demigods: a term sometimes applied to the heroes of the Trojan War and earlier adventures (see Hes. WD159 ff., cf. Il. 12. 23); it need not imply divine parentage.
For one of these reasons: Homer remarks enigmatically in Il. 1. 5 that the war fulfilled the will of Zeus, but offers no explanation. Elsewhere two main reasons are adduced (which need not be exclusive), one, as here, that it was to be a source of glory for those involved, and another that Zeus wanted to lighten the burden on the Earth, which was weighed down by an excessive number of mortals (thus the Cypriaas quoted in sc. Il. 1. 5; some included the Theban War as part of the plan, sc. Eur. Orest. 1641).
Eris threw an apple: Eris, discord personified, now sets in motion the chain of events that will lead to the Trojan War. This takes place at the marriage of Peleus and Thetis (Procl.; for the marriage see p. 129). The apple is first mentioned in late sources (e.g. Hyg. 92) but the theme could well be early; it is inscribed ‘to the fairest’, or Eris says that the fairest should take it. On Eris, see also Il. 4. 440 ff. The judgement of Paris is mentioned by Homer, Il. 24. 25 ff.
with ships built by Phereclos: on Phereclos, see Il. 5. 59 ff. The fleet was suggested by Aphrodite, and she told Aeneas to sail with Paris (Procl).
the funeral of his maternal grandfather Catreus: after he had been killed by his son Althaimenes, p. 99; Menelaos was his grandson through Aerope.
the treasures: from the palace of Menelaos; this became an issue in the war, see Il. 3. 70 ff. and 285 ff.
put in at Sidon: Homer alludes to his stay there in Il. 6. 289 ff; in the Cypria, he captured the city (Procl.).
a phantom of Helen: a theme invented by the lyric poet Stesichorus (late seventh to early sixth century). According to a later (and doubtless apocryphal) story, he was struck blind after he had spoken badly of Helen in one of his poems, and this caused him to write a recantation saying that only her phantom was present at Troy (thus absolving her from blame for the war); see Plato Phaed. 243a f., with the verses quoted there. See also Eur. Helen(31 ff. and passim)and Hdt. 2. 112 ff.
to Agamemnon in Mycenae: as king of Mycenae he was the richest and most powerful king in Greece, and undisputed leader of the expedition. According to the Homeric catalogue he ruled the north-eastern corner of the Peloponnese in an area also embracing Corinth and Sicyon ( Il. 2. 569 ff, while Diomedes ruled Argos, Tiryns, and much of the Argolid, ibid. 559 ff.); but there are also suggestions that he held wider authority (e.g. ibid. 107 ff.).
the oaths: most of the Greek kings had been suitors for Helen’s hand, and had sworn to help the one who was chosen as her husband if he should be wronged with regard to his marriage, see p. 121.
pretended to be mad: he is said to have yoked an ox with a horse (Hyg. 95), and sown the land with salt (VM 1. 35).
drew his sword: or he placed the child in front of Odysseus’ plough (Tzetz. sc. Lycophr. 818). Procl. is vague: he picked up the child ‘to punish it’.
after capturing. . . as a traitor: this is Odysseus’ later revenge for his ignominious exposure. It was also said that Odysseus killed Palamedes because he was envious of his cleverness (Xen. Mem. 4. 2. 33), or that Odysseus, Agamemnon, and Diomedes plotted against him because they were jealous of his popularity with the army for his inventions etc. (sc. Eur. Orest. 432). In the Cypria, Odysseus and Diomedes drowned him while he was fishing (P. 10. 31. 1).
a breastplate: in the manuscripts, ‘breastplates’, but this is surely a reference to the magnificent breastplate described in Il. 11. 19 ff., a personal gift from one king to another rather than a practical contribution to the expedition. The ruse of the earthenware ships, absent from Homer, may go back to the Cypria(although Procl. makes no mention of it). For Cinyras, see p. 131.
Elais, Spermo, and Oino: their names refer to the oil, grain, and wine elicited by them. They lived with their father, Anios, on Delos. Ap.’s account in the original text was probably comparable with that in Dictys of Crete, Trojan War1. 23, where they send provisions to the Greeks at Aulis. It was also said that Anios, who knew that Troy could not be taken until the tenth year, offered to maintain the Greek army at Delos for the intervening period, using his daughters to feed them (Tzetz. sc. Lycophr. 570, reporting the Cypriaand Pherecydes), or that his daughters came to help the Greeks when they were suffering from hunger at Troy (ibid. 580, reporting Callimachus).
Those who took part: compare Homer’s catalogue, Il. 2. 494 ff.; some of the names and numbers diverge.
a snake . . . after ten years: cf. Il. 2. 308 ff. The nine birds eaten by the snake represent nine years of war; Troy will be captured in the tenth.
Mysia: in the north-western corner of Asia Minor; historically the Troad lay within the province of that name.
Telephos, son of Heracles: see pp. 88 and 116.
entangled in a vine branch: through the anger of Dionysos, because Telephos had deprived him of his cult (sc. Il. 1. 59); hence the vine, which is emblematic of the god.
lasted twenty years: this is clearly problematic, as the war would then end twenty (rather than ten) years after the portent of the sparrows (which is said to have been revealed at the firstmuster by both Ap. above and Procl.). But there are indications that this was not a fancy of late origin. In the Cypria(Procl.) and Little Iliad(sc. Il. 19. 326) Achilles married Deidameia (and thus fathered Neoptolemos) on his way back from Mysia, and Neoptolemos must have had time to grow to fighting age before joining the Greeks in the final year of the war (see p. 156); and there is the anomalous statement by Helen in Il. 24. 765 f, where she says that it is the twentieth year since she left her homeland.
scraping rust from his Pelian spear: following the principle of sympathetic magic noted for Iphiclos’ knife on p. 47, that what inflicts harm can cure it. The Pelian spear was the ashwood spear cut on Mount Pelion by Cheiron as a wedding present for Peleus, see p. 129 with Il. 16. 143 f.