Ovid finally arrives at the Trojan War material he has spent much of the previous book delaying. He thus commences what is known as the “Little Iliad,” which continues through the middle of Book 13. Yet Ovid’s Trojan tales are not what we might expect—they avoid rehashing material already covered by Homer in his Iliad and offer instead a series of substitutions, such as Achilles’ fight with Cycnus instead of the Trojan prince Hector, the kidnapping of Hippodame instead of Helen, and the fighting of Lapiths and centaurs instead of the Greeks and Trojans.
