The odd title has absolutely nothing to do with Troynote , 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 Cypria (Κύπρια) opens with Zeus discussing the Trojan War, which has not yet occurred. This seems to refer to the myth that Zeus planned the Theban and Trojan Wars in order to relieve the earth of an unsustainable population.
So he encourages events — Strife's interruption at Peleus and Thetis's wedding, the Judgement of Paris — to lead to the Trojan War. The Cypria then follows the abduction of Helen and the Achaeans' haphazard attempt to come together and attack Troy.
They get lost, attack the wrong place, and are scattered by a storm. When they finally reconvene, Agamemnon annoys Artemis and is forced to sacrifice his daughter to her (except the goddess relents and whisks her away instead).
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 No One Gets Left Behind. 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 Iliad and following epics.
The Aethiopis (Αἰθιοπίς) follows after the events of the Iliad, bringing in 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.
Penthesilea, an Amazon and a daughter of Ares, is the first to arrive to aid Troy. She kills countless Achaeans until Achilles bests her. Achilles then strikes and kills a Achaean soldier, Thersites, for jeering at him about an alleged love for the Amazon.
The Trojans gain another ally with the arrival of Memnon and the Ethiopians. Thetis prophesies to Achilles about a battle with Memnon, who is also of Divine Parentage (the son of Eos, the Dawn) and bears armour crafted by Hephestus.
Achilles successfully kills Memnon and puts the Trojans to flight, chasing them into the city where he is finally killed by Paris and Apollo.
The Achaeans and Trojans then proceed to fight over his body, and Ajax manages to get it back to the Achaean ships, where Thetis arrives with the Muses and the Nereids to lament his death. The funeral games are played, and the epic ends with a quarrel between Ajax and Odysseus over the arms of Achilles.
The Little Iliad (Ἰλιὰς μικρά) follows, dealing with the question of how the Achaeans will take Troy now that Achilles is dead. Similarly to the Aethiopis, it seems to have been written sometime in the seventh century BC.
With the funeral games of Achilles ended, his armour is given to Odysseus according to Athena's wish. Ajax, who perhaps justly feels he deserved to receive the armour, is enraged by this. Athena drives him insane so that he attacks the Achaeans' livestock rather than the Achaean leaders themselves, and he eventually commits suicide, leaving the Achaean army short two powerful warriors instead of one.
Odysseus then captures the Trojan seer Helenus, who prophesies what they must do in order to capture Troy. The Achaeans do as he says, sending Diomedes to bring Philoctetes back, whom they abandoned nine or so years ago during the expedition to Troy. Somehow Philoctetes is convinced to rejoin them, where his wound is finally healed. The warrior is quick to kill Paris once he is brought to Troy, and Deiphobus, another prince of Troy, marries Helen.
Odysseus, meanwhile, goes to Scyros where Achilles had fathered Neoptolemus after the Achaean fleet was scattered on its first journey. He brings the boy to Troy and gives him his father's armour, and Neoptolemus sees the ghost of Achilles. Neoptolemus slays another newly arrived Trojan ally, Eurypylus, the son of Telephos.
Because the Achaeans still can't get into the city, Athena inspires Epeios to construct the Trojan Horse. A disguised Odysseus sneaks into Troy to gather information and encounters Helen, who does not alert the Trojans but rather agrees with Odysseus for the Achaeans to take Troy.
Odysseus kills more Trojans on his way out, and then he and Diomedes carry out Helenus's prophecy by stealing the Palladion, a statue of Athena upon which Troy's safety depended.
The major Achaean warriors are hidden in the Trojan Horse and, with all the pieces in place, the Achaeans destroy their campsites and pretend to withdraw for good.
The Trojans believe they are finally freed of the years of war, and they take the Trojan Horse into the city —dismantling part of their wall to do so!— and begin to celebrate.
Proclus's summary ends here, but other works say that the Little Iliad ended with an account of the sack, with slight differences from the account given in the Sack of Ilion.
Next comes the Sack of Ilion (Ἰλίου πέρσις), as Troy finally falls to the Achaeans. This epic also seems to have been composed in the seventh century BC, supposedly by the same writer as the Aethiopis.
The Trojans are puzzled by the giant horse left parked outside the city, and the epic starts with their debate as to what they should do with it. Some want to push it off a cliff, others to burn it, while a third group believe it is an object sacred to Athena.
