“Unveiling the Untold: Discover the Enigmatic Lost Sequels of The Iliad That Could Rewrite History!”
The Telegony opens with Odysseus burying the suitors and resuming his duties on Ithaca and the surrounding territory. After getting used to his old life again, Odysseus and Telemachus sail to the Thesprotians. Odysseus marries their queen and leads them into a defensive war against an invading force. Odysseus is so good, that gods come down to challenge him in combat. After saving the Thesprotians, he returns home with Telemachus. In another twist, His son by Circe, Telegonus, sets off to find his father. He arrives at Ithaca to raid it and ends up unknowingly killing Odysseus, possibly with a stingray’s barb. He realizes his mistake, so he takes his half brother Telemachus and Penelope to his mother. She makes them immortals and the boys swap moms; with Telegonus marrying Penelope, and Telemachus marrying Circe. And, finally, this is how the Age of Heroes ends in Greek mythology.
What happened to these poems? Why do we have the Iliad and the Odyssey, but not the others? From what we understand, the critical reception to these poems was mixed. Even very early, figures like Herodotus doubted that the Cyclical Epics attributed to Homer, were by Homer. Aristotle, Horace, and others criticized the poems for not being as good as Homer’s narratively or poetically. Despite the criticism they were very popular in their day. The smaller size of the poems meant that it was easier to own a copy. This is why you see many plays and adaptations based on them; they got around.
Much like Marvel’s main films vs their Disney+ spin offs, the Cyclical Epics were always overshadowed by the Iliad and Odyssey, and that was probably their downfall. The two poems along with Hesiod’s Theogony and Works and Days held a canonical status in Hellenic culture and religious life. Eventually the negative reception of the Epic Cycle and canonicity of the Homeric poems left the Cycle reduced to prose summaries. Sometimes these summaries are attached to copies of Homer’s poems, sometimes they are part of larger collections. The Greeks and Romans were happy enough reading prose summaries of these poems. Eventually with Christianity moving in and the culture rapidly changing, the Homeric Epics took on a different canonical form: that of Greek literature. The Epic Cycle was already considered inferior so they stuck to summaries so much that a Christian philosopher from the 6th century claimed he could no longer find the complete epics in verse.
