History Literature / TheTrojanCycle

* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: The major characters are often royalty: Menelaus, the king of Sparta; Agamemnon, the son of King Atreus; Odysseus, the king of Ithaca; Hector, the prince of Troy; Penthesilea, the queen of the Amazons; Memnon, the king of the Ethiopians; etc.

%% * AManIsNotAVirgin: Odysseus

* DeathIsDramatic: Chasing the ''entire Trojan army'' into the city, taken down by Paris only with the help of Apollo? Achilles is just that {{Badass}}.

* BadAss: So many, Achilles in particular.

* {{Euripides}}'s

** ''Theatre/{{Agamemnon}}'', a tragedy concerned with the homecoming of the epynomous character and his murder there. The first of Aeschylus's trilogy, the ''Theatre/{{Oresteia}}''.

* AppleOfDiscord: [[MacGuffin Which started it all]].

* HowDoYouLikeThemApples: The golden apple Strife uses to cause, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin strife]], inscribed with the word "καλλίστῃ" ("for the fairest").

* ExtremelyGenreSavvy: Diomedes and Nestor, right after Lesser Ajax mess up Athena's Alter. They both had a discussion and agreed to leave Troy ''immediately''. Just in time to avoid Zeus's storm and make it safely back. This make sense, since Nestor, as one of the old heroes, has literally SeenitAll and knows that sticking around with the guy who piss off a god is a ''bad idea''. Diomedes as Athena's personal favorite, got off scot-free and was a old pal of Nestor.

* HomeSweetHome: At least some of them reach it.

* TheMedic: Machaon, who successfully heals Philoctetes's ''nine year old'' wound.

* DeadPersonConversation: When Neoptolemus recieves Achilles's armour, he sees the ghost of his father.

* HollywoodHealing: Philoctetes has been wounded for ''nine years''. He arrives at Troy and suddenly, he's healed.

* BoltOfDivineRetribution: Athena, being rather displeased with Ajax, asks Zeus to send a storm to destroy him. Zeus obliges.

* LoveMakesYouCrazy / LoveMakesYouDumb: Helen and Paris.

* WouldHitAGirl: The Achaeans kill Amazons the same as everyone else.

* [[BolivianArmyCliffhanger Achaean Army Cliffhanger]]: According to Proclus's summary, the epic ends with the Trojan guard down and the Achaeans poised to ravage the city.
* ArrangedMarriage: Helen's marriage to Deiphobus was probably this.

* [[TheChosenOne The Chosen Ones]]: It's prophesied that Troy won't fall to Greece without the aid of Neoptolemus and Philoctetes.

* [[TakeUpMySword Take Up My Armour]]: Neoptolemus is given Achilles's armour and brought to aid the Achaeans against Troy.

* [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse What Happened to Philoctetes?]]: Remember him, from the ''Cypris''? Apparently he's just been chilling on Lemnos for nine years, with a wound that [[{{Squick}} refuses to heal]]...

* [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere Screw This I'm Outta Here]]: Aeneas doesn't stay long after the death of Laocoon, and flees the city.

* [[StormingTheCastle Storming The City]]: And the Achaeans finally penetrate inside.

* [[BoltOfDivineRetribution Storm Of Divine Retribution]]: Athena, being rather displeased with Ajax, asks Zeus to send a storm to destroy him. Zeus obliges.

* [[YouCantGoHomeAgain You Can't Go Home Again]]: For some of the Achaeans, notably Ajax. Many others experience difficult homecomings.

* AManIsNotAVirgin: Odysseus.

* [[YouCantFightFate You Can't Fight Fate]]: Odysseus was fated to die a mild death from the sea... Telegonus sails in and kills him with a sting ray spear. [[FridgeLogic It's not exactly mild, though]]...

* Myth/GreekMythology

* GreekMythology

Ever heard of an ancient conflict called {{the Trojan War}}? Quite a story, really. And then there's Creator/{{Homer}}'s epics ''Literature/TheIliad'' and ''Literature/TheOdyssey'', telling the tale in [[{{Doorstopper}} fourty-eight books]] and tens of thousands of lines of [[{{Poetry}} dactylic hexameter]]...all of which focus on less than one year of the decade-long conflict, and the [[NoSenseOfDirection years Odysseus spent lost at sea]] afterwards.

So the TrojanWar has come to an end. The next epic in the cycle, the ''Returns'' (''Νόστοι''), deals with [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the Achaean's respective returns home]]. Exactly when the epic was completed is very uncertain; it is often dated sometime in the seventh or sixth century BC.

** ''Helen'', a tragedy set during the time Menelaus spends in Egypt. It follows an alternate tradition, where the gods for some reason sent the real Helen to Egypt, and TheTrojanWar was fought over a phantom (''eidolon'' in Greek).

