Line #76 Literature/TheTrojanCycle


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/84402148_7cba_4770_9a46_1893a594f8ce.jpeg]]
2
3	Ever heard of an ancient conflict called UsefulNotes/TheTrojanWar? Quite a story, really. And then there's Creator/{{Homer}}'s epics ''Literature/TheIliad'' and ''Literature/TheOdyssey'', telling the tale in [[{{Doorstopper}} forty-eight books]] and tens of thousands of lines of [[{{Poetry}} dactylic hexameter]]...all of which focus on less than one year of the decade-long conflict, and the [[NoSenseOfDirection years Odysseus spent lost at sea]] afterwards.
4
5	Something's missing -- namely, the first nine years of the war, the actual ''end'' of the war, and associated myths. Surely they weren't just floating about in the OralTradition until [[Creator/{{Aeschylus}} some]] [[Creator/{{Euripides}} ancient]] [[Creator/{{Sophocles}} tragedians]] got hold of them?
6
7	As it happens, they weren't. It turns out that ''The Iliad'' and the ''The Odyssey'' were not the only epics that pulled together the tales of the Trojan War. In fact, there were '''eight''':
8
9	* ''The Cypria''
10	* ''Literature/TheIliad''
11	* ''The Aethiopis''
12	* ''The Little Iliad''
13	* ''The Sack of Ilion''[[note]](Also known as the ''Sack of Troy'', the ''Iliupersis'', or the ''Iliou persis'')[[/note]]
14	* ''The Returns''[[note]](Also known as the ''Nostoi'' or the ''Nosti'')[[/note]]
15	* ''Literature/TheOdyssey''
16	* ''The Telegony''
17
18	We've [[MissingEpisode lost]] every one of the above except for Homer's epics. Sorry.
19
20	But yet we still know of them. References to and quotations from the lost epics have survived in fragments. By an incredible stroke of luck, we have a work titled the ''Chrestomathy'' by an unknown Proclus, which actually summarizes the events that take place in each epic.
21
22	Thanks to these sources, we know that the epics covered everything from the marriage of Peleus and Thetis to Odysseus's death.
23
24	Note that there are additional stories that cover events connected to or following from the Cycle's, such as ''Theatre/TheOresteia'', which follows the events of the ''Returns'', and ''Literature/TheAeneid'', which follows the surviving Trojans' escape. However, because they were written a long time after the original set and within different periods of ancient literature, they are not considered part of the Trojan Cycle proper.
25	----
26	!!The Trojan Cycle provides examples of:
27	[[foldercontrol]]
28
29	[[folder:As a whole]]
30	* AdaptationDistillation: There were likely varying versions of these stories in the OralTradition. Writing them down distilled them into the versions remaining today (though a lot of variety still exists).
31	%%* BecauseDestinySaysSo: Comes up a lot.
32	* TheDeadHaveNames: Considering what we know of ''The Iliad'' and ''The Odyssey'', this was likely true throughout the Trojan Cycle.
33	%%* DivineParentage: A lot of the characters.
34	%%* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: A lot.
35	* {{Gotterdammerung}}: In the sense that the Trojan War pretty much marked the end of an age of demigods and heroes.
36	* GreyAndGrayMorality: The Trojans are defending themselves... and by doing so, are defending a wife-stealing [[SacredHospitality hospitality-abusing]] jackass. The Achaeans are honorbound by oath and Zeus (hospitality was one of his domains) to get said wife back, no matter how silly any of them might think all of them dying to get a single woman back is (WorldsMostBeautifulWoman she may be).
37	%%* HeroAntagonist: Hector, Penthesilea, Memnon... many Trojan heroes and allies, really.
38	%%* HeroicLineage: Naturally.
39	* HonorBeforeReason: Possibly the entire reason the story happened - the Achaean rulers were former suitors of Helen that all swore an oath to defend the marriage of Helen and her chosen husband, and Paris making off with her definitely qualified under that. That being said, there may have been a far more pragmatic reason for the war occurring as Menelaus became king of Sparta through marrying Helen, who was the princess of Sparta. Therefore without Helen, Menelaus would have no claim to the Spartan throne while the Trojans would, making for a SuccessionCrisis waiting to happen. This view is reinforced by the fact that in some versions, Helen marries Paris' brother Deiphobus after Paris' death. This makes no sense in the context of a romance but indicates that the Trojans are staking a claim to Sparta.
