Not even Artemis: following the Vatican epitome, where the meaning of this is left to the reader’s understanding; I have completed the sentence following sc. Il. 1. 108 (cf. sc. Eur. Orest. 658). The reading in the Sabbaitic epitome, ‘it could not escape alive even if Artemis wanted it to,’ is surely a misinterpretation of the statement in its abbreviated form.
Agamemnon brought her. . . at the altar: as in the Cypria(Procl.). See also Euripides’ Iphigeneia in Aulisand the introductory speech of his Iphigeneia in Tauris.
Cycnos: not the adversary of Heracles (pp. 82, 90) but a son of Poseidon who ruled at Colonai in the Troad (cf. P. 10. 14. 1 ff). Tenedos was a small island lying off the coast of the Troad.
While. . . offering a sacrifice to Apollo: on Tenedos, following the Cypria(Procl.). Homer mentions the water-snake, hydros, as the cause of his wound, Il. 2. 723. The later tradition varies; in Soph. Philoct. Milf, he is bitten on Chryse, an island near Lemnos, by a serpent guarding the local temple of Athene; or he is bitten where his comrades abandon him, on Lemnos (e.g. Hyg. 102).
the bow of Heracles: Heracles gave it to his father Poias (or to Philoctetes himself) for lighting his pyre, see p. 91 and note.
sending Odysseus and Menelaos: cf. Il. 3. 205 ff.
first. . . to disembark: cf. Il. 2. 701 f., where his killer is a nameless Dardanian (as against Hector in the Cypria, see Procl.); that Protesilaos would be the first to enter battle is suggested in his name.
Laodameia: there seems to have been some coverage of her story in the Cypria(P. 4. 2. 7; there she was described as Polydora, daughter of Meleager, but the present name is general in later authors). The pathetic tale appealed to later sentiment and was much developed and varied. Protesilaos was to be released from Hades for a limited period only. (See also Ovid Heroides18. and Hyg. 103 and 104. In Hyg. 103, Laodameia prays to be allowed three hours with him, and is unable to endure the sorrow when he dies for a second time.)
by hurling a stone at his head: Cycnos (the father of Tenes, see above) was said to be invulnerable except in his head (sc. Lcophr. 232). There was another tradition that he was wholly invulnerable and Achilles had to strangle him as Heracles strangled the Nemean lion (e.g. Ov. Met. 12. 144, with the thong of his helmet).
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).