This third group convinces the others to bring the horse into the city, and the Trojans then celebrate the end of ten years of siege.
During this, two snakes appear and kill Laocoon (a priest of Poseidon) and his two sons. This portent causes Aeneas to leave Troy with his companions.
The Trojans celebrate into the night, and when the city is finally quiet, the Achaean Sinon signals the others with firebrands. The fleet sails back from Tenedos, the warriors inside the Trojan Horse are let loose, and the Achaeans fall upon the city.
Countless Trojans are killed and the Achaeans take hold of the city. The king of Troy, Priam, takes refuge at the altar of Zeus but is slain by Neoptolemus, while Menelaus kills Deiphobus and takes Helen back to the ships.
When Ajaxnote 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.
In the aftermath, Odysseus kills Astyanax, Neoptolemus receives Andromache as his war prize, and the remainder of the spoils are divided up. Troy is burned and Polyxena, a daughter of Hecuba, is sacrificed at the tomb of Achilles.
So The Trojan War has come to an end. The next epic in the cycle, the Returns (Νόστοι), deals with the Achaeans' respective returns home. Exactly when the epic was completed is very uncertain; it is often dated sometime in the seventh or sixth century BC.
As the Achaeans prepare to set sail, Athena causes Agamemnon and Menelaus to argue about the coming voyage. Agamemnon chooses to wait a few days in order to appease the goddess's anger (who did not approve of the Achaeans' impious behavior during the sack of Troy), while Diomedes and Nestor set out and safely reach their homelands.
Menelaus, the next to set sail, is not as lucky: he ends up in Egypt (most definitely not Sparta by any stretch of the imagination) with only five ships, as the remainder were destroyed during the voyage.
Other Achaeans — Calchas, Leonteus, and Polypoites — try a land route and avoid the dangers at sea. Calchas dies at Colophon and is buried there.
Agamemnon, feeling he has postponed his journey enough, is about to set out when he encounters Achilles, who foretells what will occur and tries to stop them. His group continues regardless and meets with a storm at sea, losing many ships.
The storm was sent by Zeus at the request of Athena, who finally punishes Ajax for his actions in the Sack of Ilion. His ship is among those lost in the storm, and he is killed on the Kapherian rocks.
Neoptolemus is advised by his divine grandmother, Thetis, to make his way home by land. His journey is uneventful, and he briefly encounters the unlucky Odysseus in Maronea. The son of Achilles finally comes to Molossia, a land he and his descendants come to rule.
Both Menelaus and Agamemnon do finally reach their homes, but Agamemnon is murdered by his wife, Clytaemestra, and her lover Aegisthus. His son, Orestes, eventually returns to his home and avenges his father's murder by killing his mother and her lover.
Meanwhile, Odysseus's return home is chronicled in the following epic, The Odyssey.
At this point, we've pretty much wrapped up everything regarding The Trojan War. The Telegony (Τηλεγόνεια) follows The Odyssey and deals with the legends about the end of Odysseus's life. It was likely composed in the sixth century BC.
The epic begins where The Odyssey 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 Tiresias made in The Odyssey in order to appease Poseidon.
The prophecy, however, did not require that he marry Callidice, the Thesprotian queen.
So Odysseus stays in Thesprotia, has a son, and fights a war there. He leads the Thesprotian forces against the Bryges, but his forces are turned back by Ares until Athena combats the war god. The two are calmed by Apollo.
Who knows what Penelope is up to during all this? Because Odysseus is, after all, in Thesprotia for so long that when Callidice dies and he returns to Ithaca, his son, Polypoites, is old enough to rule the kingdom.
Meanwhile, yet another child of Odysseus exists. Telegonus is the child of the warrior and Circe, and is raised by his mother until he goes out in search of his father. The boy comes to Ithaca but is unaware of where he is, and begins attacking the island.
Odysseus comes out to defend Ithaca and the two fight, neither aware of their relation. Eventually Telegonus slays his father, and only afterwards does he realise his mistake. The boy then brings Odysseus's body, Penelope, and Telemachus to Circe.
Her solution is to make Penelope and Telemachus immortal. The enchantress then marries Telemachus while Telegonus marries Penelope. And everyone lives happily ever after. Except Odysseus.
