- What is mental capacity?
- How does the Mental Capacity Act support people to make decisions?
- Who is the Mental Capacity Act for?
- How is it decided if someone has mental capacity?
- When should capacity be assessed?
- Are any decisions not covered by the Mental Capacity Act?
Mental capacity is about being able make a decision and understand what will happen as a result of making that decision.
Everyone should have the right to make choices about their own life. But sometimes injury, illness or disability can affect a person’s ability to understand difficult choices and make decisions.
Someone’s mental capacity could be affected by having:
- a brain injury;
- a stroke;
- a severe learning disability.
Every situation is different. In some cases, a person’s mental capacity might only be affected for a short time for example if they are unconscious after an accident, but then they get better. Or it may change from time to time, meaning that they are able to make decisions one day but not the next. Or they might be able to make day-to-day decisions about shopping and meals, but be unable to make bigger decisions, about their money or where to live.
Every person’s situation is different.
The main purpose of the Mental Capacity Act is to keep people safe and ensure that they have the right to make their own decisions, as far as possible. It sets out a way of carrying out assessments which helps to decide if a person lacks mental capacity.
It does this in three ways:
- By making sure people make decisions for themselves wherever possible (empowering them);
- By protecting people who lack mental capacity by having a process which is flexible and can adapt to their particular needs;
- By allowing people to plan ahead for a time in the future when they might not have mental capacity any more.
The MCA helps to make sure that people make their own decisions for as long as possible.
The MCA is a law that applies to people over the age of 16.
There is a two stage test to help decide who the Mental Capacity Act applies to.
Stage 1. Does the person have an illness or disability of their mind or brain?
Stage 2. Does that mean that the person lacks the mental capacity to make a particular decision?
The Mental Capacity Act provides a set of questions to help decide if a person lacks mental capacity. If the answer is no to one or more of the following questions, the person lacks capacity.
- Can they understand information given to them?
- Can they retain that information long enough to be able to make the decision?
- Can they weigh up the information available to make the decision?
- Can they communicate their decision? This could be by talking, using sign language or even simple muscle movements such as blinking an eye or squeezing a hand.
We can all have problems making decisions from time to time, but the Act covers situations when there is concern that a person cannot make a particular decision at a particular time because their mind or brain is affected by illness or a disability.
The decision may be about a day to day part of their life or a long term decision about where to live or whether to have medical treatment.
Their lack of capacity may not be a permanent condition.
Some decisions cannot be made for another person. This is because the decision is either so personal, or because it comes under other laws.
Decisions that cannot be made include:
- agreeing to a marriage or a civil partnership;
- agreeing to having sex;
- agreeing to the person’s child being placed for adoption;
- voting at an election.


Get Your Message Across in a Difficult Conversation
If you need to have a difficult conversation with someone, you’re unlikely to come to a resolution if you don’t hear the other person out. After you’ve listened to your counterpart, you can clarify your message by doing the following:
- Own your perspective. Treat your opinion like what it is: your opinion. Start sentences with “I,” not “you.” Explain what’s bothering you and follow up by saying what you hope will happen.
- Pay attention to your words. Avoid name-calling and finger-pointing. Your language should be simple, clear, direct, and neutral.
- Watch your body language. Are you slumping your shoulders? Rolling your eyes? Take stock of the impression you’re giving.
- Change the tenor of the conversation. If things get heated, don’t panic. Take a deep breath and suggest a different approach, such as: “If we put our heads together, we could probably come up with a way to move past this. Do you have any ideas?”
*Source: Harvard Business Review’s Management Tip of the Day.
To get the most out of today’s management tip, sign up for Educapro’s exclusive Management Tip Newsletter and get access to in-depth information and personalized feedback in any leadership or management area of interest. Sign up here.


Ever heard of an ancient conflict called The Trojan War? Quite a story, really. And then there's Homer's epics The Iliad and The Odyssey, telling the tale in forty-eight books and tens of thousands of lines of dactylic hexameter...all of which focus on less than one year of the decade-long conflict, and the years Odysseus spent lost at sea afterwards.
Something's missing — namely, the first nine years of the war, the actual end of the war, and associated myths. Surely they weren't just floating about in the Oral Tradition until some ancient tragedians got hold of them?
As it happens, they weren't. It turns out that the The Iliad and the The Odyssey were not the only epics which pulled together the tales of the Trojan War. In fact, there were eight:
We've lost every one of the above except for Homer's epics. Sorry.
But yet we still know of them. References to and quotations from the lost epics have survived in fragments. By an incredible stroke of luck, we have a work titled the Chrestomathy by an unknown Proclus, which actually summarizes the events that take place in each epic.
Thanks to these sources, we know that the epics covered everything from the marriage of Peleus and Thetis to Odysseus's death. Modern novelizations of the Trojan Cycle include The Song of Troy by Colleen McCullough (who is perhaps most famous for the Masters of Rome series) and The War at Troy and Return from Troy, both by Lindsay Clarke.
So without further ado, for your perusal, the six lost works of the Trojan Cycle:
The odd title has absolutely nothing to do with Troynote , and instead suggests that the epic came from Cyprus. Like the following epics, its author is unknown. It is believed to have been written sometime in the sixth century BC.
The Cypria (Κύπρια) opens with Zeus discussing the Trojan War, which has not yet occurred. This seems to refer to the myth that Zeus planned the Theban and Trojan Wars in order to relieve the earth of an unsustainable population.
So he encourages events — Strife's interruption at Peleus and Thetis's wedding, the Judgement of Paris — to lead to the Trojan War. The Cypria then follows the abduction of Helen and the Achaeans' haphazard attempt to come together and attack Troy.
They get lost, attack the wrong place, and are scattered by a storm. When they finally reconvene, Agamemnon annoys Artemis and is forced to sacrifice his daughter to her (except the goddess relents and whisks her away instead).
At first this second attempt to reach Troy doesn't go well: a warrior, Philoctetes, is bitten by a water snake and left behind on Lemnos because his comrades can't stand the stench of his wounds. So much for No One Gets Left Behind. But eventually the Achaeans do make it to Troy, and the Cypria follows the events of the war up until the last year, which is then related in the Iliad and following epics.
Ancient fragments on the Cypria, including Proclus's summary, are avaliable in English here.
The Cypria likely provided examples of:
- The Alliance: The Achaeans, thanks to the pact Helen's suitors swore. The Trojans are quick to call upon their own allies, as well.
- Apple of Discord: The golden apple Strife uses to cause, well, strife, inscribed with the word "καλλίστῃ" ("for the fairest").
- Arranged Marriage: Iphigenia is lured to Aulis with the lie that she is to be married to Achilles.
- Because Destiny Says So: Both Helenus and Cassandra prophesied some amount of what would happen from the very start. This foreknowledge does not help the Trojans in any way.
- Blasphemous Boast: Agamemnon's claim after killing a deer. See Disproportionate Retribution, below.
- The Cassandra: Obviously.
- Cassandra Truth: It seems the Trojans don't pay much mind to what Helenus or Cassandra warn, as they accept Paris and Helen back and settle down to wait out the siege...
- Depopulation Bomb: The Trojan War itself. Protesilaus is just the beginning.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Agamemnon claims to surpass Artemis; she forces him to sacrifice his daughter. Perfectly reasonable, right?
- Divine Date: Peleus's marriage to Thetis.
- Human Sacrifice: Artemis demands that Agamemnon sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia, before she allows the Achaeans to sail to Troy. (Then she changes her mind and snatches her away to Tauris.)
- Immortality: Either only Polydeuces is immortal, or he and Castor share their immortality.
- Living MacGuffin: Helen.
- Loophole Abuse: Cinyras promises to send fifty ships to aid the Achaeans. Forty-nine of the ones he sends are made out of clay.
- Love Goddess: Aphrodite.
- Love Makes You Crazy: Helen and Paris.
- Obfuscating Insanity: Odysseus fakes insanity to try to get out of taking part in the Trojan War, but is found out by Palamedes.
- Plunder: The Achaeans attack the surrounding countryside during the siege.
- Prequel: It is believed that the epic was composed after the The Iliad.
- Red Shirt: Protesilaus, the first to die at Troy.
- RevengeSVP: Eris doesn't take not being invited to the wedding well.
- Sacred Hospitality: Paris takes advantage of Menelaus's hospitality to steal most of his property and his wife, Helen.
- World's Most Beautiful Woman: Helen again. Also, in the Judgement of Paris, he is to decide which of the three goddesses is the fairest.
- Would Not Shoot a Civilian: Averted. The Achaeans are quick to raze the surrounding countryside once the siege begins.
