No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
TRIPHIODORUS’ SACK OF TROY AND THE POETICS OF CASSANDRA
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2022
Abstract
This article explores Triphiodorus’ use of Cassandra in his brief epic Sack of Troy. An examination of the placing of the prophetess within the poem's plot and a comparison with previous literary attestations demonstrate that Triphiodorus makes extended use of the previously supplementary character. The reader is particularly invited to read Cassandra against the Cassandras of Euripides’ Trojan Women and Quintus Smyrnaeus’ Posthomerica, thus identifying ties with both epic and tragedy. Cassandra's speech alludes to the proem of the epic. At the same time, Cassandra's prophecy constitutes the key for understanding the connection between imagery deployed prior and subsequent to her presence, thus ensuring the thematic congruity of the poem. Triphiodorus’ Cassandra constitutes a doublet of the poet, depicted as imitating his poetic voice and effectively summarizing the entire epic in her speech; entwined in Triphiodorus’ poetic agenda, she also becomes its intradiegetic mouthpiece.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association
Footnotes
I am indebted to Dr Calum Maciver for invaluable support, and to CQ's anonymous reviewer for helpful comments.
References
1 I use the text of Gerlaud, B., La prise d'Ilion (Paris, 1982)Google Scholar. For Apollonius’ text, I use Vian, F., Apollonios de Rhodes, Argonautiques, tome I: chants I–II (Paris, 1974)Google Scholar. All translations are my own.
2 The publication in 1972 of a papyrus containing eleven lines of the Sack of Troy (P.Oxy. 2946–7), dated to the late third or early fourth century, established a terminus ante quem: Tomasso, V., ‘The fast and the furious: Triphiodorus’ reception of Homer in the Capture of Troy’, in Baumbach, M. and Bär, S. (edd.), Brill's Companion to the Greek and Latin Epyllion and its Reception (Leiden, 2012), 371–409, at 372–3Google Scholar; Miguélez-Cavero, L., Triphiodorus, ‘The Sack of Troy’, A General Study and a Commentary (Berlin, 2013), 4–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Regarding the terminus post quem, there is a growing scholarly consensus that Triphiodorus was indebted to Quintus Smyrnaeus’ Posthomerica (though not without objections; see e.g. U. Gärtner, Quintus Smyrnaeus und die Aeneis: zur Nachwirkung Vergils in der griechischen Literatur der Kaiserzeit [Munich, 2005], 52; M. Ypsilanti, ‘Triphiodorus Homericus: people in the Ἰλίου Ἅλωσις and their forebears in the Iliad and Odyssey’, WS 120 [2007], 93–114, at 114). The tentative dating of the Posthomerica to the beginning of the third century places the Sack of Troy approximately in the second half of the third century: M. Baumbach and S. Bär, ‘An introduction to Quintus Smyrnaeus’ Posthomerica’, in id., Quintus Smyrnaeus: Transforming Homer in Second Sophistic Epic (Berlin, 2007), 1–26, at 2–8; C.A. Maciver, Quintus Smyrnaeus’ Posthomerica: Engaging Homer in Late Antiquity (Leiden, 2012), 3.
3 In recent years, a few studies of Triphiodorus’ epic have appeared. M. Paschalis, ‘Pandora and the Wooden Horse: a reading of Triphiodorus’ Ἅλωσις Ἰλίου’, in id., Roman and Greek Imperial Epic (Herakleion, 2005), 91–115 detects Hesiodic influences; Ypsilanti (n. 2) focusses on some of the characters’ Homeric counterparts; Tomasso (n. 2) highlights Homeric intertexts. Maciver, C.A., ‘Triphiodorus and the poetics of imperial Greek epic’, CPh 115 (2020), 164–85Google Scholar, a study to which this article is particularly indebted, approaches Triphiodorus’ poetic programme systematically for the first time. Miguélez-Cavero (n. 2) is a recent commentary with thorough introduction.
4 Odysseus’ speech numbers thirty-two lines, Sinon's speech (interrupted by Priam) thirty, Priam's speeches twenty-six, and Aphrodite and Athena have six lines of text each. Direct speeches cover 141 lines of the 691-line poem (20.4% of the text), rendering Triphiodorus’ concentration of direct speeches low compared to the Iliad (45%) and the Odyssey (67%). The calculations are from Griffin, J., ‘Homeric words and speakers’, JHS 106 (1986), 36–57, at 37Google Scholar.
5 She also features briefly in Eur. Andr. 297, Hec. (passim), IA 757 and El. (passim, especially 1030–40).
6 Quint. Smyrn. 12.540–51.
7 Quint. Smyrn. 12.525–85.
8 Maciver (n. 3), 166–9. In the proem, the narrator asks the Muse to tell him about the τέρμα πολυκμήτοιο μεταχρόνιον πολέμοιο | καὶ λόχον Ἀργείης ἱππήλατον ἔργον Ἀθήνης (1–2), namely the delayed end of the laborious war and the ambush of Argive Athena, a work fit for horsemanship. In the epilogue, the narrator proclaims that he will ride the wavering song like a horse as it reaches the end: ἐγὼ δ᾿ ἅπερ ἵππον ἐλάσσω | τέρματος ἀμφιέλισσαν ἐπιψαύουσαν ἀοιδήν (666–7).
9 Particularly Antilochus’ steering of his father's horses. Maciver (n. 3), 169–72 also traces references to Callim. Aet. fr. 1.25–8 Harder, in which Apollo advises Callimachus to avoid driving his chariot on the common tracks, but prefer the unworn paths; Maciver ultimately argues for a poetic declaration by Triphiodorus in which he reveals his material as Homeric, yet advertises the manipulation of his material as Callimachean, in other words a Callimachean steering of Homeric horses. Braswell, B.K., A Commentary on the Fourth Pythian Ode of Pindar (Berlin, 1988), 340–1Google Scholar suggests that the Pindaric formula of poetry as a path or carriage-road (Pyth. 4.246–7) might have inspired the Callimachean. Similar imagery appears in Choerilus of Samos too, the fifth-century b.c.e. epic poet who was still read in the third century c.e. (Suppl. Hell. 314) and therefore might have influenced Triphiodorus. Choerilus laments the state of poetry, referring to himself as left behind in a race and unable to drive a newly yoked chariot (ὕστατοι ὥστε δρόμου καταλειπόμεθ᾽, οὐδέ πῃ ἔστι | πάντῃ παπταίνοντα νεοζυγὲς ἅρμα πελάσσαι, Suppl. Hell. 317), phraseology remarkably similar to Triphiοdorus’ declaration that he shall ride the poem like a horse in the poem's epilogue (ἐγὼ δ᾽ ἅπερ ἵππον ἐλάσσω | τέρματος ἀμφιέλισσαν ἐπιψαύουσαν ἀοιδήν, 666–7).
10 This approach challenges the argument that Triphiodorus’ narration abounds with abrupt shifts in the narrative ‘from one episode to the next without any transitional elements’ (Miguélez-Cavero [n. 2], 12).
11 The transition is announced at line 350 ἀνδρομέῃ δὲ βοῇ συνεβάλλετο θῆλυς ἰωή, the cry of women mingled with the shouts of men.
12 For Cassandra in the Epic Cycle, see Mazzoldi, S., Cassandra, la vergine e l'indovina: identità di un personaggio da Omero all'ellenismo (Pisa, 2001), 117–20Google Scholar. On the relationship between Triphiodorus and the Epic Cycle, see S. Bär and M. Baumbach, ‘The Epic Cycle and imperial Greek epic’, in M. Fantuzzi and C. Tsagalis (edd.), The Greek Epic Cycle and its Ancient Reception: A Companion (Cambridge, 2015), 604–22.
13 Hom. Il. 13.363–7; 24.697–701; Od. 11.421–4.
14 Alc. fr. 298 Voigt.
15 Ibyc. frr. 282a.12, 303 PMGF.
16 Porphyrio on Hor. C. 115 says that Proteus foretells the future like Cassandra in one of Bacchylides’ poems. Hadjimichael, T., ‘Bacchylides fr. 60 M. and the “Kassandra”’, BASP 51 (2014), 77–100Google Scholar argues that P.Oxy. 2368, in which the disagreement between Aristarchus and Callimachus regarding the generic classification of a poem entitled ‘Cassandra’ is recorded, refers to Bacchylides, fr. 60 Snell–Maehler.
17 Pind. Pyth. 11.20.
18 Stesichorus, fr. 105 Finglass (the Tabula Iliaca Capitolina). On Stesichorus’ Sack of Troy, see Davies, M. and Finglass, P.J., Stesichorus: The Poems (Cambridge, 2014), 395–458Google Scholar.
19 From the two major attestations of Cassandra in tragedy, Triphiodorus’ Cassandra stands much closer to Euripides’. The context might be different, as in the Trojan Women Troy has already fallen, yet they share the knowledge of their future death in Greece alongside Agamemnon, unlike Cassandra in Aeschylus’ Agamemnon (1072–330), who realizes her imminent death only before she enters Agamemnon's palace in Greece.
20 The possibility of Stesichorus’ influence in this respect too cannot be ignored. See Finglass, P.J., ‘Stesichorus and Greek tragedy’, in Andújar, R., Coward, T.R.P. and Hadjimichael, T.A. (edd.), Paths of Song: The Lyric Dimension of Greek Tragedy (Berlin, 2018), 19–37CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Cingano, E., ‘The early antecedents for the representation of strong-minded women in Greek tragedy’, in D'Alessio, G.B., Lomiento, L., Meliadò, C. and Ucciardello, G. (edd.), Il potere della parola. Studii di letteratura greca per Maria Cannatà Fera (Alessandria, 2020), 81–98Google Scholar, for Stesichorus as an antecedent for the representation of strong-minded women in Greek tragedy.
21 Hecuba's transformation into a hound is proclaimed by Polymestor at Eur. Hec. 1265. It is also implied at Eur. Tro. 427–30, when Cassandra questions Talthybius’ proclamation of Hecuba's departure with Odysseus, as her signs imply otherwise. Lycophron (334) and Quintus (14.348–9) also refer to Hecuba's transformation. See Hornblower, S., Lykophron: Alexandra. Greek Text, Translation, Commentary and Introduction (Oxford, 2015), 192Google Scholar for the myth.
22 Pillinger, E., Cassandra and the Poetics of Prophecy in Greek and Latin Literature (Cambridge, 2019), 87–95Google Scholar.
23 A secondary point of convergence lies in the context; Triphiodorus’ Cassandra appears amid the frenzied transportation of the horse by the Trojans to Troy. In Euripides, the chorus recreates the scene of the horse's transportation immediately after Cassandra's scene (511–67).
24 See McNelis, C. and Sens, A., The Alexandra of Lycophron: A Literary Study (Oxford, 2016), 51–2CrossRefGoogle Scholar on the use of this metaphor—framing the prophecy—and the representation of Troy's future history as an act of running.
25 Cassandra's position at this point of the storyline can also be found in Apollod. Epit. 5.17, but in no previous (extant) literary portrayals. Mazzoldi (n. 12), 119 argues for Cassandra's deployment in the same setting in the Little Iliad, despite her absence from Proclus’ summary.
26 That the horse's transportation to Troy is the turning point of the war can also be confirmed by the seer Calchas, who is earlier portrayed as entering the horse knowing that Achaean victory depends on that transportation: εὖ εἰδὼς ὅτι μόχθον ἀμήχανον ἐκτελέσαντες | ἤδη Τρώιον ἄστυ καθιππεύουσιν Ἀχαιοί (173–4). The distance between the separate meanings of the word τέρμα, namely ‘end’ and ‘turning point’, is here at its narrowest.
27 A technique used by Apollonius too with Jason, Medea and their Euripidean predecessors: C.S. Byre, A Reading of Apollonius Rhodius’ Argonautica: The Poetics of Uncertainty (Lewiston, NY, 2002), 94.
28 A second comparison with a wild animal, a female panther, is used for Cassandra's withdrawal after her failure to persuade the Trojans (12.580–5).
29 Ypsilanti (n. 2), 108–11 shows that Triphiodorus also draws inspiration here from Andromache at Hom. Il. 22.460–76.
30 Gerlaud (n. 1), 29.
31 In 1.396–402 Penthesileia's rush against the Achaeans is likened to a cow's run in a field. In 10.441–7 Oenone is compared to a cow in frenzy to meet her mate. Andromache and Polyxene are likened to cows under attack (13.258–66, 14.258–62). Of the three, Oenone's simile is closer to Triphiodorus’, since it contains the element of frenzy.
32 The gadfly's sting appears in a simile likening Achaean men to bulls (11.207–15), but causes fear instead of erratic behaviour. Quintus most likely draws on Hom. Od. 22.299–301.
33 Cf. Vian, F., ‘Echoes and imitations of Apollonius in late Greek epic’, in Papanghelis, T.D. and Rengakos, A. (edd.), Brill's Companion to Apollonius Rhodius (Leiden, 2008), 387–411, at 398Google Scholar. See also Ap. Rhod. Argon. 3.275–7.
34 Apollonius’ simile also appears to be drawing on Hom. Od. 22.299–301. Triphiodorus does not seem to allude to the Odyssean passage.
35 βρυχάομαι is frequently used for dying Iliadic warriors (e.g. 13.393, 16.486; R.L. Hunter, Apollonius of Rhodes: Argonautica Book IV [Cambridge, 2015], 87). When used for women (very rarely), they are on the verge of committing suicide (Soph. Trach. 904, Ap. Rhod. Argon. 4.19). The difference from Cassandra's circumstances highlights the distinct use of the verb here.
36 Paschalis (n. 3), 99 notes that ‘in the events that follow the entrance of the Horse into Troy, there is a female-dominated succession of scenes unparalleled in Quintus or Virgil’.
37 Mania could take several forms: Ustinova, Y., Divine Mania: Alteration of Consciousness in Ancient Greece (London and New York, 2018)Google Scholar. Here the text, particularly because of the simile, invites the reader to compare Cassandra's symptoms against the baccheia, the ecstasis caused by Dionysus to those opposing him or wilfully surrendering to him. Baccheia predominantly, but not exclusively (see e.g. Pentheus in Euripides’ Bacchae), affected women: Ustinova (this note), 169–216.
38 On the tradition, see Miguélez-Cavero (n. 2), 323.
39 Miguélez-Cavero (n. 2), 325 incorrectly attributes the rolling of eyes of the Thracian woman in 371 to Cassandra: ‘Cassandra seems to be rolling her eyes, a typical sign of madness in tragedy.’
40 On his study of Apollonius’ similes, R.L. Hunter, The Argonautica of Apollonius: Literary Studies (Cambridge, 1993), 130, infers—and his inference certainly applies to all subsequent epic poets—that ‘every assertion of likeness implies also unlikeness, and this is what the epic simile always struggles to control’. He continues that ‘similes deny the possibility of accurate description by reliance upon likeness rather than identity, and multiple similes present a poet helpless before the difficulties of his task’ (at 135). Through Hunter's lens, Cassandra's likening to a Bacchant is put into perspective.
41 Ypsilanti (n. 2), 108–14; Miguélez-Cavero (n. 2), 323–9.
42 See, for instance, the description of Medea's despair, who grasps her throat and pulls her hair while moaning in pain (Ap. Rhod. Argon. 4.18–19): πυκνὰ δὲ λαυκανίης ἐπεμάσσετο, πυκνὰ δὲ κουρὶξ | ἑλκομένη πλοκάμους γοερῇ βρυχήσατ᾿ ἀνίῃ. Similarly, Cassandra beats her hair and breast, and cries: πυκνὰ δὲ χαίτην | κοπτομένη καὶ στέρνον ἀνίαχε μαινάδι φωνῇ (374–5).
43 The verb appears six times in the Iliad, three times attributed to Zeus when he admits to, is described as, or is accused of disregarding Hera and the other gods (8.477; 11.80; 15.106). In two other occurrences, Agamemnon is accused by Achilles as disrespecting him, and Agamemnon admits doing so (1.160; 1.180). In the Argonautica, Pelias is described as disrespecting Hera (1.14), and Jason argues that every man respects the rule of Zeus (3.193). ἀλεγίζειν appears nine times in the Posthomerica, seven of which refer to warriors disregarding gods, enemies and injuries. In every case, the actions of the characters predicated with the verb are conscious and voluntary.
44 Cf. Quintus’ Cassandra, who only vaguely refers to the calamity, πῆμα, that lies within the horse (12.545).
45 Miguélez-Cavero (n. 2), 324 states that Triphiodorus presents Cassandra as insane and disoriented, ‘behaving in the city as one should only behave in wild, uncivilised places like the mountains’. My reading does not discern hints of disorientation in Cassandra's behaviour.
46 Communicative confusion, a pronounced theme in all literary attestations of Cassandra—as per Pillinger (n. 22), 7—is also thematized here.
47 The only divine interference entails the speeding up of the horse towards Troy (330–9), but only after the Trojans’ decision to bring it to town. On the diminution of the eminence of the divine as an experiment in Apollonius’ Argonautica which affected subsequent epic poetry, see Hunter (n. 40), 79.
48 It cannot be precluded that Triphiodorus attempted to present Cassandra as affected by a subtler kind of mania, a prophetic mania, one that was not accompanied by agitation or hyper-excitement, as Ustinova (n. 37), 59 demonstrates. Yet the possibility of Bacchic mania can be dismissed.
49 Cassandra bases her assumption on the collective euphoria of the Trojans, often the sign of a destructive mania. The Trojans base their assumption on the reversal of gender conventions noted with Cassandra, behaving not as a maiden but rather as a man, a typical symptom of Bacchic mania, yet accompanied by the women's roaming in the mountains, hunting and violent killing of wild animals (Ustinova [n. 37], 172–6). The latter features are absent from Triphiodorus’ portrayal of Cassandra; subsequent to her failure, Cassandra mourns (442–3). Quintus’ Cassandra, conversely, runs wildly (12.582–5), thus constituting a quintessential Bacchant. The contrast between the two is stark.
50 Eur. Tro. 366–7.
51 Mazzoldi (n. 12), 95 discerns two phases in Cassandra's behaviour, detectable in virtually all her attestations in antiquity, one of ecstasis and a ‘fase comunicativa’, corresponding to her role as μάντις in her ‘vertical’ communication with the divine, and to her role as προφήτης in her ‘horizontal’ communication with the mortals. If this is the case, I hope to have shown that Triphiodorus only elliptically refers to her mantic features and predominantly concerns himself with Cassandra as προφήτης. Mazzoldi, S., ‘Cassandra's ecstasy between prophecy and rational mediation’, Kernos 15 (2002), 145–54, at 149 n. 19Google Scholar, building on her remarks and taking Aeschylus’ Agamemnon as her case study, argues that Cassandra's speech in Triphiodorus also progresses from complicated imagery to lucid advice, although she observes herself that the Aeschylean stages do not appear in the same sequence in Triphiodorus: a point which underscores Triphiodorus’ dissociation from the typical literary presentation of Cassandra.
52 λῦσον and λυθέντος are perhaps selected by Triphiodorus owing to their being cognate with the Aristotelian term λύσις, although Aristotle uses it for tragedy, namely the part of the plot from the ‘transformation (to prosperity or affliction) to the end’ (Poet. 1455b, transl. S. Halliwell, The Poetics of Aristotle: Translation and Commentary [London, 1987], ch. 18). The conception and the fulfilment of the Trojan-horse plan certainly corresponds to the ‘denouement’ of the story of the Trojan war in Aristotelian terms.
53 The standard source for the literary technique of mise-en-abîme is Dällenbach, L., The Mirror in the Text (Chicago, 1989)Google Scholar, which defines it as ‘any aspect enclosed within a work that shows a similarity with the work that contains it’ (8).
