Ransom: Background.
Historians, anthropologists, archaeologists and literary academics have had 2 ½ thousand years to bicker
about this: the following is information generally acceptable to the modern layman.
The Trojan War.
The judgement of Paris.
Three goddesses, Athene, Hera and Aphrodite, approached Paris to judge which of them was most
beautiful. Paris was the son of Queen Hecuba and King Priam of Troy (also called IIlium). As the result of a
dream Hecuba had had when he was a baby (that he would cause the destruction of Troy),he was exposed
on a mountainside. As usually happened in mythology, he was found and raised by a friendly shepherd and
was out tending sheep when the goddesses found him. Hera bribed him with an empire, Athene with victory
over the Greeks, and Aphrodite with the most beautiful woman in the world for his wife. He chose the
beautiful woman (and the continuing antipathy of Hera and Athene). Her name was Helen, and she was
married to Menalaos, the king of Sparta. After attaining his birthright, Paris was sent on a diplomatic visit to
Sparta. He abducted Helen and returned with her to Troy. This was both a political as well as personal
insult and also ran contrary to the extremely important cultural beliefs held about how guests and hosts
should behave. Menalaos and his brother Agamemnon (king of Mycenae) raised a huge fleet, manned by
fighters, with the intent of forcing the return of Helen, thus hers was “the face that launched 1000 ships”.
The War
The Armada was led by Agamemnon and included many lords or kings from city states in the
Peloponnese, Central Greece, Thessaly, and various islands. Each prince led his own following. They
joined because of political alliances or because of oaths they had made as previous suitors of Helen. The
fleet made for Troy, on the coast of modern Turkey, and landed, but were unable to take the city. There
followed a long siege.
The Greeks beached their ships and turned them upside-down and built a barricade around them
on the landward side. They were supplied by sea. The walled city of Troy lay on a plain several miles inland
from the beach and watered by the river Skamander. They were supplied by satellite towns and allies
further inland. The next nine years involved assaults on the city and pitched battles where the armies would
meet each-other on the plain in view of Troy. Individual heroes from each side were also involved in oneon-one combat, from which one would return the victor. The heroes would ride a chariot out to the field,
perhaps firing arrows. They would then alight and use spears and then swords. If that didn’t work they
would even throw boulders at each other. They would get hot and tired and thirsty during their hours of
fighting and would sometimes withdraw for a rest. It was acceptable to run away in the hope of regaining
your position or finding new weapons. Hector was the great hero of the Trojans, Ajax was the second best
of the Greeks. The indisputable best warrior of all was Achilles, feared by all who might have to fight him.
The Greeks also made raids on towns in the vicinity, one of which resulted in a dispute between
Agamemnon and Achilles.
Achilles withdrew himself and the Myrmidons (his large force of fellow countrymen and formidable
soldiers) from the fighting. In the next major offensive, the Trojans, led by Hector, prevailed. In a day of
glory they beat the Greeks back to their ships and even set fire to some. Achilles friend, Patroclus, died and
Achilles returned to battle to save the day, killing Hector and routing the Trojans.
Despite the loss of their prince, the walls of Troy were still impregnable and the siege continued.
Ethiopian assistance, under the leadership of Memnon, helped Troy for a while until he was killed by
Achilles. Achilles was soon after killed by Paris with a lucky shot from an arrow. The stalemate continued.
The Trojan Horse
The fall of Troy was ultimately brought about by the ruse of the Trojan Horse. Odysseus devised a
cunning plan whereby the Greeks would appear to accept defeat and sail away leaving behind a large
wooden effigy of a horse as a gift for the victors. Despite warnings from seers, notably Laocoon and
Cassandra (who had been cursed by Apollo always to predict the truth but never to be believed), Priam had
the horse dragged into the city. That night, the Greeks concealed inside emerged and opened the Scaen
Gates to the returning Greek army who were able to surprise Troy and defeat it.
Defeating a city involved: killing all male members of the nobility who might seek revenge in the
future (e.g. throwing Astyanax from the walls of the city), lots of looting and pillaging, enslaving anyone
worthwhile (Cassandra was sent as a concubine for Agamemnon, Andromache for Menalaos) and killing
the rest, destroying the buildings and razing the city to the ground. The victors would divide the spoils
according to rank and importance. Reasons for going to war included the physical bounty you could take
back with you as much as the kudos and admiration you received for glorious feats of arms.
The Greeks then returned home. Most famously, Menalaos and Helen went back to Sparta to live
happily ever after, Odysseus spent the next decade on what is now called an “odyssey” trying to get home
to Ithaca and faithful Penelope, and Agamemnon went home to Mycenae where his wife killed him in the
bath. The only Trojan survivor was the prince Aeneas who escaped and headed off to found what ultimately
became Rome.
The Myth and its historical context.
This is part of a myth cycle that developed over time and space. City states developed their own legends
with their own local heroes. When they travelled these stories were told and exchanged orally. It was thus
easy to augment and amalgamate them into tales of great complexity and complementary or opposing
versions. Later written piece drew on these sources and developed them as their authors saw fit. Every
character had a whole mythology attached to them. The above is merely a synopsis of the material relevant
to the text we are studying.
It is reasonable to accept that the fall of Troy was an event that occurred at some time between
1330 and 1150 BC. Whether it was a viking type raid that has been exaggerated out of all context, or a
“world” war resulting in the end of the Bronze Age is not relevant for our purposes: accept what is evident
from the text Ransom.
