The Trojan War
One of the most famous stories from the Classical World is the
story about the Trojan War. The story, according to common
belief, was written by the poet Homer.
The story is told in Homer’s epic poem
the Iliad.
Homer, himself, may not have
existed. Instead stories like the
Iliad were most likely passed by
word and mouth through many
generations.
The Trojan War arose out of a dispute between the goddesses
Hera, Athena and Aphradite. 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 chose Paris, a prince of Troy, to judge which goddess should
receive the apple.
Eventually he chose Aphradite, who promised him the love
of Helen, the most beautiful mortal woman,in return.
Paris immediately went to Sparta, wooed Helen, and then
returned to Troy with his new lover.
This did not please the Greeks, for Helen was married to
Meneleus, the king of Sparta.
The Greeks mustered an army, and under the leadership of
Agamemnon, the brother of Meneleus, prepared to sail to
Troy.
It is said that Helen was the face that launched a thousand
ships, for that is how many eventually set sail for Troy.
Troy was a well defended city, with walls, according to
legend, built by Poseidon.
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.
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.
Achilles, however, sometimes did not help his fellow Greeks in battle.
Once he agued with Agamemnon over a slave girl and refused to
fight.
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.
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 Styx.
The war reached its tenth year, and yet neither side could gain
the upper hand.
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.
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 reduced to a smoking ruin. The
Greeks were victorious, Helen was restored to Meneleus.
The Greeks prepared to 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.