- Your Cheating Heart: The moment Menelaus leaves for Crete, Aphrodite brings Paris and Helen together.
Works derived from the myths of the Cypria:
- Iphigenia, a lost play on the sacrifice of Iphigenia at Aulis.
- Telephos, a lost play likely about Telephos, who was wounded and then healed by Achilles when the Achaeans made their first attempt to sail to Troy.
- Iphigenia in Aulis, recounting how she was lured to Aulis and seemingly sacrificed.
- Iphigenia in Tauris, following her life after Artemis whisks her away to Tauris.
- Alexandros, possibly: the play has been lost, but it seems to have followed Paris's life and return to Troy before he set sail for Sparta.
- Protesilaus, a lost play about the aftermath of Protesilaus's death. His wife, Laodamea, was allowed to converse with him briefly after he died, but he was forced to return to the Underworld. She then made an image of him to love, but when her father burned it, she committed suicide on the pyre.
- Scyrians, a lost play concerned with Thetis's hiding Achilles among the daughters of the king of Scyros (knowing that if he went to Troy, he would die), and Odysseus's discovery of him there.
- Telephos, a lost play and Euripides's version of the story of Telephos, also recounted by Aeschylus.
- The Gathering of the Achaeans, which has also been lost and was probably a satyr play, concerned with the gathering of the Achaeans at Tenedos before setting sail for Troy.
- Alexandros, a lost play probably similar to Euripides's Alexandros, focused on Paris's childhood and his recognition as a son of Priam.
- Judgement, yet another lost play, in this case a satyr play on the Judgement of Paris.
- Odysseus, a lost play about Odysseus's feigned madness and his discovery by Palamedes.
- Palamedes, a lost play apparently following the aftermath of Palamedes's death (who had tricked Odysseus into revealing his fake madness so that he would fight at Troy).
- The Shepherds, also lost and thought to have been a satyr play. It followed the Achaeans' arrival at Troy and the death of Protesilaus and Kyknos.
- Troilos, a lost play on the death of Troilos by Achilles.
The Aethiopis (Αἰθιοπίς) follows after the events of the Iliad, bringing in numerous new Trojan allies to even things out after Hector's death. It seems to have been written sometime in the seventh century BC, but uncertainty remains.
Penthesilea, an Amazon and a daughter of Ares, is the first to arrive to aid Troy. She kills countless Achaeans until Achilles bests her. Achilles then strikes and kills a Achaean soldier, Thersites, for jeering at him about an alleged love for the Amazon.
The Trojans gain another ally with the arrival of Memnon and the Ethiopians. Thetis prophesies to Achilles about a battle with Memnon, who is also of Divine Parentage (the son of Eos, the Dawn) and bears armour crafted by Hephestus.
Achilles successfully kills Memnon and puts the Trojans to flight, chasing them into the city where he is finally killed by Paris and Apollo.
The Achaeans and Trojans then proceed to fight over his body, and Ajax manages to get it back to the Achaean ships, where Thetis arrives with the Muses and the Nereids to lament his death. The funeral games are played, and the epic ends with a quarrel between Ajax and Odysseus over the arms of Achilles.
Ancient fragments on the Aethiopis, including Proclus's summary, are avaliable in English here.
The Aethiopis likely provided examples of:
- Action Girl: Penthesilea, the Amazon and daughter of the war god, who slaughters the Achaeans unchecked until Achilles slays her.
- Antagonist Title: Aethiopis refers to the Ethiopians, newly arrived Trojan allies whom Memnon leads.
- Big Guy Fatality Syndrome: Achilles takes out both Penthesilea and Memnon, only to meet his death by Apollo shortly afterwards.
- The Cavalry: The new Trojan allies.
- Custom Uniform: Like the armour Achilles gets in the Iliad, Memnon's armour is also crafted by Hephestus.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Carefully averted with the introduction of new Trojan allies such as Penthesilea and Memnon. Otherwise, considering the Trojans lost thier greatest defender in the Iliad, the remainder of the war would have been this.
- Death Is Dramatic: Chasing the entire Trojan army into the city, taken down by Paris only with the help of Apollo? Achilles is just that badass.
- Divine Parentage: Multiple characters, notably Achilles and the new Trojan allies, Penthesilea and Memnon.
- Doomed by Canon: Coming to Troy, Achilles was doomed from the start. His life was prophesied to go one of two ways: he would either live a long, uneventful life, or he would die a young, glorious hero at Troy.
- Due to the Dead: Once Achilles falls, battle rages so that the Achaeans can recover his body. His funeral is followed with the customary funeral games.
- Dying Moment of Awesome: Achilles, while chasing the entire Trojan army into the city.
- Either/Or Prophecy: Achilles's is fulfilled here. He's Doomed by Canon.
- Ending Memorial Service: The epic ends with the funeral games of Achilles.
- Immortality: Memnon's mother, Eos, convinces Zeus to grant him immortality after his death.
- I Love the Dead: Achilles apparently falls in love with Penthesilea after killing her and removing her helm. He kills Thersites for mocking him about it.
- Invincible Hero: Up until this point, Achilles was this. It takes Apollo to help bring him down.
- Marked to Die: It's mentioned twice in the Iliad that Achilles would be killed by Apollo, and the summary of the Aethiopis mentions that Thetis prophesied something regarding his battle with Memnon to her son.
- Meaningful Funeral: Thetis arrives with the Muses and the other Nereids when the Achaeans bring Achilles's body back to the ships.
- No One Gets Left Behind: The Achaeans fight ferociously to recover Achilles's body.
- Not So Invincible After All: Achilles.
- One-Man Army: Achilles. Penthesilea and Memnon also fit until they're killed.
- Storming the Castle: After killing Memnon, Achilles puts the entire Trojan army to flight, and pursues them into the city.
- Supernatural Aid: Apollo aids Paris in killing Achilles.
- Too Powerful to Live: Achilles again, a non-antagonist example.
- Worthy Opponent: Memnon to Achilles.
- Would Hit a Girl: The Achaeans kill Amazons the same as everyone else.
- Your Days Are Numbered: And Achilles knew it.
Works derived from the myths of the Aethiopis:
- Memnon, a lost play about Memnon's arrival to aid the Trojans, whom Achilles kills. This leads to Achilles's own death at the hands of Apollo and Paris.
- Psychostasia, another lost play on the weighing of souls between Achilles and Memnon.
- The Award of the Arms, a lost play on the contest for the arms of Achilles after his death. Also possibly the first of a trilogy concerned with Ajax's maddness.
- Part of Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book XII of which included the death of Achilles.
- Led Zeppelin's Achilles Last Stand
The Little Iliad (Ἰλιὰς μικρά) follows, dealing with the question of how the Achaeans will take Troy now that Achilles is dead. Similarly to the Aethiopis, it seems to have been written sometime in the seventh century BC.
With the funeral games of Achilles ended, his armour is given to Odysseus according to Athena's wish. Ajax, who perhaps justly feels he deserved to receive the armour, is enraged by this. Athena drives him insane so that he attacks the Achaeans' livestock rather than the Achaean leaders themselves, and he eventually commits suicide, leaving the Achaean army short two powerful warriors instead of one.
Odysseus then captures the Trojan seer Helenus, who prophesies what they must do in order to capture Troy. The Achaeans do as he says, sending Diomedes to bring Philoctetes back, whom they abandoned nine or so years ago during the expedition to Troy. Somehow Philoctetes is convinced to rejoin them, where his wound is finally healed. The warrior is quick to kill Paris once he is brought to Troy, and Deiphobus, another prince of Troy, marries Helen.
Odysseus, meanwhile, goes to Scyros where Achilles had fathered Neoptolemus after the Achaean fleet was scattered on its first journey. He brings the boy to Troy and gives him his father's armour, and Neoptolemus sees the ghost of Achilles. Neoptolemus slays another newly arrived Trojan ally, Eurypylus, the son of Telephos.
Because the Achaeans still can't get into the city, Athena inspires Epeios to construct the Trojan Horse. A disguised Odysseus sneaks into Troy to gather information and encounters Helen, who does not alert the Trojans but rather agrees with Odysseus for the Achaeans to take Troy.
Odysseus kills more Trojans on his way out, and then he and Diomedes carry out Helenus's prophecy by stealing the Palladion, a statue of Athena upon which Troy's safety depended.
The Trojans believe they are finally freed of the years of war, and they take the Trojan Horse into the city —dismantling part of their wall to do so!— and begin to celebrate.
Proclus's summary ends here, but other works say that the Little Iliad ended with an account of the sack, with slight differences from the account given in the Sack of Ilion.
Ancient fragments on the Little Iliad, including Proclus's summary, are avaliable in English here.