40	* NarrativePoem: Just like ''The Iliad'' and ''The Odyssey'', they're all written in dactylic hexameter. Kinda comes with the territory, being epics.
41	* NonIndicativeName: The Siege of Troy is known as having happened for ten years...but technically, it wasn't actually a siege, as a siege is a military operation where forces completely surround an area to cut off its occupants from supplies while as per the text, Troy continuously received reinforcements and communicated with allies throughout the so-called siege.
42	* OralTradition: Where these myths came from.
43	* RatedMForManly: Ten years of men fighting and sometimes even the gods themselves have to hold them back! While TheDeadHaveNames gives it a coating of WarIsHell as well, it's still got a lot of pure, unrestrained masculinity with stuff like [[OneManArmy Achilles killing so many men that he angers the god of a nearby river who's getting polluted with corpses]].
44	* RedShirt: Probably a huge number of figures, Achaeans and Trojans alike.
45	* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: The major characters are often royalty: Menelaus, the king of Sparta; Agamemnon, the king of Mycenae; Odysseus, the king of Ithaca; Hector, the prince of Troy; Penthesilea, the queen of the Amazons; Memnon, the king of the Ethiopians; etc.
46	* TheSiege: Naturally, though instead of the outright good guys holding out, [[GreyAndGrayMorality the Trojans are really just characters that are under siege, along with the Achaeans who are besieging them]]. Also, the siege wasn't really a successful implementation of a siege as NonIndicativeName can explain.
47	* SillyReasonForWar: A city was fought over for ten years...because of a jilted husband. That being said, this has a lot of factors to it rather than just being played straight. The Achaean rulers had their hands tied to persecute the war [[HonorBeforeReason because they all swore to defend Menelaus' marriage]]. On the Trojans' end, they may have kept Helen despite the threat of war due to the fact that she could give them a claim over Sparta since she was the princess of Sparta - correspondingly, avoiding a SuccessionCrisis would also explain Menelaus' determination in getting Helen back. As well, Paris stealing away Helen while he was a guest of Menelaus was a breach in SacredHospitality, some majorly SeriousBusiness to the Achaeans that was a domain of Zeus himself...And if nothing else, any silliness on its combatants' part for fighting this war can be explained away by [[BecauseDestinySaysSo the war being ordained by Zeus anyway]].
48	* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Troy was a real city and was actually destroyed and rebuilt several times...mainly because it was very rich and its neighbors wanted some {{plunder}}.
49	* WarriorPrince: Multiple, mainly the sons of Priam and notably Hector, a prince of Troy and its greatest defender.
50	* WomanlinessAsPathos: The Trojan War. The whole thing was started by Eris, the goddess of discord, tossing a [[AppleOfDiscord golden apple into Olympus "for the fairest"]]. As a result, the goddesses fight over it, resulting in Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena choosing Paris as the 'judge'. Aphrodite bribing Paris with Helen of Sparta, the WorldsMostBeautifulWoman and the famous 'face that launched a thousand ships', is what gets the war going. This causes the men around Helen, including her husband King Menelaus, to start and sustain a conflict that lasts over a decade while Helen herself remains relatively passive in Troy.
51	[[/folder]]
52
53	[[folder:''Cypria'']]
54	The events that led to the War itself, chiefly Paris' judgement of the beauty of the goddesses and his taking of Helen.
55	----
56	* TheAlliance: The Achaeans, thanks to the pact Helen's suitors swore. The Trojans are quick to call upon their own allies, as well.
57	* AppleOfDiscord: The golden apple Strife uses to cause, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin strife]], inscribed with the word "καλλίστῃ" ("for the fairest").
58	* ArrangedMarriage: Iphigenia is lured to Aulis with the lie that she is to be married to Achilles.
59	* BecauseDestinySaysSo: Both Helenus ''and'' Cassandra prophesied some amount of what would happen from the very start. This foreknowledge does not help the Trojans in any way.
60	* BlasphemousBoast: Agamemnon's claim after killing a deer. See DisproportionateRetribution, below.
61	%%* TheCassandra: Obviously.
62	* CassandraTruth: It seems the Trojans don't pay much mind to what Helenus or Cassandra warn, as they accept Paris and Helen back and settle down to wait out the siege...
63	* DisproportionateRetribution: Agamemnon claims to surpass Artemis; she forces him to sacrifice his daughter. [[SarcasmMode Perfectly reasonable, right]]?
64	* DivineDate: Peleus's marriage to Thetis.
