The relation of the subjects on vases to Greek literature is an interesting theme for enquiry, though, in view of what has already been said, it is evident that it must be undertaken with great caution. The antiquity and wide popularity of the Homeric poems, for instance, would naturally lead us to expect an extensive and general use of their themes by the vase-painter. Yet this is far from being the case. The _Iliad_, indeed, is drawn upon more largely than the _Odyssey_; but even this yields in importance as a source to the epics grouped under the name of the Cyclic poets. It may have been that the poems were instinctively felt to be unsuited to the somewhat conventional and monotonous style of the earlier vase-paintings, which required simple and easily depicted incidents. We are therefore the more at a loss to explain the comparative rarity of subjects from the _Odyssey_, with its many adventures and stirring episodes; scenes which may be from the _Iliad_ being less strongly characterised and less unique—one battle-scene, for instance, differing little from another in method of treatment. But any subject from the _Odyssey_ can be at once identified by its individual and marked character. It may be that the _Odyssey_ had a less firm hold on the minds of the Greeks than the _Iliad_, which was more of a national epic, whereas the _Odyssey_ was a stirring romance.[14] It may also be worth noting that scenes from the _Odyssey_ usually adhere more closely to the Homeric text than those from the _Iliad_. Another reason for the scarcity of Iliad-scenes may be that the Tale of Troy as a whole is a much more comprehensive story, of which the _Iliad_ only forms a comparatively small portion. Hence the large number of scenes drawn both from the Ante-Homerica and the Post-Homerica, such as the stories of Troilos and Memnon, or the sack of Troy. The writings of the Cyclic poets begin, as Horace reminds us, _ab ovo_,[15] from the egg of Leda, and the Kypria included the whole story of the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, the subsequent Judgment of Paris, and his journey to Greece after Helen, scenes from all these events being extremely popular on the vases.[16] The _Patrokleia_ deals with the events of the earlier years of the war, the _Aithiopis_ of Arktinos with the stories of Penthesileia and Memnon, and the death of Achilles, and the _Little Iliad_ of Lesches with the events of the tenth year down to the fall of Troy. All provided frequent themes for the vase-painter, as may be seen by a reference to a later page (119 ff.). The _Iliupersis_ of Arktinos and Lesches might almost be reconstructed from two or three large vases, whereon all the episodes of the catastrophe are collected together (see p. 134); but when we come to the _Nostoi_ of Agias and the Telegonia, the vase-painters suddenly fail us, the stories of Odysseus’ wanderings and Orestes’ vengeance seeming to supply the deficiency.