filling the old gaps, or really making new ones that
these might be filled by a fresh poem. Hence arose the famous Epic
Cycle, which has been preserved in a kind of summary supposed to have
been written by Proclus, not the philosopher, but a grammarian of the
time of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius.

Meantime, let us carefully distinguish some of our Cycles. The Trojan
Cycle is one of events and deeds, in general is the going to and the
returning from Troy. The Homeric Cycle is Homer's account, in his two
poems, of this Trojan Cycle. Finally the Epic Cycle is the expansion of
Homer and includes a number of Epics, which fill out to ultimate
completeness the Trojan Cycle. The latter, according to Proclus, is
made up of six Epics beside the Iliad and Odyssey, to which they stand
in the following relations.

1. The _Cypria_, which deals with events antecedent to the Iliad, such
as the apple of Discord, the visit of Paris at Sparta and the taking of
Helen, the mustering at Aulis, the sacrifice of Iphigeneia, and many
incidents at Troy. Ulysses, to avoid going to the war, feigns madness
(his first disguise) and ploughs the sea-sand; but he is detected by
Palamedes who lays his infant Telemachus in the track of the plough.
The name _Cypria_ comes from Kypris, Venus, who caused the infatuation
which led to the war.

2. Four different epics fill in between the Iliad and the Odyssey. The
_AEthiopis_ takes up the thread after the death of Hector, introducing
Penthesilea, Queen of the Amazons, and Memnon, son of the Dawn, both of
whom are slain by Achilles who is himself slain and is buried with
funeral games. After the death of Achilles, the _Little Iliad_
continues the story, installing Ulysses as hero over Ajax in the
contest for the arms of Achilles. This is the grand transition from
Brawn to Brain in the conduct of the war. The Wooden Horse is made, and
the Palladium is carried out of Troy--both deeds being the product of
the brain, if not of the hand, of Ulysses. Next comes the _Sack of
Troy_, whose name indicates its character. Laocoon and Sinon appear in
it, but the main thing is the grand slaughter (like that of the
Suitors) and the dragging of women and children into captivity; the
city is burned. Then follows the epic called the _Nostoi_ or the
Returns, really an elaboration of the Odyssey, specially of the Third
Book, which tells of these antecedent Returns. Then comes the great
Return, which is the Odyssey.

3. After