1 The Epic Cycle Bibliography B. = PEG = A. Bernabé, Poetae Epici Graeci, vol. i (Leipzig, 1987). D. = EGF = M. Davies, Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta (Göttingen, 1988). W. = GEF = M. L. West, Greek Epic Fragments (Cambridge MA, 2003). Loeb edition. Includes a conversion table for the three editions. Citations in this handout are from West. Hesiodic fragments: R. Merkelbach–M. L. West, Fragmenta Hesiodea (Oxford, 1967); also in the OCT. Burgess, J., The Tradition of the Trojan War in Homer & the Epic Cycle (Baltimore, 2001). Davies, M., The Epic Cycle (Bristol, 1989). A full commentary on the Theban Epics is forthcoming. Griffin, J., ‘The Epic Cycle and the Uniqueness of Homer’, JHS 97 (1977), 39–53. Huxley, G. L., Greek Epic Poetry from Eumelos to Panyassis (London, 1969). West, M. L., The Epic Cycle: A Commentary on the Lost Troy Epics (Oxford, 2013). See also the Introduction to his Loeb edition and the further works there listed (pp. 36–7). I. Hexameter landscape of early Greece I.1. Genres & Cycles Theban and Trojan wars (see below). *Argonautica. Cf. Il. 7.468–9, 21.40–1, Od. 11.235–59, Hes. Th. 992–1002. Treated in Eumelus’ Corinthiaca and the Naupactia (cf. ‘Genealogical’ below). First surviving account is not till Apollonius Rhodius (3rd cent. BC). See in general Huxley 1969, 60–73; M. L. West, CQ 55 (2005), 39–64. Note esp. Od. 12.69–72, part of Circe’s instructions about the Clashing Rocks: οἴη δὴ κείνη γε παρέπλω ποντοπόρος νηῦς, | Ἀργὼ πᾶσι μέλουσα, παρ’ Αἰήταο πλέουσα. | καὶ νύ κε τὴν ἔνθ’ ὦκα βάλεν μεγάλας ποτὶ πέτρας, | ἀλλ’ Ἥρη παρέπεμψεν, ἐπεὶ φίλος ἦεν Ἰήσων (‘One seafaring ship alone has sailed past, | that Argo famed of all, on her voyage from Aeetes; | and even her the wave would speedily have dashed there against the great crags, | had not Hera sent her through, since Jason was dear to her’). Heracles poems. Frequent allusions to the life and career of Heracles in the Iliad, the Odyssey and Hesiod’s Theogony.—Among post-Homeric poems we know of the Capture of Oechalia and the ps.Hesiodic Wedding of Ceyx; the ps.-Hesiodic Shield of Heracles (6th cent. BC) is extant. These treat a single exploit; Pisander (post-600) and Panyassis (5th cent.) composed fuller, systematic accounts. *Theseid (not before mid-6th cent.). Note that in the Iliad the leader of the Athenians is the non-entity Menestheus, since Theseus was not yet a figure of sufficient importance. Hesiod. Theogony (cosmogonic / theogonic); Works and Days (‘wisdom literature’ / gnomic / didactic). For ‘didactic’ poetry cf. also the ps.-Hesiodic Precepts of Chiron. Homeric Hymns. Various dates; earliest may be 7th cent. Only for the Hymn to Apollo is a specific poet named: Cynaethus. Cosmogonic/theogonic. The only extant early example is Hesiod’s Theogony, but Homer evidently knows of poetry of this sort, sometimes with different content, cf. Il. 14.201 (Oceanus and Tethys, θεῶν γένεσις), 15.187–93 (three-way division of the world). Early ‘Orphic’ treatments also existed. Genealogical. Hesiodic Catalogue of Women (Ehoiai) is systematic in presentation and pan-Hellenic in outlook; the four main cycles of myth that it treats are those of Thebes, Troy, Iolcus and Calydon.— Cinaethon, Asius, Eumelus are concerned more with local traditions, cementing communal identity and validating mythical/historical claims. 