“Unveiling the Untold: Discover the Enigmatic Lost Sequels of The Iliad That Could Rewrite History!”
After the Iliad is the Aetheopia. The Trojans get reinforcements from their Thracian and Ethiopian allies. Among those reinforcements is an Amazonian, Penthesilea (who killed Queen Hippolyta, Wonder Woman’s mother if you want to throw that into the mix. Penthesilea was absolved of this sin through a ritual King Priam held for her.) She quickly becomes Achilles’ rival, but he manages to kill her. An Achaean named Thersites teases Achilles. He claims Achilles fell in love with Penthesilea before he killed her. Thersites must not have read the previous epic, the one about Achilles’ wrath, because if he had, he would know it’s best not to upset the man. Achilles kills Thersites for his teasing, only to realize, “yeah, I guess he’s right, I did fall in love with the Amazon.” The Achaeans aren’t happy about the murder and Odysseus takes Achilles to make sacrifices to the gods and is absolved. In the next battle the Ethiopians arrive and Achilles fights them. In the fight Paris shoots Achilles’ ankle with an arrow guided by Apollo, this is the Achilles’ Heel. Achilles dies and the Achaeans and Trojans fight over his body. Ajax and Odysseus bring his body and armor back to the Achaean camp while fighting off the Trojans. At his funeral, Thetis and her sisters come to mourn Achilles. The Achaeans make a grave mound and hold funerary games for the fallen hero. Several pieces of his armor are given away to winners of the contests, but Ajax and Odysseus clash over his weapons.
The clash is resolved in the beginning of the Little Iliad. Odysseus wins the contest and Ajax goes insane, needlessly destroying the Achaeans’ provisions before killing himself. This may have put a time crunch on the Achaeans to finish the war. After consulting a prophecy, they see what they need to do to win the war. Part of the prophecy is to return with the bow of Hercules. They fetch Philoctetes with Hercules’ bow and heal his snake bite. Odysseus fetches Achilles’ son Neoptolemos. With Neoptolemos and Philoctetes on board, the Achaeans battle with the Trojans. Philoctetes is the one who kills Paris in battle, Menelaos gets an opportunity to disfigure the body of the man who cuckolded him, and they leave the body for Priam to bury.
