# Tell us an interesting random fact you stumbled across (Part 1) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 13, 2020, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674 "2020-04-13T03:19:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 1724
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2021, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674/1724 "2021-04-02T01:05:27Z")
There is whole book of the [Trojan War Epic Cycle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_Cycle) concerning the king of Ethiopia coming to the aid of Trojans. So the foundational epic that influenced _every_ subsequent bit of western literature had a whole book dedicated to a black African king (and a sub plot about an Amazon queen). The book is lost (the cycle has 8 books, only the Illiad and Odessey survive) but from secondary references we know Memnon the Ethiopian king was on a par with Achilles (and had his own suit of Hephaestus-made armor) but ultimately killed by him. Not only that it was in this book while chasing the Trojan troops back into Troy (as Memnon has killed another of his _ahem_ close friends\*) that the infamous “Achilles heel” incident occurred. - - Being a boyfriend of Greek hero is possibly second only to being a girlfreind among the sucky jobs in ancient Greek literature. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-us-an-interesting-random-fact-you-stumbled-across-part-1/851674)._