Troilus (also
Troilos,
Troylus) (
Ancient GreekAncient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic , Classical , and Hellenistic periods of ancient Greece and the ancient world. It is predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
: Τρωίλος, Troïlos,
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
: Troilus) is a legendary character associated with the story of the
Trojan WarIn Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy stole Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, including the Iliad...
. The first surviving reference to him is in
HomerHomer is a legendary ancient Greek epic poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey...
's
IliadThe Iliad is an epic poem recounting significant events during a portion of the final year of the Trojan War — the Greek siege of the city of Ilion — hence the title...
which is believed to have been written in the late
9thThe 9th century BC started the first day of 900 BC and ended the last day of 801 BC.- Overview :The 9th century BC was a period of great changes in civilizations. In Africa, Carthage is founded by the Phoenicians...
or
8th century BCThe 8th century BC started the first day of 800 BC and ended the last day of 701 BC.- Overview :The 8th century BC was a period of great changes in civilizations. In Egypt, the 23rd and 24th dynasties led to rule from Nubia in the 25 Dynasty...
.
In
classical Greek mythologyThe terms "classical mythology" and "Greco-Roman mythology" usually refer to the mythology, and the associated polytheistic rituals and practices, of Classical Antiquity. Originally cognate but still markedly different, Roman religion converged with Greek over time, beginning when Greeks first...
, Troilus is a young
TrojanTroy is a legendary city and center of the Trojan War, as described in the Epic Cycle and especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer...
prince, one of the sons of King
PriamIn Greek mythology, Priam was the king of Troy during the Trojan War and youngest son of Laomedon. Modern scholars derive his name from the Luwian compound Priimuua, which means "exceptionally courageous"....
(or sometimes
ApolloIn Greek and Roman mythology, Apollo , is one of the most important and many-sided of the Olympian deities...
) and
HecubaHecuba was a queen in Greek mythology, the wife of King Priam of Troy, with whom she had 19 children. The most famous of her children was Hector of Troy...
. Prophecies link Troilus' fate to that of Troy and so he is ambushed and murdered by
AchillesIn Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greek hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad.Achilles also has the attributes of being the most handsome of the heroes assembled against Troy....
.
SophoclesSophocles was the second of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose work has survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus and earlier than those of Euripides...
was one of the writers to tell this tale. It was also a popular theme among artists of the time. Ancient writers treated Troilus as the
epitomeAn epitome is a summary or miniature form; an instance that represents a larger reality, also used as a synonym for embodiment....
of a dead child mourned by his parents. He was also regarded as a
paragonA paragon is an ideal: a model of excellence or perfection of a kind; one having no equal; a perfect embodiment of a concept. In modern fantasy, it is typically a synonym of paladin or templar; a holy defender of justice and of divine nature....
of youthful male beauty.
In Western European medieval and
RenaissanceThe Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe...
versions of the legend, Troilus is the youngest of Priam's five legitimate sons by Hecuba. Despite his youth he is one of the main Trojan war leaders. He dies in battle at Achilles' hands. In a popular addition to the story, originating in the 12th century, Troilus falls in love with
CressidaCressida is a character who appears in many Medieval and Renaissance retellings of the story of the Trojan War. She is a Trojan woman, the daughter of Calchas a priestly defector to the Greeks...
, whose father has defected to the Greeks. Cressida pledges her love to Troilus but she soon switches her affections to the Greek hero
DiomedesDiomedes or Diomed is a hero in Greek mythology, mostly known for his participation in the Trojan War. He was born to Tydeus and Deipyle and later became King of Argos, succeeding his maternal grandfather, Adrastus...
when sent to her father in a hostage exchange. Chaucer and Shakespeare are among the authors who wrote works telling the story of Troilus and Cressida. Within the medieval tradition, Troilus was regarded as a paragon of the faithful
courtly loveCourtly love was a medieval European conception of nobly and chivalrously expressing love and admiration. Generally, courtly love was secret and between members of the nobility. It was also generally not practiced between husband and wife....
r and also of the
virtuous paganVirtuous paganism is a concept in some branches of Christian theology analogous to the Righteous Among the Nations in Judaism. It addressed the problem of pagans who were never evangelized and consequently during their lifetime had no opportunity to recognize Christ, but nevertheless led virtuous...
knightA knight was a "gentleman soldier" or member of the warrior class of the Middle Ages in Europe. In other Indo-European languages, cognates of cavalier or rider are more prevalent suggesting a connection to the knight's mode of transport...
. Once the custom of courtly love had faded, his fate was regarded less sympathetically.
Little attention was paid to the character during the 18th and 19th centuries. However, Troilus has reappeared in 20th and 21st century retellings of the Trojan War by authors who have chosen elements from both the classical and medieval versions of his story.
The story in the ancient world
For the ancient Greeks, the tale of the
Trojan WarIn Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy stole Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, including the Iliad...
and the surrounding events appeared in its most definitive form in the
Epic Cycle of eight
narrative poemsAn epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...
from the
archaic period in GreeceThe archaic period in Greece is a period of Ancient Greek history. The term originated in the 18th century and has been standard since. This term arose from the study of Greek art, where it refers to styles mainly of surface decoration and plastique, falling in time between Geometric Art and the...
(750 BC – 480 BC). The story of Troilus is one of a number of incidents that helped provide structure to a narrative which extended over several decades and 77 books from the beginning of the
Cypria to the end of the
TelegonyThe Telegony is a lost ancient Greek epic poem about Telegonus, son of Odysseus by Circe. His name is indicative of his birth on Aeaea, far from Odysseus' home of Ithaca. It was part of the Epic Cycle of poems that recounted the myths not only of the Trojan War but also of the events that led up...
. The character's death early in the war, and the prophecies surrounding him, demonstrated that all Trojan efforts to defend their home would be in vain. His symbolic significance is evidenced by linguistic analysis of his Greek name "Troilos". It can be interpreted as an
elisionElision is the omission of one or more sounds in a word or phrase, producing a result that is easier for the speaker to pronounce. Sometimes, sounds may be elided for euphonic effect....
of the names of Tros and Ilos, the legendary founders of Troy, as a
diminutiveIn language structure, a diminutive, or diminutive form, is a formation of a word used to convey a slight degree of the root meaning, smallness of the object or quality named, encapsulation, intimacy, or endearment...
or pet name "little Tros" or as an elision of
Troië (Troy) and
lyo (to destroy). These multiple possibilities emphasise the link between the fates of Troilus and of the city in which he lived. On another level, Troilus' fate can also be seen as
foreshadowingForeshadowing is a literary technique used by many different authors to provide clues for the reader to be able to predict what might occur later on in the story...
the subsequent deaths of his murderer
AchillesIn Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greek hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad.Achilles also has the attributes of being the most handsome of the heroes assembled against Troy....
, and of his nephew
AstyanaxIn Greek mythology, Astyanax was the son of Hector and Andromache. His birth name was Scamandrius , but the people of Troy nicknamed him Astyanax In Greek mythology, Astyanax (Ancient Greek: Ἀστυάναξ - Astyánax, gen.: Ἀστυάνακτος) was the son of Hector and Andromache. His birth name was...
and sister
PolyxenaPolyxena , Greek Πολυξένη, was known to be a beautiful Trojan princess from Greek mythology. She is the youngest daughter of King Priam of Troy and his queen, Hecuba. She is considered the Trojan version of Iphigenia, daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. Polyxena is not in Homer's Iliad,...
, who, like Troilus, die at the altar in at least some versions of their stories.
