uhh...IDK

The first thing to know about Troilus is that much of his story is lost. Just a cursory look at his Wikipedia page will tell you how fragmentary the record is

Out of the 15 mythological works that feature his character, only 8 survive in their entirety. As a result, making any definitive claim about Troilus’ story is impossible.

The first text that is often presented as evidence of the rape of Troilus is Lycophron’s Alexandra, an enigmatic Greek poem dated roughly to the 3rd century B.C. and narrated by Cassandra as she’s delivering her prophecies. This is the relevant paragraph:

you whelp, dear object of your siblings’ embrace,

you who will hit the savage serpent with the fiery love-charm

of your arrows, and grip the stricken one in an inescapable noose

for a short and loveless moment.

Unpenetrated by your victim,

you will bloody the altar of your father with your severed head.

Alas for my miserable life! I lament for you, my two nightingales,

and for your fate, wretched bitch.

trans. Simon Hornblower

The two nightingales refer to Laodike and Polyxena, and the ‘bitch’ (literally a female dog) is Hecuba. But that’s not important here. Let’s discuss what this says about Troilus. Since I’m no expert, I’ll use someone else’s words:

“In treating Achilles as a “wild serpent,” Cassandra depicts him in terms that evoke the ferocity of the Homeric Achilles (Il. 9.629; 21.314), as well as other warriors,⁵³ and that thus emphasize his stature in the epic tradition. But Cassandra quickly turns the tables by subordinating military valor to the power of desire, and thus Achilles to Troilus. The imagery of the passage derives from the widespread ancient idea that love is like the shot of an arrow that emanates from the eyes of one person and enters those of the person who gazes at him or her.⁵⁴ An ancient interpretation derived δράκων from δέρκομαι, “see,”⁵⁵ and in its context, the word is doubly significant: Achilles is at once a “serpent” (δράκων) and one who has seen (δρακών), and been struck with love by, Troilus. The word thus embodies Achilles’ dual status as victor and victim. Here, too, Cassandra ultimately denies Achilles an active role, instead representing him in the passive voice, as “the one struck” (τὸν τυπέντα) and “the one tamed” (τοῦ δαμεντος), whereas Troilus, paradoxically, remains unwounded (οὐ τετρωμένος) in the sense that he himself is not a victim of love, even as he is decapitated (καρατομηθείς). More specifically, τετρωμένος (from τιτρώσκω, which often refers to an actual wound) may have the sense “penetrated (sexually).”⁵⁶ The claim that Troilus was not wounded, then, is hardly literal but rather suggests his lack of desire for Achilles, and may even imply Achilles’ inability to realize his sexual desire for Troilus, even momentarily (311 βαῖον ἀστεριῆ χρόνον). And as with the grammatically passive forms that (p.126) describe Achilles’ relationship to Troilus, this sexual failure denies him agency or achievement.”

- Mcnelis, Charles, and Alexander Sens. The Alexandra of Lycophron : A Literary Study. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2016.

Basically, this stanza is a subversion: Achilles, the famous conqueror, is portrayed as helpless with lust and ultimately unable to achieve release through intercourse. Troilus is simultaneously the victim and the one in power—that’s important, and it should not be erased by claiming that rape took place here. Overall, Achilles is presented as harboring pedophilic feelings toward Troilus, but no sexual assault occurs.

Next, let’s see what John Tzetzes, an academic from 12th century Byzantine, had to say when he was writing his scholia on this poem:

Achilles, having fallen in love with Troilus, the son of Priam, and pursuing him was about to catch him, but he took refuge in the temple of Thymbraean Apollo. But Achilles, forcing him to come out since he did not obey, approached and killed him on the altar. Whom, they say, Apollo also avenged there and prepared for Achilles to be killed. Troilus was said to be by nature the son of Apollo, but by law of Priam. And "wild dragon" Achilles. And these indeed so babble about Troilus but I know this Troilus and having a deep voice and dark-skinned. I do not know, however, if the Thessalian Achilles was so erotic as to even fall in love with those of deeper voice and much older than this; for Troilus was young and beautiful but dark-skinned and deep-voiced and unworthy of Achilles' love. But after the killing of Memnon, having left Troy, he encounters Achilles and is killed by him and there was great mourning in Troy for him like for Hector. "Fire-bearing" but erotic because such passion is hot by nature. The mind; whoever wounded Achilles with your love "the one who was struck" that is, Achilles. But "O cub" "delightful" or dearest of the brothers: for they say that Troilus and Cassandra were twins.

Tzetzes acknowledges what we have already established: that the poem presents Achilles as feeling lust for Troilus but failing to assault him. However, he does not accept this version of the story, and instead indulges in some delightful ancient racism.

Let’s move onto the third and final text that I could find with this version of the story, courtesy of Servius, a grammarian from 4th century Rome.

