Editing Troilus (section)

===Ancient art and artifact sources===

[[Image:Troilos Polyxene Louvre E662.jpg|thumb|right|350px|alt=A picture on several pottery fragments. A youth rides one of two horses. He talks to a woman with a vase on her head. Behind the woman is some sort of structure. One of the horses is drinking from a bowl.|Troilus and Polyxena at the fountain, Laconian black-figured [[dinos]], Rider Painter, 560–540 BC., Louvre E662, Campana Collection 1861]]
[[Image:Akhilleus Louvre E662.jpg|thumb|right|250px|alt=More pottery fragments. An armoured man kneels, hiding behind the structure.|Achilles lying in wait, part of the same illustration]]
Ancient Greek art, as found in pottery and other remains, frequently depicts scenes associated with Troilus' death: the ambush, the pursuit, the murder itself and the fight over his body.<ref>The contents of this subsection have been compiled from the following sources:- Burgess, J. S. (2001); Carpenter, (1991); Woodford (1993); and the parts of Boitani (1989) and Gantz (1993) specified for this section of the article as a whole. All except the Gantz contain illustrations. The Beazley Archive sites listed in [[#External links|External links]] was also consulted. Images of the ambush and pursuit are shown at the address given.</ref> Depictions of Troilus in other contexts are unusual. One such exception, a red-figure vase painting from Apulia c.340BC, shows Troilus as a child with Priam.<ref>This picture is reproduced near the top of the entry for Troilus in Carlos Parada's ''Greek Mythology Link'' [http://www.maicar.com/GML/Troilus.html]. (Checked 29 July 2007.)</ref>

In the '''ambush''', Troilus and Polyxena approach a fountain where Achilles lies in wait. This scene was familiar enough in the ancient world for a parody to exist from c.400BC showing a dumpy Troilus leading a mule to the fountain.<ref name="Carpenter 1991: p.19">Carpenter (1991: p.19).</ref> In most serious depictions of the scene, Troilus rides a horse, normally with a second next to him.<ref>Briggite Knittlmeyer has proposed that Troilus was seen as an idealised version of the noble ephebe, youths being often depicted on pottery as mounted squires leading their warrior companions' horses. (See this 1998 review of her ''Die Attische Aristokratie und ihre Helden: Untersuchungen zu Darstellungen des trojanischen Sagenkreises im 6. und frühen 5. Jahrhundert v. Chr'' (Heidelberg: Verlag Archaeologie und Geschichte, 1997, {{ISBN|3-9804648-0-6}}) written by Michael Anderson for the [[Bryn Mawr College|Bryn Mawr Classical Review]] [http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/1998/1998-12-12.html]. Link checked 29 July 2007.)</ref> He is usually, but not always, portrayed as a beardless youth. He is often shown naked; otherwise he wears a cloak or tunic. Achilles is always armed and armoured. Occasionally, as on the vase picture at  [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/vor?type=phrase;alts=0;group=typecat;lookup=Toledo%201947.62;collection=Perseus%3Acollection%3AGreco-Roman;target=en%2C0;extern=1;detail=Image#Image], or the fresco from the [[Tomb of the Bulls]] shown at the head of this article, either Troilus or Polyxena is absent, indicating how the ambush is linked to each of their stories. In the earliest definitely identified version of this scene, (a Corinthian vase c.580BC), Troilus is bearded and Priam is also present. Both these features are unusual.<ref name="Carpenter 1991: p.18">Carpenter (1991: p.18).</ref> More common is a bird sitting on the fountain; normally a raven, symbol of Apollo and his prophetic powers and thus a final warning to Troilus of his doom;<ref>Boitani (1989: p.13).</ref> sometimes a cock, a common love gift suggesting that Achilles attempted to seduce Troilus.<ref>Boitani: (1989: p17).</ref> In some versions, for example an Attic amphora in the [[Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]] dating from c.530BC (seen here [https://web.archive.org/web/20071025092059/http://www.mfa.org/collections/search_art.asp?recview=true&id=153428&coll_keywords=&coll_accession=&coll_name=&coll_artist=&coll_place=&coll_medium=&coll_culture=&coll_classification=&coll_credit=&coll_provenance=&coll_location=&coll_has_images=&coll_on_view=&coll_sort=0&coll_sort_order=0&coll_view=0&coll_package=2350&coll_start=111]) Troilus has a dog running with him. On one [[Etruscan art|Etruscan]] vase from the 6th century BC, doves are flying from Achilles to Troilus, suggestive of the love gift in Servius.<ref>Boitani (1989: p.17); Sommerstein (2007: p.201).</ref> The fountain itself is conventionally decorated with a lion motif.