Given this, it is unfortunate that the
Cypria - the part of the
Epic Cycle which covers the period of the Trojan War in which Troilus' death fell - does not survive. Indeed no complete narrative of his story remains from archaic times or the subsequent
classical periodClassical period can refer to the following:*The Classical Period of ancient Greece, which fell between its Archaic Period and Hellenistic Period.*Classical antiquity*Classical period of music*Classic stage of American archaeology...
(479-323 BC). Most of the literary sources from before the Hellenistic age (323-31 BC) that even referred to the character are lost or survive only in fragments or summary. The surviving ancient and medieval sources, whether literary or scholarly, contradict each other and many do not tally with the form of the myth that scholars now believe to have existed in the archaic and classical periods.
Partially compensating for the missing texts are the physical
artifactsAn artifact or artefact is any object made or modified by a human. In archaeology, an artifact is an object recovered by some archaeological endeavor, which may have a cultural interest. Examples include stone tools such as projectile points, pottery vessels, metal objects such as buttons or guns,...
that remain from the archaic and classical periods. The story of the circumstances around Troilus' death was a popular theme among pottery painters. (The
BeazleySir John Davidson Beazley was an English Classical scholar.Beazley attended Balliol College, Oxford, where he was a close friend of the poet James Elroy Flecker. After graduating in 1907, Beazley was a student and tutor in Classics at Christ Church, and in 1925 he became Lincoln Professor of...
Archive website lists 108 items of
AtticAttica is a periphery in Greece, containing Athens, the capital of Greece. Attica is subdivided into the prefectures of Athens, Piraeus, East Attica and West Attica.-Overview:...
pottery alone from the 6th to 4th centuries BC containing images of the character.) Troilus also features on other works of art and decorated objects from those times. It is a common practice for those writing about the story of Troilus as it existed in ancient times to use both literary sources and artifacts to build up an understanding of what seems to have been the most standard form of the myth and its variants. The brutality of this standard form of the myth is highlighted by commentators such as Alan Sommerstein, an expert on ancient Greek drama, who describes it as "horrific" and "[p]erhaps the most vicious of all the actions traditionally attributed to Achilles.
The standard myth: the beautiful youth murdered
Troilus is an adolescent boy or
ephebeEphebos , also anglicised as ephebe or archaically ephebus , is a Greek word for an adolescent age group or a social status reserved for that age in Antiquity....
, the son of
HecubaHecuba was a queen in Greek mythology, the wife of King Priam of Troy, with whom she had 19 children. The most famous of her children was Hector of Troy...
, queen of
TroyTroy is a legendary city and center of the Trojan War, as described in the Epic Cycle and especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer...
. As he is so beautiful, Troilus is taken to be the son of the god
ApolloIn Greek and Roman mythology, Apollo , is one of the most important and many-sided of the Olympian deities...
. However, Hecuba's husband, King
PriamIn Greek mythology, Priam was the king of Troy during the Trojan War and youngest son of Laomedon. Modern scholars derive his name from the Luwian compound Priimuua, which means "exceptionally courageous"....
, treats him as his own much-loved child.
A prophecy says that Troy will not fall if Troilus lives into adulthood. So the goddess
AthenaIn Greek mythology, Athena is the goddess of wisdom, peace, warfare, strategy, handicrafts and reason, shrewd companion of heroes and the goddess of heroic endeavour...
encourages the Greek warrior
AchillesIn Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greek hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad.Achilles also has the attributes of being the most handsome of the heroes assembled against Troy....
to seek him out early in the
Trojan WarIn Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy stole Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, including the Iliad...
. The youth is known to take great delight in his horses. Achilles ambushes him and his sister
PolyxenaPolyxena , Greek Πολυξένη, was known to be a beautiful Trojan princess from Greek mythology. She is the youngest daughter of King Priam of Troy and his queen, Hecuba. She is considered the Trojan version of Iphigenia, daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. Polyxena is not in Homer's Iliad,...
when he has ridden with her for water from a well in the
ThymbraThymbra or Thymbre was a town in the Troad, near Troy. The second of the six gates of Troy was named after it, according to John Lydgate.The location is about five miles from present day Hissarlik, the site of the present archeological excavations....
- an area outside Troy where there is a
templeA temple is a structure reserved for religious or spiritual activities, such as prayer and sacrifice, or analogous rites. A templum constituted a sacred precinct as defined by a priest, or augur. It has the same root as the word "template," a plan in preparation of the building that was marked out...
of Apollo.
The Greek is struck by the beauty of both Trojans and is filled with lust. It is the fleeing Troilus whom swift-footed Achilles catches, dragging him by the hair from his horse. The young prince refuses to yield to Achilles' sexual attentions and somehow escapes, taking refuge in the nearby temple. But the warrior follows him in, and beheads him at the
altarAn altar is any structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices and votive offerings are made for religious purposes, or some other sacred place where ceremonies take place. Altars are usually found at a shrines, and they can be located in temples, churches and other places of worship...
before help can arrive. The murderer then mutilates the boy's body. The mourning of the Trojans at Troilus' death is great.
This
sacrilegeSacrilege is the violation or injurious treatment of a sacred object. In a less proper sense, any transgression against the virtue of religion would be a sacrilege. It can come in the form of irreverence to sacred persons, places, and things...
leads to Achilles’ own death, when Apollo avenges himself by helping
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
strike Achilles with the arrow that pierces his
heelAn Achilles’ heel is a fatal weakness in spite of overall strength, that can actually or potentially lead to downfall. While the mythological origin refers to a physical vulnerability, metaphorical references to other attributes or qualities that can lead to downfall are common.The strongest and...
.
Homer and the missing texts of the archaic and classical periods
The earliest surviving literary reference to Troilus is in
HomerHomer is a legendary ancient Greek epic poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey...
's
IliadThe Iliad is an epic poem recounting significant events during a portion of the final year of the Trojan War — the Greek siege of the city of Ilion — hence the title...
which formed one part of the
Epic Cycle. It is believed that Troilus' name was not invented by Homer and that a version of his story was already in existence. Late in the poem, Priam berates his surviving sons, and compares them unfavourably to their dead brothers including
Trôïlon hippiocharmên. The interpretation of
hippiocharmên is controversial but the root
hipp- implies a connection with horses. For the purpose of the version of the myth given above, the word has been taken as meaning "delighting in horses". Sommerstein believes that Homer wishes to imply in this reference that Troilus was killed in battle, but argues that Priam's later description of Achilles as
andros paidophonoio ("boy-slaying man") indicates that Homer was aware of the story of Troilus as a murdered child; Sommerstein believes that Homer is playing here on the ambiguity of the root
paido- meaning boy in both the sense of a young male and of a son.
