The Iliupersis (Greek: Ἰλίου πέρσις, Ilíou pérsis, lit. 'Sack of Ilium'), also known as The Sack of Troy, 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 Iliou persis comes chronologically after that of the Little Iliad, and is followed by the Nostoi ("Returns"). The Iliou persis was sometimes attributed by ancient writers to Arctinus of Miletus who lived in the 8th century BCE (see Cyclic Poets). The poem comprised two books of verse in dactylic hexameter.
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👉 Iliupersis in the context of Quintus Smyrnaeus
Quintus Smyrnaeus (also Quintus of Smyrna; Greek: Κόϊντος Σμυρναῖος, Kointos Smyrnaios) was a Greek epic poet whose Posthomerica, following "after Homer", continues the narration of the Trojan War. The dates of Quintus Smyrnaeus' life and poetry are disputed: by tradition, he is thought to have lived in the latter part of the 4th century AD, but earlier dates have also been proposed.
His epic in fourteen books, known as the Posthomerica, covers the period between the end of Homer's Iliad and the end of the Trojan War. Its primary importance is as the earliest surviving work to cover this period, the archaic works in the Epic Cycle, which he knew and drew upon, having been lost. His materials are borrowed from the cyclic poems from which Virgil (with whose works he was probably acquainted) also drew, in particular the Aethiopis (Coming of Memnon) and the Iliupersis (Destruction of Troy) of Arctinus of Miletus, and the Ilias Mikra (Little Iliad) of Lesches. His work is closely modeled on Homer.
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Iliupersis in the context of Epic Cycle
The Epic Cycle (Ancient Greek: Ἐπικὸς Κύκλος, romanized: Epikòs 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.
Iliupersis in the context of Nostoi
The Nostoi (Greek: Νόστοι Nóstoi, sg. nostos lit. 'return home'), also known as Returns or Returns of the Greeks, is a lost epic poem of ancient Greek literature. A part of the Epic Cycle, also known as Trojan cycle, it narrated the stories of the Achaean heroes returning to Greece after the end of the Trojan War. The story of the Nostoi comes chronologically after that of the Iliupersis (Sack of Ilium), and is followed by that of the Odyssey. The author of the Nostoi is uncertain; ancient writers attributed the poem variously to Agias (8th century BC), Homer (8th century BC), and Eumelos of Corinth (8th century BC) (see Cyclic Poets). The poem comprised five books of verse in dactylic hexameter.