Who was Dares Phrygius according to Homer?
According to Homer, Dares Phrygius was a Trojan priest of Hephaestus. He was later thought to have been the author of an account of the destruction of Troy.
Questions about Dares Phrygius
Short answers, pulled from the story.
What is the Daretis Phrygii de excidio Troiae historia?
It is a Latin text purporting to be a translation of an eyewitness account of Troy's fall written by Dares of Phrygia. Medieval scholars attributed it to a translation by Cornelius Nepos, but the language places its actual composition around the 5th century AD.
How many casualties does Dares Phrygius claim were killed in the Trojan War?
The text attributed to Dares Phrygius claims 866,000 Greeks and 676,000 Trojans were killed in the war. Archaeology has found nothing at the site suggesting a conflict of that scale was ever fought there.
How did the Dares Phrygius text influence medieval literature?
Together with the similar work of Dictys Cretensis, the De excidio was the chief source for medieval accounts of the Trojan legend known as the Matter of Troy. It was a significant source for Joseph of Exeter's De bello Troiano and was reworked in the 8th century in Merovingian Gaul into a text tracing Frankish origins to Troy.
What is Trójumanna saga and how does it relate to Dares Phrygius?
Trójumanna saga is an Old Norse retelling of the Trojan tradition dated uncertainly to the 12th or 13th century. It deviates considerably from the Latin text ascribed to Cornelius Nepos and refers to Dares as Meistari Dares, suggesting the Icelandic author drew from a different source or tradition.
What is the Historia de origine Francorum and its connection to Dares Phrygius?
The Historia de origine Francorum, meaning History of the Origins of the Franks, is an 8th-century text from Merovingian Gaul that reworked the Dares Phrygius tradition. It purports to describe the descent of the Franks from Trojan survivors and is attributed to Dares.