THE FALL OF TROY

Sources: The Aeneid, Bk. II; the Posthomerica of Quintus of Smyrna; fragments of the epic cycle.

Major figures, places, and events (based on the Posthomerica)

Penthesileia (pen-the-si-lē'-a): Queen of the Amazons, daughter of Ares; killed by Achilles (Akhilleus).

Thersites (ther-sī'-tēz): Greek troublemaker killed by Akhilleus for laughing at his sorrow over the death of Penthesileia.

Memnon (mem'-non): King of the Ethiopians and son of Eos (ē'-os), the dawn goddness, and Tithonus (ti-thō'-nus); killed by Akhilleus.

Paris (and Apollo) kill Akhelleus; Akhilleus' armour is awarded to Odysseus, whereupon Aias (Ajax) goes mad and slaughters the Greek sheep (see Sophocles' Ajax).

Eurypylus (u-rip'-i-lus): Grandson of Herakles who comes to help the Trojans and is killed by Neoptolemus.

Neoptolemus (ne-op-tol'-e-mus): Son of Akhilleus and Deidamia (de-i-da-mī'-a); he kills Eurypylus, takes part in the sack of Troy, and makes Andromekhe his concubine.

Philoctetes (fil-ok-tē'-tēz): He had the bow and arrows of Herakles, without which the Greeks could not take Troy; he had been abandoned on the island of Lemnos by the Greeks but was finally brought to Troy; he kills Paris (see Euripides Philoctetes)

Oenone (ē-nō'-nē): The nymph and deserted wife of Paris who refuses to cure him when he is wounded; she later throws herself on his funeral pyre.

Palladium: The statue of Athena in Troy stolen by Odysseus and Diomedes.

The Wooden Horse: Built by Epeius (e-pē'-us).

Sinon(sī'-non): The Greek who convinced the Trojans that the Greeks had left; he opens the horse and allows the Greeks to capture the city.

Laokoon (lā-ok'-o-won): A son of Priam and priest of Apollo; he and his sons were killed by two huge serpents sent by Athena after he had advised the Trojans to destroy the horse.

After the sack of Troy the Greek ships are scattered by the wrath of Athena, who is angered by the rape of Kassandra (on Athena's altar) by Aias the lesser.

Polyxenia (po-lik'-se-na): A daughter of Priam who is sacrificed to the spirit of Akhilleus.