2 * This is not an exhaustive list. Much more poetry is lost than preserved; of many local traditions we have only scant traces. Anonymous hexameter verse is sometimes cited without ascription, or said to be by ‘Homer’, and yet it occurs nowhere in the Iliad or Odyssey. Sometimes it may just be an inaccurate quotation, but some quoting authors evidently had a different concept of ‘Homer’. Thebes & Troy For Hesiod (Op. 161–5), the Theban and Trojan Wars are the pivotal events of the mythical past, and the heroes’ deaths signalled the end of the Heroic Age: καὶ τοὺς μὲν πόλεμός τε κακὸς καὶ φύλοπις αἰνή τοὺς μὲν ὑφ’ ἑπταπύλῳ Θήβῃ, Καδμηίδι γαίῃ, ὤλεσε μαρναμένους μήλων ἕνεκ’ Οἰδιπόδαο, τοὺς δὲ καὶ ἐν νήεσσιν ὑπὲρ μέγα λαῖτμα θαλάσσης ἐς Τροίην ἀγαγὼν Ἑλένης ἕνεκ’ ἠυκόμοιο. And some of them grim war and terrible battle destroyed: some at seven-gated Thebes, in the land of Cadmus, when they fought for the flocks of Oedipus; and some when it had brought them in ships over the great expanse of the sea to Troy for the sake of fair-tressed Helen. Cf. [Hes.] fr. 204.94 ff. MW (= fr. 155 in Most’s Loeb), from the climax of the Catalogue of Women: Zeus was planning the Trojan War, ‘for he was now eager to obliterate most of the race of demi-gods’. In Cypr. fr. 1 the Trojan War is intended to reduce population and lighten the Earth’s burden. At Hes. Op. 651–3 the gathering of the fleet at Aulis and the troubles there encountered are mentioned: Αὐλίδος, ᾗ ποτ’ Ἀχαιοὶ | μείναντες χειμῶνα πολὺν σὺν λαὸν ἄγειραν | Ἑλλάδος ἐξ ἱερῆς Τροίην ἐς καλλιγύναικα. I.2. Preservation Knowledge of the poems is based on: • • • • quotation fragments (very sparse), mostly in scholia (ancient commentaries) and antiquarian authors such as Pausanias (2nd cent. AD). No papyri yet identified. Proclus’ plot-summaries of the Trojan poems. Precise date unknown, but certainly much later than the poems themselves. inferences from ancient allusions to the stories and poems. The Cypria, for example, was known to Pindar, Herodotus, Euripides, Plato and Aristotle. monuments. (i) Tabulae Iliacae (Roman period).—(ii) Early art. So it is on the content of the stories that most attention focuses; that, rather than their poetic qualities, seems to be their main point of interest in antiquity. 3 Lengths: Oedipodeia 6,600 verses; Thebais 7,000; Epigonoi 7,000; Cypria 11 books; Aethiopis 5 books; Little Iliad 5 books; Sack of Troy 2 books; Returns 5 books; Telegony 2 books. II. The Epic Cycle II.1. Definition Term ‘Epic Cycle’ not attested until the 2nd century AD; Aristotle alludes to a Homeric/epic κύκλος. The list of pre-existing poems was probably drawn up in the 4th cent. BC. It was prefixed by a Theogony and Titanomachy, and this made it possible to read a continuous narrative of the mythical past, extending from the creation of the world to the death of Odysseus. The stories overlap in content, which shows that they were not conceived as a unity from the outset. An indisputable example is the Sack of Troy and the Little Iliad, both of which dealt with the episode of the Horse – and they did so differently from one another. There are other mythographical discrepancies between different poems; Herodotus (2.117) argues from a disagreement between the Iliad and Cypria that the latter is not in fact by Homer. II.2. Ascriptions Ascriptions to Homer of poems other than the Iliad and Odyssey begin early: • Callinus (poet, mid-7th cent.) apparently associated the subject-matter of the Theban War with Homer (GEF p. 42).—Simonides (poet, 6th–5th cent.) cites Homer (and Stesichorus) for 4 • a victory of Meleager at the funeral games for Pelias (PMG 564).