The Cypria: Reconstructing the Lost Prequel to Homer's Iliad

by D.M. Smith

In Classical times, the story of the Trojan War was told in a series of eight epic poems known as the Epic Cycle, of which only the Iliad and Odyssey by Homer survive to the present day. The first poem in the sequence was the Cypria, which described the early years of the war from Eris’ casting of the golden apple at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, to Paris’ abduction of Helen, the sacrifice of Iphigenia, Odysseus’ treacherous murder of Palamedes, and finally, the enslavement of Briseis and Chryseis, which sowed the seeds of the conflict between Achilles and Agamemnon in the Iliad.

The Cypria is now lost, but the myths it once contained are known from a number of later writings. In an ambitious exercise in literary back-breeding, editor D. M. Smith attempts to reconstruct the lost prequel to Homer’s Iliad from the available material. Included are excerpts from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Apollodorus’ Bibliotheca, Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulis and Colluthus’ The Rape of Helen, as well as lesser known documents such as Dictys Cretensis Ephemeris Belli Trojani, and the Excidium Troiae — a medieval summary of a lost Roman account of the Trojan War, discovered among the papers of an 18th century clergyman in the 1930s. This eclectic melange of Greek and Latin texts has been carefully edited and arranged in accordance with the known chronology of the Cypria, thus allowing readers to trace the story of this vanished epic as a continuous narrative for the first time in over a thousand years.

Genres: Classics, Greek Mythology, Mythology, Nonfiction, Historical, Classical Studies, Plays

220 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2017

About the author

D.M. Smith, Australian writer and editor. Born in 1983.

Reviews

[Isiel · Rating 4 out of 5]

To my knowledge, there really are no other options if you are interested in reading a reconstruction of the Cypria, that being said this is an excellent source of information for people who want to learn about The Epic Cycle. The author clearly put in the research, looking not only at older Greek texts, but also at pottery, and later Roman and medieval texts as well, combining everything possible to not only reconstruct the Cypria, but also provide options in sections where different versions vary.

Overall, I like to think of this as something of an outline more than anything. As far as structure goes, the author doesn't take artistic liberties and doesn't form the information into a narrative or epic poem, Smith simply tells you what happened. Then, suddenly, it turns into a script format when borrowing from Euripides before returning to telling you further events.

The ending felt a bit rushed, no doubt from a lack of information, and there were some footnotes that I wished had a bit more information, but overall this was very helpful. It was also interesting to compare to modern versions to see what they chose to use and what they chose to ignore. I hope that the author is eventually inspired to reconstruct further sections of the Epic Cycle.

[Isabella Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

a reconstruction of the lost first text in the epic cycle, reconstructed by piecing together bits from literally every source the author could get their hands on, thus providing a more comprehensive beginning to the story of the trojan war, a story that has been void for centuries and even millennia?
sign me the fuck up.
4.5⭐️

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding. The author reconstructs the lost prequel to Homer’s Iliad giving the reader the rest of the story of the Trojan War. Great scholarship, wonderful writing, most interesting. Very enjoyable.

[WndyJW · Rating 4 out of 5]

This slim book is a prequel to the Iliad. The Iliad and Odyssey were two poems in a cycle of 8 epic poems which included the Cypria. The stories and events contained here were gathered from other sources to recreate the lost poem, although this is not written in verse.

It begins with the interesting story of the wedding of the parents of Achilles, a gathering which was to be the last attended by all the Olympians, gods, goddesses, demigods, and heroes, and ends with the less interesting list of Troy’s allies. In between we learn about people that were involved in and events that led up to the war, things like the golden apple which planted the seed for the terrible Trojan War, and how Helen’s daughter felt about her mother absconding with Paris, how the Greek army was mustered and supplied, how long it took, and who the leaders were, and we read a play about the sacrifice of Iphigenia. We also learn how young Achilles was at the start of the war.

At only 141 pages it’s worth the time to read before starting the magnificent Iliad.

[Brody Storbakken · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this book was very interesting. I feel like it showed the history well and told what was left of the stories in a well translated way.

The part where Iphigenia’s sacrifice is being discussed and taking place was written as a play script, which was fine, but it was also written in old English which has its pros and cons. It felt more authentic to read, but was also a lot harder to understand. I feel like it did get the point through, but it was very dragged out.