[[SomethingCompletelyDifferent At this point]], we've pretty much wrapped up everything regarding the actual TrojanWar. The ''Telegony'' (''Τηλεγόνεια'') follows ''Literature/TheOdyssey'' and deals with the legends about the [[EndingFatigue end of Odysseus's life]]. It was likely composed in the sixth century BC.

* TooPowerfulToLive: Achilles again, in a non-villainous example.

* FightingForSurvival: The Trojans.
* FinalBattle: The culmination of ten years of war: the Achaeans are finally within the city and the Trojans are FightingForSurvival. This is the end.

Ever heard of an ancient conflict called {{the Trojan War}}? Quite a story, really. And then there's Creator/{{Homer}}'s epic ''Literature/TheIliad'' and ''Literature/TheOdyssey'', telling the tale in [[{{Doorstopper}} fourty-eight books]] and tens of thousands of lines of [[{{Poetry}} dactylic hexameter]]...all of which focus on less than one year of the decade-long conflict, and the [[NoSenseOfDirection years Odysseus spent lost]] afterwards.

* ''Sack of Ilion''[[hottip:*:( Also known as the ''Sack of Troy'', the ''Iliupersis'', or the ''Iliou persis'')]]
* ''Returns''[[hottip:*:(Also known as the ''Nostoi'' or the ''Nosti'')]]

-->--The ''Cypria''[[hottip:*:There was a time when the countless races of men roaming always over the land / were weighing down the deep-breasted earth’s expanse.]]

The [[IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming odd title]] has absolutely nothing to do with Troy[[hottip:*:(The reason the ''Iliad'' is titled as such is because "Ilion" was one of the names for Troy.)]], and instead suggests that the epic came from Cyprus. Like the following epics, its author is unknown. It is believed to have been written sometime in the sixth century BC.

-->--The ''Aethiopis''[[hottip:*:“Who and from where (are) you, woman? The child of whom / do you claim to be?”]]

-->--The ''Little Iliad''[[hottip:*:Of Troy I sing, and the Dardania land of fine colts / concerning which the Danaans suffered much, servants of Ares.]]

-->--The ''Sack of Ilion''[[hottip:*:He (Podalirius) first recognized both the raging Ajax’s / flashing eyes and burning spirit.]]

-->--The ''Returns''[[hottip:*:For gifts delude the minds and actions of men.]]

-->--The ''Telegony''[[hottip:*:And Odysseus, being an old man, / ate heartily of abundant meat and sweet wine.]]

When Ajax tears Cassandra from the altar of Athena, he harms Athena's image. For this, the other Achaeans intend to stone him, but he escapes their judgement by also taking refuge at her altar.

* TheArcher: Philoctetes -- he's got the bow of Heracles, for goodness' sake.

* TheArcher: Paris and Apollo.

* TheArcher: Because Philoctetes is back.

* ''Sack of Ilion''[[hottip:*:([[SpellMyNameWithAnS Also known as]] the ''Sack of Troy'', the ''Iliupersis'', or the ''Iliou persis'')]]
* ''Returns''[[hottip:*:([[SpellMyNameWithAnS Also known as]] the ''Nostoi'' or the ''Nosti'')]]

* HotAmazon: Penthesilea.

* [[CustomUniform Custom Armour]]: Like the armour Achilles gets in the ''Iliad'', Memnon's armour is also crafted by Hephestus.

* DyingMomentOfAwesome: Achilles. See DeathIsDramatic, above.
* EitherOrProphecy: Achilles's is fulfilled here. See DoomedByCanon, above.

* HilariousInHindsight: Zeus basically sets off the whole Trojan War in order to trim down the world's population. He's clearly gotten lazy over the last three thousand-odd years, seeing as the human population has grown much, much, much, ''much'' larger than it was either before or after the conflict.

* LauncherOfAThousandShips: Helen, the TropeNamer.

* {{Prequel}}: It is believed that the epic was composed after the ''[[Literature/TheIliad Iliad]]''.
* [[{{Sequelitis}} Prequelitis]]: Aristotle criticised the work as lacking focus, as it was more of a series of events than a unified story. ''Literature/TheIliad'' and ''Literature/TheOdyssey'' are considered superior works.

Ever heard of an ancient conflict called the TrojanWar? Quite a story, really. And then there's Homer's epic ''Literature/TheIliad'' and ''Literature/TheOdyssey'', telling the tale in [[{{Doorstopper}} fourty-eight books]] and tens of thousands of lines of [[{{Poetry}} dactylic hexameter]]...all of which focus on less than one year of the decade-long conflict, and the [[NoSenseOfDirection years Odysseus spent lost]] afterwards.