—Pindar (Nem. 7.20–8) links stories told in the Aethiopis or Little Iliad with Homer. Herodotus (5.67.1) reports the tale that Cleisthenes, tyrant of Sicyon c.600–570 BC, banned the recitation of Homeric poems since they glorified Argos (an enemy polis); the implication is that Cleisthenes ascribed the Theban poems to Homer (GEF p. 8). The poems are very often cited (i) in the non-committal form ‘The author of the Cypria’ (cf. e.g. Cypria frr. 10, 11); (ii) with a disclaimer of the type ‘as Homer says in the Epigonoi – if indeed the Epigonoi is by him’ (Hdt. 4.32 = GEF p. 58); (iii) collectively as ‘In the Cyclic poets’. Specific ascriptions tend to be found in unreliable authors. Ascriptions are often disputed, e.g. the Cypria is variously assigned to Homer, Stasinus or Cyprias (the last seemingly a backformation of the poem’s title). A whimsical story was spun that Homer, being too poor to afford a dowry for his daughter, made instead a gift to Stasinus of the Cypria; this accounts for a rival ascription. Similarly with Creophylus’ Capture of Oechalia (cf. GEF p. 172). II.3. Date Linguistic criterion. From our limited sample, we may describe the language as basically Homeric. The Cypria and Little Iliad, however, show signs of lateness: M. Davies, Glotta 67 (1989), 89–100. Subject-matter largely predates the Iliad and Odyssey. The Cypria is definitely dependent on the Iliad, and the Telegony on the Odyssey; but we cannot be sure in every case. II.4. Literary qualities No scorn is poured upon the non-Homeric hexameter poems until the Alexandrians (i.e 3rd cent. BC onwards). They judge the poems definitely inferior to Homer. Cf. Callimachus Ep. 28.1 Pf.: ἐχθαίρω τὸ ποίημα τὸ κυκλικόν. (1) Lack of unity. Aristotle (Poet. 1459a37 = GEF p. 118) notes that many tragedies could be fashioned from the poems of the Epic Cycle, whereas the Iliad and Odyssey each furnished material for only one. (2) Narrative style. Pausanias (9.9.5 = GEF p. 42) rates the Thebais the best after the Iliad and Odyssey. But our (small) sample makes it hard for us to share this view (Griffin 1977, 48–52). E.g. Thebaid fr. 2: αὐτὰρ ὁ διογενὴς ἥρως ξανθὸς Πολυνείκης πρῶτα μὲν Οἰδιπόδῃ καλὴν παρέθηκε τράπεζαν ἀργυρέην Κάδμοιο θεόφρονος· αὐτὰρ ἔπειτα χρύσεον ἔμπλησεν καλὸν δέπας ἡδέος οἴνου. αὐτὰρ ὅ γ’ ὡς φράσθη… Cf. Pollianus AP 11.130 (epigrammatist of the Roman period?): τοὺς κυκλιοὺς τούτους, τοὺς “αὐτὰρ ἔπειτα” λέγοντας | μισῶ. (3) Magical. Some examples of the fantastical in the Cycle: • • heroes may gain immortality e.g. by being transported to the Isle of the Blessed. The Iliad (18.117 ff.) denies that even Heracles, the greatest hero ever to have lived, achieved this. physical transformations of Nemesis and of Zeus (Cypria frr. 10, 11). The Iliad’s catalogue of Zeus’ liaisons (14.312 ff.) says nothing of the fantastical, despite its mention of Danae, Semele and Alcmene ἥ ῥ’ Ἡρακλῆα κρατερόφρονα γείνατο παῖδα (n.b.: no mention of Iphicles). ‘The fantastic, the miraculous, and the romantic, all exceeded in the Cycle the austere limits to which the Iliad confines them’ (Griffin 1977, 40; further example in Griffin 1977, Davies 1989). Cf. however Xanthus the talking horse at Il. 19.404 ff. 5 (4) Ethos. Tydeus gnawed the brain of Melanippus (Thebaid fr. 9).—Philoctetes’ festering wound (Cypr. GEF p. 76): ‘a hero with an incurable but not fatal wound is markedly unHomeric’ (Davies 1989, 46).