Trojan War

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For the 1997 film, see Trojan War (film).
"Fall of Troy" redirects here. For the American band, see The Fall of Troy (band). For
other uses, see The Fall of Troy (disambiguation).

Trojan War

Achilles tending the wounded Patroclus

(Attic red-figure kylix, c. 500 BC)

The war

 Setting: Troy (modern Hisarlik, Turk
ey)
 Period: Bronze Age
 Traditional dating: c. 1194–1184 BC
 Modern dating: c. 1260–1180 BC
 Outcome: Greek victory, destruction
of Troy
 See also: Historicity of the Iliad

Literary sources
 Iliad
 Epic Cycle
  Aeneid, Book 2
 Iphigenia in Aulis
 Philoctetes
 Ajax
 The Trojan Women
 Posthomerica
See also: Trojan War in literature and the arts

Episodes
 Judgement of Paris
 Seduction of Helen
 Trojan Horse
 Sack of Troy
 The Returns
 Wanderings of Odysseus
 Aeneas and the Founding of Rome

Greeks and allies

 Agamemnon
 Achilles
 Helen
 Menelaus
 Nestor
 Odysseus
 Ajax
 Diomedes
 Patroclus
 Thersites
 Achaeans
 Myrmidons
See also: Catalogue of Ships

Trojans and allies

 Priam
 Hecuba
 Hector
 Paris
 Cassandra
 Andromache
  Aeneas
 Memnon
 Troilus
 Penthesilea and the Amazons
 Sarpedon
See also: Trojan Battle Order

Participant gods

Caused the war:

 Eris

On the Greek side:

 Athena
 Hephaestus
 Hera
 Hermes
 Thetis
 Poseidon

On the Trojan side:

 Aphrodite
 Apollo
 Ares
 Artemis
 Leto
 Scamander
 Zeus

Historicity
 Ahhiyawa
 Alaksandu
 Historicity of the Homeric epics
 Homeric Question
 Late Bronze Age Troy
 Manapa-Tarhunta letter
 Tawagalawa letter
 Wilusa

Related topics
  Homeric Question
 Archaeology of Troy
 Mycenae
 Mycenaean warfare

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Greek mythology

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 Earth-deities

Heroes and heroism

 Heracles / Hercules 
o Labors
 Achilles
 Hector 
o Trojan War
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In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by

the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king
of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and has
been narrated through many works of Greek literature, most notably Homer's Iliad. The
core of the Iliad (Books II – XXIII) describes a period of four days and two nights in the
tenth year of the decade-long siege of Troy; the Odyssey describes the journey home
of Odysseus, one of the war's heroes. Other parts of the war are described in a cycle of
epic poems, which have survived through fragments. Episodes from the war provided
material for Greek tragedy and other works of Greek literature, and for Roman poets
including Virgil and Ovid.
The ancient Greeks believed that Troy was located near the Dardanelles and that the
Trojan War was a historical event of the 13th or 12th century BC, but by the mid-19th
century AD, both the war and the city were widely seen as non-historical. In 1868,
however, the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann met Frank Calvert, who
convinced Schliemann that Troy was at what is now Hisarlik in Turkey.[1] On the basis of
excavations conducted by Schliemann and others, this claim is now accepted by most
scholars.[2][3]
Whether there is any historical reality behind the Trojan War remains an open question.
Many scholars believe that there is a historical core to the tale, though this may simply
mean that the Homeric stories are a fusion of various tales of sieges and expeditions
by Mycenaean Greeks during the Bronze Age. Those who believe that the stories of the
Trojan War are derived from a specific historical conflict usually date it to the 12th or
11th century BC, often preferring the dates given by Eratosthenes, 1194–1184 BC,
which roughly correspond to archaeological evidence of a catastrophic burning of Troy
VII,[4] and the Late Bronze Age collapse.

Contents

 1Sources
  2Legend
o 2.1Origins of the war
 2.1.1Plan of Zeus
 2.1.2Judgement of Paris
 2.1.3Elopement of Paris and Helen
o 2.2Gathering of Achaean forces and the first expedition
 2.2.1Odysseus and Achilles
 2.2.2First gathering at Aulis
 2.2.3Telephus
o 2.3Second gathering
o 2.4Nine years of war
 2.4.1Philoctetes
 2.4.2Arrival
 2.4.3Achilles' campaigns
 2.4.4Ajax and a game of petteia
 2.4.5Death of Palamedes
 2.4.6Mutiny
o 2.5Iliad
o 2.6After the Iliad
 2.6.1Penthesilea and the death of Achilles
 2.6.2Judgment of Arms
 2.6.3Prophecies
 2.6.4Trojan Horse
o 2.7Sack of Troy
o 2.8Returns
 2.8.1House of Atreus
o 2.9Odyssey
o 2.10Telegony
o 2.11Aeneid
 3Dates of the Trojan War
 4Historical basis
 5In popular culture
 6References
 7Further reading
o 7.1Ancient authors
o 7.2Modern authors
 8External links