Something's missing -- namely, the first nine years of the war, the actual ''end'' of the war, and associated myths. Surely they weren't just floating about in the OralTradition until [[{{Aeschylus}} some]] [[{{Euripides}} ancient]] [[{{Sophocles}} tragedians]] got ahold of them?

As it happens, they weren't. It turns out that the ''Literature/TheIliad'' and the ''Literature/TheOdyssey'' were not the only epics which pulled together the tales of the Trojan War. In fact, there were '''eight''':

The [[IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming odd title]] has absolutely nothing to do with Troy[[hottip:*:(The reason the ''[[Literature/TheIliad Iliad]]'' is titled as such is because "Ilion" was one of the names for Troy.)]], and instead suggests that the epic came from Cyprus. Like the following epics, its author is unknown. It is believed to have been written sometime in the sixth century BC.

At first this second attempt to reach Troy doesn't go well: a warrior, Philoctetes, is bitten by a water snake and left behind on Lemnos because his comrades can't stand the stench of his wounds. So much for NoOneGetsLeftBehind. But eventually the Achaeans '''do''' make it to Troy, and the ''Cypria'' follows the events of the war up until the last year, which is then related in the ''[[Literature/TheIliad Iliad]]'' and following epics.

* {{Aeschylus}}'s

* {{Euripides}}'s

* {{Sophocles}}'s

The ''Aethiopis'' (''Αἰθιοπίς'') follows after the events of the ''[[Literature/TheIliad Iliad]]'', bringing in [[TheCavalry numerous new Trojan allies]] to even things out after Hector's death. It seems to have been written sometime in the seventh century BC, but uncertainty remains.

* [[CustomUniform Custom Armour]]: Like the armour Achilles gets in the ''[[Literature/TheIliad Iliad]]'', Memnon's armour is also crafted by Hephestus.
* CurbStompBattle: Carefully averted with the introduction of new Trojan allies such as Penthesilea and Memnon. Otherwise, considering the Trojans lost thier greatest defender in the ''[[Literature/TheIliad Iliad]]'', the remainder of the war would have been this.

* MarkedToDie: It's mentioned twice in the ''[[Literature/TheIliad Iliad]]'' that Achilles would be killed by Apollo, and the summary of the ''Aethiopis'' mentions that Thetis prophesied something regarding his battle with Memnon to her son.

* {{Aeschylus}}'s

* Part of {{Ovid}}'s ''Literature/{{Metamorphoses}}'', Book XII of which included the death of Achilles.

* {{Aeschylus}}'s

* {{Sophocles}}'s
** ''Philoctetes'', yet another version of the story also done by Aeschylus and Euripides.

* Part of {{Ovid}}'s ''Literature/{{Metamorphoses}}''. Book XIII includes the debate over Achilles's arms and Ajax's subsequent death.

* {{Euripides}}'s

* {{Sophocles}}'s

* Part of {{Ovid}}'s ''Literature/{{Metamorphoses}}'': The fall of Troy and the aftermath is detailed in part of Book XIII.

* TheUnderworld: Several fragments and references seem to imply that there was some passage dealing with Hades, perhaps showing Agamemnon and the others killed arriving in Hades (as the suitors are shown in ''Literature/TheOdyssey'').

* {{Aeschylus}}'s
** ''Agamemnon'', a tragedy concerned with the homecoming of the epynomous character and his murder there. The first of Aeschylus's trilogy, the ''Oresteia''.
** ''The Libation Bearers'', dealing with the reunion of Orestes and his sister Electra, and their avenging of their father. Also the second tragedy of the ''Oresteia''.
* {{Euripides}}'s

* {{Sophocles}}'s
** ''Electra'', yet another version of the story.

The epic begins where ''Literature/TheOdyssey'' left off, and starts with the suitors being buried by their families. After all those years of making his way back home, you would think that Odysseus would want to settle down in Ithaca again, set his kingdom in order, that sort of thing. He faked insanity to try to get out of leaving, after all!

Nope. He makes a few sacrifices and inspects his herds, then he takes off to the land of the Thesprotians. Admittedly, he's trying to fulfill a prophecy [[{{Seers}} Tiresias]] made in ''Literature/TheOdyssey'' in order to appease Poseidon.

* [[YouCantFightFate You Can't Fight Fate]]: Odysseus was fated to die a mild death from the sea...Telegonus sails in and kills him with a sting ray spear. [[FridgeLogic It's not exactly mild, though]]...

* {{Sophocles}}'s

* TheDeadHaveNames: Considering what we know of ''Literature/TheIliad'' and ''Literature/TheOdyssey'', this was likely true throughout the Trojan Cycle.

* NarrativePoem: Just like ''Literature/TheIliad'' and ''Literature/TheOdyssey'', they're all written in dactylic hexameter. Kinda comes with the territory, being epics.