A problem in the "Kypria" Huxley, George Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Spring 1967; 8, 1; ProQuest pg. 25

A Problem in the Kypria 

George Huxley 

IN Iliad 6.289-92 Homer says that Paris went to Sidon on his voyage 
to Troy with Helen. From Sidon he brought women, but Homer 
does not state that they were captives. 

" f)' " f' \ I \'/ .... EV Eaav Ot 1TE1TI\Ot 1Taf.L7TOtKtI\Ot, Epya yvVatKWV 

.EtOOVLWV, T<h· (TOVS Welcker) athos 'AMgavopos f)EOEtO~s 

7JyaYE .EtOOVLTjf)EV, e7Tt7TAWS Evpea 7TOVTOV, 
\ to:- \ ... fE" I , I " TTjV OOOV Tjv I\EVT]V 7TEp aVT]yayEV EV7TaTEpELav. 

Herodotos (2.116.3) quotes these verses and goes on to infer (117) that 
the epic called the Kypria cannot be by Homer, but must have been 
the work of someone else, because "in the Kypria it is stated that 
Alexander reached Ilion from Sparta with Helen on the third day, 
taking advantage of a fair breeze and a smooth sea; but in the Iliad 
Homer says that Paris wandered with her." This, as Leaf, commenting 
on these lines of the Iliad, remarked, is "the oldest piece of Homeric 
criticism in existence." 

Herodotos evidently had a text of the Kypria before him or some of 
its verses running in his head. His phrasing echoes the words 7TVEVf.La'Tt 

T' Eva';; AELTJ 'TE f)aAaaan vel sim., as F. G. Welcker noted.1 Thus the 
version of the Kypria known to Herodotos differed from the Iliad 
in its account of the flight of Paris and Helen from Sparta, but herein 
lies our problem. 

The fragments of Proklos give what purports to be a summary of 
the "so-called Kyprian poems."2 In it we are told that after Aphrodite 
had brought Helen and Paris together, they put treasure aboard ship 
and sailed away. But Hera raised up a storm against them; and Paris 
put in to Sidon and destroyed the city. Then they sailed to Ilion and 
wed there. Therefore on two counts, the route and the weather, the 
Proklan version of the Kypria contradicts that known to Herodotos. 

I Der epische Cyclus II (Bonn 1849) 515. 
2 For the various ways in which the poem(s) are mentioned see A. Severyns, Recherches 

sur la Chrestomathie de Proclos 1.2 (Paris/Liege 1938) 93. 

25 



26 A PROBLEM IN THE KYPRIA 

One way out of the difficulty has been to suggest that the Proklan 
version was adjusted to agree with the Iliad; but that can hardly be, 
because in the Iliad there is no word of Hera's storm. It is far more 
likely that Herodotos and Proklos (or his source) had different texts 
of the Kypria before them. A non-Herodotean version of the Kypria is 
also presupposed by the Apollodoran Epitome (3.4); here we are told 
that after Hera's storm Paris and Helen put in at Sidon. "And fearing 
pursuit Alexander spent much time in Phoenicia and Cyprus. But 
when he thought that all chance of pursuit was over, he came to 
Troy with Helen." In Dictys Cretensis, too (Bellum Trojanum 1.5), 
winds drove Paris and Helen first to Cyprus. In this version of the 
Kypria a visit to the sanctuary of Aphrodite at Paphos would surely 
have been an appropriate part of their stay in the island. 

These mentions of Cyprus are significant, because the Kypria was 
sometimes ascribed to a Cyprian, Stasinos,3 and there was a tradition 
of epic in Cyprus,4 as is to be expected in a place where Mycenaean 
survivals were strong. It is a just inference that when the flight of 
Paris and Helen was related in Cyprus, then the version which brought 
them to the island and to Sidon was preferred owing to its local 
interest. It was not the one known to Herodotos. 

