Verse > Hesiod, Homeric Hymns, Epic Cycle, Homerica

  Hesiod, Homeric Hymns, Epic Cycle, Homerica.  1922.
Fragments of the Epic Cycle
The Cypria
  THIS 1 is continued by the epic called Cypria which is current is eleven books. Its contents are as follows.
  Zeus plans with Themis to bring about the Trojan war. Strife arrives while the gods are feasting at the marriage of Peleus and starts a dispute between Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite as to which of them is fairest. The three are led by Hermes at the command of Zeus to Alexandrus 2 on Mount Ida for his decision, and Alexandrus, lured by his promised marriage with Helen, decides in favour of Aphrodite.  2
  All the leaders then meet together at Aulis and sacrifice. The incident of the serpent and the sparrows 3 takes place before them, and Calchas foretells what is going to befall. After this, they put out to sea, and reach Teuthrania and sack it, taking it for Ilium. Telephus comes out to the rescue and kills Thersander and son of Polyneices, and is himself wounded by Achilles. As they put out from Mysia a storm comes on them and scatters them, and Achilles first puts in at Scyros and married Deïdameia, the daughter of Lycomedes, and then heals Telephus, who had been led by an oracle to go to Argos, so that he might be their guide on the voyage to Ilium.  7
  Stasinus composed the Cypria which the more part say was Homer’s work and by him given to Stasinus as a dowry with money besides.
  The author of the Cypria says that Thetis, to please Hera, avoided union with Zeus, at which he was enraged and swore that she should be the wife of a mortal.
  The author of the Cypria, whether Hegesias or Stasinus, mentions flowers used for garlands. The poet, whoever he was, writes as follows in his first book: “She clothed herself with garments which the Graces and Hours had made for her and dyed in flowers of spring—such flowers as the Seasons wear—in crocus and hyacinth and flourishing violet and the rose’s lovely bloom, so sweet and delicious, and heavenly buds, the flowers of the narcissus and lily. In such perfumed garments is Aphrodite clothed at all seasons.    *    *    *    Then laughter-loving Aphrodite and her handmaidens wove sweet-smelling crowns of flowers of the earth and put them upon their heads—the bright-coiffed goddesses, the Nymphs and Graces, and golden Aphrodite too, while they sang sweetly on the mount of many-fountained Ida.”
  The writer 4 of the Cyprian histories says that (Helen’s third child was) Pleisthenes and that she took him with her to Cyprus, and that the child she bore Alexandrus was Aganus.
  For it is said in the Cypria that Alexandrus came with Helen to Ilium from Sparta in three days, enjoying a favourable wind and calm sea.
  “In spacious Aphidna Theseus slew him in battle long ago for rich-haired Helen’s sake.”  21
  “Menelaus, know that the gods made wine the best thing for mortal man to scatter cares.”
  Either he follows Homer who spoke of the three daughters of Agamemnon, or—like the writer of the Cypria—he makes them four, (distinguishing) Iphigeneia and Iphianassa.
  “I never thought to enrage so terribly the stout heart of Achilles, for very well I loved him.”
  The poet of the Cypria says that the wife of Protesilaus—who, when the Hellenes reached the Trojan shore, first dared to land—was called Polydora, and was the daughter of Meleager, the son of Oeneus.
  Some relate that Chryseïs was taken from Hypoplacian 5 Thebes, and that she had not taken refuge there nor gone there to sacrifice to Artemis, as the author of the Cypria states, but was simply a fellow townswoman of Andromache.
  I know, because I have read it in the epic Cypria, that Palamedes was drowned when he had gone out fishing, and that it was Diomedes and Odysseus who caused his death.
  Again, Stasinus says:
  “He is a simple man who kills the father and lets the children live.”  34
Note 1. The preceding part of the Epic Cycle (?). [back]
Note 2. sc. Paris. [back]
Note 3. While the Greeks were sacrificing at Aulis, a serpent appeared and devoured eight young birds from their nest and lastly the mother of the brood. This was interpreted by Calchas to mean that the war would swallow up nine full years. Cp. Iliad ii, 299 ff. [back]
Note 4. i.e. Stasinus (or Hegesias: cp. fr. 6): the phrase “Cyprian histories” is equivalent to “The Cypria.” [back]
Note 5. sc. the Asiatic Thebes at the foot of Mt. Placius. [back]
