Troilus

It is a common practice for those writing about the story of Troilus as it existed in ancient times to use both literary sources and artifacts to build up an understanding of what seems to have been the most standard form of the myth and its variants.

[6] The brutality of this standard form of the myth is highlighted by commentators such as Alan Sommerstein, an expert on ancient Greek drama, who describes it as "horrific" and "[p]erhaps the most vicious of all the actions traditionally attributed to Achilles.

[26] Sommerstein attempts a reconstruction of the plot of the Troilos, in which the title character is incestuously in love with Polyxena and tries to discourage the interest in marrying her shown by both Achilles and Sarpedon, a Trojan ally and son of Zeus.

[33]This passage is explained in the Byzantine writer John Tzetzes' scholia as a reference to Troilus seeking to avoid the unwanted sexual advances of Achilles by taking refuge in his father Apollo's temple.

[35] This begins to build up the elements of the version of Troilus' story given above: he is young, much loved and beautiful; he has divine ancestry, is beheaded by his rejected Greek lover and, we know from Homer, had something to do with horses.

Ancient Greek art, as found in pottery and other remains, frequently depicts scenes associated with Troilus' death: the ambush, the pursuit, the murder itself and the fight over his body.

[74] A crater contemporary with this shows Achilles at the altar holding the naked Troilus upside down while Hector, Aeneas and an otherwise unknown Trojan Deithynos arrive in the hope of saving the youth.

Some pottery shows Achilles, already having killed Troilus, using his victim's severed head as a weapon as Hector and his companions arrive too late to save him; some includes the watching Athena, occasionally with Hermes.

The age of the victim is often an indicator of which story is being told and the relative small size here might point towards the death of Astyanax, but it is common to show even Troilus as much smaller than his murderer, (as is the case with the kylix pictured to the above right).

For medieval writers, the two most influential ancient sources on the Trojan War were the purported eye-witness accounts of Dares the Phrygian, and Dictys the Cretan, which both survive in Latin versions.

However, it was two of their contemporaries, Benoît de Sainte-Maure in his French verse romance and Guido delle Colonne in his Latin prose history, both also admirers of Dares, who were to define the tale of Troy for the remainder of the medieval period.

[79] In Dares, Troilus is the youngest of Priam's royal sons, bellicose when peace or truces are suggested and the equal of Hector in bravery, "large and most beautiful... brave and strong for his age, and eager for glory.

Joseph of Exeter, in his Daretis Phrygii Ilias De bello Troiano (The Iliad of Dares the Phrygian on the Trojan War), describes the character as follows: The limbs of Troilus expand and fill his space.

He is "the wall of his homeland, Troy's protection, the rose of the military...."[108] The list of Greek leaders Troilus wounds expands in the various re-tellings of the war from the two in Dares to also include Agamemnon, Diomedes and Menelaus.

Eventually, so many of his followers are killed that he decides to rejoin the battle leading to Troilus' death and, in turn, to Hecuba, Polyxena and Paris plotting Achilles' murder.

His version (a history) is more moralistic and less touching, removing the psychological complexity of Benoît's (a romance) and the focus in his retelling of the love triangle is firmly shifted to the betrayal of Troilus by Briseida.

Troilus mocks the lovelorn glances of other men who put their trust in women before falling victim to love himself when he sees Cressida, here a young widow, in the Palladium, the temple of Athena.

More a Hamlet than a Romeo,[140] by the end of the play his illusions of love shattered and Hector dead, Troilus might show signs of maturing, recognising the nature of the world, rejecting Pandarus and focusing on revenge for his brother's death rather than for a broken heart or a stolen horse.

[145] Troilus' actions are subject to the gaze and commentary of both the venal Pandarus and of the cynical Thersites who tells us: ...That dissembling abominable varlet Diomed has got that same scurvy, doting, foolish knave's sleeve of Troy there in his helm.

[154] Boitani sees the two World Wars and the 20th century's engagement "in the recovery of all sorts of past myths"[155] as contributing to a rekindling of interest in Troilus as a human being destroyed by events beyond his control.

