken by his sonOrestes(theNostoi) are the subjects of later Greektragedy,especiallyAeschylus'sOresteiantrilogy.

Compilation

The non-Homeric epics are usually regarded as later than theIliadandOdyssey.There is no reliable evidence for this, however, and someNeoanalystscholars operate on the premise that the Homeric epics were later than the Cyclic epics and drew on them extensively.Other Neoanalysts make the milder claim that the Homeric epics draw on legendary material which later crystallized into the Epic Cycle.

The nature of the relationship between the Cyclic epics and Homer is also bound up in this question. As told by Proclus, the plots of the six non-Homeric epics look very much as though they are designed to integrate with Homer, with no overlaps with one another.

For example, a surviving quotation shows that theLittle Iliadnarrated howNeoptolemustookAndromacheprisoner after thefall of Troy;however, in Proclus, theLittle Iliadstops before the sack of Troy begins. Some scholars have argued that theCypriaas originally planned dealt with more of the Trojan War than Proclus' summary suggests;conversely, others argue that it was designed to lead up to theIliad,and that Proclus' account reflects theCypriaas originally designed.

It is probable that at least some editing or "stitching" was done to edit epics together. For the last line of theIliad,

ὣς οἵ γ᾽ ἀμφίεπον τάφον Ἕκτορος ἱπποδάμοιο.

In this way they performed the funeral of Hector, tamer of horses.

an alternative reading is preserved which is designed to lead directly into theAethiopis:

ὣς οἵ γ' ἀμφίεπον τάφον Ἕκτορος· ἦλθε δ' Ἀμαζών,
Ἄρηος θυγάτηρ μεγαλήτορος ἀνδροφόνοιο.

In this way they performed the funeral of Hector; then theAmazonPenthesileiacame,
daughter of great-hearted man-slaughteringAres....

There are contradictions between epics in the Cycle. For example, the Greek warrior who killed Hector's sonAstyanaxin the fall of Troy isNeoptolemusaccording to theLittle Iliad;according to theIliou persis,it isOdysseus.

How and when the eight epics of the Cycle came to be combined into a single collection and referred to as a "cycle" is a matter of ongoing debate. In the late 19th century,David Binning Monroargued that the scholastic use of the word κυκλικός did not refer to the Cycle as such, but meant "conventional", and that the Cycle was compiled in theHellenistic period(perhaps as late as the 1st century BCE).More recent scholars have preferred to push the date slightly earlier, but accept the general thrust of the argument.

See also

• Cyclic Poets
• Homerica

Bibliography

Editions

• Online editions (English translation):
  • The Medieval and Classical Library text(translated by H.G. Evelyn-White, 1914; public domain)
  • Project Gutenberg text(translated by H.G. Evelyn-White, 1914)
  • Proklos' summary of the Epic Cycle, omitting theTelegony(translated by Gregory Nagy)
• Print editions (Greek):
  • Bernabé, A. 1987,Poetarum epicorum Graecorum testimonia et fragmentapt. 1 (Leipzig).ISBN3-322-00352-3
  • Davies, M. 1988,Epicorum Graecorum fragmenta(Göttingen).ISBN3-525-25747-3
• Print editions (Greek with English translation):
  • Hesiod & Evelyn-White, H.G., 1914,Hesiod: The Homeric Hymns and Homerica(Loeb Classical Library)ISBN0-674-99063-3
  • West, M.L. 2003,Greek Epic Fragments(Cambridge, MA).ISBN0-674-99605-4

Further reading

• Abrantes, Miguel Carvalho (2016).Themes of the Trojan Cycle: Contribution to the study of the greek mythological tradition.CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.ISBN978-1530337118.
• Burgess, J.S. 2001,The Tradition of the Trojan War in Homer and the Epic Cycle(Baltimore).ISBN0-8018-7890-X(pbk)
• Davies, M. 1989,The Greek Epic Cycle(Bristol).ISBN1-85399-039-6(pbk)
• Kullmann, W. 1960,Die Quellen der Ilias (troischer Sagenkreis)(Wiesbaden).ISBN3-515-00235-9(1998 reprint)
• Michalopoulos, Dimitris,Homer's Odyssey beyond the myths,Piraeus: Institute of Hellenic Maritime History, 2016.ISBN9786188059931.
• Monro, D.B. 1883, "On the Fragment of Proclus' Abstract of the Epic Cycle Contained in the Codex Venetus of theIliad",Journal of Hellenic Studies4: 305-334.
• Monro, D.B. 1901,Homer's Odyssey, books XIII-XXIV(Oxford), pp. 340–84. (Out of print)
• Severyns, A. 1928,Le cycle épique dans l'école d'Aristarque(Liège, Paris). (Out of print)
• Severyns, A. 1938, 1938, 1953, 1963,Recherches sur la "Chrestomathie" de Proclos,4 vols. (Bibliothèque de la faculté de philosophie et lettres de l'université de Liègefascc. 78, 79, 132, 170; Paris). (Vols. 1 and 2 are on Photius, 3 and 4 on other MSS.)
• Severyns, A. 1962,Texte et apparat, histoire critique d'une tradition imprimée(Brussels).