Overall, this book was not the most entertaining because it was just bits and pieces of what could be found before “The Iliad”. It was not a singular story, but multiple miniature or incomplete ones placed together. For entertainment this probably would not be the best book to read, but for the background knowledge for reading “The Iliad” I would say it’s a must read. It is more like a history text book than anything. I feel like I know and understand so much more about the back story and it gave me good ground to stand on for what is to come in “The Iliad”.

For the information 5⭐️, but for how I felt while reading 3⭐️.

[Jason Shealey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author did a great job reassembling the prequel to the Iliad by pulling snippets from ancient literature to reassemble the text.

Footnotes helped add additional context

[Lia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author did all the legworks to collect fragments from various sources in order to reconstruct the events leading up to the Iliad. I’ve read footnotes and articles in journals and commentaries referencing these events anyway, so not a lot is new to me. It’s still great to have them organized and arranged to tell a somewhat coherent tale.

Which is what this book is. The language and style certainly reminds you of classical epics, obviously because they are translations of fragments from various periods. The only thing I’m sorely dissatisfied with — and I’m 86.7% certain I don’t have the rights to complain about this, because that’s not what this book is — is that there’s no “unity”. Each epic writer compose their epics with a certain kind of structure, shape, symmetry, to gradually disclose what the epic is about. It could be wrath itself, or the meaning of being a man, or “change” ... readers are delighted as scenes and events and symbols and structures gradually reveal what you are originally blind to. You realize everything fits and contribute to making a statement, painting a particular vision. That’s absent here: the language and style is familiar, but it’s merely encyclopedic, it ultimately argues for nothing, promotes no vision, and satisfies nothing beyond curiosity.

Obviously I still think this is a really worthy project, the way it left me with a void, a sense of something missing, really accentuates how incredibly masterful the old poets really were.

[David King · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Cypria is a very impressive work of historical importance, the lost epic of Homer (or whoever wrote this one) retold. The author clearly did a beautiful amount of research and tried to create the best picture he could of what the Cypria would have been like. I'm giving it four stars because of the tremendous effort put in to collecting and editing all these fragments. Reading this like a novel as I did doesn't work, I found myself begging for Ovid fragments, to just show up as he is the only one who wrote in dactlyic hexamater which is our beautiful epic writing style used in the Ilaid and the Odyssey and the Aeneid. Because the rest was summaries or just very simple short descriptions with a bit of dialogue. I loved the Greeks landing and the whole of the judgment of Paris and the taking of Helen. The majority of this work is taken up with a Euripdes play, it's resolved around Agamemnon going to sacrifice his daughter. The moral and emotional conflict is great but at times it dragged and also I just really hate Agamemnon he's such a horrible person but we at least see some of his emotion. Honestly, as much as Clytemnesrta is evil for you know killing him and then treating her children terribly, you can't really blame her considering he sacraficed one of their children. Also I'm not a fan of Euripdes as much as I am Socophles, I just love how Socophles writes and so I didn't enjoy Euripdes retelling as much as I would've liked. I love the Homeric mythology so much and I'm so happy this book exists, it gives us a little idea of what the original epic poem would have been like and I have a huge amount of respect for the author but in a way I kind of want just a full retelling in a novel but oh well we don't get everything we want still very impressive what the author managed to do.
Overall Rating: 7/10.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

A reconstruction of the pre-Iliad epic from the Greek Epic Cycle.
Appears to be primarily an ebook publication (self published?), with paperback copies available from POD.
The text is about 140 pp (lots of useful notes, and a good bibliography fills out the rest of the book), and about 70 pp of that is taken up by a reprinting of Euripides' "Iphigenia at Aulis". Probably for copyright reasons, he used a late 19th C translation. I passed on that, I'll read a more recent (and better) translation - as I prep myself to read Homer for the first time in about 40 years.
A "free" read on Kindle Unlimited. He has done the same with the post-Odyssey epic "The Telegony".
Smith's notes are really helpful, providing the reader with explanations of how the stories/myths here might differ from how they appear in other sources. Unh, the toughest part - keeping track of who is who! And how they are related, who the God and human parents are claimed to be, how their story links to other mythical stories. But most of all, those family trees!
Enjoyable, and helpful to my pre-Homer reading.

[Beth M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Things like this make me incredibly sad for all of the literature and history that was lost over the eons. We will likely never find most of it and are left to fill the blank spaces between works with little more than speculation.

Smith has done a painstaking job of constructing as much as currently exists to known historians and classicists here. So much so that it could come across as overly simplified, but a quick peak at the bibliography and notes section in the final few pages proves otherwise.

