Aethiopis

The Aithiopis (Latin: Aethiopis) is a lost epic of ancient Greek literature. It was one of the Epic Cycle, that is, the "Trojan" cycle, which told the entire history of the Trojan War in epic verse. The story of the Aithiopis comes chronologically immediately after that of the Homeric Iliad. The Aithiopis was attributed by ancient writers to Arktinos of Miletos. The poem comprised five books of verse in dactylic hexameter.

Date

The Aithiopis was probably composed in the seventh century BCE, but there is much uncertainty. Ancient sources date Arktinos to the eighth century; but the earliest artistic representations of one of the most important characters, Penthesileia, date to about 600 BCE, suggesting a much later date.

Story

In current critical editions only five lines survive of the Aithiopis' original text. We are almost entirely dependent on a summary of the Cyclic epics contained in the Chrestomatheia (see also chrestomathy) attributed (almost certainly wrongly) to the 5th-century CE philosopher Proklos Diadochos. Fewer than ten other references give indications of the poem's storyline.

The poem opens, shortly after the death of the Trojan hero Hektor, with the arrival of the Amazon warrior Penthesileia who has come to support the Trojans. She has a moment of glory in battle, but Achilleus kills her. The Greek warrior Thersites later taunts Achilleus, claiming that he had been in love with her, and Achilleus kills him too. Achilleus is ritually purified for the murder of Thersites.

Next another Trojan ally arrives, Memnon, son of Eos and Tithonos, leading an Ethiopian contingent and wearing armour made by the god Hephaistos. In battle Memnon kills Antilochos, a Greek warrior who was the son of Nestor and a great favourite of Achilleus. Achilleus then kills Memnon, and Zeus makes Memnon immortal at Eos' request. But in his rage Achilleus pursues the Trojans into the very gates of Troy, and in the Skaian Gates he is killed by an arrow shot by Paris, assisted by the god Apollo. Achilleus' body is rescued by Aias and Odysseus.

The Greeks hold a funeral for Antilochos. Achilleus' mother, the sea nymph Thetis, comes with her sisters and the Muses to lament over Achilleus' body. Funeral games are held in honour of Achilleus, at which Achilleus' arms are offered as a prize for the greatest hero; and there develops a dispute over them between Aias and Odysseus. There the Aithiopis ends; it is uncertain whether the judgment of Achilleus' arms, and subsequent suicide of Aias, were told in the Aithiopis, in the next epic in the Cycle, the Little Iliad, or in both.

Editions

• Online editions (English translation):
  • Fragments of the Aithiopis translated by H.G. Evelyn-White, 1914 (public domain)
  • Fragments of complete Epic Cycle translated by H.G. Evelyn-White, 1914; Project Gutenberg edition
  • Proklos' summary of the Epic Cycle translated by Gregory Nagy
• Print editions (Greek):
  • A. Bernabé 1987, Poetarum epicorum Graecorum testimonia et fragmenta pt. 1 (Leipzig: Teubner)
  • M. Davies 1988, Epicorum Graecorum fragmenta (Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht)
• Print editions (Greek with English translation):
  • M.L. West 2003, Greek Epic Fragments (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press)