The date of the fall of Troy in Euripides' Hecuba and in the epic cycle: The Pleiades, Sirius, Orion and Greek historiography

In the Hecuba of Euripides, Polymestor expresses the wish to fly to the sky, next to Sirius and Orion. This sets the time of the year in the early summer. The paper argues that Euripides was aware of attempts in fifth-century historiographic tradition to establish the calendrical date of the fall of Troy. Hellanicus placed it on the 12th day of the month Thargelion; Damastes and others suggested the 23rd day in the same month (early summer). Others dated the fall to the month following Thargelion. It is generally agreed that these historiographers inferred the day of the month from Ilias parva fr. 9 Bernabé = 11a Davies = 14 West. The paper argues that they inferred the month of the year from the story about the Pleiades reported in Titanomachia 14 Bernabé = fragmentum incerti loci intra cyclum epicum 2 Davies = Sack of Ilion fr. 5 West. Ancient sources stress the link between Sirius and the Pleiades (see e.g. Eur. IA 6-8). The paper further discusess the text of Eur. Hec. 1103, suggesting the reading a???? ?a Se?????.