I would have liked to have seen Smith's own personal takes and impressions on all of the stories, excerpts, and one play incorporated into this collection, but I don't think that was his purpose.

It was an excellent read that I'm grateful for having the opportunity to consume. I wish the physical book wasn't so damned expensive, but perhaps I'll get lucky enough to find it used somewhere.

[CivilWar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow, I read this right after : Fallen Angels, the Watchers, and the Origins of Evil, two copy-paste collages in a row, I'm in a real losing streak this year.

D.M Smith's "reconstruction" of the lost epic is not actually a reconstruction nor is it even an attempt at one, because - and as he is not as scholar of either classics or literature or mythology or seemingly anything else to do with the topic I heavily suspect that he might not realize this - an epic is made up of much, much more than just the plot points that make up "the plot", thus making it little different than getting a bunch of quotations from many different sources and doing a grotesque collage out of all of them - Greek mythographies, Roman mythographies, Byzantine poems, late antiquity prose romances, the scholia, etc.

Per example (and it is really just that), there is the matter of how many myths and traditions there are in the Cypria that have simply been lost because they are not mentioned elsewhere - in an epic, as is often the case, a less well known myth sometimes is told to us but in a couple of verses, i.e. Demeter's love for Iasion and Hera's for Jason is but a very small part of Circe's speech in the Odyssey as she explains to Odysseus the dangers of the sea that will face him. That the Gorgon is an underworld guardian is told to us by Odysseus at the very end of Book XI, and this is important to understand other stories of Medusa as well as the demonic aspect of Demeter, indeed Demeter Erynis, which is the origin of the Medusa tale (Ovid did not "make it up", as terminally online idiots like to say, seemingly as a kneejerk reaction to other terminally online idiots who presented it in the terms of "the REAL story behind the Medusa"). Putting together, from material we do have, the plot of the Cypria by stitching it all together, is but a collage out of a bunch of already constructed works.

The footnotes show a lack of a real attempt or even understanding of what reconstruction is, even if just in the speculative sense, and one gets the impression that Smith is not terribly familiar with the comparative and philological labors that are employed into reconstructing into anything of this sort. Per example, at one point Smith notes the significance of Aphrodite arranging for Helen and Achilles to meet:

This meeting between Achilles and Helen seems to be unique to the Cypria. Malcolm Davies suggests that Aphrodite’s presence indicates a sexual union, foreshadowing a later myth that the two were wedded in the afterlife.

From this, Smith makes no more conclusions, even ones that should be very obvious for a so-called reconstruction. Is he not aware, per example, that... this is also Medea's fate, to marry Achilles and eternally live with him in the Elysian Fields? Is there not something to comment on that? Apparently not, and hence any commentary you'd wish for (and there are whole volumes on these lost epics!) is absent, making this only the dull reading of the collage.

Which gets me to the next point: Smith seems to not understand that it is not just a matter of having the sources for the Trojan War in one clean, single, linear narrative (he himself writes that it is very likely that these epics themselves were not even a single and linear narrative themselves but rather edited to be as such), but also of poetics, i.e. how a story is rendered: the story of the Iliad was already around, likely in different fashion, what makes Homer's epic such an enduring masterpiece is how it is done: the psychological focus on the characters, the unity of the battle narratives in the grand scheme of thing, the wonderful characterization of the other characters like Odysseus' schemes and Nestor's rambling which goes as far as retelling even older, more archaic Mycenaean-era epics of a historical, migratory sort in the fashion of Utnapishtim in the Epic of Gilgamesh, and so on. If you want an example what such a well worked epic looks like compared to earlier traditions, compare the aforementioned Epic of Gilgamesh with the cycle of five Sumerian narrative poems around, most of which were adapted into the epic.

The point was clearly not to reconstruct the poetics of anything, because, regardless of Smith's potential poetic skills, there is not even an attempt: not only are we just offered prose translations of every single part of the collage, even if they are of poems, but not only 1) none of them are by Smith, who could have tried to render everything in verse of some sort as a creative attempt (as this is not a "scholarly" work at all, nor would a scholar need it, as he himself embarrassedly admits in the intro), but also 2) all of them are of free domain translations, i.e. dogshit 19th/early 20th century prose translations by the tasteless philologists of the Loeb editions, these people who seem to have not even the most basic appreciation for literary culture (rhythm, literary diction, the strength of a metaphor, etc) yet have the fucking balls to shit all over later poets in their Encyclopedias.

