The Trojan War
The Bare Minimum
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Setting: Greece, 1250 BC
 (map on the next page)
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Groups fighting: The Greeks and
the Trojans
What Started it…?
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Archaeological remains provide evidence that there was a war but
the actual cause unknown
•
Scholars believe the war began over control of the trade route
between the Aegean Sea and the Black Sea between the Trojans and
Greeks
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Ancient mythology states that the war began over a single woman,
Helen, queen of Sparta
And now… the
story
A party…
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The gods on Olympus were having a party to celebrate the wedding
of King Peleus to the sea nymph Thetis
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All the gods and goddesses were invited, except Eris
 Eris is the goddess of discord
It’s not her party, so she’ll
revenge if she wants to…
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Eris decided to make trouble
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She threw a golden apple to the
party
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The golden apple was marked
“For the Fairest”
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Of course, all the goddesses
wanted to claim it, but the choice
was narrowed down to three:
 Aphrodite
 Hera
 Athena
Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who
is the fairest?
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Zeus was asked to judge
•
Instead, he suggested someone
else to judge, assuring them the
young man would be an excellent
judge of beauty
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A young prince named Paris, son
of the King Priam of Troy
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Paris was ordered to leave the city
because of a prophecy that
someday he would bring
misfortune to his country and
everyone who lived in it.
Paris’s Choices
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The goddesses appeared in the meadow where he was guarding
his sheep.
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Each goddess offered a bribe
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Hera promised to make him the lord of Europe and Asia
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Athena promised to make him a great warrior, who would lead
the Trojans against their traditional enemies, the Greeks
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Aphrodite promised him the most beautiful woman in the world
for his wife.
And the winner is…
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Paris, not being diplomatic or bright, was more interested in women
than ruling a country.
•
He chose Aphrodite and gave her the golden apple
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As to be expected, Hera and Athena were furious and swore eternal
enmity not only towards the young prince, but to his family and his
country
Side Story: The Most Beautiful
Woman
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Unfortunately, the most beautiful woman, Helen, was already
married.
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When she was young, reports of her beauty circulated, and many
young princes from powerful families wanted to marry her
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Helen’s stepfather, worried that when one was selected the rest
would unite against him, made the suitors promise that they would
uphold the honor of man picked to marry Helen.
 Each man thinking he would be chosen, immediately agreed, making a
solemn oath to champion the cause of Helen’s husband against all enemies.
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The chosen suitor was Menelaus, the brother of Agamemnon, King of
Sparta
Back to the Real Story…
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Aphrodite took Paris of Sparta, where as the son of a king from
another country, was received as an honored guest.
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Under the Greek rules of hospitality, the bonds between a guest and
a host were sacred, known as xenia.
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Xenia consists of two basic rules:
 The respect from host to guest: The host must be hospitable to the guest
and provide him/her with food and drink and a bath, if required. It is not
polite to ask questions until the guest has stated his/her needs.
 The respect from guest to host: The guest must be courteous to the host
and not be a burden.
•
Because of xenia, Menelaus left Paris to keep his wife company while
he went on a trip to Crete.
Paris, the Man of Romance
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From the minute Helen saw Paris, she falls in love with Paris
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Paris suggests after Menelaus leaves that they flee Sparta and go to Troy
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Of course, when Menelaus comes back, he sees that the two have eloped.
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Attacking Troy on his own would be impossible, but he remembered the promise that
the suitors made.
 He called on all the princes to join him to help:
 Destroy Troy
 Kill Paris and his entire family
 Return Helen
 He also asked others who owed him favors and his brother
Agamemnon to help
The Response of the Suitors
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Odysseus




King of Ithaca
Did not want to join the fight
Pretended to be insane when Menelaus came to ask for help
Reluctantly agreed to join the fight
The Response of the Suitors
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Achilles
 Son of sea nymph
 His mother knew if he went to Troy that he would die
 She persuaded him to go to the court of another king and dress as a
maiden and hide
 When Menelaus couldn’t find Achilles, he sent Odysseus.
 Odysseus had been told he might be disguised, so he tricked Achilles into
revealing himself.
 Disregarding his mother’s wishes, he joined the Greek army
On the Other Side…
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The Trojans were led by King Priam (Paris’s father)
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Chief general was Hector
 Truly noble hero
 He was destined to die on the battlefield and the city of Troy was destined
to be destroyed
 His forebodings were reinforced by the prophecy of his sister, Cassandra
Not just for the humans…
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Not only was this war a struggle between two powerful nations, it
also was a struggle between the gods of Olympus
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Aphrodite was on the side of Trojans
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Hera and Athena were on the side of the Greeks
The War
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The war continued for 10 years with even victories and defeats for
both.