Ancient written sources for Troilus
| Full length descriptions in mythological literature |
| Stasinus of Cyprus? |
Cypria |
late 7th century BC (lost) |
| Phrynicus |
Troilos |
6th-5th century BC (lost) |
SophoclesSophocles was the second of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose work has survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus and earlier than those of Euripides...
|
Troilos |
5th century BC (lost) |
| Strattis Strattis, was an Athenian comic poet of the Old Comedy. According to the Suda, he flourished later than Callias Schoenion. He must have began to exhibit in the 92th Olympiad, that is, 412 BC. He was comtempoary with Sannyrion and Philyllius, both of whom are attacked in the extant fragments of his...
|
Troilos |
5th-4th century BC (lost) |
| Dares Phrygius Dares Phrygius , according to Homer, was a Trojan priest of Hephaestus. He was supposed to have been the author of an account of the destruction of Troy, and to have lived before Homer...
|
de excidio Trojae historia |
parts written 1st-6th century? |
| Briefer references in mythological literature |
HomerHomer is a legendary ancient Greek epic poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey...
|
IliadThe Iliad is an epic poem recounting significant events during a portion of the final year of the Trojan War — the Greek siege of the city of Ilion — hence the title...
|
8th-7th century BC |
| Stesichorus Stesichorus was a Greek lyric poet from Himera in Sicily, one of the nine lyric poets esteemed by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria as worthy of study....
|
possibly in Iliupersis |
7th-6th century BC (lost) |
| Ibycus Ibycus , of Rhegium in Italy, was an Ancient Greek lyric poet. He was included in the canonical list of nine lyric poets by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria. The extant fragments of his work contain the earliest-known example of the triadic choral lyric and epinician poetry.-Life:Very...
|
unknown text of which only a few words survive |
late 6th century BC |
SophoclesSophocles was the second of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose work has survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus and earlier than those of Euripides...
|
Polyxene |
5th century BC (lost) |
| Lycophron Lycophron was a Hellenistic Greek tragic poet, grammarian, and commentator on comedy, to whom the poem Alexandra is attributed .-Life and miscellaneous works:...
|
Alexandra |
3rd century BC? |
VirgilPublius Vergilius Maro was a classical Roman poet, best known for three major works—the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the Aeneid—although several minor poems are also attributed to him.The son of a farmer, Virgil came to be...
|
AeneidThe Aeneid is a Latin epic poem written by Virgil in the late 1st century BC that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who traveled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is written in dactylic hexameter...
|
29-19 BC |
| Seneca the Younger Lucius Annaeus Seneca was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero...
|
Agamemnon |
1st century |
| Dictys Cretensis Dictys Cretensis of Knossus was the legendary companion of Idomeneus during the Trojan War, and the purported author of a diary of its events, that deployed some of the same materials worked up by Homer for the Iliad...
|
Ephemeridos belli Trojani |
1st-3rd century |
| Ausonius Decimius Magnus Ausonius was a Latin poet and rhetorician, born at Burdigala .-Biography:Decimius Magnus Ausonius was born in Bordeaux in ca. 310. His father was a noted physician of Greek ancestry and his mother was descended on both sides from long-established aristocratic Gallo-Roman families...
|
Epitaphs |
4th century |
| Quintus of Smyrna |
Posthomerica The Posthomerica is an epic poem by Quintus of Smyrna, probably written in the latter half of the 4th century, and telling the story of the period between the death of Hektor and the fall of Ilium...
|
Late 4th century? |
| Literary allusions to Troilus |
| Ibycus |
Polycrates Polycrates , son of Aeaces, was the tyrant of Samos from c. 538 BC to 522 BC.He took power during a festival of Hera with his brothers Pantagnotus and Syloson, but soon had Pantagnotus killed and exiled Syloson to take full control for himself. He then allied with Amasis II, pharaoh of Egypt, as...
poem |
late 6th century BC |
| Callimachus Callimachus was a native of the Greek colony of Cyrene, Libya. He was a noted poet, critic and scholar of the Library of Alexandria and enjoyed the patronage of ancient Egyptian Greek Pharaohs Ptolemy II Philadelphus and Ptolemy III Euergetes...
|
Epigrams |
3rd century BC |
| Plautus Titus Maccius Plautus , commonly known as Plautus, was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are among the earliest surviving intact works in Latin literature. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by the innovator of Latin literature, Livius Andronicus...
|
BacchidesBacchides is a Latin play by the early Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus. The title has been translated as The Bacchises, and the plot revolves around the misunderstandings surrounding two sisters, each called Bacchis, who work in a local house of ill-repute...
|
3rd-2nd century BC |
CiceroMarcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. Cicero is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.Cicero is generally perceived to be one of the most versatile minds of ancient Rome...
|
Tusculanae Quaestiones The Tusculanae Disputationes , is a series of books written by Cicero, around 45 BC, attempting to popularise Stoic philosophy in Ancient Rome...
|
c.45 BC |
HoraceThis article is about the Roman poet Horace. For other uses, see Horace .Quintus Horatius Flaccus, , known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.-Life:Born in the small town of Venusia in the border region between Apulia and Lucania...
|
Odes Book 2 |
23 BC |
| Statius Publius Papinius Statius was a Roman poet of the Silver Age of Latin literature, born in Naples, Italy. Besides his poetry, he is best known for his appearance as a major character in the Purgatory section of Dante's epic poem The Divine Comedy.-Life:He was born to a family of Graeco-Campanian...
|
Silvae |
Late 1st century |
| Dio Chrysostom Dio Chrysostom , Dion of Prusa or Dio Cocceianus was a Greek orator, writer, philosopher and historian of the Roman Empire in the first century. Eighty of his Discourses are extant, as well as a few Letters, a mildly entertaining essay In Praise of Hair, and other fragments...
|
Discourses |
1st-2nd centuries |
| "Clement" |
Clementine Homilies Clementine literature is the name given to the religious romance which purports to contain a record made by one Clement of discourses involving the apostle Peter,...
|
2nd century? |
| Ancient and medieval academic commentaries on and summaries of ancient literature. |
| Various anonymous authors |
Scholia to the Iliad |
5th century BC to 9th century? |
| Hyginus Hyginus can refer to:*Pope Hyginus, also a saint, Bishop of Rome about 140*Gaius Julius Hyginus , Roman poet, author of Fabulae, reputed author of Poeticon astronomicon*Hyginus Gromaticus, Roman surveyor...
|
Fabulae |
1st century BC - 1st century AD |
| The "Pseudo-Apollodorus" |
Library The Bibliotheca , in three books, provides a grand summary of traditional Greek mythology and heroic legends, "the most valuable mythographical work that has come down from ancient times," Aubrey Diller observed, whose "stultifying purpose" was neatly expressed in the epigram noted by Patriarch...
|
1st-2nd century |
| Eutychius Proclus? |
Chrestomathy Chrestomathy is a collection of choice literary passages, used especially as an aid in learning a foreign language....
|
2nd century? |
| Servius |
Scholia to the Aeneid |
Late 4th century |
| First Vatican Mythographer |
Mythography |
9th-11th century? |
| Eustathius of Thessalonica Eustathius of Thessalonica was a native of Constantinople who became archbishop of Thessalonica. After being a monk in the monastery of St. Florus, he was appointed to the offices of superintendent of petitions , professor of rhetoric , and deacon of the church of Constantinople...
|
Scholia to the Iliad |
12th century |
| John Tzetzes John Tzetzes , was a Byzantine poet and grammarian, known to have lived at Constantinople during the 12th century.Tzetzes was Georgian on his mother's side...
|
Scholia to the Alexandra |
12th century |
Troilus' death was also described in the
Cypria, one of the parts of the
Epic Cycle that is no longer extant. The poem covered the events preceding the Trojan War and the first part of the war itself up to the events of the
Iliad. Although the
Cypria does not survive, most of an ancient summary of the contents, thought to be by Eutychius Proclus, remains. Fragment 1 mentions that Achilles killed Troilus, but provides no more detail. However, Sommerstein takes the verb used to describe the killing (
phoneuei) as meaning that Achilles murders Troilus.