[158] Love and death, the latter either as a tragedy in itself or as an epic symbol of Troy's own destruction, therefore, are the two core elements of the Troilus myth for the editor of the first book-length survey of it from ancient to modern times.

[155] Belief in the medieval tradition of the Trojan War that followed Dictys and Dares survived the Revival of Learning in the Renaissance and the advent of the first English translation of the Iliad in the form of Chapman's Homer.

Then, in "some of the most powerful and hair-raising" words ever written on Troilus' death,[165] Wolf describes how Achilles enters the temple, caresses then half-throttles the terrified boy, who lies on the altar, before finally beheading him like a sacrificial victim.

After his death, the Trojan council propose that Troilus be officially declared to have been twenty in the hope of avoiding the prophecy about him but Priam, in his grief, refuses as this would insult his dead son further.

The major difficulty is the emotional dissatisfaction resulting from how the tale, as originally invented by Benoît, is embedded into the pre-existing narrative of the Trojan War with its demands for the characters to meet their traditional fates.

[171] Christopher Hassall's libretto blends elements of Chaucer and Shakespeare with inventions of its own arising from a wish to tighten and compress the plot, the desire to portray Cressida more sympathetically and the search for a satisfactory ending.

The closed window, The river of Styx, the wall of limitation Beyond which the word beyond loses its meaning, Are the fertilising paradox, the grille That, severing, joins, the end to make us begin Again and again, the infinite dark that sanctions Our growing flowers in the light, our having children...

[179] The general tone is one of high comedy combined with a "genuine atmosphere of doom, danger and chaos" with the BBC website listing A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum as an inspiration together with Chaucer, Shakespeare, Homer and Virgil.

In a reversal of the usual story, he is able to avenge Hector by killing Achilles: they meet outside Troy and the Greek hero, despite being more than a match for the young Trojan, catches his heel on some vegetation and stumbles.

The story was originally intended to end more conventionally, with "Cressida", despite her love for him, apparently abandoning him for "Diomede", but the producers declined to renew co-star Maureen O'Brien's contract, requiring that her character Vicki be written out.

