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[10] and Helenus was forced to tell how Ilium could be taken,1 to wit, first, if the bones of Pelops were brought to them; next, if Neoptolemus fought for them; and third, if the Palladium,2 which had fallen from heaven, were stolen from Troy, for while it was within the walls the city could not be taken.


1 As to the capture of Helenus and his prophecy, see Soph. Phil. 604ff.; Soph. Phil. 1337ff.; Conon 34; Tzetzes, Posthomerica 571-579; Tzetzes, Chiliades vi.508-515; Serv. Verg. A. 2.166; Dictys Cretensis ii.18. The mode of his capture and the substance of his prophecies were variously related. The need of fetching the bones of Pelops is mentioned by Tzetzes among the predictions of Helenus; and the necessity of obtaining the Palladium is recorded by Conon and Servius. According to Paus. 5.13.4, it was a shoulder-blade of Pelops that was brought from Pisa to Troy; on the return from Troy the bone was lost in a shipwreck, but afterwards recovered by a fisherman.

2 As to the Palladium, see above, Apollod. 3.12.3.

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