The Sigeiad: An Epic Poem

The cover image is taken from a Public Domain 1600s' Dirck Verhaert painting, "The Burning of Troy". One thousand ships have come to the shores of the port town of Sigeum (or Sigeion, hence the name) on the eve of the Trojan War. Paris, Prince of Troy, had kidnapped the Spartan Queen, Helen. Burdened by prophecy, an anxious man and a cowardly man must accept what the Fates have woven for them. This epic poem will hope to explore the events of the first battle of the Trojan War, along with a tragic episode in its aftermath. It will have references to other stories of the war and Greek Mythology in general, but expertise in this area is not required. I tried to model this after a traditional epic poem, though instead of dactylic hexameter or proper iambic pentameter, I just chose to stick with 10 syllables per line. Lines should be read as continuous until the next punctuation (periods, commas, etc). As ancient epics were often rehearsed by word of mouth, I tried to write under that notion (though I can't force you to read this aloud). (This is also posted on AO3).