Mythology Book

62

LIFE AND DEATH ARE

BALANCED ON THE

EDGE OF A RAZOR

THE TROJAN WAR

T

he Trojan War inspired

some of the greatest

ancient Greek poetry,

particularly Homer’s Iliad and

Odyssey. Although the story has

mythical aspects, it may have been

based on a conflict between the

Mycenaeans and the Hittites that

took place in the 12th century bce.

The chain of events that led to

the war began when the goddess

Aphrodite offered Paris, a Trojan

prince, the love of Helen, the world’s

most beautiful woman. Helen was

already married to King Menelaus

of Sparta, but Paris did not consider

this an obstacle and abducted her.

Her husband was furious. Menelaus

persuaded his brother Agamemnon,

King of Mycenae, to lead a Greek

alliance to Troy and recapture her.

The Greek army included the semi-

divine warrior Achilles, son of the

sea nymph Thetis, and Odysseus,

the cunning king of Ithaca. They

crossed the sea to Troy but were

unable to breach the city’s walls.

After nine years away from

home, the Greek alliance was

fracturing. The men were on the

verge of mutiny, and a plague

diminished their ranks. Achilles

Helen was abducted by Paris and

taken away on his ship, but smitten by

his beauty, she may have left willingly.

This alabaster carving decorates an

Etrurian funerary urn, 2nd century bce.

IN BRIEF

THEME

Epic war

SOURCE

Iliad and Odyssey, Homer, 8th

century bce.

SETTING

The city of Troy, Asia Minor

(western Turkey), and Greece,

ca. 12th century bce.

KEY FIGURES

Aphrodite Daughter of

Ouranos, goddess of love.

Paris A Trojan prince.

Helen Queen of Sparta.

Menelaus King of Sparta.

Agamemnon King of

Mycenae in southern Greece.

Achilles Semi-divine; the

greatest Greek warrior.

Patroclus Achilles’ comrade.

Hector Brother of Paris.

Odysseus King of Ithaca.

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63

The giant wooden horse, filled with

Greek warriors, is brought inside the

walls of the city in The Procession of

the Trojan Horse into Troy by Giovanni

Battista Tiepolo (ca. 176 0).

See also: The quest of Odysseus 66–71 ■ Aeneas, founder of Rome 96–101 ■ The cattle raid of Cooley 166–67

ANCIENT GREECE

refused to fight after Agamemnon

took one of his concubines. Despite

the great warrior’s absence, the

Greeks rallied and fought a pitched

battle with the Trojans. Menelaus

was close to killing Paris when

Aphrodite intervened to save him.

Attacking the city walls

The Trojans regathered and drove

back the Greeks. Achilles refused

to fight but allowed his close

companion Patroclus to borrow his

armor. Patroclus inspired a Greek

counterattack and forced the

Trojans back to the city walls. He

was slain by Hector, the greatest of

the Trojan warriors, who stripped

him of his borrowed armor.

Devastated, Achilles built a

towering funeral pyre for his

beloved Patroclus, held funeral

games in his honor, and returned to

the fray with a vengeance. Killing

Hector in single combat, he refused

to return his body for a royal burial;

instead, he dragged Hector’s corpse

behind his chariot around Troy’s

walls. Soon after, Achilles was

mortally wounded when Paris fired

an arrow at his heel—the only part

of his body that was not immortal.

Now in its tenth year, the war

was won not by force but trickery.

Odysseus had the Greeks build a

giant hollow wooden horse, secretly

fill it with Greek soldiers, and leave

it outside the gates of Troy. The rest

of the Greeks sailed out of sight, so

that the Trojans believed they had

left. Thinking the war was over, the

Trojans dragged the horse inside

the city walls. As the inhabitants

Achilles

The warrior Achilles was the son

of the sea nymph Thetis and King

Peleus of Pithia. When he was

born, his mother wanted to make

him immortal, so she dipped him

into the River Styx, which ran

between Earth and Hades. She

held him by his left heel, which

left Achilles with one vulnerable

spot. Growing up, Achilles was

taught by the wise centaur Chiron

to become a warrior. When the

Trojan War began, Chiron gave

Achilles a mighty shield, but

Thetis intervened before her son

could join the fray. Calchas had

prophesied that Achilles would

help the Greeks take Troy and,

fearing for his life, Thetis

disguised Achilles as a girl in

the home of the king of Scyros.

Odysseus, however, soon found

Achilles and revealed his true

identity. After marrying the

king’s daughter, Achilles left

Scyros to lead Odysseus’s army.

slept, oblivious to their imminent

doom, the Greeks inside the horse

sneaked out and murdered Troy’s

guards. These soldiers let in the

rest of the Greek army, which had

secretly returned to Troy under

cover of night.

A savage massacre followed,

and Troy was burned to the ground.

Menelaus had regained Helen, but

both sides had lost some of their

most famous warriors and much of

their population. The Greeks, due to

their wanton destruction of temples

during the Sack of Troy, had also

lost the goodwill of the gods. ■

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