The Little Iliad likely provided examples of:
- Arranged Marriage: Helen's marriage to Deiphobus was this.
- Bolivian Army Cliffhanger: According to Proclus's summary, the epic ends with the Trojan guard down and the Achaeans poised to ravage the city.
- Because Destiny Says So: Why the Achaeans need to find Neoptolemus and Philoctetes, and capture the Palladion.
- The Chosen One: It's prophesied that Troy won't fall to Greece without the aid of Neoptolemus and Philoctetes.
- Continuity Snarl: The sack narrated in this epic is slightly different from the one in the Sack of Ilion. Aeneas, for instance, is captured by the Achaeans and taken by Neoptolemus, and the son of Achilles is the one to kill Astyanax.
- Darkest Hour: The people of Troy have entered theirs.
- Dead Person Conversation: When Neoptolemus receives Achilles's armour, he sees the ghost of his father.
- Dramatic Irony: Oh so much.
- Driven to Suicide: Ajax.
- Guile Hero: Odysseus.
- Hollywood Healing: Philoctetes has been wounded for nine years. He arrives at Troy and suddenly, he's healed. Though this is justified since the ones doing the healing are children of Asclepius, the dude whose healing prowess is so good he can literally bring back the dead.
- Insane Equals Violent: Ajax, who briefly goes mad and attacks the Achaeans' plundered flock.
- The Infiltration: Odysseus's recon of Troy.
- I Surrender, Suckers: The Achaeans' feigned retreat.
- Made a Slave: Many after the sack, such as Hecuba and Andromache.
- The Medic: Machaon, who successfully heals Philoctetes's nine-year-old wound. Justified, since Machaon is the son of Asclepius the God of Healing.
- No One Gets Left Behind: They come back for Philoctetes! So it's all good, right?
- One Sided Battle: Probably the case when the Achaeans emerge from the Trojan Horse.
- Playing Both Sides: Helen seems to be doing this. When she realises the Achaeans are going to take the city, she's perfectly happy to let them.
- Rape, Pillage, and Burn: The sack of Troy.
- Red Shirt: Probably plenty of people, particularly the Trojans Odysseus slays on his way out of Troy.
- Right Under Their Noses: When Odysseus sneaks into Troy.
- Romancing the Widow: When Paris is killed, the Trojans don't conclude that maybe they should finally return Helen. Nope; Paris's brother, Deiphobus, marries her instead.
- Schmuck Bait: The Trojan Horse, built tall enough that the Trojans need to dismantle part of their wall if they want to get it into the city.
- Seers: Helenus.
- Sniper Duel: Occurs between Philoctetes and Paris. Philoctetes wins, mortally wounding Paris with his Hydra venom arrows.
- Sole Survivor: A surviving quotation from the epic specifies that Aeneas was spared (odd considering that the Achaeans slew all the men of Troy) and was taken by Neoptolemus.
- Starts with a Suicide: Namely, Ajax's.
- Take Up My Sword: Neoptolemus is given Achilles's armour and brought to aid the Achaeans against Troy.
- Trojan Horse
- Turn Coat: It seems Helen couldn't care less about Troy after Paris is killed.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: What ever happened to Philoctetes? Remember him, from the Cypris? Apparently he's just been chilling on Lemnos for nine years, with a wound that refuses to heal...
- Would Hurt a Child: A quotation from the epic describes Neoptolemus throwing Hector's child, Astyanax, from the walls.
- You Killed My Father: Paris killed Achilles (with Apollo's help). Neoptolemus arrives at Troy and nearly immediately kills Paris.
Works derived from the myths of the Little Iliad:
- Philoctetes, a lost play about the Achaeans' attempt to get Philoctetes to Troy.
- The Phrygian Women, a lost play seemingly part of a trilogy about Ajax's madness.
- The Salaminian Women, a lost play and possibly the third part of a trilogy about Ajax's madness and suicide.
- Epeios, a lost play likely focused on Epeios, the architect of the Trojan horse.
- Philoctetes, a lost play (see Aeschylus's version).
- Philoctetes, yet another version of the story also done by Aeschylus and Euripides.
- Ajax, a tragedy about the madness of Ajax after Achilles's armour is awarded to Odysseus rather than him, and his subsequent suicide.
- Lacaenae, a lost play believed to have followed the theft of the Palladium by Diomedes and Odysseus.
- Part of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Book XIII includes the debate over Achilles's arms and Ajax's subsequent death.
Next comes the Sack of Ilion (Ἰλίου πέρσις), as Troy finally falls to the Achaeans. This epic also seems to have been composed in the seventh century BC, supposedly by the same writer as the Aethiopis.
The Trojans are puzzled by the giant horse left parked outside the city, and the epic starts with their debate as to what they should do with it. Some want to push it off a cliff, others to burn it, while a third group believe it is an object sacred to Athena.
This third group convinces the others to bring the horse into the city, and the Trojans then celebrate the end of ten years of siege.
The Trojans celebrate into the night, and when the city is finally quiet, the Achaean Sinon signals the others with firebrands. The fleet sails back from Tenedos, the warriors inside the Trojan Horse are let loose, and the Achaeans fall upon the city.
Countless Trojans are killed and the Achaeans take hold of the city. The king of Troy, Priam, takes refuge at the altar of Zeus but is slain by Neoptolemus, while Menelaus kills Deiphobus and takes Helen back to the ships.
When Ajaxnote tears Cassandra from the altar of Athena, he harms Athena's image. For this, the other Achaeans intend to stone him, but he escapes their judgement by also taking refuge at her altar.
In the aftermath, Odysseus kills Astyanax, Neoptolemus receives Andromache as his war prize, and the remainder of the spoils are divided up. Troy is burned and Polyxena, a daughter of Hecuba, is sacrificed at the tomb of Achilles.
Ancient fragments on the Sack of Ilion, including Proclus's summary, are available in English here.
The Sack of Ilion likely provided examples of:
- Continuity Snarl: Here Aeneas flees Troy after the ominous death of Laocoon, compared to his capture in the Little Iliad. Astyanax is also killed by Odysseus rather than Neoptolemus.
- Darkest Hour: This is Troy's.
- Death of the Hypotenuse: When recovering Helen, Menelaus slays Deiphobus.
- Dramatic Irony: While the Trojans debate what to do with the horse.
- Due to the Dead: It seems Achilles demanded Human Sacrifice.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin
- Final Battle: The culmination of ten years of war: the Achaeans are finally within the city and the Trojans are fighting for survival. This is the end.
- Human Sacrifice: The sacrifice of Polyxena at the tomb of Achilles.
- Infant Immortality: Completely averted.
- Kill 'Em All: The confused Trojans are slaughtered.
- Last Stand
- Libation for the Dead
- Made a Slave: Numerous Trojan women, Hecuba and Andromache in particular.
- The Medic: Machaon is mentioned in a fragment, though the Little Iliad had him killed in its narrative.
- One Sided Battle: The Achaeans crept in in the dark of night, after the Trojans had celebrated their release and fallen asleep. They didn't stand a chance.
- Rape, Pillage, and Burn
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here!: Aeneas doesn't stay long after the death of Laocoon, and flees the city.
- Seers: Cassandra.
- Storming the Castle: And the Achaeans finally penetrate inside the city.
- Watching Troy Burn: Those who survived the attack by the Achaeans see their city looted and burned.
- Would Hurt a Child: Odysseus, who kills Astyanax.
Works derived from the myths of the Sack of Ilion:
- Hecuba, a tragedy set after the fall of Troy, when Hecuba discovers her son, Polydorus's, death and that Polyxena is to be sacrificed at Achilles's tomb.
- The Trojan Women, also set after the fall, which focuses on the death of Astyanax and the allotment of captives to the Achaean warriors.
- Laocoon, a lost play about the death of the priest of Apollo.
- Ajax the Locrian, a lost play concerned with Ajax, who has dragged off Cassandra and harmed the image of Athena.
- Part of Ovid's Metamorphoses: The fall of Troy and the aftermath is detailed in part of Book XIII.
- The Aeneid by Virgil is basically a Fan Fic of the whole cycle, but it starts with the Trojans' debate over what to do with the Horse and follows Aeneas after he leaves.
So The Trojan War has come to an end. The next epic in the cycle, the Returns (Νόστοι), deals with the Achaeans' respective returns home. Exactly when the epic was completed is very uncertain; it is often dated sometime in the seventh or sixth century BC.
As the Achaeans prepare to set sail, Athena causes Agamemnon and Menelaus to argue about the coming voyage. Agamemnon chooses to wait a few days in order to appease the goddess's anger (who did not approve of the Achaeans' impious behavior during the sack of Troy), while Diomedes and Nestor set out and safely reach their homelands.