This means that, for the whole book, you are reading - without any scholarly commentary and in a way that is not as scholarly useful as simple collections of fragments, or translations of primary sources - very bad and dull translations of already bland writing to begin with works (Collutos, the prose versions of the Trojan War in Latin from very late antiquity, Hyginus' Fabulae, etc). It is as exciting as it sounds, and as close to an actual epic as a mythography written with the cut-up technique.

[Elentarri · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Cypria (mostly lost or fragmented) was an epic poem in eleven books, variously attributed to Homer, Hegesias of Salmis, Cyprias of Halicarnassus or Stasinus of Cyprus. The Cypria deals with the early history of the Troyan War ("pre-Iliad"), from its origins at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis to the capture of Chryseis and Briseis, leading into the events of the Iliad.

This is the author's attempt to reconstruct the lost poem from later writings, arranged and edited so as to approximate the lost originals. The author's stated goal was to assemble a coherent, easy-to-follow narrative with the bare minimum of editorial intervention, in as great a detail as possible while relying only on Classical sources, i.e. works composed while the stories told in the Cypria were still a part of the public conscousness. Smith hopes that this will at least allow a reader to enjoy this lost story as a single, (mostly) uninterrupted text for the first time in over a thousand years. In this book, all the "pre-Iliad" excerpts and text are gathered together in one convenient volume, which provides the necessary back-story for anyone preparing to embark on a study of the Homeric epics.

The meat of the book is essentially a collection of excerpts from other texts that deal with the stories that were once included in the Cypria. There is no author commentary to detract from this section of the book. The book is also accompanied by an extensive introduction which details how Smith put together this book and which older texts he used as sources and any discrepencies in the tales. I found the author's introduction to be very informative and this collection of the "pre-Iliad" narrative very useful. This is something useful to have on hand for people who enjoy Homer's epics or wish to know more about the early Trojan War.

[Maan Kawas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book with very useful notes.

[Matt McCormick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am very appreciative of the work, thought and research expended by D.M. Smith to produce The Cypria. Full-well knowing that the sources used may not accurately reflect what was originally in this epic poem, Smith did what most of us do every day – make the best with what we have. I learned new stories, better understood those with which I had a passing reference and gained a fuller appreciation for the Iliad and Odyssey. The Cypria reminded me how differently Odysseus is interpreted by different writers and at different times. Howard Clarke’s book, Homer’s Readers, is a great companion to Smith’s as it puts into context many of Smith’s sources, such as Dictys.

[Jeff Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

D.M. Smith has done an exceptional job of reconstructing a prequel to the Iliad. He has ordered the fragments in such a way as to tell the story of the events leading to the siege of Troy. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the Epic.

[Ethan Hulbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my opinion it should be criminal to rate this anything less than five stars - this is incredible. The author, D.M. Smith, has found all the various fragments and histories and legends and scraps relating to the now-lost prequel to the Iliad, and pieced them together as best he could, to form a semblance of the ancient story. This is AMAZING!

I can't decide if I should've read this before the Iliad (so I would've had the full story and background going in) or if it was better to wait til after (since the Iliad and materials do a better job of establishing a lot of context since they, y'know, fully exist, while this one assumes knowledge). But wow, there was so much in here I didn't know and never would've gotten from just Iliad or Iliac materials alone. So much more context not just for the Iliad but also for so much of Euripides, Sophocles, Aeschylus.

I never really understood how the war could've lasted TEN YEARS and then finish in the few weeks of the Iliad when it seems like they hadn't been there for all that long. Turns out they had all sorts of crazy adventures and misdirects and whatnot first.

Heck, the stuff about Paris stealing Helen was especially fascinating, his approach to her, what "really happened" - even the amount of time it took between Aphrodite promising him Helen and him actually getting down to Sparta, all the other things he did.

And of course the whole story of Odysseus trying to feign madness to escape going to the war - which I knew the outline of - but then later found out here that during the war, he later FRAMED the guy who outed him as sane and craftily had him executed!!! Whoa!!!

Smith also inserts all of Iphigenia at Aulis here, which is about half of this whole book, which is a choice, but not one I disagree with - it's a bit awkwardly long and strange in the middle there, and yet, it would've felt strange without it. But I got to skip over those parts since I have just read that a couple months ago, though I did skim it anyway because it's a great play on reread too. I never get tired of Clymnestra's silence at the end.

