Family Ties

Abstract Among the many forces of cohesion uniting the Ilioupersis episodes, one of the simplest and strongest is the theme of family and family dissolution. The fall of Troy is in essence the fall of its ruling family. While early poets and artists did not ignore the widespread suffering of all the Trojans at the capture of their city (as exemplified on the Mykonos Ilioupersis pithos, discussed in Ch. 11 below), the microcosmic city-family consisting of Priam, his wife, daughters and daughters-in-law, and his remaining sons and sons-in-law, lies at the heart of the myth. It is their stories, their suffering at the hands of their enemies, that the artistic and poetic traditions chose to canonize. Priam, the sources tell us, king of Troy and patriarch of the family, is slain in the palace at the altar of Zeus Herkeios.