Menelaus, the next to set sail, is not as lucky: he ends up in Egypt (most definitely not Sparta by any stretch of the imagination) with only five ships, as the remainder were destroyed during the voyage.
Other Achaeans — Calchas, Leonteus, and Polypoites — try a land route and avoid the dangers at sea. Calchas dies at Colophon and is buried there.
Agamemnon, feeling he has postponed his journey enough, is about to set out when he encounters Achilles, who fortells what will occur and tries to stop them. His group continues regardless and meets with a storm at sea, losing many ships.
The storm was sent by Zeus at the request of Athena, who finally punishes Ajax for his actions in the Sack of Ilion. His ship is among those lost in the storm, and he is killed on the Kapherian rocks.
Neoptolemus is advised by his divine grandmother, Thetis, to make his way home by land. His journey is uneventful, and he briefly encounters the unlucky Odysseus in Maronea. The son of Achilles finally comes to Molossia, a land he and his descendants come to rule.
Both Menelaus and Agamemnon do finally reach their homes, but Agamemnon is murdered by his wife, Clytaemestra, and her lover Aegisthus. His son, Orestes, eventually returns to his home and avenges his father's murder by killing his mother and her lover.
Meanwhile, Odysseus's return home is chronicled in the following epic, The Odyssey.
Ancient fragments on the Returns, including Proclus's summary, are avaliable in English here.
The Returns likely provided examples of:
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: Agamemnon's. Aegisthus is his cousin.
- Bolt of Divine Retribution: Athena, being rather displeased with Ajax, asks Zeus to send a storm to destroy him. Zeus obliges.
- Boring Return Journey: Very averted for several important Achaeans.
- The Cassandra: Cassandra, who was given to Agamemnon as a slave, is also killed.
- Cycle of Revenge: Clytaemestra is unhappy with Agamemnon for (seemingly) sacrificing their daughter, Iphigenia. Orestes takes revenge for his father by killing Clytaemestra.
- Dead Person Conversation: Death hasn't stopped Achilles from chatting with people yet. This is the third epic in a row, and he died way back in the Aethiopis.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin
- Home Sweet Home: At least some of them reach it.
- The Homeward Journey: Naturally.
- Hostile Weather: Athena gets Zeus to send a storm after the Achaeans.
- Karmic Death: The Achaeans couldn't kill Ajax, since he took refuge at the temple of Athena. Athena, however, has no qualms about punishing him.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: Clytaemestra and her lover's murder of Agamemnon.
- No Sense of Direction: Menelaus somehow ends up in Egypt.
- Red Shirt: All the random Achaeans killed in the storms at sea.
- Revenge: Athena taking revenge on Ajax, Clytaemestra taking revenge on Agamemnon, Orestes taking revenge on Clytaemestra, etc.
- Rightful King Returns: A lot of important Achaeans were kings, after all.
- Seers: Calchas, Cassandra. Achilles's ghost also warns of things to come.
- Self-Made Orphan: Orestes, who kills his mother.
- The Underworld: Several fragments and references seem to imply that there was some passage dealing with Hades, perhaps showing Agamemnon and the others killed arriving in Hades (as the suitors are shown in The Odyssey).
- You Can't Go Home Again: For some of the Achaeans, notably Ajax. Many others experience difficult homecomings.
- You Killed My Father: So Orestes kills his mother.
- Your Cheating Heart: Agamemnon's wife, Clytaemestra.
Works derived from the myths of the Returns:
- Agamemnon, a tragedy concerned with the homecoming of the eponymous character and his murder there. The first of Aeschylus's trilogy, The Oresteia.
- The Libation Bearers, dealing with the reunion of Orestes and his sister Electra, and their avenging of their father. Also the second tragedy of the Oresteia.
- Electra, a tragedy telling another version of the myth behind Aeschylus's Libation Bearers.
- Helen, a tragedy set during the time Menelaus spends in Egypt. It follows an alternate tradition, where the gods for some reason sent the real Helen to Egypt, and The Trojan War was fought over a phantom (eidolon in Greek).
- Electra, yet another version of the story.
At this point, we've pretty much wrapped up everything regarding the actual Trojan War. The Telegony (Τηλεγόνεια) follows The Odyssey and deals with the legends about the end of Odysseus's life. It was likely composed in the sixth century BC.
The epic begins where The Odyssey left off, and starts with the suitors being buried by their families. After all those years of making his way back home, you would think that Odysseus would want to settle down in Ithaca again, set his kingdom in order, that sort of thing. He faked insanity to try to get out of leaving, after all!
Nope. He makes a few sacrifices and inspects his herds, then he takes off to the land of the Thesprotians. Admittedly, he's trying to fulfill a prophecy Tiresias made in The Odyssey in order to appease Poseidon.
The prophecy, however, did not require that he marry Callidice, the Thesprotian queen.
So Odysseus stays in Thesprotia, has a son, and fights a war there. He leads the Thesprotian forces against the Bryges, but his forces are turned back by Ares until Athena combats the war god. The two are calmed by Apollo.
Who knows what Penelope is up to during all this? Because Odysseus is, after all, in Thesprotia for so long that when Callidice dies and he returns to Ithaca, his son, Polypoites, is old enough to rule the kingdom.
Meanwhile, yet another child of Odysseus exists. Telegonus is the child of the warrior and Circe, and is raised by his mother until he goes out in search of his father. The boy comes to Ithaca but is unaware of where he is, and begins attacking the island.
Odysseus comes out to defend Ithaca and the two fight, neither aware of their relation. Eventually Telegonus slays his father, and only afterwards does he realise his mistake. The boy then brings Odysseus's body, Penelope, and Telemachus to Circe.
Her solution is to make Penelope and Telemachus immortal. The enchantress then marries Telemachus while Telegonus marries Penelope. And everyone lives happily ever after. Except Odysseus.
Ancient fragments on the Telegony, including Proclus's summary, are avaliable in English here
The Telegony likely provided examples of:
- Abdicate the Throne: Odysseus leaves Thesprotia to Polypoites after the queen dies. Admittedly, he just goes right back to being king in Ithaca.
- Antagonist Title: Telegonus could be considered an antagonist of sorts, as he ends up killing his father.
- Blade on a Stick: Telegonus's weapon... except it's a sting ray barb, not just a blade.
- Directionless Driver: Telegonus apparently has no idea where he's going.
- Divine Parentage: Telegonus, the son of Circe.
- Double Standard
- Heroic Bastard: The epic is named for Telegonus, after all.
- Immortality: Telemachus and Penelope recieve it.
- I Will Wait for You: We can only assume this is what Penelope did as Odysseus disappeared for however many years again.
- Murder by Mistake: Telegonus didn't know the island he was plundering was his father's, after all! It was all just a huge misunderstanding.
- Oedipus Complex: Telegonus does end up killing his father, after all.
- Plunder: What Telegonus is up to when he's not actively looking for his father. This doesn't end well.
- Romancing the Widow: Telegonus also marries his father's wife.
- Self-Made Orphan: Accidentally.
- Tangled Family Tree: By the end of the epic, Telegonus and Telemachus are both each other's stepfathers and stepsons...
- And Circe and Penelope are both each other's mothers-in-law, daughters-in-law, stepmothers and stepdaughters.
- Tell Me About My Father: What sets Telegonus off in search of Odysseus in the first place.
- You Can't Fight Fate:
- Odysseus was fated to die a mild death from the sea... Telegonus sails in and kills him with a sting ray spear. It's not exactly mild, though...
- The prophecy in question could just as easily be translated as away from the sea. It also says he will die at an old age, surrounded by a prosperous people, which can't really be said about dying from a stingray spear on the beach. This, along with all the other contradictory details, has led quite a few scholars (both ancient and modern) to see the Telegony as a case of Adaptation Decay.
Works derived from the myths of the Telegony:
- Odysseus Acanthoplex, a lost play where Odysseus tries to avert fate by banishing Telemachus after learning he would be killed by his son. It doesn't work.
Tropes provided by the Trojan Cycle as a whole:
- Adaptation Distillation: There were likely varying versions of these stories in the Oral Tradition. Writing them down distilled them into the versions remaining today (though a lot of variety still exists).
- Because Destiny Says So: Comes up a lot.
- The Dead Have Names: Considering what we know of The Iliad and The Odyssey, this was likely true throughout the Trojan Cycle.
- Divine Parentage: A lot of the characters.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: A lot.
- Götterdämmerung: In the sense that the Trojan War pretty much marked the end of an age of demigods and heroes.