65	* HumanSacrifice: Artemis demands that Agamemnon sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia, before she allows the Achaeans to sail to Troy. (Then she changes her mind and snatches her away to Tauris.)
66	* {{Immortality}}: Either only Polydeuces is immortal, or [[SiblingTeam he and Castor]] share their immortality.
67	%%* LivingMacGuffin: Helen.
68	* LoopholeAbuse: Cinyras promises to send fifty ships to aid the Achaeans. Forty-nine of the ones he sends are made out of clay.
69	%%* LoveGoddess: Aphrodite.
70	%%* LoveMakesYouCrazy: Helen and Paris.
71	* ObfuscatingInsanity: Odysseus fakes insanity to try to get out of taking part in the Trojan War, but is found out by Palamedes.
72	* {{Plunder}}: The Achaeans attack the surrounding countryside during the siege.
73	* PopulationControl: The Trojan War itself seems to be Zeus' idea of how to keep the world's population down. [[RedShirt Protesilaus]] is just the beginning.
74	* {{Prequel}}: It is believed that the epic was composed after the ''The Iliad''.
75	%%* RedShirt: Protesilaus, the first to die at Troy.
76	%%* RevengeSVP: Eris doesn't take not being invited to the wedding well.
77	* SacredHospitality: Paris takes advantage of Menelaus's hospitality to steal most of his property and his wife, Helen.
78	* WorldsMostBeautifulWoman: Helen again. Also, in the Judgement of Paris, he is to decide which of the three goddesses is the fairest.
79	* WouldNotShootACivilian: Averted. The Achaeans are quick to raze the surrounding countryside once the siege begins.
80	[[/folder]]
81
82	[[folder:''Aethiopis'']]
83	The arrival of Penthesilea and the Amazons and of Memnon and the Aethiopians to support Troy, their deaths in battle against Achilles, and Achilles' own death.
84	----
85	* ActionGirl: Penthesilea, the Amazon and daughter of the war god, who slaughters the Achaeans unchecked until Achilles slays her.
86	* AntagonistTitle: ''Aethiopis'' refers to the Ethiopians, newly arrived Trojan allies whom Memnon leads.
87	* BigGuyFatalitySyndrome: Achilles takes out both Penthesilea and Memnon, only to meet his death by Paris, with the divine help of Apollo, shortly afterwards.
88	%%* TheCavalry: The new Trojan allies.
89	* CustomUniform: Like the armour Achilles gets in the ''Iliad'', Memnon's armour is also crafted by Hephestus.
90	* CurbStompBattle: Carefully averted with the introduction of new Trojan allies such as Penthesilea and Memnon. Otherwise, considering the Trojans lost their greatest defender in the ''Iliad'', the remainder of the war would have been this.
91	* DeathIsDramatic: Chasing the ''entire Trojan army'' into the city, taken down by Paris only with the divine help of Apollo? Achilles is just that badass.
92	* DivineParentage: Multiple characters, notably Achilles and the new Trojan allies, Penthesilea and Memnon.
93	* DoomedByCanon: Coming to Troy, Achilles was doomed from the start. His life was prophesied to go one of two ways: he would either live a long, uneventful life, or he would die a young, glorious hero at Troy.
94	* DueToTheDead: Once Achilles falls, battle rages so that the Achaeans can recover his body. His funeral is followed with the customary funeral games.
95	* DyingMomentOfAwesome: Achilles, while chasing the entire Trojan army into the city.
96	%%* EitherOrProphecy: Achilles's is fulfilled here. He's DoomedByCanon.%%How is this an example of this trope?
97	* EndingMemorialService: The epic ends with the funeral games of Achilles.
98	* {{Immortality}}: Memnon's mother, Eos, convinces Zeus to grant him immortality after his death.
99	* ILoveTheDead: Achilles apparently falls in love with Penthesilea after killing her and removing her helm. He kills Thersites for mocking him about it.
100	* InvincibleHero: Up until this point, Achilles was this. It takes Paris shooting him with the divine help of Apollo to bring him down.
101	* MarkedToDie: It's mentioned twice in the ''Iliad'' that Achilles would be killed by Apollo and the summary of the ''Aethiopis'' mentions that Thetis prophesied something regarding his battle with Memnon to her son.
102	* MeaningfulFuneral: Thetis arrives with the Muses and the other Nereids when the Achaeans bring Achilles's body back to the ships.
103	* NoOneGetsLeftBehind: The Achaeans fight ferociously to recover Achilles's body.
