Epic cycle in the context of "Cypria"

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⭐ Core Definition: Epic cycle

The Epic Cycle (Ancient Greek: Ἐπικὸς Κύκλος, romanizedEpikòs Kýklos) was a collection of Ancient Greek epic poems, composed in dactylic hexameter and related to the story of the Trojan War, including the Cypria, the Aethiopis, the so-called Little Iliad, the Iliupersis, the Nostoi, and the Telegony. Scholars sometimes include the two Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, among the poems of the Epic Cycle, but the term is more often used to specify the non-Homeric poems as distinct from the Homeric ones.

Unlike the Iliad and the Odyssey, the cyclic epics survive only in fragments and summaries from Late Antiquity and the Byzantine period.

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Epic cycle in the context of Odysseus

In Greek and Roman mythology, Odysseus (/əˈdɪsiəs/ ə-DISS-ee-əs; Ancient Greek: Ὀδυσσεύς, Ὀδυσεύς, romanizedOdysseús, Odyseús, IPA: [o.dy(s).sěu̯s]), also known by the Latin variant Ulysses (/juːˈlɪsz/ yoo-LISS-eez, UK also /ˈjuːlɪsz/ YOO-liss-eez; Latin: Ulysses, Ulixes), is a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem, the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in that same epic cycle.

As the son of Laërtes and Anticlea, husband of Penelope, and father of Telemachus, Acusilaus, and Telegonus, Odysseus is renowned for his intellectual brilliance, guile, and versatility (polytropos), and he is thus known by the epithet Odysseus the Cunning (Ancient Greek: μῆτις, romanized: mêtis, lit.'cunning intelligence'). He is most famous for his nostos, or "homecoming", which took him ten eventful years after the decade-long Trojan War.

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