The Iliad by Homer
1200 B.C
The Trojan War
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Homer w
Greatest of the Greek poets
1,000 years B.C.
Epic poems- 1st to make stories a unified whole
Sung for entertainment
Stories taught Greek ideals
Homer wrote The Iliad
Ilium- Greek for Troy
Story of the Trojan
War
10 years
Fought over Helen of
Troy
The Odyssey
Follows the Trojan
War
10 years
Odysseus’s journey to
return to Greece
A metaphor for every
person’s journey
through life.
The Judgment of Paris
Wedding of Peleus and Thetis
(grandson to Zeus and a sea nymph)
• Eris – goddess of discord, not invited
• Eris crashes party - starts trouble
• Golden apple – “To the fairest”
Me!
• Hera, Athena, Aphrodite – claim it
No,
me!
It’s
mine
!
The Trojan War arose out of a dispute
between the goddesses Hera, Athena and
Aphrodite. They were guests at a wedding,
when the goddess Discord threw a golden
apple in their midst upon which was written ‘
for the fairest.’ each of the three goddesses
believed that she should have the apple.
Zeus – asked to judge
No way!
Choose between my
wife, daughter, and
Aphrodite?
Who else can I get?
Paris – Prince of Troy
(a playboy)
• Goddesses bribe Paris
• Athena offers – ambition, fame, success in war
• Hera offers – power, riches, King of Europe
and Asia
• Aphrodite offers – the love of the most beautiful
woman in the world
Paris chooses Aphrodite There’s just one
little problem…
The most beautiful woman in
the world is Helen…
and she’s married.
Helen – wife to Menelaus, King of Sparta
(a half-mortal daughter of Zeus)
Helen’s father, Tyndareus
Knew many men
would pursue Helen
Was afraid conflicts or
wars would be fought
over her
Convinced suitors to
swear an oath
- to always protect Helen
- to support her husband ,
whomever she chose
It is said that Helen was the
face that launched a thousand
ships, for that is how many
eventually set sail for Troy.
Paris visits Helen and Menelaus
• Welcomed as a guest
• Kidnaps Helen
• Menelaus - raises army
from suitors
• Agamemnon- Menelaus’s
brother leads expedition
• Achilles –
greatest Greek
warrior
- son of Peleus and Thetis
- invulnerable, except for heel
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The Greeks and the Trojans fought
fiercely on the coastal plain, and
although the Greeks won many battles
they were unable to penetrate the
defences of the Trojan city.
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The Greeks were supported by the
goddesses Hera and Athena, and also
benefited from the services of a number
of mighty warriors within their ranks.
The greatest of these was undoubtedly
Achilles, whose mother had dipped him
into the river Styx when he was a baby,
thereby causing him to be virtually
invincible in battle.
The Greeks and the Trojans fought
fiercely on the coastal plain, and
although the Greeks won many battles
they were unable to penetrate the
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• Nevertheless, he agreed to
lend his armour to his
friend Patroclus.
Unfortunately, Patroclus,
mistaken, for Achilles,
was killed by Hector, the
son of King Priam, and the
greatest of the Trojan
warriors.
With Patroclus dead, Achilles vowed to avenge his friend’s death. Achilles
quickly found his sworn enemy, and, following a fierce fight, Hector soon lay
dead on the battlefield.
• Achilles tied Hector’s body to
the back of his chariot and then
drove in glorious triumph
around the walls of Troy. After
much beseeching by King
Priam, Achilles eventually
agreed to return Hector’s body
to the Trojans.
Styx.
• Despite Hector’s death, the
Greeks were still unable to
break down the defences of
Troy. And then tragedy struck;
Achilles was slain, shot in the
heel by Paris. Held there by his
mother, his heel had been the
only part of his body not to
have been dipped into the river
The war reached its tenth year, and yet neither side could gain
upper hand.
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At last Odysseus, the king of
Ithaca, came up with a cunning
plan. He suggested that the Greeks
should build a huge wooden horse,
inside which fifty of the strongest
warriors could be hidden.
Agamemnon eventually agreed to
this idea, and the horse was built.
The chosen men, including
Odysseus, climbed up into the belly
of the horse, and the horse was left
on the shore. The rest of the Greeks
deserted their camp, and sailed to
the other side of the nearby island,
Tenedos.
the
• However, one Greek,
named Sinon who was
renowned for making up
stories, was left with the
horse to convince the
Trojans that they should
drag the Horse into their
city.
• When the Trojans
saw that the Greeks
had gone away they
were overjoyed, for
they believed the
war was finally
over.
• However, they
were in awe of the
horse and were
unsure what to do
with it.
• Sinon, who explained he had
been left as a deserter and a
prisoner, told the Trojans that
the horse had been built as an
offering to the god Poseidon to
provide them with a safe
passage back to Greece.
• The Trojans were on the point
of believing Sinon’s story when
Laocoon, a priest of Troy,
claimed the horse was a trick,
and hurled a spear into the side
of the huge wooden statue.
Luckily for the Greeks hiding
inside no one was hit.
• Almost immediately, a huge
serpent appeared out of the sea
and wrapped itself around
laocoon and his two sons,
dragging its wretched victims
back under the waves. The
Trojans, now left in little doubt
that the horse was truly an
offering to the god Poseidon,
readily accepted Sinon’s story.
• The Trojans dragged the wooden horse into
their city, unaware of the danger that was
concealed inside the huge belly. Happy that
the war was over the Trojans planned
parties and celebrations that would last late
into the night. They did not even bother to
post guards on the ramparts, so sure were
they that all danger of attack had passed
with the departure of the Greeks.
• It did not take long for the Trojans to
become drunk, and soon they all fell into a
deep sleep. It was then that the warriors
descended from the belly of the horse. They
crept to the outer walls and opened the
gates. Then they lit a fire on the ramparts as
a signal to the rest of the Greeks, who in the
meantime had returned to the mainland, that
the plan had worked.
• The sleeping revellers were easy prey for
the rampaging Greeks, and, with the city
burning, the Trojans were slaughtered
without mercy.
The once proud city of Troy was
The once proud city of Troy was reduced to a smoking ruin.
The Greeks were victorious, Helen
was restored
• The Greeks preparedtoto sail back to their
homelands – most completing the journey
in little time. However, many years were to
pass before Odysseus would see the shores
of Ithaca again.
• Did any Trojan survive the Greek
massacre? According to legend, prince
Aeneas escaped from the burning city with
his young family and his elderly father. The
Roman poet, Virgil, would have us believe
that Aeneas sailed to Italy and there
founded a new settlement. From this
settlement emerged the great city of Rome.
Siege of Troy - lasts 10 years
Troy – high and thick walls,
surrounded by plain of Troy
Achilles kills Hector,
Prince of Troy – defiles
Aphrodite- sides with the
body by dragging it behind his
chariot
Trojans
Athena and Hera - side
with the Greeks
Zeus- remains impartial
Paris takes revenge for
brother – shoots Achilles in
heel, killing him
Greeks – create a plan
- Odysseus – known for
strategy
- Athena’s favorite warrior
The Trojan Horse
• Greeks create a large, wooden horse
• Greeks sail away, leave as “gift”
• Warned not to bring horse inside Troy
- Cassandra – priestess
- Laocoon – priest
• Trojans celebrate
End of War
Soldiers slip out of
horse and open gates
Greeks return
Trojans are massacred
Troy is burned
women enslaved
Gods turn against the Greeks
Ajax kills Cassandra in Athena’s temple
Athena is offended
Calls on Poseidon to create storm
Odyssey Begins Here
• Greeks are scattered
around the
Mediterranean
• Odysseus’s 10 year
journey home begins