Now it is remarkable that a poet of the Kypria was claimed for the 
city of Herodotos, Halikamassos. Demodamas of Miletos, a general of 
Seleukos I, asserted in his IIEp~ tA"\tKapvauuov that the poems called 
Kypria were in fact the work of a certain Kyprias of Halikamassos­
KV1Tpta tAAtKapVaUU€ws [8'] aVTa Elva;{ c/>r;at 1TOt~J.LaTa.6 Whether or not 
there had ever been a Halikarnassian called K yprias, 6 the testimony 
of Demodamas does suggest that the story of the Kypria (the precise 
significance of the poem's title is still unknown) was current in the 

3 Suda s.v. ·Op.TJpOS 29, with Ath. 6820. 
4 A Stesander, almost certainly a Cyprian, sang epics at Delphi: Timomachos (FGrHist 

754 F 1): TL,wp.axos S' lv 'TOrS KV7TPLaKOIS ,l}T~uavSpov MY€L 'TOV Eap.LOv (read EaAap.[vLOv Wil.) 
J1T~ 1T"€tov avt-ijuaL 'T~V 'TtXVTJv Kat 1TPW'TOV tv .tJ£"r/>ois KLOapcpSfjuaL 'TCts· KaO' ·Op.TJpov ,.uxXas, 
ap~ap.£vov am~ rijs 'OSvuu£[as. Stas- names, such as Stasinos, are found in Cyprus, e.g. 
E'Taa&vwp (Strabo 683) and Stasikypros (c. D. Buck, Greek Dialects2 [Chicago 1955] No. 23). 
See T. W. Allen, Homer, The Origins and the Transmission (Oxford 1924) 62. Some ascribed 
the Kypria to Hegesinos of Salamis (in Cyprus?): Prokl. Chr. 22. 

ti Ath. 6820B = FGrHist 428 F 1. The text is much disputed; I follow Jacoby. 
8 Proklos may have been aware of this theory or fact, since we are told in Chr. 23 that he 

noted the accentuation of the name to be KV7Tpla (i.e. genitive), not Ktf.rrpLa (neuter plural): 
cf Severyns, up.cit. (supra n.2) 97-8. The case for identifying the Proklos of the Chresto­
mathy with the fifth-century Neoplatonist is most vigorously put by Allen, op.cit. (supra 
n.4) 51-6. 



GEORGE HUXLEY 27 

city. This perhaps was the version known to Herodotos, in which 
Paris and Helen were said to have gone straight from Sparta to Troy. 

To conclude, there were in Greek epic tradition at least three 
versions of the voyage of Paris and Helen. 

(1) The Homeric, in which they sailed to Troy by way of Sidon. 
This does not contradict (2), but is less explicit. 

(2) That in the fragments of Proklos and the Apollodoran Epitome, 
in which Hera stirs up a storm and the couple visit (Cyprus and) 
Sidon. This version was perhaps current in Cyprus. 

(3) The version known to Herodotos, perhaps a Halikarnassian 
poem, in which Helen and Paris reach Troy from Sparta on the third 
day, after a calm voyage. 

Therefore to assert of the voyage of Paris and Helen, c<proclus' 
excerpts give the Homeric version-which shows how far he is to be 
trusted," is to miss the significance of the differing forms of the tale.7 

Finally, it is worth noting that what seems to be a fragment of a 
version of the K ypria is to be found in Stephanos of Byzantion. In the 
article of the 'E8VtKa S.v. Ea!-,vl\{a, we are told that Samylia was a 
city in Karia founded by one Motylos, who entertained Paris and 
Helen.s This is an allusion to their voyage, but that the entertaining 
took place in Karia is not quite clear from the words of Stephanos, so 
we cannot tell from which version of the Kypria the story may have 
come. Herodotos does imply, though, that Paris and Helen in the 
poem known to him sailed non-stop to Troy. Hence a visit to Motylos 
is not likely to have been mentioned in it. 

THE QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY, BELFAST 

October, 1966 

7 A. Lesky, A History of Greek Literature, tr.]. Willis/Co de Heer (London 1966) 82. 
S p. 554, 5 Meineke s.v. Eap.v>..ta, ?rOA,S Kap{as, Mo-roAov KTlap.a 'TOV -nil' 'EMV'Y/v Kat IIap'v 

iJ1To8£~ap.Evov. J. Geffcken (see Stoll, MythLex. II.2.3223.52ff). however, attributes the citation 
to the KapLKa of Apollonius of Letopolis.