- Grey and Gray Morality
- Hero Antagonist: Hector, Penthesilea, Memnon... many Trojan heroes and allies, really.
- Heroic Lineage: Naturally.
- Loads and Loads of Characters
- Narrative Poem: Just like The Iliad and The Odyssey, they're all written in dactylic hexameter. Kinda comes with the territory, being epics.
- Oral Tradition: Where these myths came from.
- Rated M for Manly
- Red Shirt: Probably a huge number of figures, Achaeans and Trojans alike.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: The major characters are often royalty: Menelaus, the king of Sparta; Agamemnon, the king of Mycenae; Odysseus, the king of Ithaca; Hector, the prince of Troy; Penthesilea, the queen of the Amazons; Memnon, the king of the Ethiopians; etc.
- The Siege: Naturally.
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: Troy was a real city and was actually destroyed and rebuilt several times... mainly because it was very rich and its neighbors wanted some plunder.
- Warrior Prince: Multiple, mainly the sons of Priam and notably Hector, a prince of Troy and its greatest defender.


What kind of shoes do archaeologists wear?
Like I said before, archaeologists have needs. We walk and dig, which means we need a boot that is comfortable and has a durable shank. Army and mountaineering boots are great, but they’re heavy and take some time to break in.
What do archaeologists actually wear?
So what exactly does a field archaeologist look like? For most people, the term “archaeologist” conjures up the image of a stubbly man wearing a button-down shirt with pockets, chinos, a leather jacket, a wide-brimmed hat, a saddle-bag, a bull-whip, and a holster with revolver.
What do you wear to an excavation?
Packing for Projects – essentials
- Functional shirt / long sleeved T-shirt and trousers (military or Cargo are best)
- Well-treaded boots (steel toe-capped optional) — check with the project.
- Waterproof jacket and trousers.
- Hat or Bandana.
- Socks and underwear.
Why do archaeologists wear hats?
Protect the head is an ancient custom if we think that as early as the Neolithic Age man used large straw hats to protect from the sun. Later, various types of hats would be adopted to protect the head from too much cold weather as well as in clashes.
What tools are used by archaeologists?
Shovels, trowels, spades, brushes, sieves, and buckets are some of the more obvious or common tools that an archaeologist may carry with them to most digs.
What are archaeologists?
Archaeology is the study of the ancient and recent human past through material remains. Archaeologists might study the million-year-old fossils of our earliest human ancestors in Africa. … Archaeology analyzes the physical remains of the past in pursuit of a broad and comprehensive understanding of human culture.
What do archaeologists do?
Archaeologists study past human activity by excavating, dating and interpreting objects and sites of historical interest. They implement excavation projects, informally known as digs, preserve archaelogical remains and collect data that informs their understanding of the past.
Why do archaeologists in Egypt wear scarves?
A shemagh is a great help in an arid climate. It helps keep the sun off your neck and head and the dust and sand out of your lungs.
What should I bring to Archaeology field school?
Quality footwear– Hiking boots or tennis shoes, you’re not going to want to share these. Pants– Protect stuff you care about by using non-precious pants in the field. Shirts– Archaeology destroys clothing. Bring functional shirts you won’t mind losing.
How do you prepare for an archaeological dig?
Check into necessary vaccinations and have thorough physical and dental examinations. Identify your need for health and travel insurance. Some expeditions provide the former; you should know, however, what facilities will be available in the event that you require medical treatment.
What is a dig season?
Digging is slow, and most sites are big – so a dig can take many seasons. A single season can be anywhere from one week to a couple of months; it’s rare for an excavation season to last longer than that. … Even with very long-term projects, however, there is always a lot left un-excavated.
How do you get archaeologist’s hat in Terraria?
The Archaeologist’s Hat is a Vanity Item that is dropped by Doctor Bones. It’s the head slot component of the Archaeologist’s Outfit.
Do archeologists wear gloves?
Is it necessary to use gloves to handle artefacts during our glacial archaeological fieldwork? The answer to that is no, unless it is freezing, and we keep our gloves on for protection against the cold. We like to keep it simple in the field, as conditions can be rough.


A total solar eclipse occurs once every year or two on average, but each is visible only from a narrow track covering less than 1% of Earth’s surface. The eclipse of August 1, 2008, was visible only from parts of the Arctic, Siberia, and central Asia. Nevertheless, thousands of enthusiasts traveled by land, air, and polar icebreaker for the chance to bask briefly in the silvery twilight glow of the Sun’s corona.
The main reason why this year's totality lasts so long is because the eclipse starts just a few hours after the Moon reaches perigee. At such a close distance, the Moon appears fully 8% larger than the Sun and casts a broader than usual shadow. At the point of greatest eclipse in the western Pacific, the path of totality is 258 km (161 miles) wide.
The umbra (dark central portion) of the lunar shadow first touches Earth at sunrise at 00:53 Universal Time in the Gulf of Khambhat off western India. The shadow takes just 8 minutes to cross India before spilling into northern Bangladesh and easternmost Nepal. A minute later the umbra engulfs most of Bhutan, while the eclipse duration on the central line crosses the 4-minute mark. The Sun’s altitude is 21°.The shadow then crosses northern Burma, a corner of Tibet, and China’s Yunnan province. Passing through the middle of Sichuan province, the eclipse track darkens the capital city of Chengdu (2 million inhabitants, 3.3 minutes of totality), Chongqing (4.1 million, 4 minutes), and Wuhan (9.7 million, 5.5 minutes). Traveling nearly due east, the shadow track encompasses the meandering course of the Yangtze River.
Near the Pacific coast, Hangzhou's 4 million citizens experience a total eclipse lasting 5.3 minutes. The Sun’s altitude is now 55°. A minute later Shanghai, China’s largest city with 20 million people, plunges into totality for 5 minutes, though it is well north of the central line. This may be the most people that have ever been in the Moon’s shadow at once.
As it moves out over the East China Sea, the umbra sweeps over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands, then Iwo Jima and Kitaio Jima, before curving southeast across the Pacific. The instant of greatest eclipse occurs at 2:35:19 UT, when totality lasts longest: 6 minutes 39 seconds. This happens over open ocean with no land in sight.
The second half of the eclipse path crosses nothing but ocean and a few tiny islands and coral atolls among the Marshall Islands and Kiribati. The total eclipse finally ends at 4:18 UT, at sunset about 1,000 km northwest of Tahiti. The Moon’s shadow lifts off Earth and returns to space, after covering 0.7% of Earth’s surface in 3.4 hours.
Monsoon climates and tropical breezes do not bode well for this eclipse in India and China. Along the entire track the season is humid, with frequent clouds and rain. But in some spots the statistics tilt just barely to the good side of 50-50.The dullest skies are on the slopes of the Himalayas, where, at Guwahati for instance, the chance of clouds exceeds 85%. Prospects improve in China: around 55% average cloud cover in July. Shanghai shows an average of 54% sunny.
Pollution in China will be a factor to consider for those who want to view or photograph the outer fringes of the corona. On sunny days the endemic brown haze is much less visible than in poorer weather; blue sky shines through. If skies are clear, or nearly so, even Shanghai’s pollution is unlikely to affect the spectacle. Wuhan offers cleaner skies at the expense of a few percentage points in the cloudiness odds and seconds in eclipse duration.
Cloud cover along the track reaches its minimum near Iwo Jima. Ships may be able to find a hole in the clouds, because most weather systems are relatively small and can be dodged with a little planning.
But not typhoons. July is the middle of typhoon season, and the likelihood of one in the eclipse track between Japan and the Philippines is probably close to 10%.
Future Total Eclipses
On July 11, 2010, this part of the world will be favored with its third total solar eclipse in as many years. The track is almost entirely over the South Pacific. Easter Island and southern Chile (at sunset) offer the only landfalls. And the South Pacific also hosts the next one, on November 13, 2012.
A total solar eclipse won’t cross the Americas until August 21, 2017, when the Moon’s umbra will sweep from Oregon to South Carolina.
Astronomer Fred Espenak (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) runs NASA's eclipse website and his own. He coauthored (with Mark Littmann and the late Ken Willcox) the newly published 3rd edition of Totality: Eclipses of the Sun.
Meteorologist Jay Anderson (University of Manitoba) has created eclipse weather forecasts since 1979 and has journeyed worldwide to check his predictions in person.


By Emma Lowry | Faculty of Engineering | University of Nottingham
19 June 2018 – New University of Nottingham research proves that advanced materials containing molecules that switch states in response to environmental stimuli such as light can be fabricated using 3D printing.
The study findings have the potential to vastly increase the functional capabilities of 3D-printed devices for industries such as electronics, healthcare and quantum computing.