In Athens, the early tragedians Phrynicus and
SophoclesSophocles was the second of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose work has survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus and earlier than those of Euripides...
both wrote plays called
Troilos and the comic playwright
StrattisStrattis, was an Athenian comic poet of the Old Comedy. According to the Suda, he flourished later than Callias Schoenion. He must have began to exhibit in the 92th Olympiad, that is, 412 BC. He was comtempoary with Sannyrion and Philyllius, both of whom are attacked in the extant fragments of his...
wrote a parody of the same name. Of the esteemed
Nine lyric poetsThe nine lyric poets were a canon of archaic Greek composers esteemed by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria as worthy of critical study.They were:*Alcman *Sappho...
of the archaic and classical periods,
StesichorusStesichorus was a Greek lyric poet from Himera in Sicily, one of the nine lyric poets esteemed by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria as worthy of study....
may have referred to Troilus' story in his
Iliupersis and
IbycusIbycus , of Rhegium in Italy, was an Ancient Greek lyric poet. He was included in the canonical list of nine lyric poets by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria. The extant fragments of his work contain the earliest-known example of the triadic choral lyric and epinician poetry.-Life:Very...
may have written in detail about the character. With the exception of these authors, no other pre-Hellenistic written source is known to have considered Troilus at any length.
Unfortunately, all that remains of these texts are the smallest fragments or summaries and references to them by other authors. What does survive can be in the form of papyrus fragments, plot summaries by later authors or quotations by other authors. In many cases these are just odd words in
lexiconIn linguistics, the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. More formally, it is a language's inventory of lexemes....
s or grammar books with an attribution to the original author. Reconstructions of the texts are necessarily speculative and should be viewed with "wary but sympathetic scepticism". In Ibycus' case all that remains is a parchment fragment containing a mere six or seven words of verse accompanied with a few lines of scholia. Troilus is described in the poem as godlike and is killed outside Troy. From the scholia, he is clearly a boy. The scholia also refer to a sister, someone "watching out" and a murder in the sanctuary of Thymbrian Apollo. While acknowledging that these details may have been reports of other later sources, Sommerstein thinks it probable that Ibycus told the full ambush story and is thus the earliest identifiable source for it. Of Phrynicus, one fragment remains considered to refer to Troilus. This speaks of "the light of love glowing on his reddening cheeks".
Of all these fragmentary pre-Hellenistic sources, it is the Sophocles
Troilos of which most is known. Even so, only 54 words have been identified as coming from the play. Fragment 619 refers to Troilus as an
andropais, a man-boy. Fragment 621 indicates that Troilus was going to a spring with a companion to fetch water or to water his horses. A scholion to the
Iliad states that Sophocles has Troilus ambushed by Achilles while exercising his horses in the Thymbra. Fragment 623 indicates that Achilles mutilated Troilus' corpse by a method known as
maschalismosMaschalismos is the practice of physically rendering the dead incapable of rising or haunting the living in undead form. It comes from the Ancient Greek word and was also the term for procedural rules on such matters in later Greek customary law....
. This involved preventing the ghost of a murder victim from returning to haunt their killer by cutting off the corpse's extremities and stringing them under its armpits. Sophocles is thought to have also referred to the maschalismos of Troilus in a fragment taken to be from an earlier play
Polyxene.
Sommerstein attempts a reconstruction of the plot of the
Troilos in which the title character is
incestIncest is any sexual activity between close relatives irrespective of the ages of the participants and irrespective of their consent, that is illegal or socially taboo. The type of sexual activity and the nature of the relationship between persons that constitutes a breach of law or social taboo...
uously in love with Polyxena and tries to discourage the interest shown in marrying her by both Achilles and
SarpedonIn Greek mythology, Sarpedon referred to at least three different people.-Son of Zeus and Europa:The first Sarpedon was a son of Zeus and Europa, and brother to Minos and Rhadamanthys. He was raised by King Asterion and then banished by Minos, and sought refuge with his uncle, King Cilix...
, a Trojan ally and son of
ZeusIn Greek mythology, Zeus is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus and the god of the sky and thunder. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak. In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical "cloud-gatherer" also derives certain iconographic traits from the...
. Sommerstein argues that Troilus is accompanied on his fateful journey to his death, not by Polyxena, but by his tutor, a
eunuchA eunuch is a political rank often found in ancient courts. Over the millennia since, they have performed a wide variety of functions in many different cultures such as: courtiers or equivalent domestics, treble singers, religious specialists, government officials, military commanders, and...
Greek slave. Certainly there is a speaking role for a eunuch who reports being castrated by Hecuba and someone reports the loss of their adolescent master. The incestuous love is deduced by Sommerstein from a fragment of Strattis' parody, assumed to partially quote Sophocles, and from his understanding that the Sophocles play intends to contrast
barbarianBarbarian is a term for an uncivilized person, often used pejoratively, either in a general reference to a member of a nation or ethnos, typically a tribal society as seen by an urban civilization either viewed as inferior, or admired as a noble savage...
customs, including incest, with Greek ones. Sommerstein also sees this as solving what he considers to be the need for an explanation of Achilles' treatment of Troilus' corpse, the latter being assumed to have insulted Achilles in the process of warning him off Polyxena. Italian professor of English and expert on Troilus, Piero Boitani, on the other hand, considers Troilus' rejection of Achilles sexual advances towards him as sufficient motive for the mutilation.
The Alexandra
The first surviving text which contains more than the briefest mention of Troilus is a Hellenistic poem dating from no earlier than the 3rd century BC: the
Alexandra by the tragedian
LycophronLycophron was a Hellenistic Greek tragic poet, grammarian, and commentator on comedy, to whom the poem Alexandra is attributed .-Life and miscellaneous works:...
or a namesake of his. The poem consists of the obscure prophetic ravings of
CassandraIn Greek mythology, Cassandra was the daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy. Her beauty caused Apollo to grant her the gift of prophecy...
:
This passage is explained in the
ByzantineThe word Byzantine may refer to:Topics directly related to the Byzantine Empire* A citizen of The Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
writer
John TzetzesJohn Tzetzes , was a Byzantine poet and grammarian, known to have lived at Constantinople during the 12th century.Tzetzes was Georgian on his mother's side...
' scholia as a reference to Troilus seeking to avoid the unwanted sexual advances of Achilles by taking refuge in his father Apollo's temple. When he refuses to come out, Achilles goes in and kills him on the altar. Lycophron's scholiast also says that Apollo started to plan Achilles' death after the murder. This begins to build up the elements of the version of Troilus' story given above: he is young, much loved and beautiful; he has divine ancestry, is beheaded by his rejected Greek lover and, we know from Homer, had something to do with horses. The reference to Troilus as a "lion whelp" hints at his having the potential to be a great hero, but there is no explicit reference to a prophecy linking the possibility of Troilus reaching adulthood and Troy then surviving.
Other written sources
No other extended passage about Troilus exists from before the
Augustan AgeGaius Julius Caesar Augustus was the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in AD 14.
[These are the contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian after 45 BC...]
by which time other versions of the character's story have emerged. The remaining sources compatible with the standard myth are considered below by theme.
Parentage : The
ApollodorusThe Bibliotheca , in three books, provides a grand summary of traditional Greek mythology and heroic legends, "the most valuable mythographical work that has come down from ancient times," Aubrey Diller observed, whose "stultifying purpose" was neatly expressed in the epigram noted by Patriarch...
responsible for the
Library lists Troilus last of Priam and Hecuba's sons - a detail adopted in the later tradition - but then adds that it is said that the boy was fathered by Apollo. On the other hand,
HyginusHyginus can refer to:*Pope Hyginus, also a saint, Bishop of Rome about 140*Gaius Julius Hyginus , Roman poet, author of Fabulae, reputed author of Poeticon astronomicon*Hyginus Gromaticus, Roman surveyor...
includes Troilus in the middle of a list of Priam's sons without further comment. In the early Christian writings the
Clementine HomiliesClementine literature is the name given to the religious romance which purports to contain a record made by one Clement of discourses involving the apostle Peter,...