Anyway, wow, this book is spectacular. A major highlight of this whole Classics journey I've been going on. Can't wait to read his reconstructed Telegony after I clear the Odyssey!

[Ryan Schaller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reviewing this book requires a bit of a historical introduction. The Iliad and the Odyssey are the surviving Greek epics. In classical times, there were additional epics in existence that we have now lost. We have references and some summaries or commentary on the lost epics, some quotes, and we can have later literature, from the late Classical and early Medieval period that purport to be based on the now lost epics. One of these epics was the Cypria. The Iliad itself only tells the story of a few weeks in the 10th year of the Trojan War. The Cypria purportedly explained the causes and background to the war, reaching back to the Golden Apple and the Judgment of Paris.

Mr. Smith has taken excerpts of all of those references, allusions, summaries, and later texts and arranged them is the book following the order of the events in the Cypria as described by the later writer Proclus.

This book is not an examination of the Cypria, analysis of how reliable the sources are, why they may have changed, etc. It is simply a logical arrangement of excerpts of various texts. The writer is very clear in his introduction that this book is not a scholarly analysis of the Cypria, but there are some explanatory end notes to help readers understand a few less common references or alternative myths.

I think this book is a delightful treat and I enjoy having all of this material in one place. The book also does not pretend to be anything that it is not. I've given it five stars, but if you're an actual scholar who student of classics, you may not get a lot of use out of this. You're more likely to look at the sources the writer quotes from.

[Oliver Otter · Rating 1 out of 5]

so boringgggg. shit is ass, do not read. if u wanna know what caused the trojan war, here u go: at Achilies's parent's wedding, all the gods are there because they all love achilles. Eris(Goddess of strife and discord) was pissed that she wasnt invited so she threw a golden magic apple that everyone wants on the table. Athena, Hera, and aphroditie are all fighting over who should get the apple, and Zeus doesnt want to deal with that, so he delegates the decision to the bitchass known as Paris Alexander. all the goddesses go to said bitchass and offer him stuff so he will pick them. Hera offers him power, Athena glory, and Aphrodite offers him the hand of the most beautiful woman in the world. Being a horny bitchass, Paris picks aphrodite and she gives him helen(aforementioned baddie). Now Helen, being a baddie had everyone wanting to marry her. now, her father(I forgot his name, Google it if u wanna know) is stressing out bc he knows whoever he gives Helen to, everyone else will just start a war to get her for themselves. one of the suitors, Odysseus, has a suggestion where no one starts a war. in order to get this advice, the king needs to set ody up with this girl Penelope. the king agrees and ody gives him his plan. All the suitors need to sign an agreement that says no matter who gets helen, everyone else needs to swear to protect that marriage. they all agree, and Meneleus ends up getting helen. Paris the bitchass of troy kidnaps her and thats what starts the war. Stansius is a hack.

[. · Rating 5 out of 5]

"That it is Zeus who has done this, and brought all these things to pass, you do not like to say; for where fear is, there too is shame."

"I was mad, impetuous as a youth, till I perceived, on closer view, what slaying children really meant."

~

Rather in the manner of Christopher Tolkien, D. M. Smith has spliced together extracts from classical sources to give (with a little editing) the most complete version of the Cypria we are ever likely to get.

This is the prequel to Homer's Iliad and it covers a lot of ground in order to set the stage for the eventual siege at Troy; 'Iphigenia at Aulis' by Euripides takes central place in this book but plenty of space is also given over to the birth of each hero, the judgement of Paris, the wounding of Hercules' son Telephus, the death of Protesilaus - first to set foot upon Trojan soul, and also the fate of Palamedes, killed in treachery by Odysseus for his role in removing him from Ithaca...

It had been foretold to Odysseus that if he went to Troy he would only return home after twenty years, alone and destitute. And so, when he heard that the emissaries were coming, he feigned insanity; he put on a felt cap and joined a horse and an ox to the plough. However Palamedes, when he saw this, suspected that it was a ruse. Snatching Odysseus' son nursing Telemachus from his cradle, he laid the infant in the path of the plough and said, "Drop this pretence and come join our alliance!"

[· · Rating 2 out of 5]

(5 August, 2025)

Zeus cannot tolerate a son who could potentially best him so he makes Thetis marry some guy named Peleus, much drama ensues. After that, asshat Paris runs off with his skank, Helen, then, more drama... much, much more.

