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Troilos: a son of Priam (or Apollo, p. 125) and Hecuba ( Il. 24. 257). There was a tradition that Troy could not be taken if he remained alive (Plautus Bacchides953 f, or if he lived to the age of twenty, VM 1. 210).
captured Lycaon: see Il. 21. 34 ff. for the full story. Lycaon was sold into slavery in Lemnos (also Procl.), but was ransomed, and came up against Achilles on the twelfth day after his return, giving rise to the memorable scene in which he entreats the pitiless Achilles to spare him.
rustle the cattle of Aeneas: cf. Il. 20. 90 ff. and 188 ff.
the following allies: for the Trojan allies cf. Homer’s catalogue, Il. 2. 819 ff.
performed deeds of valour: for aristeuein;the aristeiaiof the various heroes, episodes in which an individual comes to the fore and remains the centre of attention while he performs exceptional feats, formed set-pieces in the epic narrative.
exchanged armour: in Homer’s account, Glaucos exchanged ‘gold for bronze’ (the phrase became proverbial), provoking the poet to observe, in a rare personal comment, that Zeus must have deprived him of his wits ( Il. 6. 234 ff.).
The river rushed out. . . massive flame: this is rather unsatisfactory as a summary of Il. 21. 211 ff.
accidentally killed Hippolyte: her sister, whom she killed with her lance while aiming at a deer, according to QS 1. 21 ff.; see also Appendix, 8 and note. The tradition that she came there to win glory to enable her to marry (Tzetz. Posthom. 14, referring to Hellanicos and others) reflects later ethnographical interests (see Hdt. 4. 117).
Thersites: he abused Achilles ‘for his alleged passion’ (Procl.) for the Amazon, apparently an accusation of necrophilia (Eustath. on Il. 2. 219), and gouged out her eyes with his spear-point (Tzetz. sc. Lycophr. 999). The Aethiopis(Procl.) went on to say that Achilles sailed to Lesbos, sacrificed to Apollo, and was purified from the murder of Thersites by Odysseus (the first known reference to such a purification in Greek literature, for none is mentioned in Homer). On Thersites, see also p. 42 and Il. 2. 211 ff.
Memnon: to provide a suitable opponent for Achilles, a warrior who resembles him in being the son of a goddess and having a set of arms made by Hephaistos (Procl.; cf. Achilles’ arms in Il. 18. 457 ff.). Proclus further reports that Thetis told her son Achilles of the fate in store for Memnon, and that Dawn asked Zeus to grant him immortality.
shot down . . . Scaean Gates: as foretold in Il. 22. 359 f.
in the ankle: it is said in late sources at least that his mother Thetis held Achilles by the ankle when dipping him into the Styx, or the fire (cf. p. 129), to make him immortal (e.g. Serv. on Aen. 6. 57).
on the White Island: in the Aethiopis(Procl.) Thetis, with the Muses and her sisters, snatched Achilles’ body from the fire and conveyed it to the White Island (Leuke, in the Black Sea). But the present passage surely refers to the Homeric account in Od. 24. 43 ff., where the Greeks mix the bones in a golden urn for burial in a mound by the Hellespont; as Wagner observed, the phrase must have originated as a gloss on the Isles of the Blessed in the next sentence.
on the Isles of the Blessed: a home at the ends of the earth for those whom the gods absolved from death, see Hes. WD167 ff. In Homer, Achilles descends to Hades, where he complains to Odysseus of his fate as king of the shades, Od. 11. 473 ff., but in the Aethiopis, it can be inferred from Proclus’ summary that Thetis would have revived him and made him immortal after taking him to the White Island. In Pind. ol. 2. 79 ff., she conveyed him to the Isles of the Blessed. Ibycus, a sixth-century lyric poet, and Simonides are said to have placed him in Elysium (which was much the same) with Medea (sc. AR 4. 816).
the Trojans acting as judges: in Od. 11. 542 ff., the Trojans and Athene are said to be the judges. In the Little Iliad(sc. Aristophanes. Eq. 1056) spies are sent to listen under the walls of Troy, and they hear two girls discussing the matter; when one says that Aias must have been the bravest because he carried off the body of Achilles, the other counters that Odysseus was even braver because he covered their retreat. There was also a tradition that they simply asked the Trojan prisoners (sc. Od. 11. 547).
the allies: cf. Pind. Nem. 8. 26, where the Greeks decide the matter by secret ballot.
the Achaeans: the Greeks (as in Homeric usage).
Aias killed himself: see Sophocles’ Ajax.
Calchas prophesied. . . bow of Heracles: in the Little Iliad(Procl.) this was revealed by the Trojan Helenos, see below, and it seems to have been his only prophecy; in the later tradition the prophecies multiply, and are shared between Calchas and Helenos (to whom three different prophecies are attributed below). For a fuller account of the following see QS 9. 325 ff., which follows the same pattern. For the bow of Heracles, now owned by Philoctetes, see p. 151 and note. It was needed to kill Paris.
Odysseus. . . to see Philoctetes: cf. QS 9. 333 ff. In the Little Iliad(Procl.) he was fetched by Diomedes alone.
cured by Podaleirios: as sons of Ascler’js, he and his brother, Machaon, performed valuable services as healers while serving with the Greeks (cf. Il. 2. 731 f.). In the Little Iliadhe was healed by Machaon (Procl.), here as in QS 9. 461 ff.
Helenos.. . to reveal: a son of Priam and Hecuba, p. 125, whose qualities as a diviner are mentioned by Homer ( Il. 6. 76, cf. 7. 44 ff.).
bones of Pelops: see also P. 5. 13. 4 ff.
Neoptolemos: the son of Achilles by Deidameia, the daughter of Lycomedes (see p. 129); he is still on Scyros, the island off Euboea where he was born. For Odysseus’ journey, cf. Od. 11. 506 ff. (where there is no mention of Phoenix).
Eurypylos . . . at the hand of Neoptolemos: cf. Od. 11. 519 ff., he was killed with many others, ‘for the sake of a woman’s gifts’; for Priam had bribed his mother, Astyoche, to send him by offering her a golden vine made by Hephaistos (sc. Od. 11. 520, following Acousilaos).