The research, led by Dr Victor Sans Sangorrin from the Faculty of Engineering and Dr Graham Newton from the School of Chemistry, is published in the academic journal, Advanced Materials.
“This bottom-up approach to device fabrication will push the boundaries of additive manufacturing like never before. Using a unique integrated design approach, we have demonstrated functional synergy between photochromic molecules and polymers in a fully 3D-printed device. Our approach expands the toolbox of advanced materials available to engineers developing devices for real-world problems,” explains Dr Sans.
To demonstrate their concept, the team developed a photoactive molecule that changes from colourless to blue when irradiated with light. The colour change can then be reversed by exposure to oxygen from the air.
The researchers then 3D-printed composite materials by combining the photoactive molecules with a tailor-made polymer, yielding a new material that can store information reversibly.
Dr Newton, said: “We can now take any molecules that change properties upon exposure to light and print them into composites with almost any shape or size. In theory, it would be possible to reversibly encode something quite complex like a QR code or a barcode, and then wipe the material clean, almost like cleaning a whiteboard with an eraser. While our devices currently operate using colour changes, this approach could be used to develop materials for energy storage and electronics.”
The research is supported by the Leverhulme Trust, the German Academic Exchange service (DAAD) and the University of Nottingham.
About University of Nottingham
The University of Nottingham is a research-intensive university with a proud heritage, consistently ranked among the world’s top 100. Studying at the University of Nottingham is a life-changing experience and we pride ourselves on unlocking the potential of our 44,000 students – Nottingham was named University of the Year for Graduate Employment in the 2017 Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide, was awarded gold in the TEF 2017 and features in the top 20 of all three major UK rankings. We have a pioneering spirit, expressed in the vision of our founder Sir Jesse Boot, which has seen us lead the way in establishing campuses in China and Malaysia – part of a globally connected network of education, research and industrial engagement. We are ranked eighth for research power in the UK according to REF 2014. We have six beacons of research excellence helping to transform lives and change the world; we are also a major employer and industry partner – locally and globally.
Source: University of Nottingham


Sick Bees – Part 18A: Colony Collapse Revisited
In my article on almond pollination last month I pointed out that beekeepers in the U.S. started experiencing increased colony mortality in the mid 2000’s. What made the headlines was an unusual form of sudden colony mortality eventually given the name “Colony Collapse Disorder” (CCD). But this season CCD has sort of fallen off the radar. So perhaps it’s time to look back at what we’ve learned.
The question is, has CCD now gone the way of previous cases of “Disappearing Disease”—episodes in which some disease caused bouts of sudden mortality, and then disappeared before anyone could figure out what caused it? A number of researchers suspected that CCD would do the same, following the typical progression of a pathogen-induced plague. The surprise was that it stuck around as long as it did.
If CCD is indeed caused by one or more novel virulent pathogens, we’d expect that pathogen’s virulence to be burning out by now. On the other hand, if CCD is caused by an extraneous environmental factor, such as cell phones, GMO’s, or some pesticide, we would not expect to see a change until that factor was removed from the environment.
Or perhaps, CCD simply requires enough chilling of colonies to kick it into gear (figure 1):
Figure 1. . The unusually warm winter may have contributed to better colony survival this year. These maps show winter temperature “departures from normal” for December, January, and February. Red areas experienced higher than normal temperatures; blue areas colder. Each color step indicates an additional 2°F deviation. Colony mortality is often related to weather patterns. Source http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/img/climate/research/cag3/asos-feb2012-nocities.gif.
Practical application: to minimize mortality, winter your colonies in the warmest possible locations—sunny southward slopes, out of cold pockets, or move them to warmer areas.
I wish that I could have entitled this article “CCD in Retrospect,” but I’m still seeing some colonies suffering sudden collapse! This winter when I moved my strong hives to almond pollination, I left the dinks behind in my bee yards in the foothills. The apparent reason for many of these colonies being dinks is that they are fighting a virus or nosema infection, which they may eventually get the better of. I’ve learned that if you simply leave them to their ways, they will often dwindle down to a couple of frames of bees, and then either ramp up their antiviral response or gain the upper hand over nosema, and turn around, vibrantly recovering with the first pollen flows as though nothing had happened!
I feel that in many cases in which the queen is blamed, the actual culprit is a virus or nosema infection of the workers, as these queens often show every indication of being able to lay vigorously, given a healthy cohort of foragers to bring home the bacon. In my neck of the woods, if the colony has “turned around” by late February, it will generally be fine. As it happened, late this February I enjoyed a visit by Bee Culture editor Kim Flottum, accompanied by photographer Kodua Galieti. I took them out to look at some of the recovering dinks (Fig. 2). Kodua snapped some photos, which she has generously granted me permission to use—see more of her photos at www.koduaphotography.com/.
Practical application: I find that a low bee to brood ratio is a typical sign of a colony struggling with a virus or nosema infection—sick bees abandon the hive. Should the colony in the photo above manage to hatch out its brood before a cold snap, then it will then have a whole new crop of healthy young bees, and a good crack at complete recovery.
Unfortunately, one of the dinks in the same yard told a different story (Fig. 3). It had also built up similarly to the colony pictured above, but then had a relapse during a two-day cold snap—cold snaps being a common precursor to sudden colony collapse. If the bees and brood get chilled, the colony may go into a rapid downhill spiral. I’ve previously described in detail the progression of colony collapse–see http://scientificbeekeeping.com/sick-bees-part-2-a-model-of-colony-collapse/.
Note also the lack of stored nectar around the brood area—this is despite the fact that a nectar flow was on, and adjacent colonies were whitening comb. This is exactly what I observed when I inoculated colonies with IAPV—they would collapse hungry due to lack of foragers, even in the midst of plenty. Plus the bees in sick colonies seem to be unable to utilize honey stored in close proximity to the broodnest. Collapse can then come suddenly (Fig. 4) in the event of even a minor chill, although the sick bees leave the nest, rather than dying in the typical pathetic cluster indicative of starvation (Fig. 8).
Practical application: sudden collapse can happen seemingly overnight. But it is, in my experience, preceded by a low bee to brood ratio and lack of nectar foraging, which are signs to be aware of. Sick colonies may or may not take syrup.
The queen, however, had not given up (Fig. 5). This is typical in colony collapse—the disease does not appear to be directly attributable to the queen. It’s just that the bees get sick and fly off to die!
Practical application: In deadouts, check to see whether varroa/DWV were the culprits. Inspect the remnants of the broodnest for white guanine deposits on the cell “ceilings,” bees with deformed wings, and partially uncapped mature worker brood, often with deformed wings. However, DWV can also take down a colony with few of those signs present.
I’d like to draw your attention to the snotty brood. The diseased brood generally matched the signs of EFB, but was not quite typical. Dr. Jeff Pettis now uses the catchy term “Idiopathic Brood Disease Syndrome” for this atypical sick brood, which means “we haven’t completely figured out what causes it yet”.
So this poor colony looked like it was going to make it, but then lost its battle with the pathogens. Note that this yard was in a pesticide-free area, and there was no sign of mites.
Relative Risk: the ratio of the chance of a disease developing among members of a population exposed to a factor compared with a similar population not exposed to the factor.
Dr. Dennis vanEngelsdorp and co researchers determined the “relative risk” of several factors often associated with colony collapse. A factor with a high relative risk doesn’t necessarily mean that the factor will cause the collapse, but rather that it is associated with a higher incidence of collapse (for example cold weather has a high relative risk for colony mortality, even though it isn’t necessarily directly responsible for their death). Determining relative risk is like setting the odds for eventual collapse—a relative risk of 2 doubles the odds that the colony will die.
Practical application: If snotty brood is present, the relative risk of that colony dying is nearly [redacted] times that of a colony without it.
Sorry, when I asked Dr. vanEngelsdorp how to cite the preliminary relative risk figures that he and Dr. Jeff Pettis presented at the major conventions this season, he asked me to hold off until they are more firm on the numbers—so I am respectfully deferring to his request. I find this line of research to be of great potential value to beekeepers, and I want to only publish accurate information!
I’ve currently got a number of colonies with spotty brood and signs of “EFB-like” snotty brood. I’m familiar with the classic symptoms of EFB—curled, twisted young larvae with white tracheal tubes standing out against a yellowish background, slight sour odor, minor ropiness, and drying to a removable rubbery scale. I’d occasionally see EFB in springtime; especially when strong colonies were deprived of pollen due to rain, and then the disease would spontaneously disappear with the advent of a good pollen flow.