104	%%* NotSoInvincibleAfterAll: Achilles.
105	* OneManArmy: Achilles. Penthesilea and Memnon also fit this trope until they are killed.
106	* StormingTheCastle: After killing Memnon, Achilles puts the entire Trojan army to flight and pursues them into the city.
107	* SupernaturalAid: Apollo aids Paris in killing Achilles.
108	%%* TooPowerfulToLive: Achilles again, a non-antagonist example.
109	%%* WorthyOpponent: Memnon to Achilles.
110	* WouldHitAGirl: The Achaeans kill Amazons the same as everyone else.
111	%%* YourDaysAreNumbered: And Achilles knew it.
112	[[/folder]]
113
114	[[folder:''Little Iliad'']]
115	The war after Achilles' death, terminating in the creation of Odysseus' horse. The ''Little Iliad'' cuts off just before the sack of the city itself.
116	----
117	* ArrangedMarriage: Helen's marriage to Deiphobus was this.
118	* BolivianArmyCliffhanger: According to Proclus' summary, the epic ends with the Trojan guard down and the Achaeans poised to ravage the city.
119	* BecauseDestinySaysSo: Why the Achaeans need to find Neoptolemus and Philoctetes, and capture the Palladion.
120	* TheChosenOne: It's prophesied that Troy won't fall to Greece without the aid of Neoptolemus and Philoctetes.
121	* ContinuitySnarl: The sack narrated in this epic is slightly different from the one in the ''Sack of Ilion''. [[Literature/TheAeneid Aeneas]], for instance, is captured by the Achaeans and taken by Neoptolemus, and the son of Achilles is the [[WouldHurtAChild one to kill Astyanax]].
122	%%* DarkestHour: The people of Troy have entered theirs.
123	* DeadPersonConversation: When Neoptolemus receives Achilles's armour, he sees the ghost of his father.
124	%%* DramaticIrony: Oh so much.
125	%%* DrivenToSuicide: Ajax.
126	%%* GuileHero: Odysseus.
127	* HollywoodHealing: Philoctetes has been wounded for ''nine years''. He arrives at Troy and suddenly, he's healed. Though this is justified since the ones doing the healing are children of Asclepius, the dude whose healing prowess is so good he can literally bring back the dead.
128	* InsaneEqualsViolent: Ajax briefly goes mad and attacks the Achaeans' plundered flock.
129	%%* TheInfiltration: Odysseus' recon of Troy.
130	%%* ISurrenderSuckers: The Achaeans' feigned retreat.
131	* TheMedic: Machaon, who successfully heals Philoctetes's ''nine-year-old'' wound. Justified, since Machaon is the son of Asclepius the God of Healing.
132	* NoOneGetsLeftBehind: They come back for Philoctetes! [[SarcasmMode So it's all good, right]]?
133	%%* OneSidedBattle: Probably the case when the Achaeans emerge from the TrojanHorse.%%"Probably"?
134	* PlayingBothSides: Helen seems to be doing this. When she realises the Achaeans are going to take the city, she's perfectly happy to let them.
135	* RedShirt: Probably plenty of people, particularly the Trojans Odysseus slays on his way out of Troy.
136	%%* RightUnderTheirNoses: When Odysseus sneaks into Troy.
137	* RomancingTheWidow: When Paris is killed, the Trojans don't conclude that maybe they should finally return Helen. Nope; Paris's brother, Deiphobus, marries her instead.
138	* SchmuckBait: The TrojanHorse, built tall enough that the Trojans need to dismantle part of their wall if they want to get it into the city.
139	%%* {{Seers}}: Helenus.
140	* SniperDuel: Occurs between Philoctetes and Paris. Philoctetes wins, mortally wounding Paris with his Hydra venom arrows.
141	* SoleSurvivor: A surviving quotation from the epic specifies that [[Literature/TheAeneid Aeneas]] was spared (odd considering that the Achaeans slew all the men of Troy) and was taken by Neoptolemus.
142	%%* StartsWithASuicide: Namely, Ajax's.
143	* TakeUpMySword: Neoptolemus is given Achilles's armour and brought to aid the Achaeans against Troy.
144	%%* TrojanHorse
145	* TurnCoat: It seems that Helen couldn't care less about Troy after Paris is killed.
146	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: What ever happened to Philoctetes? Remember him, from the ''Cypris''? Apparently he's just been chilling on Lemnos for nine years, with a wound that [[{{Squick}} refuses to heal]]...
