Tryphiodorus
Tryphiodorus (
. His only surviving work is The Sack of Troy, an epic poem in 691 verses. Other recorded titles include Marathoniaca and The Story of Hippodamea.During his lifetime he was known as Triphiodorus (Τριφιόδωρος, Triphiodoros, 'gift of
Life
There is little known about the life of Triphiodorus other than two entries in the Byzantine encyclopedia the
Triphiodorus' pagan name cannot be considered a proof that he was a
Writings
The Taking of Ilios
Triphiodorus' only extant work is The Sack of Troy, a 691-verse epic poem, narrating events from the capture of the Trojan seer
The poem begins with an invocation to
"The Achaeans poured the blood of Polyxena over the tomb of dead Achilles to propitiate his wrath, and took each his lot of Trojan women and divided all their other spoil, both gold and silver: wherewith they loaded their deep ships and through the booming sea set sail from Troy, having made an end of the war." |
The Taking of Ilios |
The Sack of Troy can be considered part of a late antique vogue for mythological epic, which includes the Posthomerica by
In this poem Triphiodorus shows a deep understanding of Homer
Regarding a possible influence of Virgil Aeneid 2, there are some glaring differences between the two accounts of the end of Troy: Virgil develops the character of Laocoön (A. 2.40-56, 199–231), and only mentions Cassandra (246-7), while Triphiodorus focuses on Cassandra (358-443) and does not mention Laocoön. On the contrary, Virgil and Triphiodorus are particularly close in the treatment of the figure of Sinon, in particular in their speeches (compare Aeneid 2.76-96, 103–4, 189–94, and Triph. 265–82, 292–303).[4]
Other works
Besides the Sack of Troy, the entries of the Suda (T 1111 and 1112) attribute to Triphiodorus two more poems: Marathoniaca (Μαραθωνιακά), probably narrating how Theseus defeated the bull of Marathon; a Story of Hippodamea (Τὰ κατὰ Ἱπποδάμειαν), on one of the females of this name (e.g. the daughter of King Oenomaus, who killed all her suitors in a chariot race until Pelops defeated him). The Suda also mentions two grammatical works: the Lipogrammatic Odyssey (probably a re-writing of the Odyssey suppressing a letter in each of the books: α in book 1, β in book 2 and so on) and a Paraphrase of Homer’s Comparisons (Παράφρασις τῶν Ὁμήρου παραβόλων), a study of the long comparisons in the Homeric poems (since παραβολή is a long simile).
Impact and contribution
The influence of Triphiodorus has been detected in the Dionysiaca of Nonnus of Panopolis (e.g. Nonn. D. 25.306, after Triph. 14), Coluthus’ Rape of Helen (e.g. Colut. 195–8, after Triph. 56–61), Musaeus’ Hero and Leander (e.g. Musae. 140, after Triph. 32) and Paul the Silentiary (e.g. Descr. Soph. 283, after Triph. 631).[5]
Bibliography
Bibliographical record updated to july 2012: https://sites.google.com/site/hellenisticbibliography/empire/triphiodorus
- Mair, W. A. transl., Oppian, Colluthus, Tryphiodorus (ISBN 0-674-99241-5
- Giuseppe Giangrande , Review: Tryphiodorus (The Classical Review, The New Series, Vol. 15, No. 3 Dec., 1965), pp. 282–283
- Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (Walton & Maberly, 1859), pp. 1177–1178
- Knight, J.F.W., Iliupersides (The Classical Journal, Vol. 26, No. 3/4 Jul. - Oct., 1932), pp. 178–189
- Jones, W. J. Jr., Trojan Legend: Who is Sinon? (The Classical Journal, Vol. 61, No.3 Dec., 1965), pp. 122–128
- M. Campbell (1985), Lexicon in Triphiodorum, Hildesheim
- F. J. Cuartero Iborra (1988), Trifiodor, La Presa de Troia, Barcelona
- U. Dubielzig (1996), Triphiodor, Die Einnahme Ilions, Tübingen
- B. Gerlaud (1982), Triphiodore, La Prise d’Ilion, Paris
- Enrico Livrea (1982), Triphiodorus, Ilii excidium, Leipzig
- Laura Miguélez Cavero (2013), Triphiodorus, The Sack of Troy: A General Introduction and a Commentary, Berlin
Notes
- ^ cgi-bin library, 163.1.169.40
- ^ D. Monaco (2007), "Il lessico di Trifiodoro", Glotta 83, 127-91
- ^ L. Miguélez-Cavero (2013), Triphiodorus, The Sack of Troy: A General Introduction and a Commentary, Berlin, pp. 38ff.
- ^ L. Miguélez-Cavero (2013), Triphiodorus, The Sack of Troy: A General Introduction and a Commentary, Berlin, pp. 64 ff.
- ^ L. Miguélez-Cavero (2013), Triphiodorus, The Sack of Troy: A General Introduction and a Commentary, Berlin, pp. 91-92
External links
Media related to Tryphiodorus at Wikimedia Commons
- The Taking of Ilios in English
- Greek text with English translation (with Oppian's Cynegetica and Halieutica and Colluthus' Rape of Helen), ed. Mair, 1928
- Greek text (critical edition), ed. Weinberger, 1896