—Little Iliad light-hearted: ‘One senses that the older conventions of heroic epic are being modified by the admission of more comical and romantic elements’ (West 2013, 170). (5) Unheroic actions. Odysseus tries to stab Diomedes in the back (Little Iliad fr. 11); Odysseus feigns madness to dodge the draft (Cypr. GEF p. 68); Diomedes and Odysseus kill Palamedes when he is out fishing (!) (Cypr. fr. 27). (6) Prophecies and Determinism. Achilles heals Telephus: ‘the wounder shall heal’ (Cypria). | Raising events to a cosmic level: e.g. in Cypr. fr. 1 Zeus brings about the Trojan War to lighten the struggling Earth’s burden (cf. Eur. Hel. 39–41, El. 1282–3, Or. 1639–42). III. The Iliad and Odyssey III.1. Embedded stories Trojan. The Iliad looks backwards and points forwards within the Trojan War, and not all the episodes narrated in it logically belong in the tenth year of the war (e.g. the Teichoscopia, Catalogue of Ships). The Odyssey of course also references the Trojan War. Cyclic material is largely absent from the Iliad; exceptions include 19.326–7, 24.466–7 (Neoptolemus), and 24.29–30 (Judgement of Paris): all to be deleted?—In the Odyssey there is much more and it cannot simply be excised. E.g. (i) Ajax in the Underworld (cf. Little Iliad). (ii) Helen tells of Odysseus’ in Troy (4.242 ff., cf. Little Iliad). (iii) Menelaus and Nestor recount their own returns (4.351–586; 3.130–98, 254–312, cf. Returns); (iv) Demodocus’ song at Od. 8.499–520 (cf. Sack of Troy).—These inset tales do not necessarily give an accurate picture of those epics, however: the narrators are shaping the material for their own rhetorical ends. Non-Trojan. Both the Iliad and Odyssey reference Heracles. The Odyssey shows acquaintance besides with an Argonautica, and the Iliad with the Theban cycle (Tydeus’ exploits at Thebes: 4.372–98, 5.801– 8, 6.222–3, 10.285–90, 14.113–25; all direct speech). The brevity and allusiveness of the references implies that Homer’s audience was familiar with a full continuous account. Again, these recollections are adjusted in each case to fulfil the speaker’s purpose.—Note also Nestor’s recollections: Il. 7.132–56 (an unspecified battle, two generations previously, between the Pylians and Arcadians); 11.655–803 (Heracles at Pylos); 23.630–43 (funeral games for Amarygceus, king of the Eleans).—Phoenix, Il. 9.524– 605 (Meleager paradigm, from a Calydonian cycle of myth; cf. [Hes.] frr. 25 and 280). III.2. Neoanalysis At other times, the references are more oblique: some motifs and episodes in Homer seem to have been transferred from Cyclic contexts in which they have logical priority. Two commonly cited examples: • • Rescue of Nestor at Il. 8.80–115: based on the Aethiopis. Thetis and the Nereids’ lament for Patroclus at the beginning of Iliad 18: modelled on lament for Achilles in Aethiopis. Similarly with Patroclus’ funeral games. Cf. e.g. W. Kullmann, GRBS 25 (1984), 307–23; M. M. Willcock, ‘Neoanalysis’, in the New Companion to Homer (Leiden, 1995), 174–93; M. L. West, CQ 53 (2003), 1–14. 6 IV. Tragedy Athenaeus 347E (2nd cent. AD, Aeschylus said his tragedies were ‘slices from Homer’s great banquets’ (τεμάχη … τῶν Ὁμήρου μεγάλων δείπνων); cf. Aristophanes Frogs 1040. Athenaeus 277E: ‘Sophocles took great pleasure in the Epic Cycle and composed plays in which he followed the versions of the myths found in it’. Cf. e.g. Soph. El. 157 with Finglass’ note (four daughters of Agamemnon); ibid. 569 (boast of Agamemnon after killing a stag). IV.1. Agamemnon (Aeschylus Oresteia; the two Electras) The Returns dealt with the returns of the heroes from Troy, including Agamemnon. References to Agamemnon’s fate and Orestes’ vengeance are embedded in the Odyssey. For a list of passages see Raeburn & Thomas’s Agamemnon, xxii n. 13; for discussion see Garvie’s Choephori, ix–xxvi; Sommerstein’s Eumenides, 1–6; A. J. N. W. Prag, The Oresteia (Warminster, 1985). In the Odyssey: • • • • • • Aegisthus plans and executes the murder. Clytemnestra is either not mentioned at all, or she only does away with Cassandra. the murder of Agamemnon takes place in the house of Aegisthus; he has not taken up residence in the