The Kypria (Greek: Κύπρια; Latin: Cypria) 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 Kypria comes chronologically at the beginning of the Epic Cycle, and is followed by that of the Iliad. The Kypria was usually attributed by ancient writers to Stasinos of Kypros, though not without argument. The poem comprised eleven books of verse in dactylic hexameter. The epic is a broadly defined genre of poetry, which retells in a continuous narrative the life and works of a heroic or mythological person or group of persons. ... At the moment this page contains a list of links. ... In mathematics, see epic morphism. ... The Trojan War was a war waged, according to legend, against the city of Troy in Asia Minor by the armies of the Acheans, following the kidnapping (or elopement) of Helen of Sparta by Paris of Troy. ... The Iliad (Greek Ιλιάς, Ilias) tells part of the story of the siege of the city of Ilium, i. ... Cyprus (in Greek Kypros Κύπρος and in Turkish Kıbrıs) is an island in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, 113 kilometres (70 miles) south of Turkey and around 120 km west of the Syrian coast. ... Dactylic hexameter is a form of meter in poetry or a rhythmic scheme. ...

Date

The Kypria was probably composed in the later sixth century BCE, but there is much uncertainty. The stories contained in the Kypria are much earlier than that, however, and the same problems of dating oral traditions associated with the Homeric epics also apply to the Kypria. Many or all of the stories in the Kypria were known to the composer(s) of the Iliad and Odyssey. Oral history is an account of something passed down by word of mouth from one generation to another. ... Bust of Homer in the British Museum For other uses, see Homer (disambiguation). ... The Iliad (Greek Ιλιάς, Ilias) tells part of the story of the siege of the city of Ilium, i. ... The Odyssey (Greek Ὀδυσσεία) is the second of the two great Greek epic poems ascribed to Homer, the first of which is the Iliad. ...

Content

In current critical editions only about fifty lines survive of the Kypria's 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. Many other references give further indications of the poem's storyline. Chrestomathy (Greek, from the words khrestos, useful, and mathein, to know) is a selection of linguistic writings which can help you to learn a language. ... Proclus Lycaeus (February 8, 412 – April 17, 487), surnamed The Successor (Greek Πρόκλος ὁ Διάδοχος Próklos ho Diádokhos), was a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher. ...

The poem narrates the origins of the Trojan War and the first nine years of the war. It begins with the judgement of Paris between the goddesses Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite: Paris awards the prize for beauty to Aphrodite, and as a prize Aphrodite awards Helen, wife of Menelaos, to him. This leads to Paris' rape of Helen: he takes her and her dowry, either willingly or unwillingly, back to his home of Troy. The Trojan War was a war waged, according to legend, against the city of Troy in Asia Minor by the armies of the Acheans, following the kidnapping (or elopement) of Helen of Sparta by Paris of Troy. ... The Judgement of Paris, Peter Paul Rubens, ca 1636 (National Gallery, London) The Judgement of Paris is a story from Greek mythology, in which the legendary roots of the Trojan War can be found. ... Athena from the east pediment of the Afea temple in Aegina After a sculpture of Athena at the Louvre. ... In the Olympian pantheon of classical Greek Mythology, Hêra (Greek or ) was the wife and sister of Zeus. ... Aphrodite (Αφροδίτη, risen from sea-foam) is the Greek goddess of love and beauty. ... Helen of Troy by Evelyn de Morgan Helen was the wife of Menelaus and reputed to be the most beautiful woman in the world, and her abduction by Paris brought about the Trojan War. ... This article is about Menelaus the king of Sparta. ... A dowry (also known as trousseau) is a gift of money or valuables given by the brides family to that of the groom to permit their marriage. ... Walls of the excavated city of Troy (Turkey) This article is about the city of Troy / Ilion as described in the works of Homer, and the location of an ancient city associated with it. ...

When Helen had married, an oath was taken by all her suitors to defend the rights of whichever one won her hand: Menelaos, the victor in this contest, now calls upon his brother Agamemnon to enforce this oath. The Greek army is gathered and sails for Troy from the harbour of Aulis, though with mishaps: the prophet Kalchas warns the Greeks that the war will last ten years; and Agamemnon is forced to make a sacrifice of his daughter Iphigeneia to appease the goddess Artemis and obtain safe passage for the ships. Dates romantically sharing a chili cheese dog, in a dream sequence Courtship (sometimes called dating or going steady) is the process of selecting and attracting a mate for marriage. ... This article is about Menelaus the king of Sparta. ... The so-called Mask of Agamemnon. Discovered by Heinrich Schliemann in 1876 at Mycenae. ... In Greek mythology, Aulis was a daughter of King Ogyges and Thebe. ... In Greek mythology, Kalkhas Thestórides, or Calchas (brazen) for short, was a powerful prophet. ... The sacrifice of Iphigenia by the Illioupersis Painter Iphigeneia (gr. ... This article is about the Greek goddess. ...

After many episodes, including the story of Telephos, and the marooning of Philoktetes, the fleet leaves Aulis and lands at Troy. When the Greeks land, the Trojans' greatest warrior, Hektor, kills Protesilaos, and the Greeks' greatest warrior, Achilleus, kills Kyknos. The Greeks demand the return of Helen and her dowry, but the Trojans refuse. The Greeks besiege the city, and the first nine years of the siege are narrated comparatively briefly. A Greek mythological figure, Telephus referred to two different people. ... In Greek mythology, Philoctetes (also Philoktêtês or Philocthetes) was the son of King Poeas of Meliboea in Thessaly. ... In Greek mythology, Hector (holding fast), or Hektor, was a Trojan prince and one of the greatest fighters in the Trojan War, equal to Ajax and surpassed only by Achilles. ... In Greek mythology, Protesilaus was the son of Iphicles and the leader of the Phylaceans. ... For other uses, see Achilles (disambiguation). ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...

Reception

The Kypria was considered to be a lesser work than Homer's two masterpieces: Aristotle criticised it for its lack of narrative cohesion and focus. It was rather a catalogue of events than a unified story. Bust of Homer in the British Museum For other uses, see Homer (disambiguation). ... Aristotle (sculpture) Aristotle (Greek: Αριστοτέλης Aristotelēs; 384 BC – March 7, 322 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher. ...

Editions

• Online editions (English translation):
  • Fragments of the Kypria 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)

See Also

• Eris
• Kallisti