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The Cypria: Reconstructing the Lost Prequel to Homer's Iliad (Reconstructing the Lost Epics of the Trojan War Book 1) by [D M Smith]

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D M Smith

The Cypria: Reconstructing the Lost Prequel to Homer's Iliad (Reconstructing the Lost Epics of the Trojan War Book 1) Kindle Edition

by D M Smith (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

88 ratings

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Book 1 of 2: Reconstructing the Lost Epics of the Trojan War

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In Classical times, the story of the Trojan War was told in a series of eight epic poems known as the Epic Cycle, of which only the Iliad and Odyssey by Homer survive to the present day. The first poem in the sequence was the Cypria, which described the early years of the war from Eris’ casting of the golden apple at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, to Paris’ abduction of Helen, the sacrifice of Iphigenia, Odysseus’ treacherous murder of Palamedes, and finally, the enslavement of Briseis and Chryseis, which sowed the seeds of the conflict between Achilles and Agamemnon in the Iliad.

The Cypria is now lost, but the myths it once contained are known from a number of later writings. In an ambitious exercise in literary back-breeding, editor D. M. Smith attempts to reconstruct the lost prequel to Homer’s Iliad from the available material. Included are excerpts from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Apollodorus’ Bibliotheca, Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulis and Colluthus’ The Rape of Helen, as well as lesser known documents such as Dictys Cretensis Ephemeris Belli Trojani, and the Excidium Troiae — a medieval summary of a lost Roman account of the Trojan War, discovered among the papers of an 18th century clergyman in the 1930s. This eclectic melange of Greek and Latin texts has been carefully edited and arranged in accordance with the known chronology of the Cypria, thus allowing readers to trace the story of this vanished epic as a continuous narrative for the first time in over a thousand years.

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Reconstructing the Lost Epics of the Trojan War
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192 pages
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Language

English
Publication date

August 9, 2017
File size

2395 KB
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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B074PVW66J
Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 9, 2017
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2395 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 192 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #157,746 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #29 in Epic Poetry (Kindle Store)
- #54 in Ancient Greek History (Kindle Store)
- #161 in Epic Poetry (Books)

Customer Reviews:
88 ratings

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D M Smith

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D. M. Smith is a serial procrastinator and occasional writer and editor. He was born in Hamilton, New Zealand in 1983, and studied Theatre at the University of Waikato. His interests include Greek mythology, all things vintage and antique, pre-20th century literature, the music of Jethro Tull, tea, and toilet humour. His first novel, Munley Priory: A Gothic Story was published in 2016.

He lives in Horotiu, New Zealand with one cat.

Customer reviews

5 star		62%
4 star		25%
3 star		4%
2 star		4%
1 star		5%

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Kindle Customer

If there ever could be a canon ...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 25, 2022

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This would be it. This is a mammoth attempt at piecing together the puzzle of this legend/myth by adding bits and pieces from later works. Through this, a clearer picture comes to light: one more violent and melodramatic than anything GRRM or the English bards could have come up with or seen in any Mexican soap.

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Dan

You get what you pay for

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 9, 2022

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I'm baffled by all the 4 and 5 star reviews this book gets. Large swathes of the content of this book relies on out of copyright, freely available translations FROM THE 17TH CENTURY! These are excerpts that go on for 3 to 5 pages or more, and they're written in such archaic "modern English" that I might as well have sat there with the middle liddell and translated the Greek (or Latin) myself. This project looked like a great idea, and I was geeked to read it, but tossing a 100+ years old translation of the Judgement of Paris is incredibly lazy. The project would have been better served summarizing the translation in 21st century English than using translations from the 1800s or early 1900s that do more to obfuscate meaning than convey it. Major disappointment.

6 people found this helpful

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Sara E. Detombe

Great prequil to the Iliad

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 22, 2021

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I really enjoyed this book. The author was successful in the monumental task of bringing together excerpts from multiple publications to give a narrative as a prequil of the Iliad. The footnotes throughout the work helped me understand some of the people, places and events of Greek lore of which I was not familiar.

One person found this helpful

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William D. Michie

Excellent introduction to Greek Trojan War literature

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 15, 2021

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Excellent introduction for those of us new to the "Epic Cycle". Many thanks to the author, with hope that he will continue to fill in the gaps between The Iliad and The Odyssey. I'd also welcome any writings about Jethro Tull.

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Oliver Twist

If Homer had fan-boys...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 5, 2017

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Very nicely done piece, from the points of view of both technique and story. The author makes no bones about what he's doing, and doesn't posit this as a kind of previously-unknown Quelle-text for Homer. He's just putting together the pre-Iliad story for Classics buffs, and does a good job of it. Euripides' take on the Iphigenia story takes up a good part of the book, but there are bits from the Epic Cycle, too. Scholars likely won't learn anything new from this version, but fans are likely to get a kick out of it.

14 people found this helpful

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Sal

Prequel to the Iliad

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 4, 2021

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It was nice reading about some events that occurred before the Greeks headed to the battle of Troy.

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Xole Karman

but the author has laid them out in a useful and very coherent timeline

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 2, 2018

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This was a fascinating read. I'm familiar with most of the sources in this book, but the author has laid them out in a useful and very coherent timeline, with comprehensive footnotes. My only criticism is the inclusion, in full, of 'Iphigenia at Aulis', which stands out as unnecessarily lengthy when compared to all the other excerpts.

5 people found this helpful

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Robert

Good but over long

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 26, 2018

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This filled in several gaps in the story of the Greeks and a few for the Trojans. Some of the quotes used were over long and could have been shortened. Still, an interesting read.

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Dr. R. H. Webber

It is what it says it is

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 27, 2021

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It certainly answered some of the missing area between the Iliad and the Odyssey so if you have read both then get this as well.

One person found this helpful

The Reader

Nice idea but poorly executed!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 28, 2020

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Quite interesting - but most people could do better compiling their own Cypria from Google as there is no attempt to give the individual elements a homogenous feel. All I can say is that saved me a few hours research.

2 people found this helpful

Miss Curiosity

Unique

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 8, 2021

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An interesting reconstruction of this lost narrative. Not a bad introduction to the classical works.

Barry jackson

The Cypria

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 5, 2020

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