147	* WouldHurtAChild: A quotation from the epic describes Neoptolemus throwing Hector's child, Astyanax, from the walls.
148	* YouKilledMyFather: Paris killed Achilles (with Apollo's help). Neoptolemus arrives at Troy and nearly immediately kills Paris.
149	[[/folder]]
150
151	[[folder:''Sack of Ilion'']]
152	The sack and destruction of Troy by the victorious Achaeans.
153	----
154	* ContinuitySnarl: Here Aeneas flees Troy after the [[Art/LaocoonAndHisSons ominous death of Laocoön]], compared to his capture in the ''Little Iliad''. Astyanax is also killed by Odysseus rather than Neoptolemus.
155	%%* DarkestHour: This is Troy's.
156	* DeathOfTheHypotenuse: When recovering Helen, Menelaus slays Deiphobus.
157	* DramaticIrony: The Trojans debate what to do with the horse, while we know the Achaeans are inside waiting for their chance to spring out of it and open the gates.
158	%%* DueToTheDead: It seems Achilles demanded HumanSacrifice.
159	* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: The walls of Troy are breached and the Achaeans sack the city.
160	* FinalBattle: The culmination of ten years of war: the Achaeans are finally within the city and the Trojans are fighting for survival. This is the end.
161	* HumanSacrifice: The sacrifice of Polyxena at the tomb of Achilles.
162	%%* LastStand
163	%%* LibationForTheDead
164	* MadeASlave: During the sack, numerous Trojan women, Hecuba and Andromache in particular, are taken as slaves by the Achaeans.
165	* TheMedic: Machaon is mentioned in a fragment, though the ''Little Iliad'' [[ContinuitySnarl had him killed in its narrative]].
166	* OneSidedBattle: The Achaeans crept in in the dark of night, after the Trojans had celebrated their release and fallen asleep. They didn't stand a chance.
167	* RapePillageAndBurn: Once Troy is breached and its defenders overpowered, the Achaean army rampages through the city, slaughtering its people, stealing everything of worth, seizing its women as slaves, and setting fire to everything that can burn. The only thing that they show any hesitancy towards harming are the temples of the gods, as they gives serious thought to stoning Ajax the Lesser to death when he damages Athena's alter while wrestling Cassandra away from it. The Achaeans' conduct during the sack is so debauched and feckless of the gods, only two kings' troops got to sail home unimpeded -- the rest all managed to severely offend some god or another, who promptly makes their return treacherous.
168	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Aeneas doesn't stay long after the death of Laocoön, and flees the city.
169	%%* {{Seers}}: Cassandra, of the CassandraTruth.
170	%%* StormingTheCastle: And the Achaeans finally penetrate inside the city.
171	* WatchingTroyBurn: Those who survived the attack by the Achaeans see their city looted and burned.
172	%%* WouldHurtAChild: Odysseus, who kills Astyanax.
173	[[/folder]]
174
175	[[folder:''Returns'']]
176	After Troy's destruction, the Achaean armies return to their homes. Some make it, some don't, and some will spend ten more years trying to get back.
177	----
178	%%* BigScrewedUpFamily: Agamemnon's. Aegisthus is his ''cousin''.
179	* BoltOfDivineRetribution: Athena, being rather displeased with Ajax, asks Zeus to send a storm to destroy him. Zeus obliges.
180	* BoringReturnJourney: Very averted for several important Achaeans. Diomedes and Nestor actually gets one of these due to managing to be one of the few Achaean rulers that did not happen to anger a god over their actions during the last decade of war.
181	* TheCassandra: Cassandra, who was given to Agamemnon as a slave, is also killed.
182	* CycleOfRevenge: Clytaemestra is unhappy with Agamemnon for (seemingly) sacrificing their daughter, Iphigenia. Orestes takes revenge for his father by killing Clytaemestra.
183	* DeadPersonConversation: Death hasn't stopped Achilles from chatting with people yet. This is the third epic in a row, and he died way back in the ''Aethiopis''.
184	* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: This epic depicts...the returns of the Achaeans back home, of course. Though this title does undersell it a tad and the Achaeans' mileage varies heavily in actually getting home.
185	%%* HomeSweetHome: At least some of them reach it.
186	%%* TheHomewardJourney: Naturally.
187	* HostileWeather: Athena gets Zeus to send a storm after the Achaeans.
188	* KarmicDeath: The Achaeans couldn't kill Ajax, since he took refuge at the temple of Athena. Athena, however, has no qualms about punishing him.
