The Trojan War
and
The Iliad
• The gods Apollo and Poseidon built the
city of Troy.
• Priam, the King of Troy had a son named
Paris.
• A prophet foretold that Paris would destroy
the city.
• Paris was taken out to be killed, but was
rescued by shepherds and grew up away
from the city. As a young man he returned
to Troy to compete in the athletic games,
was recognized, and returned to the royal
family.
• Meanwhile, Thetis (a sea
goddess), and a mortal decided
to marry. All the gods were
invited to the celebration,
except, Eris, the goddess of
strife. She came anyway and
brought a golden apple, upon
which was written "For the
Fairest."
• Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena all fought for
the apple, and came to Zeus for judgment.
He refused to judge a beauty contest
between his wife and two of his daughters,
and the task of choosing fell to Paris.
They each bribed him: Hera offered
power, Athena offered military glory and
wisdom, and Aphrodite offered him the
most beautiful woman in the world. In the
end, he gave the apple to Aphrodite.
• Helen, whose beauty was
famous throughout the world,
was that woman. The Greek
leaders made a promise that
they would collectively
avenge any insult to her.
When the leaders made
such an oath, Helen then
married Menelaus, King of
Sparta. Agamemnon,
brother of Menelaus was the
most powerful leader in
Greece.
• Paris made a journey to Sparta as a
Trojan ambassador at a time when
Menelaus was away. Aphrodite made
Helen fall in love with Paris and they left
Sparta together, returning to Troy where
they were protected by Priam (the King)
and Hector (oldest son and best warrior).
The Greeks assembled an army to invade
Troy.
*Christopher Marlow called Helen “The face
that launched a thousand ships.”
• Achilles, the son of Thetis and the Greeks
best warrior, although half god, was
mortal. To protect him from death his
mother bathed him in the waters of the
river Styx holding him by the heel, which
made him invulnerable. A prophet with the
Greek army, told Agamemnon and the
other leaders that they could not conquer
Troy without him.
• The Greek army landed on the beaches
before Troy. The Greeks sent an embassy
to Troy, seeking to recover Helen and the
treasure. When the Trojans denied them,
the Greek army settled down into a siege
which lasted many years.
• In the tenth year of the war, Agamemnon
insulted Apollo by taking a slave-hostage
girl, the daughter of a prophet of Apollo. In
revenge, Apollo sent nine days of plague
down upon the Greek army. Achilles
called an assembly to determine what the
Greeks should do. In that assembly, he
and Agamemnon quarreled bitterly,
Agamemnon confiscated Achilles slave
girl , and Achilles, in a rage, withdrew
himself and his forces from battle.
• In Achilles absence, the Trojans enjoyed
great success against the Greeks,
breaking through their defensive ramparts
on the beach and setting the ships on fire.
• While Hector was enjoying his successes
against the Greeks, Achilles' friend
Patroclus begged to be allowed to return
to the fight. Achilles gave him permission,
advising him not to attack the city of Troy
itself. He also gave Patroclus his own suit
of armor, so that the Trojans might think
that Achilles had returned to the war.
Patroclus resumed the fight, enjoyed
some dazzling success, but he was finally
killed by Hector.
• In his grief over the death of Patroclus,
Achilles decided to return to the battle.
Since he had no armor, Thetis asked
Hephaestus, the crippled god of the forge,
to prepare some divine armor for her son.
Hephaestus did so, and Achilles returned
to the war.
• After slaughtering many Trojans, Achilles finally
cornered Hector alone outside the walls of Troy.
Hector chose to stand and fight rather than to
retreat into the city, and he was killed by
Achilles, who then mutilated the corpse, tied it to
his chariot, and dragged it three times around
the city walls.
• Achilles' career as the greatest warrior
came to an end when Paris, with the help
of Apollo, killed him with an arrow which
pierced him in the heel, the one vulnerable
spot. .
• Finally the Greeks, under the
plan of Odysseus, devised the
strategy of filling a giant
wooden horse with armed
soldiers. They built it and left it
in front of the city. The Greek
army then withdrew as if
abandoning the war. Although
warned not to accept gifts from
the Greeks, The Trojans tore
down a part of the wall,
dragged the horse inside, and
celebrated their apparent
victory.
• When the Trojans had fallen asleep, the
Greek soldiers hidden in the horse came
out, and gave the signal to the main army
which had been hiding. The city was totally
destroyed. The women were taken
prisoner, and Helen was returned to
Menelaus.
• The gods regarded the sacking of Troy
and especially the treatment of the
temples as a sacrilege, and they punished
many of the Greek leaders.
• Odysseus (called by the Romans
Ulysses) wandered over the sea for many
years before reaching home. He started
with a number of ships, but in a series of
misfortunes, lasting ten years because of
the anger of Poseidon, the god of the
sea, he lost all his men before returning to
Ithaca alone.