Triphiodorus. The sack of Ilion

This article contains a poetical translation of the epic poem by the late-ancient poet Triphiodorus, The Sack of Ilion. For a long time, Triphiodorus had been considered as a poet of “the school of Nonnus” and as his epigone, and his lifetime had been dated to the end of the 5th — beginning of the 6th century. But after the publication in 1972 of the Oxyrhynchus Papyrus of the 3th century containing a few lines by Triphiodorus, it became clear that his lifetime should be shifted to the 3th century and it was not Nonnus who influenced Triphiodorus, but vice versa. Triphiodorus anticipated some stylistic and metrical innovations of Nonnus. “Suda” conveys some data about Triphiodorus stating that he lived in Egypt, and attributing to him several epic poems, among which only The Sack of Ilion has survived. It is a poem containing 691 verses and based on the plot of the Song of Demodocus summarised in Odyssey. The poem by Triphiodorus can be called “a reconstruction” of Demodocus? Song. It is also close in content to the last books of the epic Posthomerica by Quintus of Smyrna, though it is not a paraphrase but an independent development of the theme. Such Christian authors as Gregory the Nazianzenus and Gregory of Nyssa could be familiar with the poem. This is the first full translation of the poem into Russian

Sack · Classical Antiquity Studies · Engineering