189	* MurderTheHypotenuse: Clytaemestra and her lover's murder of Agamemnon.
190	* NoSenseOfDirection: Menelaus somehow ends up in Egypt.
191	* RedShirt: All the random Achaeans killed in the storms at sea.
192	* {{Revenge}}: Athena taking revenge on Ajax, Clytaemestra taking revenge on Agamemnon, Orestes taking revenge on Clytaemestra, etc.
193	* RightfulKingReturns: A lot of important Achaeans ''were'' kings, after all.
194	* {{Seers}}: Calchas, Cassandra. Achilles's ghost also warns of things to come.
195	* SelfMadeOrphan: Orestes, who kills his mother.
196	* TheUnderworld: Several fragments and references seem to imply that there was some passage dealing with Hades, perhaps showing Agamemnon and the others killed arriving in Hades (as the suitors are shown in ''The Odyssey'').
197	* YouCantGoHomeAgain: For some of the Achaeans, notably Ajax. Many others experience difficult homecomings.
198	* YouKilledMyFather: So Orestes kills his mother.
199	[[/folder]]
200
201	[[folder:''Telegony'']]
202	The final story in the cycle and one most distantly removed from Troy itself. The ''Telegony'' follows Telegonus, Circe and Odysseus' son, who was born after his father left Aeaea, as he sets out to find his father. It goes less than ideally.
203	----
204	* AbdicateTheThrone: Odysseus leaves Thesprotia to Polypoites after the queen dies. Admittedly, he just goes right back to being king in Ithaca.
205	* AntagonistTitle: Telegonus could be considered an antagonist of sorts, as he ends up killing his father.
206	* DirectionlessDriver: Telegonus apparently has no idea where he's going.
207	* DivineParentage: Telegonus, the son of Circe, is half minor deity on his mother's side.
208	* DoubleInLawMarriage: At the end, Telegonus then returns to Aeaea with his father's body, as well as his half-brother Telemachus and Odysseus' wife Penelope. Both of whom are made immortal by Circe, and Telegonus marries Penelope while Circe marries Telemachus.
209	%%* HeroicBastard: The epic is named for Telegonus, after all.
210	* {{Immortality}}: Telemachus and Penelope are made immortal by Circe at the end.
211	* ImprovisedWeapon: Telegonus's weapon is a stingray barb, not just a blade.
212	%%* IWillWaitForYou: We can only assume this is what Penelope did as Odysseus disappeared for however many years ''again''.%%Assume or know?
213	* MurderByMistake: Telegonus didn't know the island he was plundering was his father's, after all! [[SarcasmMode It was all just a huge misunderstanding]].
214	* {{Patricide}}: While this is a result of neither recognizing the other until it's too late, Telegonus ends up killing his father.
215	* {{Plunder}}: As is the way of most Homeric heroes, Telegonus happily engages in piracy and raiding when he's not actively pursuing his main quest. This doesn't end well -- after being stranded on what later turns out to be Ithaca, he starts stealing the local cattle and ends up in a battle to the death with his own father as a result.
216	* RomancingTheWidow: Telegonus ''also'' marries his father's wife.
217	* SelfMadeOrphan: Accidentally. Neither Telegonus nor Odysseus has ever laid eyes on the other, Odysseus doesn't know that he has a second son, and Telegonus winds up on Ithaca when his ship is wrecked on its shores and is not initially aware of where he is. As a result, their initial encounter quickly becomes a battle, and they only realize who the other is when Odysseus is dying on the ground.
218	* TangledFamilyTree: By the end of the epic, Telegonus and Telemachus are both each other's stepfathers and stepsons, while Circe and Penelope are both each other's mothers-in-law, daughters-in-law, stepmothers and stepdaughters.
219	* TellMeAboutMyFather: Telegonus sets off in search of Odysseus only after his mother discloses his identity to him, which happens when he's already an adult.
220	* YouCantFightFate: Odysseus was fated to die a mild death from the sea. Telegonus sails in and kills him with a sting ray spear. [[FridgeLogic It's not exactly mild, though]]. The prophecy in question could just as easily be translated as ''away'' from the sea. It also says he will die at an old age, surrounded by a prosperous people, which can't really be said about dying from a stingray spear on the beach. This, along with all the other contradictory details, has led quite a few scholars (both ancient and modern) to see the Telegony as a case of AdaptationDecay.
221	[[/folder]]

Context Literature / TheTrojanCycle