palace. Agamemnon’s companions are ambushed and also perish. there is no explicit mention of the matricide or any suggestion that Orestes’ act of vengeance was itself a crime. Orestes returns from Athens, not Phocis. Pylades is never mentioned. Delphi does not feature. How does this relate to the Returns? Does it (a) reflect pre-Aeschylean tradition; (b) mean that Homer has ‘screened out’ the unfavourable elements in order to make Orestes a more suitable paradigm for Telemachus; or (c) imply the existence of rival versions in Homer’s time, from which the poet of the Odyssey chose a particular configuration? Early (7th-cent.) art apparently shows that Clytemnestra was personally involved in the killing. In Aeschylus’ Oresteia, Aegisthus is only ‘the one who plotted death against him but did not dare to do the deed with his own hand’ (Ag. 1634–5); it is Clytemnestra who struck the actual blow (1384–7). Tragedy’s interest in strong and impressive women suggests that this is an Aeschylean innovation. (2) The Daughters of Agamemnon. The Cypria (GEF p. 74) told of the sacrifice of Iphigenia (spirited away by Artemis to the Taurians). At Il. 9.145 = 287, Agamemnon says he has three daughters: Chrysothemis, Laodice and Iphianassa. Is Iphianassa the same as Iphigeneia, and is the Iliad suppressing the story (perhaps because human sacrifice is repugnant to the poet)? Does Agamemnon have four daughters (so Cypr. fr. 20, regarding Iphianassa and Iphigenia as separate individuals)? [Hes.] fr. 23a (Catalogue of Women) speaks of Iphimede sacrificed at Aulis, and this suggests some fluctuation of the Iphi- daughter’s name. Cf. Hainsworth on Il. 9.145 (‘Neither here nor elsewhere does Homer so much as hint at the dreadful events at Aulis before the war, though it does not follow that he was unaware of the legend’). In the epic poems, Electra is a very marginal figure: there is no suggestion of her involvement with the vengeance, and her name does not even appear in Homer (see above). Rather, the protagonist is Orestes.—In the Choephori Electra remains secondary to Orestes in importance, viciously opposed to her mother but unable to act without her brother. Her ‘action’ is a lament for her father, and she stimulates Orestes to action; but she plays no role in preparing Orestes’ trap, and she remains silent throughout the second half of the play.—Sophocles and Euripides play down the role of Orestes and organise their dramas around Electra, who is onstage for most of their plays. As with the attribution of 7 Agamemnon’s murder to Clytemnestra, so too the increasing prominence of Electra is, we presume, an innovation on the part of the tragedians. IV.2. Thebes (Sophocles Oedipus Rex & Oedipus at Colonus) Tragedies which show a clear debt to the Theban epics include: Aeschylus Septem; Sophocles Antigone, Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus; Euripides Supplices, Phoenissae. Oedipus. Il. 23.679 refers to Funeral Games held δεδουπότος Οἰδιπόδαο, ‘when Oedipus had fallen’, which implies death in battle. Od. 11.271–80 knows of the incest with his mother Epicaste, which the gods made known to everyone ἄφαρ (‘immediately’?); he remains suffering in Thebes, but still king, and there is no hint of his self-blinding or exile. Pausanias says that in the Oedipodeia his mother was Epicaste.—Haemon is killed by the Sphinx (Oedipodeia fr. 3), whereas he is alive and well in Sophocles’ Antigone (at least at the beginning of the play…). See J. C. Kamerbeek’s edns. of the OT (Leiden, 1967; pp. 1–7) and OC (Leiden 1984; pp. 1–3), which are largely destructive in intent. Henry Mason 2 May 2014 henry.mason@merton.ox.ac.uk