Some centuries after this The Illiad was written. It is an epic (a long poem that tells the adventures
of a hero). The Illiad and The Odyssey are epics attributed to an author known as Homer. There were no
publishing houses or copyright laws: ignore any problems with authorship and accept that Homer wrote his
epics in about 600BC and that they have formed the basis of all European literature since then.
Do not allow yourself to be too sidetracked by 20th century Hollywood. These people were preChristian. Their gods were not “good” or “evil” or omniscient, instead they had the same foibles and mixed
emotions as humans. They were physically involved on the battlefield in The Illiad, sometimes fighting each
other, sometimes assisting or fighting humans. The heroes were not controlled by the Geneva Convention.
They were ruthless in battle and concerned with amassing glory and wealth. They would take prisoners,
not to be merciful, but to ransom them or keep or sell them as slaves. They would plunder the armour from
the dead. For example, the Heracles (Hercules) who saved Priam as a joke, is not the one from the TV
series or the cartoon. The Heracles Malouf writes of is the one who killed his children and wives in fits of
rage or insanity and was a brutal fighter, as well as being the man who tried to atone for these acts.
The Greeks valued self control, as this was the main thing they saw separating humans from
animals (humans think, animals act on instinct). This was always a problem for the Greek heroes: they had
to be able to fight savagely but not lose control of their reason. Animals do not bury their dead either. To
defile a dead body was to deny its humanity and it was one of the worst things you could do to someone. A
burial service was generally required for a soul to find its place in the underworld.
The Wrath of Achilles
In The Illiad Homer selected from the Trojan War myth cycle, and wrote a story about Achilles’ rage
and its consequences. He chose to concentrate on a few weeks and one protagonist in a decade long war.
It includes beautiful detail about a host of characters, but the main plot is as follows.
His story starts with full detail about the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles. A raiding party
had brought back prizes including two young women, Chryseus and Briseus, who were given as
concubines to Agamemnon and Achilles respectively. Their father Chryses was a priest of the god Apollo
and he appealed to him for vengeance. Apollo sent a plague on the Greeks which debilitated the army.
Achilles was largely responsible for causing Agamemnon to try to propitiate the god, which meant the
return of Chryseus to her father. Agamemnon did not want to lose such a valuable prize and wanted
recompense from one of his main generals. He decided that he wanted Briseus from Achilles.
At a young age Achilles had been offered the prospect of a long and comfortable life or a short
glorious one. He chose the short glorious one. This prospect meant that he was going to die on the
battlefields of Troy, and that before he did so he needed to amass property and military acclaim both as an
individual and a leader of his men. The loss of Briseus was a multiple insult because he lost economically
and also felt that Agamemnon undervalued his contributions to the Greek campaign. He withdrew himself
and his men from battle and sulked in his tent.
This was an acceptable action but became less so as Greek defeat at the hand of Hector became
more likely. Friends and comrades of Achilles were dying or being wounded. There was a dilemma for
Achilles about whether to relinquish his anger and go out and help (thus losing face) or just seem petulant
rather than justified in his inaction. His problem was solved for him by Patroclus, who could join battle
wearing his armour and impersonating him, and in the guise of Achilles rally the Greeks and win the day.
Patroclus provided a win-win solution for Achilles...except that Hector killed him.
Patroclus was beloved of Achilles. It does not matter whether they were friends, lovers or kinsmen,
Patroclus was the person with whom Achilles had the greatest emotional attachment. Achilles felt both guilt
over his death and grief for his loss. His initial response to the news of Patroclus’ death was so extreme
that his men feared for his reason, and his mother sensed his grief from the depths of the ocean. His one
desire now was to avenge Patroclus, even though his fate was that his own death would closely follow
Hector’s
Battles stopped in the darkness of night, but the next morning, Achilles set out in magnificent new
armour to replace that which Hector had stolen from Patroclus’ body. His motivation was to kill Hector. He
had gone beyond being a soldier fighting an enemy and was now a man intent on destroying the one he
hated. The Illiad provides two chapters of gory detail about how he slaughtered anyone unfortunate
enough to be on his route to Hector. This massacre at once illustrates his supremacy as a fighter and
shows how he overstepped the bounds of decency. After a lengthy chase he caught up with and killed
Hector with a spear through the neck.
Hector’s last words were a reiteration of the knowledge that Achilles would die soon after Hector’s
death and a plea to hand over his body for burial. Achilles’ response was to express the desire to eat
Hector. Cannibalism was the ultimate taboo and he never actually sank that low. Patroclus’ funeral rites
were carried out with due pomp, and were followed by Games. This contrasted directly with the way
Achilles treated Hector’s body. The initial death and defilement of the body were not enough o assuage his
anger. He began the deplorable practice of dragging Hector’s body around Patroclus’ funeral mound on a
daily basis. He ignored social protocol and formal offers of conciliation.
This behaviour was offensive to the Greeks, the Trojans and the gods (and any audience of the last
millennia). Priam finally set out as an individual, merely a man, and approached Achilles simply as a father
who wanted his son’s body. On that basis he was able to propitiate Achilles and ransom Hector. Achilles’
wrath was at an end and The Illiad ends with Hector’s funeral, and the certain knowledge that Achilles
would die and Troy would fall.
Malouf has followed the same tactic with Ransom as Homer did with The Illiad, he has taken one
excerpt and elucidated it. Malouf uses Homer and ancient sources to make his own story within the context
of our culture, yet acceding to constants in human behaviour.