Epic cycle

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The Epic cycle or Epic Kyklos ( Greek  Ἐπικὸς Κύκλος ), an ancient concept, was a collection of ancient Greek Ependichtungen that the story of the Trojan War told. It included the Kypria , Aithiopis , Little Iliad , Iliu persis ("The Fall of Troy"), Nostoi ("Homecoming Epic") and Telegonia . Scholars sometimes include the two Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, among the poems of the epic cycle, but the term is more commonly used to specify the non-Homeric poems as different from the Homeric ones. The poets who are assigned to the epic cycle are called Cyclic poets .

In addition to the Odyssey and the Iliad , the cyclical epics have survived only in fragments, with a detailed summary of the most important being written by a person named Proklos (who is not the same person as the philosopher Proklos Diadochus , but possibly Eutychius Proclus ). The epics were written in dactylic hexameters .

In modern research, the study of the historical and literary relationships between the Homeric epics and the rest of the cycle is called neoanalysis .

Overview

title Scope (books) ordinary attribution content
Kypria 11 Stasinos The events leading up to the Trojan War and the first nine years of the conflict, particularly the judgment of Paris
Iliad 24 Homer Achilles ' wrath against King Agamemnon and then the Trojan prince Hector , who ends with Achilles killing Hector in revenge for the death of Patroclus
Aithiopis 5 Arctinos from Miletus The arrival of the Trojan allies, the Amazon Penthesileia and Memnon ; her death at the hand of Achilles in revenge for the death of Antilochus ; the death of Achilles
Little Iliad 4th Lesches Events after the death of Achilles : dispute between Aias and Odysseus over the weapons of the fallen Achilles and building of the Trojan horse
Iliu persis
("Fall of Troy")		 2 Arctinos from Miletus The destruction of Troy by the Greeks
Nostoi
("homecoming")		 5 Hagias or Eumelos The homecoming of the Greek armed forces and the events associated with their arrival that close with the return of Agamemnon and Menelaus
Odyssey 24 Homer The end of Odysseus' journey and his revenge on the suitors of his wife Penelope , who squandered his property during his absence
Telegony 2 Eugammon The journey of Odysseus to Thesprotia and the return to Ithaca , death at the hand of the illegitimate son Telegonus

A longer epic cycle, which the scholar and clergyman Photius describes in his " library " in the ninth century , also included the Titanomachy and the Theban cycle , which in turn contained the Oidipodeia , the Thebais , the Epigoni and the Alcmeonis . It is certain, however, that none of the cyclical epics (other than Homer) still existed in the time of Photius, and it is likely that Proclus and Photius did not refer to a canonical collection. Modern scholars usually do not include the Theban Cycle when referring to the Epic Cycle.

Evidence for the Epic Cycle

Only the Iliad and the Odyssey are still intact, however fragments of other epics have been quoted by later authors and a few lines have been passed down in the scattered remains of old papyri .

Most of our knowledge of the cyclical epics stems from an incomplete summary of them, which serves as part of the preface to the famous 10th century Iliad manuscript known as Venetus A. This foreword is corrupted, the Cypriots are missing, and must be supplemented by other sources (the summary of the Cypriots is preserved in several other manuscripts, each of which contains only the Cypriots and none of the other epics). This summary is again an excerpt from a longer work.

This longer work was titled Chrestomathy and was written by a person named Proclus. This is known from the testimony which the later scholar Photius delivers in his Bibliotheca . Photius provides enough information on Proclus' chrestomathy to demonstrate that the Venetus A extract is from the same work. Little is known about Proclus other than that he is certainly not the philosopher Proclus Diadochus . Some have assumed that it could be the same person as the lesser-known grammarian Eutychios Proklos , who lived in the 2nd century, but it is quite possible that he is an otherwise unknown personality.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ For further information see Monro 1883 and Severyns 1928, 1938a, 1938b, 1953, 1962, and 1963.
  2. ↑ See e.g. B. Monro 1883.

See also

literature

expenditure

Secondary literature

  • JS Burgess: The Tradition of the Trojan War in Homer and the Epic Cycle. Baltimore 2001. ISBN 0-8018-7890-X
  • M. Davies: The Greek Epic Cycle. Bristol 1989. ISBN 1-85399-039-6
  • Wolfgang Kullmann : The sources of the Iliad (troischer saga circle). Wiesbaden 1960, 1998 (repr.). ISBN 3-515-00235-9
  • DB Monro: On the Fragment of Proclus' Abstract of the Epic Cycle Contained in the Codex Venetus of the "Iliad". In: Journal of Hellenic Studies . Volume 4, 1883, pp. 305-334. ISSN  0075-4269
  • DB Monro: Homer's Odyssey, books XIII-XXIV. Oxford 1901, pp. 340-384.
  • A. Severyns: Le cycle epique dans l'école d'Aristarque. Liège, Paris 1928.
  • A. Severyns: Research on the "Chrestomathie" de Proclos. Bibliothèque de la faculté de philosophie et lettres de l'université de Liège. 4 Vols. Paris 1938, 1938, 1953, 1963. (Vols. 1 and 2 are on Photius, 3 and 4 on other MSS.)
  • A. Severyns: Texts et apparat, histoire critique d'une tradition imprimée. Brussels 1962.
  • Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker : The epic cycle or the Homeric poets. 2 vols. Weber, Bonn 1835, 1865–1882, Olms, Hildesheim 1981 (repr.). ISBN 3-487-07132-0
  • Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker: The Greek tragedies arranged with regard to the epic cycle. 3 vols. Weber, Bonn 1839–1841.