, it is suggested that Apollo was Troilus' lover rather than his father.
Youthfulness :
HoraceThis article is about the Roman poet Horace. For other uses, see Horace .Quintus Horatius Flaccus, , known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.-Life:Born in the small town of Venusia in the border region between Apulia and Lucania...
emphasises Troilus' youth by calling him
inpubes ("unhairy", i.e. pre-pubescent or, figuratively, not old enough to bear arms).
Dio ChrysostomDio Chrysostom , Dion of Prusa or Dio Cocceianus was a Greek orator, writer, philosopher and historian of the Roman Empire in the first century. Eighty of his Discourses are extant, as well as a few Letters, a mildly entertaining essay In Praise of Hair, and other fragments...
derides Achilles in his Trojan discourse, complaining that all that the supposed hero achieved before Homer was the capture of Troilus who was still a boy.
Prophecies : The First Vatican Mythographer reports a prophesy that Troy will not fall if Troilus reaches the age of twenty and gives that as a reason for Achilles' ambush. In
PlautusTitus Maccius Plautus , commonly known as Plautus, was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are among the earliest surviving intact works in Latin literature. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by the innovator of Latin literature, Livius Andronicus...
, Troilus' death is given as one of three conditions that must be met before Troy would fall.
Beauty :
IbycusIbycus , of Rhegium in Italy, was an Ancient Greek lyric poet. He was included in the canonical list of nine lyric poets by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria. The extant fragments of his work contain the earliest-known example of the triadic choral lyric and epinician poetry.-Life:Very...
, in seeking to praise his patron, compares him to Troilus, the most beautiful of the Greeks and the Trojans. Dio Chrysostom refers to Troilus as one of many examples of different kinds of beauty.
StatiusPublius Papinius Statius was a Roman poet of the Silver Age of Latin literature, born in Naples, Italy. Besides his poetry, he is best known for his appearance as a major character in the Purgatory section of Dante's epic poem The Divine Comedy.-Life:He was born to a family of Graeco-Campanian...
compares a beautiful dead slave missed by his master to Troilus.
Object of pederasticGreek pederasty, as idealised by the Greeks from archaic times onward, was a relationship and bond between an adult man and an adolescent boy outside his immediate family. It was seen by the Greeks as an essential element in their culture from the time of Homer onwards...
love : Servius, in his scholia to the passage from
VirgilPublius Vergilius Maro was a classical Roman poet, best known for three major works—the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the Aeneid—although several minor poems are also attributed to him.The son of a farmer, Virgil came to be...
discussed below, says that Achilles lures Troilus to him with a gift of doves. Troilus then dies in the Greek's embrace.
Robert GravesGraves considered himself a poet first and foremost. His poems, together with his translations and innovative interpretations of the Greek Myths, his memoir of the First World war, Good-bye to All That, and his historical study of poetic inspiration, The White Goddess, have never been out of...
interprets this as evidence of the vigour of Achilles' love-making but
Timothy GantzTimothy Nolan Gantz was a classical scholar, the author of Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources 1993. Dr Gantz was a long-time Professor of Classics at the University of Georgia from 1970; he directed its Studies Abroad in Rome program from 1985...
considers that the "how or why" of Servius' version of Troilus' death is unclear. Sommerstein favours Graves's interpretation saying that murder was not a part of ancient pederastic relations and that nothing in Servius suggests an intentional killing.
Location of ambush and death : A number of reports have come down of Troilus' death variously mentioning water, exercising horses and the Thymbra, though they do not necessarily build into a coherent whole: the First Vatican Mythographer reports that Troilus was exercising outside Troy when Achilles attacked him; a commentator on Ibycus says that Troilus was slain by Achilles in the Thymbrian precinct outside Troy;
Eustathius of ThessalonicaEustathius of Thessalonica was a native of Constantinople who became archbishop of Thessalonica. After being a monk in the monastery of St. Florus, he was appointed to the offices of superintendent of petitions , professor of rhetoric , and deacon of the church of Constantinople...
's commentary on the
Iliad says that Troilus was exercising his horses there; Apollodorus says that Achilles ambushed Troilus inside the temple of Thymbrian Apollo; finally, Statius reports that Troilus was speared to death as he fled around Apollo's walls. Gantz struggles to make sense of what he sees as contradictory material, feeling that Achilles' running down of Troilus' horse makes no sense if Troilus was just fleeing to the nearby temple building. He speculates that the ambush at the well and the sacrifice in the temple could be two different versions of the story or, alternatively, that Achilles takes Troilus to the temple in order to sacrifice him as an insult to Apollo.
Mourning : Trojan and, especially, Troilus' own family's mourning at his death seems to have epitomised grief at the loss of a child in classical civilization. Horace,
CallimachusCallimachus was a native of the Greek colony of Cyrene, Libya. He was a noted poet, critic and scholar of the Library of Alexandria and enjoyed the patronage of ancient Egyptian Greek Pharaohs Ptolemy II Philadelphus and Ptolemy III Euergetes...
and
CiceroMarcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. Cicero is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.Cicero is generally perceived to be one of the most versatile minds of ancient Rome...
all refer to Troilus in this way.
Ancient art and artifact sources
Ancient Greek art, as found in pottery and other remains, frequently depicts scenes associated with Troilus' death: the ambush, the pursuit, the murder itself and the fight over his body. Depictions of Troilus in other contexts are unusual. One such exception, a red-figure vase painting from Apulia c.340BC, shows Troilus as a child with Priam.
In the
ambush, Troilus and Polyxena approach a fountain where Achilles lies in wait. This scene was familiar enough in the ancient world for a parody to exist from c.400BC showing a dumpy Troilus leading a mule to the fountain. In most serious depictions of the scene, Troilus rides a horse, normally with a second next to him. He is usually, but not always, portrayed as a beardless youth. He is often shown naked; otherwise he wears a cloak or tunic. Achilles is always armed and armoured. Occasionally, as on the vase picture at
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/vor?type=phrase;alts=0;group=typecat;lookup=Toledo%201947.62;collection=Perseus%3Acollection%3AGreco-Roman;target=en%2C0;extern=1;detail=Image#Image, or the fresco from the Tomb of the Bulls shown at the head of this article, either Troilus or Polyxena is absent, indicating how the ambush is linked to each of their stories. In the earliest definitely identified version of this scene, (a Corinthian vase c.580BC), Troilus is bearded and Priam is also present. Both these features are unusual. More common is a bird sitting on the fountain; normally a raven, symbol of Apollo and his prophetic powers and thus a final warning to Troilus of his doom; sometimes a cock, a common love gift suggesting that Achilles attempted to seduce Troilus. In some versions, for example an Attic amphora in the
Museum of Fine Arts, BostonThe Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, is one of the largest museums in the United States attracting over one million visitors a year. It contains over 450,000 works of art, making it one of the most comprehensive collections in the Americas. The museum was founded in 1870 and its...
dating from c.530BC which can be seen here
http://www.mfa.org/collections/search_art.asp?recview=true&id=153428&coll_keywords=&coll_accession=&coll_name=&coll_artist=&coll_place=&coll_medium=&coll_culture=&coll_classification=&coll_credit=&coll_provenance=&coll_location=&coll_has_images=&coll_on_view=&coll_sort=0&coll_sort_order=0&coll_view=0&coll_package=2350&coll_start=111, Troilus has a dog running with him. On one
EtruscanEtruscan art was the form of figurative art produced by the Etruscan civilization in northern Italy between the 9th and 2nd centuries BC. Particularly strong in this tradition were figurative sculpture in terracotta and cast bronze, wall-painting and metalworking .-Course:The mysterious...
vase from the sixth century BC, doves are flying from Achilles to Troilus, suggestive of the love gift in Servius. The fountain itself is conventionally decorated with a lion motif.
