Éthiopide

Éthiopide (in Greek old Αἰθιοπίς / Aithiopís , in Latin Æthiopis ) is a lost epopee ancient Greece, allotted to Arctinos de Milet. It belonged to the Trojan Cycle, a whole of works which recalled the history of the Trojan War. Éthiopide followed chronologically Iliade of Homère and preceded Small Iliade .

Dating

Éthiopide was probably composed at seventh century BC, but this date remains dubious. The Old ones made of Arctinos an author of; however the first artistic representations of one of the main characters of work, the the Amazon Penthésilée (cf below), go back only to 600 av. J. - C., thus suggesting a largely posterior date.

Composition

The poem is divided into five books written in hexameters dactylic, and tells the events of the Trojan War inserted between the death of Hector and that of Achille.

Only five lines of the original poem arrived to us. The only complete summary of the work which one lays out comes from the Chrestomathie allotted to Proclos, philosopher of the {{Ve}} century a. J. - C. the other sources (less than one ten) remain very fragmentary.

Contents of the poem

The poem begins immediately after death from Hector, with the arrival of Penthésilée and its Amazones, which comes to shoulder Troyens. It achieves several warlike exploits before being killed by Achille. The Greek Thersite makes fun of Achilles, insinuating that he had been the lover of Penthésilée; Achilles kills it in his turn, then it is ritually purified murder.

Others Trojan allies arrive then, Memnon, wire of Éos (Dawn) and of Tithon, with the head of a quota of Ethiopia NS and carrying an armor worked by the god Héphaïstos. During a combat, Memnon keep silent Antiloque, wire of Nestor and large friend of Achilles. This one is avenged by killing Memnon, and Zeus grants immortality to Memnon on the request for Éos. But in his anger, Achille continues Troyens until under the walls of Troy, and it is killed in front of the Scées doors by an arrow stripped by Pâris assisted Apollon. The body of Achilles is recovered by Ulysses and Ajax large the.

The Greeks celebrate the funeral of Antiloque. The Néréide Thétis, mother of Achilles, is able to cry over the body of his/her son accompanied by the Muses and of his sisters. Funerary plays are organized in the honor of the late one, in which its weapons are offered in reward to largest of the heroes, which generates an argument between Ulysses and Ajax the large one. Thus Éthiopide finishes: the question is not distinct if the judgment of the weapons of Achilles and the suicide of Ajax were told only in the following episode of the Cycle, Small Iliade , or if they were also told at the end of work.

See too

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Éthiopide

Dating

Composition

Contents of the poem

See too

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