While interesting in concept, the end product is disappointing. Most fans of 'The Iliad', 'The Odyssey' and the rest of the Epic Cycle already know the entire story, in outline at least, but this is just a collation, plain and simple.

This reconstructed Cypria could have been better as a seamless whole but Smith keeps his modifications at a minimum. There's a disconnect between the mostly chronological fragments, to Euripides' 'Iphigenia at Aulis' and back to the fragments. It makes for a less than ideal reading experience.

[Brandon Smith- Scolaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I mainly started reading this because I started the Iliad and got really annoyed that the story I was reading was the halfway point. I can't handle that so in order to fully appreciate the Trojan epic I thought I would give this a shot.

It's exactly what I was looking for. We got the story of the golden apple, the rape of Helen, and the first conflict between the Greeks and the Trojans, and it all ends right to the point where the Iliad starts.

I think D.M. Smith did an admirable job of collecting the various resources that we have available to us in order to construct a rough narrative of the beginning of this story. Of course I'm no expert at this stuff and this is my first official reading of these tales, but I think this is an ideal place to start for anyone looking to read the fall of Troy.

[Helia · Rating 5 out of 5]

خوشحالم که اولین ریویو فارسی از این کتاب در گودریدز رو دارم مینویسم :)
مدتی پیش شروع به خوندن ایلیاد کردم و متوجه شدم این کتاب از اواسط جنگ بین یونان و تروا شروع میشه
دلم میخواست منبعی باشه که اتفاقات پیش از شروع این جنگ بزرگ رو تعریف کنه و آشنایی بیشتری از خدایان و داستان هایی که بینشون شکل گرفت بده.
از شانس خوبم همون چند هفته پیش کتاب سیپریا از توسط نشر چرخ ترجمه و منتشر شد :))

سیپریا یک شعر بلند یونانی است که حدود هفتصد سال پیش از میلاد مسیح نوشته شده.
بخش زیادی از این اثر گم شده و از بین رفته
ولی گرآوردنده این کتاب تونسته با جمع آوری اطلاعات لازم از دیگر منابع و آثار این شعر بلندو بازسازی کنه و این اثر رو خلق کنه...
نتیجه کار یک کتاب بسیار روون و داستان گونه شده که باهاش میتونیم قدیمی ترین افسانه های خدایان و ماجراهای بین اونهارو بخونیم و وارد یک دنیای متفاوت و جذاب دیگه بشیم.

[Alex Gherzo · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Cypria is about the events leading up to the Trojan War, effectively making it a prequel to The Iliad. It reads more like a history book than a story, with the exception of an included play, Iphigenia at Aulis by Euripides (which reminds me of a joke from Frasier: "Euripides, Eumenides") because it's basically an attempt to reconstruct a bunch of lost texts, so it's not as interesting or fun to read as The Iliad. I also would have liked to see some of the glossed over events in more detail, like a meeting between Achilles and Helen. But it's still worth reading to get a fuller picture of the Trojan War.

[Chuck · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is what I have been looking for for ages: a book that reconstructs a narrative of one or more of the lost epics through all the fragments and summaries that exist from other authors. The author does a great job parsing the material based on when it was written and the different versions that could have been told of some tales, since there is so much out there from all different sources, written at different times. This is probably as close as we can get to the actual story of the prequel to Homer.

[Carolina Casas · Rating 5 out of 5]

If there ever could be a canon ...

This would be it. This is a mammoth attempt at piecing together the puzzle of this legend/myth by adding bits and pieces from later works. Through this, a clearer picture comes to light: one more violent and melodramatic than anything GRRM or the English bards could have come up with or seen in any Mexican soap.

[Siem Lowis · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book, the author reconstructs the lost prequel to Homer's Iliad.

He uses various sources from the past to, probably pretty accurately, reconstruct a lost book.
The writer managed to produce an enjoyable and readable book, not falling into any academic dryness.

I would recommend this book to anyone that has read and enjoyed Homer´s Iliad and/or The Odyssey.

[Marie Mandiak · Rating 3 out of 5]

Toward the end I could feel myself reading every other line...

[Matt Vigneau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clever and well done. A logical presentation from many sources on the lead up to the Trojan War.

[Drew · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice collection and presentation of the various sources that cover the Cypria portion of the Epic Cycle.

[Christopher Nilsson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Someone actually attempted to reconstruct the lost book The Cypria. This is the best reconstruction of a lost epic in our time. This book is groundbreaking! 5 stars!