But nowadays I’m seeing a great deal of “atypical” EFB. It may be associated with mites and viruses, since the signs are similar to those seen in sick brood in colonies suffering from Parasitic Mite Syndrome (PMS), but I now see it in colonies with low mite levels!
One odd thing is the smell, since this dead brood gets really putrid stinky! The scientist who first identified the bacterium responsible for EFB was G.F. White (yes, the same guy who identified Nosema apis). Dr. White stated that EFB “is characterized by the death of the brood during its uncapped stage…In advanced cases the disease may be accompanied by an odor, but in the writer’s experience this never has been marked and never offensive” . But other bacteria are commonly associated with EFB; perhaps these are causing the differences in smell and appearance. An excellent page on the diagnosis of EFB (with color photographs) can be found at Extension.org .
So I sent samples off to the USDA Bee Diagnostic Lab, and wish to thank Sam and Bart for helpful discussion and a speedy turnaround so that I could make deadline for this article. The samples came back positive for EFB.
In the past several years, I’m seeing what appear to be two different forms of atypical EFB-like brood disease:
- Larvae prior to propupal stage turning bright corn yellow, usually remaining in the “C” shape without much twisting. I’ve heard of this same symptom from many beekeepers across the country.
- A greater proportion of older, rather than younger, sick larvae in the combs, many of them capped over, and having sunken, perforated cappings. These older larvae often turn flaccid without twisting, and eventually melt down into strongly putrid-smelling goo (but with a very different odor than AFB).
- The dead capped brood may melt down into a dark watery pool, rather than the translucent-opaque, slightly ropy goop typical of EFB. The liquid also really stinks with a putrid, rather than sour, odor!
- Capped pupae dying in the same colonies. EFB should not kill pupae , since the larva sheds its infected gut lining when it pupates. However, these pupae may be infected by something else, such as a virus—they look very much like pupae dying from DWV.
- The disease does not necessarily go away with a pollen flow.
Practical application: Some of these symptoms can be confused with those of AFB—I was surprised when I sent a very similar-looking sample to the lab last season and it came back positive for AFB! My quandary is that I wish to burn any AFB combs, whereas EFB responds well to the antibiotics oxytetracycline or tylosin (I hear anecdotally that OTC gives better control, plus has less chance of getting into the honey). A brood break, such as by making splits, may help as well.
While I was waiting for the lab results, I tried a diagnostic technique that I’d never done before—the Holst Milk Test for AFB . This test detects the presence of the strong proteolytic enzyme that the sporulating AFB bacteria release in order to melt down the larval bodies in the last stage of infection. The enzyme will also break down milk protein—and “clarify” a weak solution of powdered milk within minutes. Luckily, I had a comb of obvious AFB on hand to show to my beginners classes, so I tested fully decomposed suspect EFB-like larvae against known AFB scale. The results were impressive (Fig. 6)! I highly recommend this test for beginners who suspect AFB in deadouts.
I experimented with the test a bit. The more concentrated the milk solution, the longer it takes AFB to clear it—sometimes overnight (use less milk powder than in the photo above for a quicker field test). EFB will cause the milk to clump, but you don’t get the clear “apple juice” look as with AFB.
Speaking of treatments, since I recently found a correlation between weak colonies and the prevalence of nosema (percentage of bees infected), I tried treating all my dinks once a week from late January through early February with a drench of fumagillin (Fig. 7), 3-4 times total .
Because I had treated these dinks recently against nosema, I assumed that I could rule it out as the cause for the collapse. But beekeeping certainly has a way of making an ass of you when you assume anything! As I’m writing this article, it occurs to me that I should go back to the yard and grab a sample of the remaining dead bees to test for nosema…
O.K., I’m back now– Result: 8 out of 10 of them had their guts loaded with spores! And one contained amoeba cysts to boot. That was an eye opener!
Dr. vanEngelsdorp found that even a relatively low level of nosema (1M spores in the house bees) increases the odds of a colony collapsing by a factor of [redacted]. More to the point, having 8 bees out of 10 infected is a death sentence for a colony! Oh, and by the way, there was no sign of dysentery.
Disclaimer: Now please don’t get me wrong—I’m not saying that Nosema ceranae is the cause of CCD! It is not necessarily present when colonies suffer sudden collapse—the viruses are quite capable of doing that on their own!
Practical application: The “spring turnover” of colony population, during which the aged winter bees must rear replacements, is a dicey time for weak or sick colonies. The old bees must not only fight parasite buildup and winter cold, but must also generate heat for the broodnest, and produce jelly in order to rear healthy young bees to take their places. If they don’t pull this feat off, the colony can quickly crash! This colony collapsed during a mild California foothill winter, with a good nectar and pollen flow on, interspersed with occasional bouts of snowfall. The chill events appear to be the fatal factor.
Practical application: My guess as to why fumagillin did not clear the infection is that I was simply too late in applying it—the infection had already seriously taken hold, and this colony was simply unable to replace the infected bees with healthy ones in time. But remember, most of the dinks recovered quite handily!
As we looked through the dinks, we came upon some with yet another indicator of impending collapse—the presence of supersedure cells (Figures 8 and 9).
I commonly see unexpected supersedure cells in heavily infected colonies—it doesn’t really seem to matter what the pathogen or parasite is. I’m not sure whether the bees are blaming the queen for their misery, or whether the queen gets infected and puts out a pheromonal signal to replace her.
Of even more import is that some risk factors may synergize. If you multiply the relative risk due to a nosema infection times the relative risk due to the presence of supersedure cells, you then get a combined relative risk of [redacted; but much higher].
Practical application: the combination of a nosema infection plus supersedure cells does not bode well for a colony’s survival!
As I’m looking at this photo I realize that my readers would be curious as to whether this colony also tested positive for nosema, so off I go again back to the same yard (through the rain—what I do for my readers)…
O.K. I eventually found this exact same frame of dead bees, and squashed the abdomens of ten of them. Wanna guess? Nine of them were chock full of spores! So the infection had clearly moved into the last few young bees. Unfortunately, I had given the dead queen to Kodua to photograph, so couldn’t test her (the queen) for spores.
Practical application: don’t count on dysentery to be a reliable indicator of serious Nosema ceranae infection—it isn’t, although I see it occasionally over the snow in front of infected colonies. If you’re not testing your dinks and deadouts for nosema, you have no idea as to whether Nosema ceranae is causing winter/spring mortality!
Practical application caveat: over the past few years when I’ve tested the few remaining bees in collapsed deadouts, nosema was generally not evident (leading me to conclude that nosema was not a problem). In those cases, collapse was likely due to a virus infection. I’m not clear as to why this year is different, although my nosema levels have been ramping up each year (I hadn’t been treating against nosema). Overall, my bees this year have not been at their best, although a strong majority went to almonds and look fine. I’ll spot test them when they return (I’m typing these words in early March).
I haven’t heard the researchers mention it, but I observe that yet another indicator of elevated risk for later collapse is that the colony does not consume pollen supplement in the fall. Beekeepers have long noticed that untouched protein patties are generally a sign of queenlessness, but I’m finding that they are also often a sign of a sick colony. Most all of my dinks had uneaten patties on the top bars in February (Figs. 7, 9, and 11).
Practical application: a good indicator that a colony is going downhill is that it doesn’t consume protein patties. It might be a very good idea to quarantine those colonies to an isolated “sick yard” (like far away from my hives in the almonds!).
I thought that I was perhaps the only one who noticed this one, but in conversation with other beekeepers who suffered from CCD, I found that others also observed that the cappings over the brood sometimes turned a very dark reddish tint, and instead of being slightly rounded outwards, would be flat. The brood appeared to be perfectly healthy under the cappings. I found this to be a sign that a colony was in trouble. However, I didn’t notice it when we later experimentally caused colony collapse with IAPV, nor do I notice it with colonies collapsing from Nosema ceranae.
Oh man, is this a touchy subject, with some very strong and adamant opinions out there! Beekeepers have long noticed that colonies set in certain agricultural areas go downhill, or may not make it through the following winter. Sometimes a certain pesticide is clearly to blame; other times it may simply be due to the lack, or poor nutritional quality, of the forage in the agricultural area, especially in this age of “clean farming” and wall to wall corn or soy.
When I first published my model for colony collapse, mentioning that some pesticides become more toxic to bees at cooler temperatures, Dr. Eric Mussen sent me this note:
“When Dr. Eric Erickson was employed at the USDA laboratory in Madison, WI, he conducted a small demonstration study based on observations reported by a number of nearby beekeepers. The beekeepers told him that when their hives were located near commercial corn fields and permethrin was applied to the crop during “bloom” (tassels producing pollen), the colonies did not survive over winter.