The earliest identified version of the '''pursuit''' or '''chase''' is from the third quarter of the 7th century BC.<ref name="Carpenter 1991: p.19"/> Next chronologically is the best known<ref>March (1998: p.389).</ref> version on the [[François Vase]] by [[Kleitias]].<ref>The sections of this scene linked in the discussion are on the [[Perseus Project]] website. (Links verified 1 August 2007.)</ref> The number of characters shown on pottery scenes varies with the size and shape of the space available.<ref>Woodford (1993: p.58).</ref>  The François Vase is decorated with several scenes in long narrow strips. This means that the Troilus frieze is heavily populated. In the centre, (which can be seen at the Perseus Project at [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/image?lookup=Perseus:image:1993.01.0103],) is the fleeing Troilus, riding one horse with the reins of the other in his hand. Below them is the vase—which Polyxena (partially missing), who is ahead of him, has dropped. Achilles is largely missing but it is clear that he is armoured. They are running towards Troy [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/image?lookup=Perseus:image:1993.01.0104] where [[Antenor (mythology)|Antenor]] gestures towards Priam. [[Hector]] and [[Polites (Prince of Troy)|Polites]], brothers of Troilus, emerge from the city walls in the hope of saving Troilus. Behind Achilles [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/image?lookup=1993.01.0100] are a number of deities, Athena, [[Thetis]] (Achilles' mother), [[Hermes]], and Apollo (just arriving). Two Trojans are also present, the woman gesturing to draw the attention of a youth filling his vase. As the deities appear only in pictorial versions of the scene, their role is subject to interpretation. Boitani sees Athena as urging Achilles on and Thetis as worried by the arrival of Apollo who, as Troilus' protector, represents a future threat to Achilles.<ref>Boitani (1989: pp.11–12).</ref> He does not indicate what he thinks Hermes may be talking to Thetis about. The classicist and art historian Professor Thomas H. Carpenter sees Hermes as a neutral observer, Athena and Thetis as urging Achilles on, and the arrival of Apollo as the artist's indication of the god's future role in Achilles' death.<ref name="Carpenter 1991: p.18"/> As Athena is not traditionally a patron of Achilles, Sommerstein sees her presence in this and other portrayals of Troilus' death as evidence of the early standing of the prophetic link between Troilus' death and the fall of Troy, Athena being driven, above all, by her desire for the city's destruction.<ref>Sommerstein (2007: p.202).</ref>

[[Image:Akhilleus Troilos Staatliche Antikensammlungen 1722.jpg|thumb|left|350px|alt=An illustration on the shoulders of a vase. A man in Greek-style armour chases a youth who is riding one of a pair of horses. His cloak streams behind him. A broken vase is below the horses. On either side of these figures are fleeing woman and, beyond them, men in ancient Anatolian costumes.|Achilles pursues Troilus, black-figure [[Attica|Attic]] [[hydria]], ca. [[-510|510 BC]], [[Staatliche Antikensammlungen]] (Inv. 1722)]]

The standard elements in the pursuit scene are Troilus, Achilles, Polyxena, the two horses and the fallen vase. On two tripods, an amphora and a cup, Achilles already has Troilus by the hair.<ref>Gantz (1993: p.598, p.599).</ref> A famous vase in the [[British Museum]], which gave the [[Troilos Painter]] the name by which he is now known, shows the two Trojans looking back in fear, as the beautiful youth whips his horse on. This vase can be seen at the Perseus Project site [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/image?lookup=Perseus:image:1990.14.0065]. The water spilling from the shattered vase below Troilus' horse, symbolises the blood he is about to shed.<ref>Woodford (1993: pp.58–9).</ref>