A helmeted figure emerges from behind a fountain, topped with two lions. That is being approached from the other side by an unarmoured rider. Below the horse is a setting sun. Painted underneath this scene are trees shown in different seasons of the year.
Achilles (left) ambushing Troilus (on horseback, right). Etruscan fresco , Tomb of the Bulls , Tarquinia , 530–520 BC.
One side of a painted bowl. A mounted youth holding a spear rides away from a fountain. A woman runs after him. She is looking back towards the fountain.
Troilus and Polyxena fleeing. Kylix , by C-painter, c. 570–565 BC, Louvre (CA 6113), black-figure Attic. That there are two horses shown side by side can most clearly be seen by looking at their legs and tails.
A helmeted man with a shield is rising. Next to him is a dropped flask. On the far side of a colonnaded fountain can be seen part of a woman who is running away. The water spout in the fountain is set in a lion's head.
Achilles about to pursue Troilus and Polyxena from his position behind the well-house (reverse side of above).
A painted strip running between the handles on the shoulders of a flask. A man wearing a greek-style helmet pulls a naked youth from one of a pair of horses. In the man's other hand is a raised sword. Behind the man, water pours form a lion's head fountain.
Achilles seizing Troilus by the hair as the youth attempts to flee the ambush at the fountain. Etruscan amphora of the Pontic group, ca. 540–530 BC. From Vulci.
An image painted on the body of a vase. A seated woman speaks to a man behind her while her hand gestures forward. The man wears greaves and a helmet and holds a shield and a spear.
Athena directing Achilles to attack Troilus. A feature of the tale not available from written sources. Detail of an Etruscan red-figure stamnos (from a pair known as "Fould stamnoi"), ca. 300 BC. From Vulci.
A naked youth holds the reins of a horse. He is naked apart from sandals and some a crown or garland on his head. Behind him is a shield, the aegis of Athena
An example of Troilus with only one horse. Reverse side of above
A picture on several pottery fragments. A youth rides one of two horses. He talks to a woman with a vase on her head. Behind the woman is some sort of structure. One of the horses is drinking from a bowl.
Troilus and Polyxena at the fountain, Laconian black-figured dinos , Rider Painter, 560–540 BC., Louvre E662, Campana Collection 1861
More pottery fragments. An armoured man kneels, hiding behind the structure.
Achilles lying in wait, part of the same illustration
An illustration on the shoulders of a vase. A man in Greek-style armour chases a youth who is riding one of a pair of horses. His cloak streams behind him. A broken vase is below the horses. On either side of these figures are fleeing woman and, beyond them, men in ancient Anatolian costumes.
Achilles pursues Troilus, black-figure Attic hydria , ca. 510 BC , Staatliche Antikensammlungen (Inv. 1722)
two images from a bowl. The outside strip shows an armoured man dragging a boy towards an altar. Behind them two horses run away. In the inner illustration, they are at the altar. The man has his sword raised ready to swing. He holds by the hair the boy who is struggling to break free.
Achilles about to behead Troilus at the altar. Red-figured kylix c. 510BC, signed by Euphronios . Now in the Museo Archeologico, Perugia . Note how the size of the figures is used to emphasise the brutality of the murder. [ 73 ]
a piture beaten out on the bronze of the breastplate. A man with a shield drags a naked youth by the hair from his horse.
A Roman illustration still showing Achilles having run down a mounted Troilus. Detail of bronze breastplate of a statue of Germanicus . 2nd century. From Perugia.
The page reads "The famous Historie of Troilus and Cresseid. Excellently expressing the beginning of their loues and the conceited wooing of Pandarus, Prince of Lycia. Written by William Shakespeare. London Printed by G. Eld for R. Bonian and H. Walley, and are to be sold at the Spred Eagle in Paules Church-yeard, ouer against the great North doore. 1609." (sic)
William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida : 1609 quarto, title page
A very busy picture where many figures are shown dressed in late medieval style. In the centre is the temple where Achilles is being ambushed. On either sides are the battles where Troilus and Paris are killed. Scrolls of text are visible above and below the picture, though what is written is not clear.
15th-century Dutch tapestry of the deaths of Troilus, Achilles and Paris. Near the top of the left panel, the raised sword is held by Achilles who is about to behead the helpless Troilus. At the bottom, he is dragging the headless body behind his horse. [ 110 ]
A printed page. A picture and some text and set asymmetrically in a wide band decorated with a leaf motif. The text shows the last few verses of Book I and the start of Book II of Troilus and Criseyde. The first letter of Book II is ornately decorated. Above the text, the picture is set in its own decorated border. It shows the tall slender figures of a man and a woman in long medieval clothing. Between them is a hexagonal table set with food and drink.
A Pre-Raphaelite interpretation by Edward Burne-Jones in the Kelmscott Chaucer , designed by William Morris .
A page of illuminated manuscript. A picture is drawn in the loops of the "S" that opens the text. The theme round the edge of the page includes berries and birds with intertwined necks.
The opening of Canto 2 from a 14th-century manuscript of Il Filostrato . The illustration shows Pandarus visiting Troilus whose unrequited love has made him take to his bed. Codex Christianei, Ex Bibliotheca Gymnasii Altonani ( Hamburg ).
An illustrated page. In the foreground a man in a stand talks to reclining robed figures. In the middle ground is a forest and a road along which various figures travel towards a castle in the background.
Chaucer reciting his Troilus . Frontispiece from early 15th-century manuscript of Troilus and Criseyde , Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
A print. In the foreground are a young man and awoman in each others arms. An older man looks on. All are dressed after the ancient Roman style
Troilus and Cressida in Pandarus' orchard. Valentine Walter Bromley after Shakespeare.
A print. The inside of a large grand tent. In the centre and right foreground are a young man and woman. Beyond them to the left, in another section of the tent, an older man is restraining an angry young man. In the far left background an ugly man looks on. The characters are dressed in a mixture of ancient, medieval and Georgian clothing.
Thersites (far left with torch) watches Ulysses restraining Troilus as Diomedes seduces Cressida. Painted by Angelica Kauffman in 1789, and engraved by Luigi Schiavonetti for the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery 's illustrated edition of Troilus and Cressida in 1795.