Lost Epic Cycle

Itheosis - A Recreation

• Itheosis: The Lost Epic Cycle

Primary Sources and Translations

• Homer, "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey", translations by Robert Fagles, Richmond Lattimore, or Stanley Lombardo are recommended for their clarity and literary merit.

• Hesiod, "Theogony" and "Works and Days",  Trans. M.L. West. Oxford University Press, 2008

• Quintus Smyrnaeus, "The Fall of Troy" Trans. A.S. Way. Loeb Classical Library, 1913

Epic Cycle Fragments

• M.L. West, "Greek Epic Fragments: From the Seventh to the Fifth Centuries BC",  Harvard University Press, 2003

• Martin L. West, "The Epic Cycle: A Commentary on the Lost Troy Epics", Oxford University Press, 2013

Homeric Studies

• Andrew Ford, "Homer: The Poetry of the Past", Cornell University Press, 1994

• Gregory Nagy, "The Best of the Achaeans: Concepts of the Hero in Archaic Greek Poetry",  The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999

• Jasper Griffin, "Homer: The Odyssey",  Cambridge University Press, 1987

Mythology and Context

• Walter Burkert, "Greek Religion",  Harvard University Press, 1985

• Robert Graves, "The Greek Myths", . Penguin, 1955

• Mark W. Edwards, "Homer: Poet of the Iliad",  The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987

Archaeological and Historical Context

• Michael Wood, "In Search of the Trojan War",  University of California Press, 1998

• Barry Strauss, "The Trojan War: A New History",  Simon & Schuster, 2006

Literary Criticism and Theory

• Richard Jenkyns, "Classical Literature: An Epic Journey from Homer to Virgil and Beyond",  Basic Books, 2015

• Jonathan S. Burgess, "The Tradition of the Trojan War in Homer and the Epic Cycle",  The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004

• Denys Page, "History and the Homeric Iliad",  University of California Press, 1959

Epic Poetry Techniques

• Stephen Scully, "Homer and the Sacred City", Cornell University Press, 1990

• Steve Reece, "Homer's Winged Words: The Evolution of Early Greek Epic Diction in the Light of Oral Theory", Brill, 2009

Further Epic Cycle Studies and Reconstructions

• Malcolm Davies, "The Epic Cycle", Bristol Classical Press, 1989

• Jonathan Burgess, "Homer and the Epic: From the Eighth Century BC to the Third Century AD", Bloomsbury Academic, 2020

Alberto Bernabé, "Poetry of the Early Greek World", Brill, 1999

Oral Tradition and Composition

• Milman Parry, "The Making of Homeric Verse: The Collected Papers of Milman Parry", Oxford University Press, 1971

• John Miles Foley, "The Theory of Oral Composition: History and Methodology", Indiana University Press, 1988

• Gregory Nagy, "Homeric Questions", University of Texas Press, 1996

Thematic and Literary Analysis

• Charles Rowan Beye, "Ancient Epic Poetry: Homer, Apollonius, Virgil, with a Chapter on the Gilgamesh Poems", Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 2006

• Barbara Graziosi and Johannes Haubold, "Homer: The Resonance of Epic", Duckworth, 2005

• Oliver Taplin, "Homeric Soundings: The Shaping of the Iliad", Oxford University Press, 1992

Troy and the Trojan War Tradition

• Ian Morris and Barry Powell (Eds.), "A New Companion to Homer", Brill, 1997

• Eric H. Cline, "1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed", Princeton University Press, 2014

• David A. Traill, "Schliemann of Troy: Treasure and Deceit", St. Martin's Press, 1995

Women and the Epic Cycle

• Eva Stehle, "Performance and Gender in Ancient Greece: Nondramatic Poetry in Its Setting", Princeton University Press, 1997

• Helene P. Foley, "Female Acts in Greek Tragedy", Princeton University Press, 2001

Heroism in Epic

• Peter Toohey, "Reading Epic: An Introduction to the Ancient Narratives", Routledge, 1992

• Michael Clarke, "Flesh and Spirit in the Songs of Homer: A Study of Words and Myths", Oxford University Press, 1999

• Mark Buchan, "The Limits of Heroism: Homer and the Ethics of Reading", University of Michigan Press, 2004

Further Mythological and Cultural Context

• Jean-Pierre Vernant, "Myth and Society in Ancient Greece", Zone Books, 1988

• Robin Lane Fox, "Travelling Heroes: Greeks and Their Myths in the Epic Age of Homer", Penguin, 2009

• Jan Bremmer, "Interpretations of Greek Mythology", Routledge, 1988

Cypria

• David B. Claus, "Toward the Interpretation of the Prooimion of the Cypria", Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, 1981

• Malcolm Davies, "The Cypria and the Origins of the Iliad", Harvard University Press, 1988

• Robin Hard, "The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose’s Handbook of Greek Mythology", Routledge, 2004

• Evelyn-White, Hugh G. (Trans.), "Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica", Loeb Classical Library, 1914

Aethiopis

• Benjamin Sammons, "The Aethiopis: Neoanalysis and the Reception of the Aithiopis in the Iliad", Oxford University Press, 2021

• Malcolm Davies, "The Aethiopis: Neoanalysis Reanalyzed", Harvard University Press, 1992

• Alan B. Lloyd, "The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World", Princeton University Press, 2021

• W. Leaf, "The Aethiopis and Its Connection with the Iliad", Classical Quarterly, 1912

Little Iliad

• Jonathan Burgess, "The Tradition of the Trojan War in Homer and the Epic Cycle", The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004

• Malcolm Davies, "The Little Iliad and the Conclusion of the Iliadic Tradition", Classical Quarterly, 1994

• M. L. West, "Greek Epic Fragments", Harvard University Press, 2003

Iliou Persis (Sack of Ilium)

• Malcolm Davies, "The Sack of Ilium and the Trojan Epic Tradition", Oxford University Press, 2003

• Emily Kearns, "The Fall of Troy in Greek Mythology: The Sack of Ilium and the Homeric Tradition", Oxford University Press, 1991

• Denys Page, "History and the Homeric Iliad", University of California Press, 1959

Nostoi (Returns)

• Ian Rutherford, "Nostoi and the Tradition of Greek Epic Returns", Oxford University Press, 1995

• Calvert Watkins, "The Language of the Hero: Speech and Performance in Homer and the Homeric Hymns", Harvard University Press, 1995

• M. L. West, "The Nostos Tradition and the Homeric Epics", Oxford University Press, 1973

Telegony

• B. P. Reardon (Ed.), "Collected Ancient Greek Novels", University of California Press, 1989

• Alfred Heubeck, "The Telegony and the End of the Odyssey", Cambridge University Press, 1994

• James M. Redfield, "The Telegony and the Role of the Hero's Legacy in Greek Epic Tradition", Princeton University Press, 2001

General Epic Cycle Resources

• Martin West, "The Epic Cycle: A Commentary on the Lost Troy Epics", Oxford University Press, 2013

• M. Davies, "The Greek Epic Cycle and its Ancient Reception", Oxford University Press, 2009

• Andrew Porter, "The Greek Epic Cycle and its Influence on Greek Tragedy", Harvard University Press, 1996