Editing Achilles (section)

=== Troilus ===
[[File:Achilles slaying Troilus.PNG|thumb|left|Achilles slaying Troilus, red-figure kylix signed by [[Euphronios]]]]

According to the ''[[Cypria]]'' (the part of the [[Epic Cycle]] that tells the events of the Trojan War before Achilles' wrath), when the [[Achaeans (Homer)|Achaeans]] desired to return home, they were restrained by Achilles, who afterwards attacked the cattle of [[Aeneas]], sacked neighbouring cities (such as [[Pedasus]] and [[Lyrnessus]], where the Greeks capture the queen [[Briseis]]) and killed [[Tenes]], a son of [[Apollo]], as well as Priam's son [[Troilus]] in the sanctuary of Apollo [[Thymbra]]ios; however, the romance between Troilus and [[Chryseis]] described in [[Geoffrey Chaucer]]'s ''[[Troilus and Criseyde]]'' and in [[William Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Troilus and Cressida]]'' is a medieval invention.<ref name="stoa.org">{{cite web |url=http://www.stoa.org/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Stoa:text:2003.01.0004 |title=Proclus' Summary of the Cypria |publisher=Stoa.org |access-date=9 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091009120320/http://www.stoa.org/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Stoa:text:2003.01.0004 |archive-date=9 October 2009 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="New Pauly" />

In [[Dares Phrygius]]' ''Account of the Destruction of Troy'',<ref>{{cite web |url=http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/DaresTW.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011130034104/http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/DaresTW.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=30 November 2001 |title=Dares' account of the destruction of Troy, Greek Mythology Link |publisher=Homepage.mac.com |access-date=9 March 2010<!--Added by DASHBot-->}}</ref> the Latin summary through which the story of Achilles was transmitted to medieval Europe, as well as in older accounts, Troilus was a young Trojan prince, the youngest of King [[Priam]]'s and [[Hecuba]]'s five legitimate sons (or according other sources, another son of Apollo).<ref>Pseudo-Apollodorus, ''Bibliotheca'' 3.151.</ref> Despite his youth, he was one of the main Trojan war leaders, a "horse fighter" or "chariot fighter" according to Homer.<ref>''Iliad'' 24.257. Cf. [[Vergil]], ''[[Aeneid]]'' 1.474–478.</ref> Prophecies linked Troilus' fate to that of Troy and so he was ambushed in an attempt to capture him. Yet Achilles, struck by the beauty of both Troilus and his sister [[Polyxena]], and overcome with lust, directed his sexual attentions on the youth—who, refusing to yield, instead found himself decapitated upon an altar-omphalos of Apollo [[Thymbra]]ios.<ref>Pseudo-Apollodorus, ''Bibliotheca Epitome'' 3.32.</ref> Later versions of the story suggested Troilus was accidentally killed by Achilles in an over-ardent lovers' embrace.<ref>Scholia to [[Lycophron]] 307; [[Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius]], Scholia to the ''Aeneid'' 1.474.</ref> In this version of the myth, Achilles' death therefore came in retribution for this sacrilege.<ref>James Davidson, [http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n14/davi02_.html "Zeus Be Nice Now"] in ''London Review of Books'', 19 July 2007. Retrieved 23 October 2007.</ref> Ancient writers treated Troilus as the epitome of a dead child mourned by his parents. Had Troilus lived to adulthood, the [[First Vatican Mythographer]] claimed, Troy would have been invincible; however, the motif is older and found already in [[Plautus]]' ''[[Bacchides (play)|Bacchides]]''.<ref>[[Plautus]], [[Bacchides (Plautus)|''Bacchides'']] 953ff.</ref>