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Neither was able to gain a distinct advantage
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The Trojans were also resupplied easily because they were fighting
in Troy
•
Greeks had a lack of clean water and famine
Then there was a crisis
First, The Greeks…
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Agamemnon was given a woman,
Chryseis, as a prize of war
•
Chryseis’s father, a priest of Apollo,
came to the Greek tents to beg for his
daughter
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Agamemnon would not let her leave
•
The priest prayed to Apollo and
Apollo shot fiery arrows into the
Greek camp which brought pestilence
and killed many of the soldiers
So the Trojans..
•
Achilles, as requested by Hera, called
a conference to find out why Apollo
was mad
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Achilles insisted Agamemnon return
the girl immediately
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Agamemnon agreed only if he
received another prize instead.
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Agamemnon picked a young woman
who belonged to Achilles. While
Achilles couldn’t do anything, he
swore vengeance against the man who
wronged him.
Zeus’s involvement
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Thetis, even more angry with Achilles, turned to Zeus to ask for help
and make the Greeks lose the war.
•
Zeus didn’t like the fight because it was causing trouble on Mt.
Olympus

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

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Athena and Hera were on one side
Aphrodite was on the other
Apollo loved Hector
While Poseidon was on the side of the Greeks
Zeus wanted it to end, so he thought of a way to help without
irritating Hera
Zeus’s involvement (cont.)
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Zeus sent Thetis back to her son, Achilles to tell him to stay in his
tent and not participate in any battles for the time being
•
Zeus then sent a dream to Agamemnon that if he attacked the next
day his armies would be victorious
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Agamemnon following his prophecy, realized when fighting, he made
a mistake. The Trojans wreaked havoc on the Greek army.
•
While the fighting occurred, Zeus arranged for Helen to appear on
the wall
 Both sides wondered why they were fighting Paris’s and Menelaus’s battle
and concluded that the two men should fight for her
More God/Goddess Interference
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Menelaus and Paris fought, and Menelaus got the better of Paris, but
Aphrodite didn’t want him to be hurt, so she freed him and hid him.
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Menelaus still feeling that he won fairly, asked for Helen back, and
the Trojans said they would be delighted to give her back.
•
However, Hera and Athena were not happy with this and wanted
Troy to be destroyed.
•
Athena persuaded a Trojan officer to shoot an arrow at Menelaus
 The Greeks considered this to be an act of treachery
 The war continued more fierce and bloody than before
Interference continues
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Two different warriors are saved by Aphrodite and Apollo
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Ares stood behind Hector as he was fighting, making the Greeks
think the gods had turned away from them.
 Hera was upset about this and instructed the Greek fighter to wound Ares
who would flee when in pain.
•
Hera seduces Zeus to fall asleep to let the Greeks gain an advantage,
but when Zeus wakes up, he helps the Trojans
Achilles in Battle
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Achilles’ friend took his armor to pretend to be him in the battle
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Hector attacked “Achilles” and the friend died
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Achilles feeling he had committed hubris, went out to fight
 His mother got a suit of armor from Hephaestus that no sword could
penetrate
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Achilles and Hector battled, but Achilles won because Hector was
wearing Achilles’s armor and knew where the opening was
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Hector asked for a true burial, but instead, he began to dishonor
Hector’s body by dragging him behind a chariot
The gods are in it again…
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Zeus was displeased because Hector was special
 To dishonor his body was to dishonor the gods
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He sent a messenger to Priam, Hector’s father, and let him know
that if he went to Achilles with a wagon of gold and jewels in return
for his body, he would soften Achilles’s heart
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This worked and Hector received the proper burial
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All of Troy wept for him
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Achilles was killed shortly after he defeated Hector
The war continues…
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Finally, Odysseus proposed a ruse that might allow a group of
Greeks to get into Troy and to open the doors to the rest of the army
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He persuaded Agamemnon to pretend to abandon the field of battle
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The Trojans saw the Greeks had left and believed the war was finally
over
The Trojan Horse
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The Trojans saw a man named Sinon was standing by a large
wooden horse
 Sinon said the horse had been built as an offering to Athena
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The Trojans believed Sinon and took him and the horse into the city
 A priest, Laocoon, urged them to destroy the wooden animal
 Cassandra, daughter of King Priam, agreed
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Athena who was on the side of the Greeks, caused two gigantic
snakes to come from her temple and strangle the priest and his two
sons
 To the Trojans, this meant that Athena wanted the horse to be placed by
her temple
Finally, the end
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At night, Odysseus and the other Greeks jumped out of the horse and
opened the gates to let the rest of the Greek army in
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The Greeks quickly set fire to the houses and killed all the Trojan
leaders.
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Aphrodite saved her son and also Helen
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For the women and children of Troy, they were taken as slaves.
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Of the Greek leaders, only Agamemnon, Menelaus, and Odysseus got
back to their homes.
But…
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Odysseus is in trouble with the Gods
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He angered them because:

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Trojans were slaughtered
Greeks violated Trojan temples
Greeks did not offer a sacrifice to the gods for their victory
Odysseus will suffer the most because he created the Trojan Horse
Who is really to blame?
