139The Two Ways of the Epic Genre in Late Antiquity: A Revival of the Epic Cycle

In this paper, I follow the evolution of the epic genre in Late Antiquity, focusing in particular on Quintus Smyrnaeus’ Posthomerica and on Triphiodorus’ Capture of Troy , in order to show how these poems, while referring to the Homeric epics as their landmarks, take diverging paths as for overall structure and plot construction, going back to non-Homeric archaic poetry, notably the poems of the Epic Cycle. Indeed, the all-encompassing architecture of Quintus’ Posthomerica reflects the common view of the Epic Cycle as a big picture of the Trojan myth completing the Homeric tale; besides, it finds a precedent, maybe even a model, in the Cypria . On the other side, Triphiodorus’ small-scale epic poem, focusing on a set of limited and linked events, seems to reproduce the subject and the short range structure of the lost Sack of Troy belonging to the Epic Cycle.