Correlative Episodes before the Achaian War against Troy

Two final examples of epic incidents correlative with the Ilioupersis, Herakles’ campaign against Troy and Theseus’ abduction of Helen. lie on the chronological periphery of the Trojan legend. Both events take place well before the outbreak of the Achaian war against Troy and belong primarily to antecedent generations of heroes, no longer active in the age of Agamemnon. A mythographic handbook like that of Apollodoros would prefer to catalogue Herakles’ expedition against Troy not with the later campaign against the city, but among the hero’s other contemporary adventures. And because the stories of the Dioskouroi are best represented in the work of poets affiliated with Sparta, we might, if categorizing the myth, group it more readily with Spartan legend than with Helen’s later abduction. Yet, despite the narrative distance separating Herakles and Theseus from their Achaian and Trojan successors, a surprising degree of affiliation can be traced between the traditions. The creative activity of the poets was not restricted by mythological categories or geographical guidelines, and the extensive narrative interaction among these stories is evidence of wide migration of the epic tradition and mingling of diverse currents of myth.

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