Little Iliad

The Little Iliad is one of the fragmentary remains of the Epic Cycle.

The Little Iliad relates several events that were alluded to in The Iliad and The Odyssey but not given in detail:

1. The construction of the Wooden Horse is attributed to Epeius;
2. After the death of Akhilleus (Achilles), Odysseus and Aias (Ajax) both wanted his god-forged armor; the exact way in which the dispute between Odysseus and Aias was resolved is unclear but Odysseus took possession of Akhilleus’ armor and eventually gave it to the son of Akhilleus, Neoptolemus; before his death, Aias apparently acted so badly that Agamemnon refused to cremate his body but instead buried him in a coffin;
3. Neoptolemus took Andromakhe (Andromache), the wife of Hektor (Hector), as a slave and threw Hektor’s son, Astyanax, from the walls of Troy;
4. Another curious event mentioned in the Little Iliad is the capture and enslavement of Aineias (Aeneas); the preferred story about Aineias is that he escaped the fall of Troy and founded Rome but according to the Little Iliad, Aineias was captured by Neoptolemus and taken as a “prize surpassing all the Danaans”;
5. the death of Alexandros (Paris) is attributed to Philoktetes (Philoctetes) after he recovered from the snake bite he received on the island of Lemnos.

The information found in the Little Iliad may be described as “tidbits” but when taken as part of the continuing story of the fall of Troy the fragments are tantalizing and revealing: for example, Neoptolemus is shown to be as bloodthirsty as his father, Akhilleus.

For the complete translations of the Epic Cycle I recommend the Loeb Classical Library volume 57, ISBN 0674990633; you can sometimes find this book at the library or you can order it from the Book Shop on this site which is linked to Amazon.com.