10.26.1 Above the women between Aithra and Nestor are other captive women, Klymenē, Kreousa, Aristomakhē, and Xenodikē. Now Stesichorus, in the Sack of Troy, includes Klymenē in the number of the captives; and similarly, in the Returns, he speaks [poieîn] of Aristomakhē as the daughter of Priam and the wife of Kritolaos, son of Hiketaon. But I know of no poet [poiētēs], and of no prose writer, who makes mention [mnēmoneuein] of Xenodikē. About Kreousa, the story is told that the mother of the gods and Aphrodite rescued her from slavery among the Greeks, as she was, of course, the wife of Aeneas. But Lescheos and the writer of the epic poem Cypria make Eurydikē the wife of Aeneas.

10.26.2 Beyond these are painted on a couch Deinome, Metiokhe, Peisis, and Kleodike. Deinome is the only one of these names to occur in what is called the Little Iliad; Polygnotus, I think, invented the names of the others. Epeios is painted naked; he is razing to the ground the Trojan wall. Above the wall rises the head only of the Wooden Horse. There is Polypoites, the son of Peirithoos, his head bound with a fillet [tainiā]; by his side is Akamas, the son of Theseus, wearing on his head a helmet with a crest on it.

10.26.3 There is also Odysseus […] and Odysseus has put on his corselet. Ajax, the son of Oileus, holding a shield, stands by an altar [bōmos], taking an oath about the outrage [tolmēma] on Cassandra. Cassandra is sitting on the ground, and holds the statue [agalma] of Athena, for she had knocked over the carved-wooden-image [xoanon] from its stand when Ajax was dragging her away from sanctuary. Also depicted [graphein] are the sons of Atreus, wearing helmets like the others; Menelaos carries a shield, on which is figured a serpent as a memorial of the portent [teras] that appeared on the victims at Aulis.

10.26.4 Under those who are administering the oath to Ajax, and in a line with the horse by Nestor, is Neoptolemos, who has killed Elasos, whoever Elasos may be. Elasos is represented [eikazesthai] as a man only just alive. Astunoos, who is also made [poieîn] mention [mnēmē] by Lescheos, has fallen to his knees, and Neoptolemos is striking him with a sword. Neoptolemos is the only one of the Greek army represented [poieîn] by Polygnotus as still killing the Trojans, the reason being that he intended the whole painting [graphē] to be placed over the tomb [taphos] of Neoptolemos. The son of Achilles is named Neoptolemos by Homer in all his poetry [poiēsis]. The epic poem, however, called Cypria says that Lykomedes named him Pyrrhos, but Phoenix gave him the name of Neoptolemos (young warrior) because Achilles was but young when he first went to war.

10.26.5 In the picture is an altar [bōmos], to which a small boy clings in terror. On the altar [bōmos] lies a bronze corselet. At the present day, corselets of this form are rare, but they used to be worn in days of old. They were made of two bronze pieces, one fitting the chest and the parts about the belly, the other intended to protect the back. They were called gyala. One was put on in front, and the other behind; then they were fastened together by buckles.

10.26.6 They were thought to afford sufficient safety even without a shield. That is why Homer^* speaks of Phorkys the Phrygian as without a shield, because he wore a two piece corselet. Not only have I seen this armor depicted by Polygnotus, but in the temple of Ephesian Artemis, Kalliphon of Samos has painted [graphein] women fitting on the gyala of the corselet of Patroklos.

10.26.7 Beyond the altar [bōmos] he has painted [graphein] Laodike standing, whom I do not find among the Trojan captive women enumerated [katalegein] by any poet, so I think that the only probable conclusion is that she was set free by the Greeks. Homer in the Iliad speaks of the hospitality [xeniā] given to Menelaos and Odysseus by Antenor, and how Laodike was wife to Helikaon, Antenor’s son.^*

10.26.8 Lescheos says that Helikaon, wounded in the night battle, was recognized by Odysseus and carried alive out of the fighting. So the tie binding Menelaos and Odysseus to the house of Antenor makes it unlikely that Agamemnon and Menelaos committed any spiteful act against the wife of Hekikaon. The account of Laodikē given by the Chalcidian poet Euphorion is entirely unlikely.

10.26.9 Next to Laodikē is a stone stand with a bronze washing basin upon it. Medusa is sitting on the ground, holding the stand in both hands. If we are to believe the ode of the poet of Himera, Medusa should be reckoned as one of the daughters of Priam. Beside Medusa is a shaved old woman or eunuch, holding on the knees a naked child. It is represented [poieîn] as holding its hand before its eyes in terror.