The earliest identified version of the
pursuit or
chase is from the third quarter of the 7th century BC. Next chronologically is the best known version on the
François VaseThe François Vase, a milestone in the development of Greek pottery, is a large volute krater decorated in the black-figure style which stands at 66cm in height. Dated at circa 570/560 B.C.E. it was found in 1844 in an Etruscan tomb in the necropolis of Fonte Rotella near Chiusi and named after its...
by
KleitiasKleitias was an ancient Athenian vase painter of the black figure style who flourished c. 580–550 BCE. He is known from five vases, two cups, and a number of cup fragments. In all but one of these cases , Kleitias' signature appears as the painter, and Ergotimos as the potter...
. The number of characters shown on pottery scenes varies with the size and shape of the space available. The François Vase is decorated with several scenes in long narrow strips. This means that the Troilus frieze is heavily populated. In the centre, (which can be seen at the Perseus Project at
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/image?lookup=Perseus:image:1993.01.0103,) is the fleeing Troilus, riding one horse with the reins of the other in his hand. Below them is the vase which Polyxena (partially missing), who is ahead of him, has dropped. Achilles is largely missing but it is clear that he is armoured. They are running towards Troy
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/image?lookup=Perseus:image:1993.01.0104 where
AntenorIn Greek mythology, Antenor was a son of the Dardanian noble Aesyetes by Cleomestra. He was one of the wisest of the Trojan elders and counsellors. Antenor was husband of Theano, daughter of Cisseus of Thrace, who bore him numerous children, mostly sons...
gestures towards Priam.
HectorIn Greek mythology, Hectōr , or Hektōr, is a Trojan prince and the greatest fighter for Troy in the Trojan War. As the son of Priam and Hecuba, a descendant of Dardanus, who lived under Mount Ida, and of Tros, the founder of Troy, he is a prince of the royal house. He acts as leader of the Trojans...
and
PolitesIn Greek mythology, Polites referred to two different people, both of whom feature as minor characters in the epics by Homer.*Polites was a member of Odysseus's crew...
, brothers of Troilus, emerge from the city walls in the hope of saving Troilus. Behind Achilles
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/image?lookup=1993.01.0100 are a number of deities, Athena,
ThetisSilver-footed Thetis , disposer or "placer" , is encountered in Greek mythology mostly as a sea nymph, one of the fifty Nereids, daughters of the ancient one of the seas with shape-shifting abilities who survives in the historical vestiges of most later Greek myths as Proteus Silver-footed Thetis...
, (Achilles' mother,)
HermesHermes is the Messenger of the gods in Greek mythology as well as a guide to the Underworld. An Olympian god, he is also the patron of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of thieves and road travelers, of orators and wit, of literature and poets, of...
, and Apollo (just arriving). Two Trojans are also present, the woman gesturing to draw the attention of a youth filling his vase. As the deities appear only in pictorial versions of the scene, their role is subject to interpretation. Boitani, sees Athena as urging Achilles on and Thetis as worried by the arrival of Apollo who, as Troilus' protector, represents a future threat to Achilles. He does not indicate what he thinks Hermes may be talking to Thetis about. The classicist and art historian Professor Thomas H. Carpenter sees Hermes as a neutral observer, Athena and Thetis as urging Achilles on and the arrival of Apollo as the artist's indication of the god's future role in Achilles' death. As Athena is not traditionally a patron of Achilles, Sommerstein sees her presence in this and other portrayals of Troilus' death as evidence of the early standing of the prophetic link between Troilus' death and the fall of Troy, Athena being driven, above all, by her desire for the city's destruction.
The standard elements in the pursuit scene are Troilus, Achilles, Polyxena, the two horses and the fallen vase. On two tripods, an amphora and a cup, Achilles already has Troilus by the hair. A famous vase in the
British MuseumThe British Museum is a museum of human history and culture situated in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from...
, which gave the Troilos Painter the name by which he is now known, shows the two Trojans looking back in fear, as the beautiful youth whips his horse on. This vase can be seen at the Perseus Project site
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/image?lookup=Perseus:image:1990.14.0065. The water spilling from the shattered vase below Troilus' horse, symbolises his blood that is about to be shed.
The
iconographyIconography is the branch of art history which studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images. The word iconography literally means "image writing", and comes from the Greek εἰκών "image" and γράφειν "to write". A secondary meaning is the painting of icons...
of the eight legs and hooves of the horses can be used to identify Troilus on pottery where his name does not appear; for example, on a Corinthian vase where Troilus is shooting at his pursuers and on a peaceful scene on a Chalcidian krater where the couples
ParisParis , the son of Priam, king of Troy, appears in a number of Greek legends. Probably the best-known was his elopement with Helen, queen of Sparta, this being one of the immediate causes of the Trojan War...
and
HelenIn Greek mythology, Helen , known as Helen of Troy , was the daughter of Zeus and Leda , wife of King Menelaus of Sparta and sister of Castor, Polydeuces and Clytemnestra. Her abduction by Paris brought about the Trojan War...
, Hector and
AndromacheIn Greek mythology, Andromache was the wife of Hector and daughter of Eetion, and sister to Podes. She was born and raised in the city of Cilician Thebe, over which her father ruled...
are labelled, but the youth riding one of a pair of horses is not.
A later Southern Italian interpretation of the story is on vases held respectively at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the
Hermitage MuseumThe State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture situated in Saint Petersburg, Russia. One of the largest and oldest museums of the world, it was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and open to the public since 1852. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display,...
in St Petersburg. On the
kraterA krater was a large vase used to mix wine and water in Ancient Greece.-Form and function:...
from c.380-70BC at
http://www.mfa.org/master/sub.asp?key=2656&subkey=3424 Troilus can be seen with just one horse trying to defend himself with a throwing spear; on the
hydriaA hydria is a type of Greek pottery used for carrying water. The hydria has three handles. Two horizontal handles on either side of the body of the pot were used for lifting and carrying the pot. The third handle, a vertical one, located in the center of the other two handles, was used when...
from c.325-320BC at
http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/fcgi-bin/db2www/quickSearch.mac/gallery?selLang=English&tmCond=Troilus&go.x=20&go.y=11, Achilles is pulling down the youth's horse.
The earliest known depictions of the
death or
murder of Troilus are on shield bands from the turn of the 7th into the 6th century BC found at
OlympiaOlympia , a sanctuary of ancient Greece in Elis, is known for having been the site of the Olympic Games in classical times, comparable in importance to the Pythian Games held in Delphi. Both games were held every Olympiad , the Olympic Games dating back possibly further than 776 BC...
