RT Journal Article SR Electronic(1) A1 Scheijnen, TineYR 2018 T1 Homerus lezen met Quintus van Smyrna JF Lampas, VO 51 IS 2 SP 126 OP 143 DO https://doi.org/10.5117/LAM2017.2.005.SCHE PB Amsterdam University Press, SN 2667-1573, AB Summary The death of Priam by the hands of Achilles’ son Neoptolemus (Pyrrhus) is a popular episode in the Trojan tradition. Quintus of Smyrna’s version invites a creative dialogue with Vergil’s (Latin) Aeneid and Triphiodorus’ (Greek) Sack of Ilion. All of these texts look back on Iliad 24 from varying perspectives, creating a complex interplay which Quintus thematizes in book 13 of his Greek epic sequel to Homer (Posthomerica, third century AD). A diptych of two scenes, in which old men are killed by Greek heroes, serves to juxtapose two possible interpretations of this situation – one underlining the cruelty of the sack of Troy, the other bewailing the misery of a long life – and presents the reader with a moral dilemma. Heroic ideology and the tragedy of mortality clash on a level more explicit than in the Iliad. Quintus’ choices on an intertextual level thus enhance the overall narrative agenda of his own epic, on an intratextual level. This episode broaches a wide scope of narrative reflections, including the complex interaction of literary sources (mainly Homer reception), narrative composition and characterization, and themes such as heroism and pathos in war literature., UL https://www.aup-online.com/content/journals/10.5117/LAM2017.2.005.SCHE