ABSTRACT
The oldest and most reliable version that presents the young Troilus as Achilles' sacrificial victim is a poem by Ibycus. The Homeric version is so brief that it is difficult to see any contradiction with the most widespread version of the myth, in which Achilles ambushed and slew Troilus. The images depict four moments in the mythical episode: the ambush, the pursuit, the sacrifice and the fight for Troilus' body, usually with the intervention of Hector and Aeneas. The ambush took place by a spring where Troilus had gone with his horses, either alone or in the company of his sister Polyxena, and the youth met his death on the altar of Thymbraean Apollo. Although Hector is very close to dying as a sacrificial victim, like a maiden or the young Trojans that Achilles sacrifices on the pyre of Patroclus, the equivalence cannot be absolute.