. On these, a warrior with a sword is about to stab a naked youth at an altar. On one, Troilus clings to a tree (which Boitani takes for the laurel sacred to Apollo). A crater contemporary with this shows Achilles at the altar holding the naked Troilus upside down while Hector,
AeneasIn Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas was a Trojan hero, the son of prince Anchises and the goddess Venus. His father was also the second cousin of King Priam of Troy. The journey of Aeneas from Troy, which led to the founding of the city Rome, is recounted in Virgil's Aeneid...
and an otherwise unknown Trojan Deithynos arrive in the hope of saving the youth. In some depictions Troilus is begging for mercy. On an amphora, Achilles has the struggling Troilus slung over his shoulder as he goes to the altar. Boitani, in his survey of the story of Troilus through the ages, considers it of significance that two artifacts (a vase and a sarcophagus) from different periods link Troilus' and Priam's death by showing them on the two sides of the same item, as if they were the beginning and end of the story of the fall of Troy. Achilles is the father of Neoptolemus, who slays Priam at the alter during the sack of Troy. Thus the war opens with a father killing a son and closes with a son killing a father.
Some pottery shows Achilles, already having killed Troilus, using his victim's severed head as a weapon as Hector and his companions arrive too late to save him; some includes the watching Athena, occasionally with Hermes. At
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/image?lookup=Perseus:image:1990.34.0042 is one such picture showing Achilles fighting Hector over the altar. Troilus' body is slumped and the boy's head is either flying through the air, or stuck to the end of Achilles' spear. Athena and Hermes look on. Aeneas and Deithynos are behind Hector.
Sometimes details of the closely similar deaths of Troilus and Astyanax are exchanged.
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/image?lookup=Perseus:image:1990.34.0174 shows one such image where it is unclear which murder is being portrayed. The age of the victim is often an indicator of which story is being told and the relative small size here might point towards this being the death of Astyanax, but it is common even for Troilus to be shown as much smaller than his murderer, (as is the case with the
kylixKylix may mean:*Kylix , a type of drinking cup used in ancient Greece*Kylix , a programming tool...
pictured to the above right). Other factors in this case are the presence of Priam (suggesting Astyanax), that of Athena (suggesting Troilus) and the fact that the scene is set outside the walls of Troy (again suggesting Troilus).
A variant myth: the boy-soldier overwhelmed
A different version of Troilus' death appears on a red-figure cup by
OltosOltos was a Late Archaic Greek vase painter, active in Athens. From the time between 525 BC and 500 BC, about 150 works by him are known. Two pieces, "bowl F 2264" and "bowl RC 6848" Oltos was a Late Archaic Greek vase painter, active in Athens. From the time between 525 BC and 500 BC, about 150...
. Troilus is on his knees, still in the process of drawing his sword when Achilles' spear has already stabbed him and Aeneas comes too late to save him. Troilus wears a helmet, but it is pushed up to reveal a beautiful young face. This is the only such depiction of Troilus' death in early figurative art. However, this version of Troilus as a youth defeated in battle appears also in written sources.
Virgil and other Latin sources
This version of the story appears in
VirgilPublius Vergilius Maro was a classical Roman poet, best known for three major works—the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the Aeneid—although several minor poems are also attributed to him.The son of a farmer, Virgil came to be...
's
AeneidThe Aeneid is a Latin epic poem written by Virgil in the late 1st century BC that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who traveled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is written in dactylic hexameter...
, in a passage describing a series of paintings decorating the walls of a temple of
JunoJuno was an ancient Roman goddess, the protector and special counselor of the state. She is a daughter of Saturn and sister of the chief god Jupiter and the mother of Juventas, Mars, and Vulcan...
. The painting immediately next to the one depicting Troilus shows the death of
RhesusRhesus or Rhêsos was a Thracian king who fought on the side of Trojans in Iliad, Book X, where Diomedes and Odysseus stole his team of fine horses during a night raid on the Trojan camp. Homer gives his father as Eioneus— a name otherwise given to the father of Dia, whom Ixion threw into the...
, another character killed because of prophecies linked to the fall of Troy. Other pictures are similarly calamitous.
In a description whose pathos is heightened by the fact that it is seen through a compatriot's eyes, Troilus is
infelix puer ("unhappy boy") who has met Achilles in "unequal" combat. Troilus' horses flee while he, still holding their reins, hangs from the chariot, his head and hair trailing behind while the backward-pointing spear scribbles in the dust. (The First Vatican Mythographer elaborates on this story, explaining that Troilus's body is dragged right to the walls of Troy.)
In his commentary on the
Aeneid, Servius considers this story as a deliberate departure from the "true" story, bowdlerized to make it more suitable for an epic poem. He interprets it as showing Troilus overpowered in a straight fight. Gantz, however, argues that this might be a variation of the ambush story. For him, Troilus is unarmed because he went out not expecting combat and the backward pointing spear was what Troilus was using as a goad in a manner similar to characters elsewhere in the
Aeneid. Sommerstein, on the other hand believes that the spear is Achilles' that has struck Troilus in the back. The youth is alive but mortally wounded as he is being dragged towards Troy.
An issue here is the ambiguity of the word
congressus ("met"). It often refers to meeting in a conventional combat but can have refer to other types of meetings too. A similar ambiguity appears in
SenecaLucius Annaeus Seneca was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero...
and in
AusoniusDecimius Magnus Ausonius was a Latin poet and rhetorician, born at Burdigala .-Biography:Decimius Magnus Ausonius was born in Bordeaux in ca. 310. His father was a noted physician of Greek ancestry and his mother was descended on both sides from long-established aristocratic Gallo-Roman families...
' 19th epitaph, narrated by Troilus himself. The dead prince tells how he has been dragged by his horses after falling in unequal battle with Achilles. A reference in the epitaph comparing Troilus' death to Hector's suggests that Troilus dies later than in the traditional narrative, something which, according to Boitani, also happens in Virgil.
Greek writers in the boy-soldier tradition
Quintus of Smyrna, in a passage whose atmosphere Boitani describes as sad and elegiac, retains what for Boitani are the two important issues of the ancient story, that Troilus is doomed by Fate and that his failure to continue his line symbolises Troy's fall. In this case, there is no doubt that Troilus entered battle knowingly, for in the
PosthomericaThe Posthomerica is an epic poem by Quintus of Smyrna, probably written in the latter half of the 4th century, and telling the story of the period between the death of Hektor and the fall of Ilium...
Troilus's armour is one of the funerary gifts after Achilles' own death. Quintus repeatedly emphasises Troilus's youth: he is beardless, virgin of a bride, childlike, beautiful, the most godlike of all Hecuba's children. Yet he was lured by Fate to war when he knew no fear and was struck down by Achilles' spear just as a flower or corn that has borne no seed is killed by the gardener.
In the
Ephemeridos belli Trojani (
Journal of the Trojan War), supposedly written by
Dictys the CretanDictys Cretensis of Knossus was the legendary companion of Idomeneus during the Trojan War, and the purported author of a diary of its events, that deployed some of the same materials worked up by Homer for the Iliad...
during the Trojan War itself, Troilus is again a defeated warrior, but this time captured with his brother
LycaonFor the Trojan Lycaon, see Lycaon Lycaon was the cruel king of Arcadia, son of Pelasgus and Meliboea, who tested Zeus by serving him a dish of a slaughtered and dismembered child...
. Achilles vindictively orders that their throats be slit in public, because he is angry that Priam has failed to advance talks over a possible marriage to Polyxena. Dictys' narrative is free from gods and prophecy but he preserves Troilus' loss as something to be greatly mourned:
The story in the medieval and Renaissance eras
In the sources considered so far, Troilus' only narrative function is his death. The treatment of the character changes in two ways in the literature of the medieval and renaissance periods. First, he becomes an important and active protagonist in the pursuit of the Trojan War itself. Second, he becomes an active heterosexual lover, rather than the passive victim of Achilles' pederasty. By the time of
John DrydenJohn Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden.-Early life:Dryden was born in the village rectory of Aldwincle...