“Dr. Erickson had half the lab colonies moved into an area near a corn field and had an application of permethrin made during bloom. No noticeable bee loss was noted in the apiary at the time. The colonies were then returned to the lab apiary and all colonies were prepared for winter. During the winter all the permethrin-exposed colonies died, whereas all the stay-at-home colonies survived. It wasn’t clear as to whether the mortality was due to the corn pollen, the pesticide, or something else, but the point is that colonies foraging upon sprayed corn fields in tassel exhibited a delayed effect of high winter mortality–greater than that of the colonies that were not exposed to the treated corn.”
Practical application: in the registration process of pesticides, they are normally only tested on bees at about 80°F. We really have little idea as to the effect of pesticides upon bees at 45°F—the temperature of the bees in the outer shell of the winter cluster!
I recently attended a presentation in Oregon in which commercial beekeepers described the number of pollination contracts that they moved their bees to during the summer, and more to my interest, the sheer number of pesticide applications that the bees had to deal with. To my mind, it’s a wonder that their bees survive at all!
Practical application: some ag crops in certain areas are the kiss of death to bees, but the effect may not be noticed until winter. This is a complex subject, having to do not only with pesticides, but also with colony population dynamics, parasite dynamics, nutrition, symbiotic fungi and bacteria, pesticide and miticide synergies, pesticide/pathogen synergies, and who knows what else! I doubt that the problem has a simple answer.
Dr. Mark Carroll of the ARS is currently engaged in a project called “The Costs of Following the Bloom–Nutrient Processing, Microbial Dynamics, and Colony Health in a Migratory Beekeeping Operation” . I hope that his research can help to answer some of the above questions. In a recent presentation, he spoke of “overextended bees” in migratory operations, suffering from poor nutrition and parasite buildup. Perhaps he should also have spoken of “overextended beekeepers,” who are simply trying to run more colonies than they can properly manage!
There is a raging debate as to whether the systemic neonicotinoid insecticides are causing CCD, fueled by a great deal of conjecture and hyperbole that is often confused with fact. I’ll discuss this in my next article.
There is nothing new about the phenomenon of sudden colony collapse. In 1897 R.C. Aikin, from Colorado, described a similar phenomenon :
“In [May] of 1891…I had been watching carefully the progress of brood rearing, and had the colonies quite strong in both bees and brood. … Many colonies were so strong that they were clustering out, although we had not unpacked yet…While they were so, I had looked all over and equalized stores and brood, then was absent about ten days… [when] I went to the out-apiaries to again inspect as to stores… I was astonished at the very few bees in them. I went to some hives that I knew had been clustered out about ten days previously, and I found not enough bees to cover the brood. The weather was warm, the bees packed in chaff, and the few bees left were spread all through the hives caring for the brood.
“Some of the colonies were so depopulated that, when I lifted combs, I could lay my open palm on the face of a comb of brood and scarcely touch a bee. It was not what I understand as spring dwindling. The bees were mainly young, for bees had been hatching for weeks…
“The bees just vanished, and were nowhere to be seen. If they had died in or about the hive, possibly we might have found out what was the matter; but they seemed to evaporate, hence I have called it “evaporation.” The loss of bees was so complete that many colonies had not half a teacupful of bees left, where, less than a week before, they covered brood In three combs and upward. The queens, it seems, were always left; but the workers so completely evaporated that the brood perished.”
Beekeepers have always had to deal with episodes of colony collapse, sudden or not, and depending upon their fortitude and perseverance, use the bees’ biological capacity for rapid increase to recover. This “get over it and get going” attitude is exemplified in a scene from the movie “The Last Beekeeper.” While sitting at a diner, a woman commercial beekeeper is despairing about how CCD has financially ruined her operation; meanwhile, her companions, an older beekeeper couple, between bites of food, just keep saying “You gotta restock, you gotta restock.” That scene to me was the archetype of the attitude necessary for successful beekeeping.
CCD was never actually a serious bee issue—there was little doubt (other than in the minds of fanatics) that the honey bee would survive. CCD was really about whether commercial beekeepers could financially survive such serious losses. And as I pointed out last month, were it not for the “generosity” of the almond growers, many of us would not have!
In my own beekeeping career, my operation has been devastated by collapse events four times: first by tracheal mite in the late 1980’s (to which many beekeepers lost 70% of their colonies); then by varroa (I lost 97% around 1996); then again when Apistan strips failed in the late 1990’s. And this dismal record doesn’t even take into account those El Niño years in which I decimated my operation myself in order to fill my nuc orders! By the time I got hit by CCD in 2005, collapse events were old hat!
However, each of the above events was followed by seasons in which I could recover. But as we picked up each new parasite, recovery got a bit more difficult, due to increased levels of colony morbidity and mortality. Preceding, and concurrent with CCD, our colonies were already experiencing an elevated rate of winter loss over the norm. What the heck is the “norm”? Back in the “good old days,” beekeepers expected to lose maybe 5% of colonies over the winter; perhaps 10% where winters were severe. Losses were mainly blamed upon starvation, queen failure, or Nosema apis.
After the arrival of varroa, the “normal” winter loss rate ramped up to the 15-20% range. CCD (and perhaps Nosema ceranae) notched that average rate up to above 30%–a level at which winter losses really started to hurt! The interesting thing is that about a quarter of commercial operations get hit disproportionately hard, and about a quarter have few problems. Beekeepers and researchers are pulling their hair out trying to find the causes for the difference!
What made CCD stand out was our inability to blame it on the “Usual Suspects.” However, it also became an oh so handy scapegoat for absolving oneself from blame for losses due to mismanagement, poor timing, lack of varroa control, or anything else. I’m not depreciating the devastation and distress caused by CCD in some operations (the film “The Last Beekeeper” is heart wrenching), but most beekeepers found that given enough financial incentive, they could recover and figure out how to avoid major losses.
Practical application: those beekeepers who diligently keep mite and nosema levels down, ensure that their bees get good nutrition, and are not continuously exposed to commercial agriculture tend to have fewer problems with colony collapse (not that I expect you to take that as any sort of revelation!).
As you can see by the blow-by-blow account that I’m giving of my own learning curve, I personally sure haven’t figured everything out—beekeeping presents new challenges every year! I like the recent quote from California beekeeper Henry Harlan :
“If you meet a beekeeper who says he knows it all, his bees will probably be dead next year.”
In any case, Colony Collapse Disorder has presented us with an opportunity to learn a great deal about bee health. I will follow this article with a critical analysis of the suspect causes of both CCD specifically, and increased colony mortality and morbidity in general, followed by a summary of experiments that actually tested various hypotheses.
As always, I am deeply indebted to Peter Borst for his help with research, and to my wife Stephanie for her critical reading of my manuscripts. And thanks to Dianne Behnke of Dadant for digging out and scanning old articles from ABJ for me! I am especially appreciative of the worldwide community of bee researchers, who take the time to discuss my questions at length.
 White, GF (1920) European foulbrood. USDA Bulletin No. 810.
 The drench consisted of 2 Tbl Fumagilin-B (200mg fumagillin) per ½ gal of 1:1 syrup, which allowed me to mix up fresh batches as needed. At the rate of ¼ cup of drench per dose, each dink received a dose of 12.5mg of active ingredient, which would be the recommended rate for a 3-frame dink to be given multiple treatments.
 Aikin, RC (1897) Bees evaporated: a new malady. Glean. Bee Cult. 25(13):479-480.
Holst, EC (1946). A simple field test for American foulbrood. Am. Bee J., 86: 14–34.
The enzyme is produced by the bacteria only when the larvae reach the “ropy” stage or later, and persists in the dried “scale”—it won’t work with larvae at an earlier stage of disease. It is often easiest to simply rip out the entire bottom of the cell with forceps and drop it all into the tube. You can also drop in the twig that you use to test for ropiness. The more diseased larval remains you add, the quicker the reaction; however, if you use only a partial scale, or a twig, then either use less solution, or dilute the milk even further.
The reaction can also be speeded up by warming the water to up to 165°F (as hot as you can hold your fingers in). I could get tubes of ½ tsp of weak milk solution inoculated with a single scale to clear in less than 5 minutes by incubating them in a cup of hot water.
It is easy to make up a field AFB test kit consisting of a pair of tweezers, a vial of milk powder, and some clear glass vials for running the tests. At home, you can use liquid milk (skim preferred) diluted 1:4, again at the ratio of 1 scale per ½ tsp of diluted milk. When first trying this test, I suggest that you run an uninoculated vial of milk solution side by side for comparison.
Note that the test is retarded if the combs have been stored with paradichlorobenzene for wax moth control.