Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Ucalegon.
The gallery
View of Burning Troy
Johann Georg Trautmann, c. mid-18th century
Trautmann's blazing Troy — the night Virgil names when neighbouring Ucalegon's house already burns, the Trojan counsellor who became a proverb for the neighbour whose roof is on fire.
In play
Aeneid
Virgil
Book II — as Troy falls, Aeneas sees Ucalegon's house already in flames: iam proximus ardet Ucalegon — the line that made a minor Trojan elder a European proverb for imminent danger next door.
Iliad
Homer
Book III — Ucalegon sits among Priam's elders on the wall, watching Helen: a counsellor of Troy before Virgil's fire made his name proverbial.
Ucalegon
Trojan elder whose burning house in the Aeneid became a byword — 'Ucalegon next door' for a neighbour already ablaze.