's
neo-classicalNeoclassicism is the name given to quite distinct movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw upon Western classical art and culture...
adaptation of Shakespeare's
Troilus and Cressida it is the ultimate failure of his love affair that defines the character.
For medieval writers, the two most influential ancient sources on the Trojan War were the purported eye-witness accounts of Dares the Phrygian and Dictys the Cretan which have both survived in Latin versions. In Western Europe the Trojan side of the war was favoured and therefore Dares was preferred over Dictys. Although Dictys' account positions Troilus' death later in the war than was traditional, it conforms to antiquity's view of him as a minor warrior if one at all. Dares'
De excidio Trojae historia (
History of the Fall of Troy) introduces the character as a hero who takes part in events beyond the story of his death.
Twelfth and thirteenth century authors such as
Joseph of ExeterJoseph of Exeter was a twelfth century Latin poet from Exeter, England. Around 1180, he left to study at Gueldres, where he began his lifelong friendship with Guibert, who later became Abbot of Florennes...
and
Albert of StadeAlbert of Stade was a 13th century chronicler, born before the end of the 12th century.Albert became the abbot of the Benedictine monastery of Stade, near Hamburg, in 1232. When in 1236 he failed to change the rule in his abbey from the Benedictine to that of the Cistercians he resigned his...
continued to tell the legend of the Trojan War in Latin in a form that follows Dares' tale with Troilus remaining one of the most important warriors on the Trojan side. However, it was two of their contemporaries,
Benoît de Sainte-MaureBenoît de Sainte-Maure was a 12th century French poet, from either Sainte-Maure near Poitiers, or Sainte-More near Tours, France. His 40,000 line poem Le Roman de Troie , written between 1155 and 1160, was a medieval retelling on the epic theme of the Trojan War which inspired a body of literature...
in his French verse romance and
Guido delle ColonneGuido delle Colonne was an early 13th century Sicilian writer, living at Messina, who wrote in Latin...
in his Latin prose history, both also admirers of Dares, who were to define the tale of Troy for the remainder of the medieval period. The details of their narrative of the war were copied, for example, in the
Troy Books of Laud and Lydgate and also Raoul Lefevre's
Recuyell of the Historyes of TroyeRecuyell of the Historyes of Troye or Recueil des Histoires de Troye, is a French courtly romance written by Raoul le Fevre, chaplain to Philip III, Duke of Burgundy. Translated by William Caxton, and printed by him with Colard Mansion around 1475 at Bruges...
. Lefevre, through Caxton's 1474 printed translation, was in turn to become the best known retelling of the Troy story in Renaissance England and influenced Shakespeare among others. The story of Troilus as a lover, invented by Benoît and retold by Guido, generated a second line of influence. It was taken up as a tale that could be told in its own right by
BoccaccioGiovanni Boccaccio was an Italian author and poet, a friend, student, and correspondent of Petrarch, an important Renaissance humanist and the author of a number of notable works including the Decameron, On Famous Women, and his poetry in the Italian vernacular...
and then by Chaucer who established a tradition of retelling and elaborating the story in English-language literature which was to be followed by Henryson and Shakespeare.
The second Hector, wall of Troy
As indicated above, it was through the writings of Dares the Phrygian that the portrayal of Troilus as an important warrior was transmitted to medieval times. However some authors have argued that the tradition of Troilus as a warrior may be older. The passage from the Iliad described above is read by Boitani as implying that Priam put Troilus on a par with the very best of his warrior sons. The description of him in that passage as
hippiocharmên is rendered by some authorities as meaning a warrior charioteer rather than merely someone who delights in horses. The many missing and partial literary sources might include such a hero. Yet only the one ancient vase shows Troilus as a warrior falling in a conventional battle.
Dares
In Dares, Troilus is the youngest of Priam's royal sons, bellicose when peace or truces are suggested and the equal of Hector in bravery, "large and most beautiful... brave and strong for his age, and eager for glory." He slaughters many Greeks, wounds Achilles and
MenelausMenelaus may refer to;*Menelaus, one of the two most known Atrides, a king of Sparta and son of Atreus and Aerope*Menelaus on the Moon, named after Menelaus of Alexandria.*Menelaus , brother of Ptolemy I Soter...
, routs the
MyrmidonsThe Myrmidones or Myrmidons of Greek mythology were initially the inhabitants of the island of Aegina, which is located in the Saronic Gulf in Greece about 17 km from Athens. When a plague killed all of the human inhabitants of the island, King Aeacus prayed to his father Zeus for a remedy...
more than once before his horse falls and traps him and Achilles takes the opportunity to put an end to his life.
MemnonIn Greek mythology, Memnon was an Ethiopian king and son of Tithonus and Eos. As a warrior he was considered to be almost Achilles' equal in skill. At the Trojan War, he brought an army to Troy's defense and was killed by Achilles in retribution for killing Antilochus...
rescues the body, something which was not to happen in many later versions of the tale. Troilus' death comes near the end of the war not at its beginning. He now outlives
HectorIn Greek mythology, Hectōr , or Hektōr, is a Trojan prince and the greatest fighter for Troy in the Trojan War. As the son of Priam and Hecuba, a descendant of Dardanus, who lived under Mount Ida, and of Tros, the founder of Troy, he is a prince of the royal house. He acts as leader of the Trojans...
and succeeds him as the Trojans' great leader in battle. Now it is in reaction to Troilus's death that Hecuba plots Achilles' murder.
As the tradition of Troilus the warrior advances through time, the weaponry and the form of combat change. Already in Dares he is a mounted warrior, not a charioteer or foot warrior, something anachronistic to epic narrative. In later versions he will be a
knightA knight was a "gentleman soldier" or member of the warrior class of the Middle Ages in Europe. In other Indo-European languages, cognates of cavalier or rider are more prevalent suggesting a connection to the knight's mode of transport...
with armour appropriate to the time of writing who fights against other knights and dukes. His expected conduct, including his romance, will conform to courtly or other values contemporary to the writing.
Description in medieval texts
The medieval texts follow Dares' structuring of the narrative in describing Troilus after his parents and four royal brothers Hector,
ParisParis , the son of Priam, king of Troy, appears in a number of Greek legends. Probably the best-known was his elopement with Helen, queen of Sparta, this being one of the immediate causes of the Trojan War...
, Deiphobus and
HelenusHelenus was a Trojan soldier and prophet in the Trojan War.In Greek mythology, Helenus was the son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy, and the twin brother of the prophetess Cassandra. He was also called Scamandrios. According to legend, Cassandra, having been given the power of prophecy by...
.
Joseph of Exeter, in his
Daretis Phrygii Ilias De bello TroianoDaretis Phrygii Ilias De bello Troiano is an epic poem in Latin, written around 1183 by the English poet Joseph of Exeter. It tells the story of the ten year Trojan War as it was known in medieval western Europe...
(The Iliad of Dares the Phrygian on the Trojan War), describes the character as follows:
In mind a giant, though a boy in years, he yields
to none in daring deeds with strength in all his parts
his greater glory shines throughout his countenance.
) is too long to quote in full, but influenced the descriptions which follow. Benoît goes into details of character and facial appearance avoided by other writers. He tells that Troilus was "the fairest of the youths of Troy" with: