Epitome

Penthesilia, daughter of Otrere and Ares, accidentally killed Hippolyte and was purified by Priam. In battle she slew many, and amongst them Machaon, and was afterwards herself killed by Achilles, who fell in love with the Amazon after her death and slew Thersites for jeering at him.[*](These events were narrated in the Aethiopis of Arctinus, as we learn from the summary of that poem drawn up by Proclus. See Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, ed. G. Kinkel, p. 33. Compare Diod. 2.46.5; Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica i.18ff., 227ff., 538ff.; Tzetzes, Posthomerica 6ff., 100ff., 136ff.; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 999; Dictys Cretensis iv.2ff. Quintus Smyrnaeus explains more fully than Apollodorus the reason why Penthesilia came to Troy (Posthomerica i.18ff.). Aiming at a deer in the chase, she had accidentally killed her sister Hippolyte with her spear, and, haunted by the Furies of the slain woman, she came to Troy to be purified from her guilt. The same story is told more briefly by Diodorus Siculus. According to Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 999, Thersites excited the wrath of Achilles, not only by his foul accusations, but by gouging out the eyes of the beautiful Amazon. In the Aethiopis it was related how, after killing the base churl, Achilles sailed to Lesbos and was there purified from the guilt of murder by Ulysses, but not until he had offered sacrifice to Apollo, Artemis, and Latona. See Proclus, in Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, ed. G. Kinkel, p. 33. The mother of Penthesilia is named Otrere (Otrera) by Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 997 and Hyginus, Fab. 112, in agreement with Apollodorus. Machaon is usually said to have been killed by Eurypylus, and not, as Apollodorus says, by Penthesilia. See Paus. 3.26.9; Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica vi.390ff.; Tzetzes, Posthomerica 520ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 113. From Paus. 3.26.9 we learn that Eurypylus, not Penthesilia, was represented as the slayer in the Little Iliad of Lesches.)

Hippolyte was the mother of Hippolytus; she also goes by the names of Glauce and Melanippe. For when the marriage of Phaedra was being celebrated, Hippolyte appeared in arms with her Amazons, and said that she would slay the guests of Theseus. So a battle took place, and she was killed, whether involuntarily by her ally Penthesilia, or by Theseus, or because his men, seeing the threatening attitude of the Amazons, hastily closed the doors and so intercepted and slew her.[*](See above, Apollod. E.1.17. The two passages are practically duplicates of each other. The former occurs in the Sabbaitic, the latter in the Vatican Epitome of Apollodorus. The author of the one compendium preferred to relate the incident in the history of Theseus, the other in the history of Troy.)

Memnon, the son of Tithonus and the Dawn, came with a great force of Ethiopians to Troy against the Greeks, and having slain many of the Greeks, including Antilochus, he was himself slain by Achilles.[*](These events were narrated in the Aethiopis of Arctinus, as we learn from the summary of Proclus. See Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, ed. G. Kinkel, p. 33. Compare Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica ii.100ff., 235ff., 452ff.; Tzetzes, Posthomerica 234ff.; Dictys Cretensis iv.6. The fight between Memnon and Achilles was represented on the throne of Apollo at Amyclae, and on the chest of Cypselus at Olympia (Paus. 3.18.12; Paus. 5.19.1). It was also the subject of a group of statuary, which was set up beside the Hippodamium at Olympia (Paus. 5.22.2). Some fragments of the pedestal which supported the group have been discovered: one of them bears the name MEMNON inscribed in archaic letters. See Die Inschriften von Olympia 662; and Frazer, commentary on Pausanias, vol. iii. pp. 629ff. Aeschylus wrote a tragedy on the subject called Psychostasia, in which he described Zeus weighing the souls of the rival heroes in scales. See Plut. De audiendis poetis 2; Scholiast on Hom. Il. viii.70; TGF (Nauck 2nd ed.), pp. 88ff. A play of Sophocles, called The Ethiopians, probably dealt with the same theme. See The Fragments of Sophocles, ed. A. C. Pearson, vol. i. pp. 22ff. The slaying of Antilochus by Memnon is mentioned by Hom. Od. 4.187ff. ) Having chased the Trojans also, Achilles

A fight taking place for the corpse, Ajax killed Glaucus, and gave the arms to be conveyed to the ships, but the body he carried, in a shower of darts, through the midst of the enemy, while Ulysses fought his assailants.[*](The death of Achilles was similarly related in the Aethiopis of Arctinus. See Proclus in Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, ed. G. Kinkel, pp. 33ff. Compare Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica iii.26-387; Hyginus, Fab. 107. All these writers agree with Apollodorus in saying that the fatal wound was inflicted on the heel of Achilles. The story ran that at his birth his mother Thetis made Achilles invulnerable by dipping him in the water of Styx; but his heel, by which she held him, was not wetted by the water and so remained vulnerable. See Serv. Verg. A. 6.57; Lactantius Placidus on Statius, Achill. i.134; Lactantius Placidus, Narrat. Fabul. xii.6; Fulgentius, Mytholog. iii.7. Tradition varied as to the agent of Achilles's death. Some writers, like Arctinus and Apollodorus, say that the hero was killed by Apollo and Paris jointly. Thus in Hom. Il. 22.359ff.) the dying Hector prophesies that Achilles will be slain by Paris and Apollo at the Scaean gate; and the same prophecy is put by Homer more darkly into the mouth of the talking horse Xanthus, who, like Balaam's ass, warns his master of the danger that besets his path (Hom. Il. 19.404ff.). According to Virgil and Ovid, it was the hand of Paris that discharged the fatal arrow, but the hand of Apollo that directed it to the mark. See Verg. A. 6.56-58; Ov. Met. 12.597-609. According to Hyginus, it was Apollo in the guise of Paris who transfixed the mortal heel of Achilles with an arrow (Hyginus, Fab. 107). But in one passage (Hom. Il. 21.277ff.) homer speaks of the death of Achilles as wrought by the shafts of Apollo alone; and this version was followed by Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica iii.60ff. and apparently by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Horace. See Plat. Rep. 2.383a-b; Soph. Phil. 334ff.; Hor. Carm. 4.6.1ff. Other writers, on the contrary, speak of Paris alone as the slayer of Achilles. See Eur. And. 655; Eur. Hec. 387ff.; Plut. Quaest. Conviv. ix.13.2; Plut. Lys. 4. A very different version of the story connected the death of Achilles with a romantic passion he had conceived for Polyxena, daughter of Priam. It is said that Priam offered her hand in marriage to Achilles on condition that the siege of Troy was raised. In the negotiations which were carried on for this purpose Achilles went alone and unarmed to the temple of Thymbraean Apollo and was there treacherously assassinated, Deiphobus clasping him to his breast in a pretended embrace of friendship while Paris stabbed him with a sword. See Tzetzes, Posthomerica 385-423; Philostratus, Her. xx.16ff.; Hyginus, Fab. 110; Dictys Cretensis iv.10ff.; Serv. Verg. A. 6.57; Lactantius Placidus on Statius, Achill. i.134; Dares Phrygius, De excidio Trojae 34; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. pp. 13, 143 (First Vatican Mythographer 36; Second Vatican Mythographer 205). Of these writers, the Second Vatican Mythographer tells us that Achilles first saw Polyxena, Hector's sister, when she stood on a tower in the act of throwing down bracelets and earrings with which to ransom Hector's body, and that when Achilles came to the temple of the Thymbraean Apollo to ratify the treaty of marriage and peace, Paris lurked behind the image of the god and shot the confiding hero with an arrow. This seems to be the account of the death which Serv. Verg. A. 6.57 and Lactantius Placidus on Statius, Achill. i.134 followed in their briefer narrative. Compare Nonnus, in Westermann's Mythographi Graeci, Appendix Narrationum 62, p. 382.)

The death

Also his arms were offered

But afterwards he came to his senses and slew also himself.[*](These events were narrated in the Little Iliad of Lesches. See Proclus in Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, ed. G. Kinkel, p. 36; compare Aristot. Poet. 1459b 4ff.. The contest between Ajax and Ulysses for the arms of Achilles was also related in the Aethiopis of Arctinus. See Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, ed. G. Kinkel, p. 34. It was known to Hom. Od. 11.542ff., who tells us that the Trojans and Pallas Athena acted as judges and awarded the arms to Ulysses. A Scholiast on Hom. Od. 11.547 informs us that Agamemnon, unwilling to undertake the invidious duty of deciding between the two competitors, referred the dispute to the decision of the Trojan prisoners, inquiring of them which of the two heroes had done most harm to the Trojans. The prisoners decided that Ulysses was the man, and the arms were therefore awarded to him. According to another account, which was adopted by the author of the Little Iliad, the Greeks on the advice of Nestor sent spies to the walls of Troy to overhear the Trojans discussing the respective merits of the two champions. They heard two girls debating the question, and thinking that she who gave the preference to Ulysses reasoned the better, they decided accordingly. See Scholiast on Aristoph. Kn. 1056. According to Pind. N. 8.26(45)ff., it was the Greeks who by secret votes decided in favour of Ulysses. The subject was treated by Aeschylus in a lost play called The Decision of the Arms. See TGF (Nauck 2nd ed.), pp. 57ff. The madness and suicide of Ajax, consequent on his disappointment at not being awarded the arms, are the theme of Sophocles's extant tragedy Ajax. As to the contest for the arms, see further Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica v.121ff.; Tzetzes, Posthomerica 481ff.; Zenobius, Cent. i.43; Hyginus, Fab. 107; Ov. Met. 12.620-628, xiii.1-398. Quintus Smyrnaeus and Tzetzes agree in representing the Trojan captives as the judges in the dispute, while Ovid speaks of the Greek chiefs sitting in judgment and deciding in favour of Ulysses. According to Zenobius, Cent. i.43, Ajax in his frenzy scourged two rams, believing that he was scourging Agamemnon and Menelaus. This account is based on the description of the frenzy of Ajax in Soph. Aj. 97-110, Soph. Aj. 237-244).) And Agamemnon forbade his body to be burnt; and he alone of all who fell at Ilium is buried, in a coffin.[*](Similarly the author of the Little Iliad said that the body of Ajax was not burned, but placed in a coffin “on account of the wrath of the king.” See Eustathius on Hom. Il. ii.557, p. 285. Philostratus tells us that the body was laid in the earth by direction of the seer Calchas, “because suicides may not lawfully receive the burial by fire” (Philostratus, Her. xiii.7). This was probably the true reason for the tradition that the corpse was not cremated in the usual way. For the ghosts of suicides appear to be commonly dreaded; hence unusual modes of disposing of their bodies are adopted in order to render their spirits powerless for mischief. For example, the Baganda of Central Africa, who commonly bury their dead in the earth, burn the bodies of suicides on waste land or at crossroads in order to destroy the ghosts; for they believe that if the ghost of a suicide is not thus destroyed, it will tempt other people to imitate its example. As an additional precaution everyone who passed the place where the body of a suicide had been burnt threw some grass or a few sticks on the spot, “so as to prevent the ghost from catching him, in case it had not been destroyed.” For the same reason, if a man took his life by hanging himself on a tree, the tree was torn up by the roots and burned with the body; if he had killed himself in a house, the house was pulled down and the materials consumed with fire; for “people feared to live in a house in which a suicide had taken place, lest they too should be tempted to commit the same crime.” See J. Roscoe, The Baganda (London, 1911), pp. 20ff., 289. Similar customs prevailed among the Banyoro, a neighbouring nation of Central Africa. “It was said to be necessary to destroy a tree upon which a person had hanged himself and to burn down a house in which a person had committed suicide, otherwise they would be a danger to people in general and would influence them to commit suicide.” See J. Roscoe, The Northern Bantu (Cambridge, 1915), pp. 24ff. (where, however, the burning of the body is not expressly mentioned). In like manner the Hos of Togoland, in West Africa, are much afraid of the ghost of a suicide. They believe that the ghost of a man who has hanged himself will torment the first person who sees the body. Hence when the relations of such a man approach the corpse they protect themselves against the ghost by wearing magical cords and smearing their faces with a magical powder. The tree on which a man hanged himself is cut down, and the branch on which he tied the fatal noose is lopped off. To this branch the corpse is then tied and dragged ruthlessly through the woods, over stones and through thorny bushes, to the place where “men of blood,” that is, all who die a violent death, are buried. There they dig a shallow grave in great haste and throw the body in. Having done so they run home; for they say that the ghosts of “men of blood” fling stones at such as do not retreat fast enough, and that he who is struck by one of these stones must die. The houses of such men are broken down and burnt. A suicide is believed to defile the land and to prevent rain from falling. Hence the district where a man has killed himself must be purified by a sacrifice offered to the Earth-god. See J. Spieth, Die Ewe-Stämme (Berlin, 1906), pp. 272, 274, 276ff. 756, 758. As to the special treatment of the bodies of suicides, see R. Lasch, “Die Behandlung der Leiche des Selbstmorders,” Globus, lxxvi. (Brunswick, 1899, pp. 63-66). In the Ajax of Sophocles the rites of burial are at first refused, but afterwards conceded, to the dead body of Ajax; and though these ceremonies are not described, we may assume that they included the burning of the corpse on a pyre. This variation from what appears to be the usual tradition may have been introduced by Sophocles out of deference to the religious feelings of the Athenians, who worshipped Ajax as a hero, and who would have been shocked to think of his remains being denied the ordinary funeral honours. See Jebb's Introduction to his edition of the Ajax(Cambridge, 1896), pp. xxix.ff. As to the worship of Ajax at Athens, see Paus. 1.35.3; Corpus Inscriptionum Atticarum ii. 467-471; Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum 717, vol. ii. p. 370. From these inscriptions we learn that the Athenian youths used to sail across every year to Salamis and there sacrifice to Ajax.) His grave is at Rhoeteum.