fragment 1
Next comes the Little Iliad in four books by Leskheos of Mitylene; its contents are as follows. The adjudging of the arms of Achilles takes place, and Odysseus, by the contriving of Athene, gains them. Aias (son of Telamon) then becomes mad and destroys the herd of the Achaians and kills himself. Next Odysseus lies in wait and catches Helenos, who prophesies as to the taking of Troy, and Diomedes accordingly brings Philoktetes from Lemnos. Philoktetes is healed by Makhaon, fights in single combat with Alexandros (Paris) and kills him; the dead body is outraged by Menelaos, but the Trojans recover and bury it. After this Deiphobos marries Helen, Odysseus brings Neoptolemos from Skyros and gives him his father's arms, and the ghost of Achilles appears to him.
Eurypylos the son of Telephos arrives to aid the Trojans, shows his prowess and is killed by Neoptolemos. The Trojans are now closely besieged, and Epeios, by Athene's instruction, builds the wooden horse. Odysseus disfigures himself and goes in to Ilion (Troy) as a spy, and there being recognized by Helen, plots with her for the taking of the city; after killing certain of the Trojans, he returns to the ships. Next he carries the Palladium (sacred statue of Athene) out of Troy with help of Diomedes. Then after putting their best men in the wooden horse and burning their huts, the main body of the Hellenes sail to Tenedos. The Trojans, supposing their troubles over, destroy a part of their city wall and take the wooden horse into their city and feast as though they had conquered the Hellenes.
fragment 2
Pseudo-Herodotos, Life of Homer
"I sing of Ilion (Troy) and Dardania, the land of fine horses, wherein the Danaï, followers of Ares, suffered many things."
fragment 3
Schol. on Aristoph. Knights 1056 and Aristophanes ib.
The story runs as follows: Aias (son of Telamon) and Odysseus were quarrelling as to their achievements, says the poet of the Little Iliad, and Nestor advised the Hellenes to send some of their number to go to the foot of the walls and overhear what was said about the valor of the heroes named above. The eavesdroppers heard certain girls disputing, one of them saying that Aias was by far a better man than Odysseus and continuing as follows:
"For Aias took up and carried out of the strife the hero, Peleus's son (Achilles); this great Odysseus cared not to do."
To this another replied by Athene's contrivance:
"Why, what is this you say? A thing against reason and untrue! [...] Even a woman could carry a load once a man had put it on her shoulder; but she could not fight. For she would fail with fear if she should fight."
fragment 4
Eustathius, 285.34
The writer of the Little Iliad says that Aias (son of Telamon) was not buried in the usual way (cremated), but was simply buried in a coffin, because of the king's (Agamemnon's) anger.
fragment 5
Eustathius on Homer, Il. 326
The author of the Little Iliad says that Achilles after putting out to sea from the country of Telephos came to land there:
"The storm carried Achilles the son of Peleus to Skyros, and he came into an uneasy harbor there in that same night."
fragment 6
Schol. on Pindar, Nem. vi. 85
"About the spear-shaft was a hoop of flashing gold, and a point was fitted to it at either end."
fragment 7
Schol. on Eur. Troades, 822
"... The vine which the son of Kronos (Zeus) gave him as a recompense for his son. It bloomed richly with soft leaves of gold and grape clusters; Hephaistos wrought it and gave it to his father Zeus; and he bestowed it on Laomedon as a price for Ganymedes."
fragment 8
Pausanias, iii. 26.9
The writer of the epic Little Iliad says that Makhaon was killed by Eurypylos, the son of Telephos.
fragment 9
Homer, Odyssey iv. 247 and Scholiast
"He disguised himself, and made himself like another person, a beggar, the like of whom was not by the ships of the Achaians."
The Cyclic poet uses "beggar" as a substantive, and so means to say that when Odysseus had changed his clothes and put on rags, there was no one so good for nothing at the ships as Odysseus.
fragment 10
Plutarch, Moralia, p. 153 F
And Homer put forward the following verses as Leskheos gives them:
"Muse, tell me of those things which neither happened before nor shall be hereafter."
And Hesiod answered:
"But when horses with rattling hoofs wreck chariots, striving for victory about the tomb of Zeus."
And it is said that, because this reply was specially admired, Hesiod won the tripod, at the funeral games of Amphidamas.
fragment 11
Schol. on Lycophr. 344
Sinon, as it had been arranged with him, secretly showed a signal-light to the Hellenes. Thus Leskheos writes:
"It was midnight, and the clear moon was rising."
fragment 12
Pausanias, x. 25.5
Meges is represented (in the paintings by Polygnotus at Delphi) wounded in the arm just as Leskheos the son of Aiskhylinos of Pyrrha describes in his Sack of Ilion where it is said that he was wounded in the battle which the Trojans fought in the night by Admetos, son of Augeias. Lykomedes too is in the picture with a wound in the wrist, and Leskheos says he was so wounded by Agenor [...]
ib. x. 26.4
Leskheos also mentions Astynoos, and here he is, fallen on one knee, while Neoptolemos strikes him with his sword [...]
ib. x. 26.8
The same writer says that Helikaon was wounded in the night-battle, but was recognized by Odysseus and by him conducted alive out of the fight [...]
ib. x. 27.1
Of them (the dead Trojans in a painting at Delphi), Leskheos says that Eïon was killed by Neoptolemos, and Admetos by Philoktetes [...] He also says that Priam was not killed at the altar of Zeus Herkeios (Zeus of the Forecourt), but was dragged away from the altar and murdered offhand by Neoptolemos at the doors of the house [...] Leskheos says that Axion was the son of Priam and was slain by Eurypylos, the son of Euaemon. Agenor—according to the same poet—was butchered by Neoptolemos.
fragment 13
Aristoph. Lysistr. 155 and Schol.
"Menelaos at least, when he caught a glimpse somehow of the breasts of Helen unclad, cast away his sword, methinks." Leskheos the Pyrrhaean also has the same account in his Little Iliad.
Pausanias, x. 25.8
Concerning Aithre (the mother of Theseus and handmaid of Helen) Leskheos relates that when Ilion (Troy) was taken she stole out of the city and came to the Hellenic camp, where she was recognized by the sons of Theseus; and that Demophon asked her of Agamemnon. Agamemnon wished to grant him this favor, but he would not do so until Helen consented. And when he sent a herald, Helen granted his request.
fragment 14
Schol. on Lycophr. Alex. 1268
"Then the bright son of bold Achilles led the wife of Hektor to the hollow ships; but her son he snatched from the bosom of his rich-haired nurse and seized him by the foot and cast him from a tower. So when he had fallen bloody death and hard fate seized on Astyanax. And Neoptolemos chose out Andromakhe, Hektor's well-girded wife, and the chiefs of all the Achaians gave her to him to hold requiting him with a welcome prize. And he put Aineias, the famous son of horse-taming Ankhises, on board his sea-faring ships, a prize surpassing those of all the Danaäns."