Iliupersis

The Iliou persis was sometimes attributed by ancient writers to Arctinus of Miletus who lived in the 8th century BCE (see Cyclic Poets).

Ancient sources date Arctinus to the eighth century BCE, but evidence concerning another of his poems, the Aethiopis, suggests that he lived considerably later than that.

A further impression of the poem's content may be gained from book 2 of Virgil's Aeneid (written many centuries after the Iliou persis), which tells the story from a Trojan point of view.

The poem opens with the Trojans discussing what to do with the wooden horse which the Greeks have left behind: some thought they ought to hurl it down from the rocks, others to burn it up, while others say they ought to dedicate it to Athena.

The god Poseidon, meanwhile, sends an ill omen of two snakes that kill Laocoön and one of his two sons; seeing this, Aeneas and his men leave Troy in anticipation of what is to come.