• With
a person near you, discuss who was
more at fault for the war, the gods or the
humans?
Why does the
Trojan War matter?
We are reading The
Odyssey by Homer which
takes place after The
Trojan War
But who is Homer?
No, not Homer Simpson
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Homer was a blind poet.
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He wrote The Illiad and The Odyssey, two epics in 725
B.C.
The Illiad (no, we aren’t reading this too)
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First written record of Greece
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It describes the events of the 51 days during the last year
of the war when Achilles kills Hector
The Odyssey (this is the one we are reading)
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Describes the 10-year journey of Odysseus as he tries to
go home to Ithaca after the Trojan War
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He and his men face monsters, giants, cannibals,
temptations, and death
So, about The
Odyssey…
The Setting of the Odyssey
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This takes place in Greece and throughout the
Mediterranean world.
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Time estimates for this journey are varied
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Most scholars place the story telling to be over 3,000
years old.
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Talk about writing a 3,000-year-best-seller! Phew!
Main Character: Odysseus
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Strong and well built
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Handsome and does well with women
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Intelligent
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Manages to get out of bad situations with his cleverness
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Appears superhuman, yet is still flawed
Other Important Characters
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His wife, Penelope.
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His son, Telemachus/Telemakhos
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Suitors: This is a term for people who court or try to woo another.
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Eurykleia, Odysseus and Telemakhos’ nurse
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Laertes, Odysseus’ father.
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His Crew
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Many others as he travels; keep track of who is who and who is
connected/related to whom. It will save you lots of re-reading!
Other Important Background Info
• Akhaians
or Danaans = the Greeks.
 You will hear Telemakhos call to them or criticize them.
It is just another name of the Greeks to distinguish
them from the Trojans.
The format of The Odyssey
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Epic poem begins in the middle of the action – “in medias res”
 In medias res literally means “into the midst of things”
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There are flashbacks to show what Odysseus endured before he
finally joins the narrative present
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Begins with an invocation to the muses (Calliope is muse of epic
poetry)
 Invocation means the summoning of a deity or the supernatural.
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Each line is the same poetic meter (dactylic hexameter)
What is an epic?
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An epic is long narrative poem written in elevated style
which presents the adventures of characters of high
position and episodes that are important to the history of
a race or nation.
 In other words, it is a story-poem about a great hero who performs
daring deeds that require superhuman courage
 Usually told orally, not written, recited from memory by minstrels
(travelling entertainers)
 The gods either help or hinder the hero
Language
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Dactylic Hexameter = a form of poetic meter or rhyme
scheme
 The meter consists of lines made from six ("hexa") feet.
 A “dactyl” is a long syllable followed by two short syllables, as
determined by syllable weight.
 A useful mnemonic for remembering this long-short-short pattern is to
consider the relative lengths of the three bones of a human finger:
beginning at the knuckle, it is one long bone followed by two shorter
ones (hence the name "dactyl").
Epic Structure Devices
• Some
things you are familiar with:
 similes and metaphors
 epithets
 Adjective, noun, or phrase to characterize a person or thing
 swift-footed Achilles
 Grey-eyed Athena
 symbols and omens
 repetition
 This is a function of the fact that this was a STORY TOLD ORALLY
Epic Structure Devices (cont.)
• Some
things you may not be so familiar with:
 long speeches and little dialogue
 catalogues
 great listing of people, especially in battle sequence
 Digressions
 Moving away from the topic at hand to discuss something related, often
from the past or tied to the matter at hand in some way, but still off
topic. (The phrase, “And I digress” means you’ve gotten away from your
point.)
Elements included in epics
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people of importance to society
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national hero
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monsters - for the purpose of playing up the good traits of
the hero
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fate of a nation (ex. Ithaca)
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setting of worldwide scope (ex. Mediterranean world)
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journeys or quests
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tests for the hero
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divine intervention
Role of the Hero
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The hero has outstanding traits of nationality
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intelligent and clever
courageous
strong and well built
performs heroic feats
wants to defeat evil
adventuresome
manages to get out of every bad situation using his cleverness
faithful to family, country and gods
Elements that make The Odyssey
a “Classic”
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Creation of characters with uncomplicated motives
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Actions that are true to Human Nature
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Plots that blend the joys of living with the tragic sense of life.
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Long, musical lines (in the original Greek or in a poetry translation)
Why We Read it?
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The Oral Tradition and its devices were used to explain and teach natural
and religious origins, political origins, history of culture, and acceptable
behavior for society.
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Understanding how an epic poem is structure and the devices it employs
enables full appreciation of its message.
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Epic heroes are both courageous, intelligent leaders and flawed humans;
they reflect the culture from which they emerge.
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An odyssey takes one well beyond the familiar geography and explore the
boundaries of human psyche and human society both literally and
figuratively.
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An individual’s understanding of self, his interaction with others and the
world form his identity.
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Home is a vital link to one's past, present, and future.