1.474 PARTE ALIA FUGIENS AMISSIS TROILUS ARMIS 'parte alia' scilicet templi. et veritas quidem hoc habet: Troili amore Achillem ductum palumbes ei quibus ille delectabatur obiecisse: quas cum vellet tenere, captus ab Achille in eius amplexibus periit. sed hoc quasi indignum heroo carmine mutavit poeta. FUGIENS fugere volens accepto iam vulnere. AMISSIS ARMIS vel aetatis inbecillitate, vel vulneris dolore †incipientibus.

1.474 Fleeing by another part, Troilus with arms lost “By another part,” namely of the temple. And indeed the truth is this: led by his love for Troilus, Achilles threw pigeons at him, with which he delighted; and when he wished to hold them, he was captured by Achilles and perished in his embrace. But the poet changed this, as if unworthy of a hero, in his poem. FUGIENS – fleeing, wishing to flee, having already received a wound. AMISSIS ARMIS – either because of the weakness of age, or because of the pain of the wound, beginning to fail.

This text isn’t available in English online, so I had to use a translation app. That’s why I’m including the original text—and if anyone knows Latin and can help me with it, I would be grateful.

Here, Servius recounts a version of Troilus’ death that Virgil did not include, allegedly so as not to make Achilles appear unheroic. The phrase “perished in his embrace” should raise some alarm bells: let’s be honest, that sounds a lot like rape. Wikipedia summarizes scholars’ opinions on this line as follows: “Robert Graves[46] interprets this as evidence of the vigour of Achilles’ love-making, but Timothy Gantz[47] considers that the ‘how or why’ of Servius’ version of Troilus’ death is unclear.[48] Sommerstein favours Graves’s interpretation, arguing that murder was not a part of ancient pederastic relations and that nothing in Servius suggests an intentional killing.”

So the answer to this whole debacle seems to be the following: there is one source from the late Roman era where certain scholars believe that rape is being implied.

Now, I ask, why should this version of the story be treated as the definitive, canon truth? In the Iliad, after Hector’s death, Priam says, “[…] I fathered the best sons in broad Troy, but none of them is left—godlike Mestor and Troilus the horseman and Hector, who was a god among men […]”; and scholars agree that “the poet presents Troilus as a warrior who died in the course of pitched battle.” (source). The Library of Apollodorus narrates, “Since the courage of the barbarians had failed, Achilles laid an ambush for Troilos in the sanctuary of Thymbrian Apollo and slew him, and raided the city by night and captured Lycaon.” In the Aeneid, “Troilus, his weapons discarded in flight, unhappy boy, unequally matched in his battle with Achilles, is dragged by his horses, clinging face-up to the empty chariot, still clutching the reins: his neck and hair trailing on the ground, and his spear reversed furrowing the dust.” (analysis) In the fragments of Sophocles, “in this drama Troilos was ambushed while exercising his horses near the Thymbraion (cf. Il. 24.257); otherwise we know only that the city itself was the setting, a eunuch spoke some lines, and that Polyxena and Troilos’ mutilation may have been involved” (Gantz, Early Greek Myth). The Cypria, part of the epic cycle, simply mentions that Achilles “slew Troilus” with no further details. The visual sources are harder to analyze. Some people have pointed out that Troilus being portrayed with a rooster, which often represents pederastic love, is a reference to rape. On this topic, I’ll refer again to Early Greek Myth: “the boy now faces his assailant, and the platform has clearly become a formal altar; moreover, there is a cock sitting upon it (B 1912). This last element inevitably causes one to think of the tradition (preserved only very much later) of Achilleus’ sexual passion for Troilos, with the cock here as love gift; to dismiss it as nothing more than a coincidence here is difficult, to accept such a theme this early perhaps equally so.” And: “A bird often perches on top of the fountain, but whether he was a traditional decorative element or a part of the narrative we cannot say. One additional detail on two Lakonian representations is the presence of a snake at Achilleus’ feet (VG 106349, Troilos and Polyxena in exergue; the second, from Samos, lost); in neither instance does it seem to concern him, and it is probably a guardian of the spring.” The Roman comic playwright Plautus seemingly creates the tradition that the death of Troilus was among the key events that led to Troy’s downfall, comparable to the theft of the Palladion; no rape mentioned (Bacchides 953–55). Dares Phrygius, another Roman writer, describes Troilus as a foremost warrior who took command of the Trojans after Hector’s death, even managing to wound both Diomedes and Agamemnon, until Achilles struck him down after his horse was disabled (Dar. 33).

In closing, Troilus’ death is a story that is incredibly fragmentary and convoluted. It’ll probably always be impossible to definitively say how the ancients thought of him. But I personally find social media’s attachment to (a certain interpretation of) Servius’ scholia to be little more than virtue signaling.