54 The metaphor of the pregnant Trojan horse expands on Cassandra's previous reference (380) to Hecuba's dream, the well-known myth of Hecuba giving birth, i.e. to a torch which burnt Troy, hinted at as early as Pindar (Pae. 8a = B3.25–7 Rutherford) and Euripides (Tro. 922). Cassandra thus presents two metaphorical births as lying at the beginning and end of the sack.
55 In Hymn. Hom. Ven. 164, Anchises undoes Aphrodite's belt before their sexual intercourse (λῦσε δὲ οἱ ζώνην). In Argon. 1.288, Alcimede confesses that she only undid her belt for the conception of Jason (μίτρην πρῶτον ἔλυσα καὶ ὕστατον). In Callimachus’ Hymn to Zeus 21, Rhea undoes her belt (ἐλύσατο μίτρην) to give birth. Contrast Miguélez-Cavero (n. 2), 306, who argues that the undoing of belts for the weaving of flowers is a reproduction of rituals ‘recognisable by contemporary readers’. A further, underlying, sexual connotation can perhaps be traced in the symbolic penetration of the Trojan walls by the horse (thus Philip Hardie, personal communication).
56 Paschalis (n. 3), 100 argues that ‘the contrast between the undisturbed parturition and the violent interruption of pregnancy are thematic representations of a broader conceptual antithesis’. He also posits (110) that ‘Cassandra uses language that establishes a metaphorical parallelism between the termination of the war on the one hand and parturition and birth on the other’. Paschalis attributes Triphiodorus’ marked preference for females and the feminine to their reproductive capacity. I would rather argue that the remarkable presence of women reflects Triphiodorus’ genuine interest in the female view of the war.
57 The horse has a purple mane (πορφυρόπεζαν, 66), a bloody amethyst for an eye (70), straps made of purple flowers (ἄνθεσι πορφυρέοισι, 96), and is decorated by Trojan women with threads of their purple girdles (θαλασσαίης … μίτρης, 345).
58 One can argue that the placement of the adjective in the neuter (πορφύρεον) makes the association with the grammatically masculine horse (ἵππος) unlikely. However, the horse was primarily described as ἱππήλατον ἔργον Ἀθήνης (2).
59 A connection of horse and ships can also be found at lines 59–61; the mountain Ἴδη supplied the wood for the construction of both the ships of Paris and the horse. Miguélez-Cavero (n. 2), 31 notes that the horse is presented as a vessel in line 185, where the Achaeans are presented as entering the ἱππείην ὁλκάδα, the horse-like ship, and in line 344, where the Trojan women strew a carpet for the wooden ship, ὁλκῷ δουρατέῳ. In this association of horse and ship, Triphiodorus is perhaps inspired by Quint. Smyrn. 12.428–34, where the horse being dragged to Troy is likened to a ship being dragged to the sea.
60 Maciver (n. 3), 169 argues that ‘this adjective … is placed there to recall the narrative of the construction of the horse, and to make further concrete the identity of the poem as the horse’.
61 Miguélez-Cavero (n. 2), 329–30 argues that the transition from an enigmatic first half to rational prophecy and advice towards the end of the speech reflects the evolution of Cassandra's speeches in Aeschylus and Euripides.
62 The proximity of the meanings of νεφέλη and ὁμίχλη manifests itself in Aristotle's use of the former in the definition of the latter: ὁμίχλη δὲ νεφέλης περίττωμα … οἷον γάρ ἐστιν ἡ ὁμίχλη νεφέλη ἄγονος, mist as the residue of cloud, or unproductive cloud (Mete. 346b33–5).
63 Pillinger (n. 22), 8–12.
64 Pillinger (n. 22), 114 argues that metapoetic elements in the depiction of Cassandra, specifically her awareness of previous literary attestations of herself, can be traced as early as Euripides. However, a more overt alignment of the prophetess with the poet(s) is not to be found until Latin literature; Pillinger argues for Virgil's adopting of Sibyl's voice, Sibyl being predominantly based on Cassandra (163–5), and for Seneca's alignment with Cassandra (197).
65 Maciver (n. 3), 169–72.
66 Maciver (n. 3), 167.
67 e.g. the seer Phineus in Argonautica Book 2 extensively reflects aspects of Apollonius: Hunter (n. 40), 91.