The [[iconography]] of the eight legs and hooves of the horses can be used to identify Troilus on pottery where his name does not appear; for example, on a Corinthian vase where Troilus is shooting at his pursuers and on a peaceful scene on a Chalcidian krater where the couples [[Paris (mythology)|Paris]] and [[Helen of Troy|Helen]], Hector and [[Andromache]] are labelled, but the youth riding one of a pair of horses is not.<ref>Carpenter (1991: pp.19–20).</ref>

A later Southern Italian interpretation of the story is on vases held respectively at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the [[Hermitage Museum]] in [[St Petersburg]]. On the [[krater]] from c.380-70BC at [https://web.archive.org/web/20070105005012/http://www.mfa.org/master/sub.asp?key=2656&subkey=3424] Troilus can be seen with just one horse trying to defend himself with a throwing spear; on the [[hydria]] from c.325-320BC at [https://archive.today/20120629151055/http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/fcgi-bin/db2www/quickSearch.mac/gallery?selLang=English&tmCond=Troilus&go.x=20&go.y=11], Achilles is pulling down the youth's horse.

[[Image:Achilles slaying Troilus.PNG|thumb|right|350px|alt=two images from a bowl. The outside strip shows an armoured man dragging a boy towards an altar. Behind them two horses run away. In the inner illustration, they are at the altar. The man has his sword raised ready to swing. He holds by the hair the boy who is struggling to break free.|Achilles about to behead Troilus at the altar. Red-figured [[Kylix (drinking cup)|kylix]] c. 510BC, signed by [[Euphronios]]. Now in the Museo Archeologico, [[Perugia]]. Note how the size of the figures is used to emphasise the brutality of the murder.<ref>March (1998: p.389) talks of a "violent contrast made between the huge attacking warrior and the small defenceless boy" and uses the lower of these two pictures as illustration (on p.15).</ref>]]

The earliest known depictions of the '''death''' or '''murder''' of Troilus are on shield bands from the turn of the 7th into the 6th century BC found at [[Olympia, Greece|Olympia]]. On these, a warrior with a sword is about to stab a naked youth at an altar. On one, Troilus clings to a tree (which Boitani takes for the laurel sacred to Apollo).<ref>Boitani (1989: p.11).</ref>  A crater contemporary with this shows Achilles at the altar holding the naked Troilus upside down while Hector, [[Aeneas]] and an otherwise unknown Trojan Deithynos arrive in the hope of saving the youth. In some depictions Troilus is begging for mercy. On an amphora, Achilles has the struggling Troilus slung over his shoulder as he goes to the altar.<ref>Gantz (1993: p.599).</ref> Boitani, in his survey of the story of Troilus through the ages, considers it of significance that two artifacts (a vase and a sarcophagus) from different periods link Troilus' and Priam's death by showing them on the two sides of the same item, as if they were the beginning and end of the story of the fall of Troy.<ref>Boitani (1989: p.5).</ref>  Achilles is the father of Neoptolemus, who slays Priam at the altar during the sack of Troy. Thus the war opens with a father killing a son and closes with a son killing a father.

Some pottery shows Achilles, already having killed Troilus, using his victim's severed head as a weapon as Hector and his companions arrive too late to save him; some includes the watching Athena, occasionally with Hermes. At [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/image?lookup=Perseus:image:1990.34.0042] is one such picture showing Achilles fighting Hector over the altar. Troilus' body is slumped and the boy's head is either flying through the air, or stuck to the end of Achilles' spear. Athena and Hermes look on. Aeneas and Deithynos are behind Hector.

Sometimes details of the closely similar deaths of Troilus and Astyanax are exchanged.<ref>Carpenter (1991: p.20-21).</ref> [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/image?lookup=Perseus:image:1990.34.0174] shows one such image where it is unclear which murder is portrayed. The age of the victim is often an indicator of which story is being told and the relative small size here might point towards the death of Astyanax, but it is common to show even Troilus  as much smaller than his murderer, (as is the case with the [[Kylix (drinking cup)|kylix]] pictured to the above right). Other factors in this case are the presence of Priam (suggesting Astyanax), that of Athena (suggesting Troilus) and the fact that the scene is set outside the walls of Troy (again suggesting Troilus).<ref>The image is further discussed at the Perseus website [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0043%3Ahead%3D%23526]. Last checked, 28 July 2007.</ref>