Sources
The events of the Trojan War are found in many works of Greek literature and depicted
in numerous works of Greek art. There is no single, authoritative text which tells the
entire events of the war. Instead, the story is assembled from a variety of sources, some
of which report contradictory versions of the events. The most important literary sources
are the two epic poems traditionally credited to Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey,
composed sometime between the 9th and 6th centuries BC. [5] Each poem narrates only
a part of the war. The Iliad covers a short period in the last year of the siege of Troy,
while the Odyssey concerns Odysseus's return to his home island of Ithaca following
the sack of Troy and contains several flashbacks to particular episodes in the war.
Other parts of the Trojan War were told in the poems of the Epic Cycle, also known as
the Cyclic Epics: the Cypria, Aethiopis, Little Iliad, Iliou Persis, Nostoi, and Telegony.
Though these poems survive only in fragments, their content is known from a summary
included in Proclus' Chrestomathy.[6] The authorship of the Cyclic Epics is uncertain. It is
generally thought that the poems were written down in the 7th and 6th century BC, after
the composition of the Homeric poems, though it is widely believed that they were
based on earlier traditions.[7]
Both the Homeric epics and the Epic Cycle take origin from oral tradition. Even after the
composition of the Iliad, Odyssey, and the Cyclic Epics, the myths of the Trojan War
were passed on orally in many genres of poetry and through non-poetic storytelling.
Events and details of the story that are only found in later authors may have been
passed on through oral tradition and could be as old as the Homeric poems. Visual art,
such as vase painting, was another medium in which myths of the Trojan War
circulated.[8]
In later ages playwrights, historians, and other intellectuals would create works inspired
by the Trojan War. The three great tragedians of Athens—Aeschylus, Sophocles,
and Euripides—wrote a number of dramas that portray episodes from the Trojan War.
Among Roman writers the most important is the 1st century BC poet Virgil; in Book 2 of
his Aeneid, Aeneas narrates the sack of Troy.

Legend

The Golden Apple of Discord by Jacob Jordaens

Traditionally, the Trojan War arose from a sequence of events beginning with a quarrel
between the goddesses Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. Eris, the goddess of discord, was
not invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, and so arrived bearing a gift: a golden
apple, inscribed "for the fairest". Each of the goddesses claimed to be the "fairest", and
the rightful owner of the apple. They submitted the judgment to a shepherd they
encountered tending his flock. Each of the goddesses promised the young man a boon
in return for his favour: power, wisdom, or love. The youth—in fact Paris, a Trojan prince
who had been raised in the countryside—chose love, and awarded the apple to
Aphrodite. As his reward, Aphrodite caused Helen, the Queen of Sparta, and most
beautiful of all women, to fall in love with Paris. But the judgement of Paris earned him
the ire of both Hera and Athena, and when Helen left her husband, Menelaus, the
Spartan king, for Paris of Troy, Menelaus called upon all the kings and princes of
Greece to wage war upon Troy.

The Burning of Troy (1759/62), oil painting by Johann Georg Trautmann

Menelaus' brother Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, led an expedition of Achaean troops

to Troy and besieged the city for ten years because of Paris' insult. After the deaths of
many heroes, including the Achaeans Achilles and Ajax, and the Trojans Hector and
Paris, the city fell to the ruse of the Trojan Horse. The Achaeans slaughtered the
Trojans, except for some of the women and children whom they kept or sold as slaves
and desecrated the temples, thus earning the gods' wrath. Few of the Achaeans
returned safely to their homes and many founded colonies in distant shores.
The Romans later traced their origin to Aeneas, Aphrodite's son and one of the Trojans,
who was said to have led the surviving Trojans to modern-day Italy.
The following summary of the Trojan War follows the order of events as given in
Proclus' summary, along with the Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid, supplemented with details
drawn from other authors.
Origins of the war

Polyxena Sarcophagus in Troy Museum.

Musician figures from clay in Troy Museum.

Plan of Zeus
According to Greek mythology, Zeus had become king of the gods by overthrowing his
father Cronus; Cronus in turn had overthrown his father Uranus. Zeus was not faithful to
his wife and sister Hera, and had many relationships from which many children were
born. Since Zeus believed that there were too many people populating the earth, he
envisioned Momus[9] or Themis,[10] who was to use the Trojan War as a means to
depopulate the Earth, especially of his demigod descendants. [11]
These can be supported by Hesiod's account:
Now all the gods were divided through strife; for at that very time Zeus who thunders on
high was meditating marvelous deeds, even to mingle storm and tempest over the
boundless earth, and already he was hastening to make an utter end of the race of
mortal men, declaring that he would destroy the lives of the demi-gods, that the children
of the gods should not mate with wretched mortals, seeing their fate with their own
eyes; but that the blessed gods henceforth even as aforetime should have their living
and their habitations apart from men. But on those who were born of immortals and of
mankind verily Zeus laid toil and sorrow upon sorrow. [12]

The Judgement of Paris (1599) by Hendrick van Balen the Elder. Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

Judgement of Paris
Main article: Judgement of Paris
Zeus came to learn from either Themis[13] or Prometheus, after Heracles had released
him from Caucasus,[14] that, like his father Cronus, he would be overthrown by one of his
sons. Another prophecy stated that a son of the sea-nymph Thetis, with whom Zeus fell
in love after gazing upon her in the oceans off the Greek coast, would become greater
than his father.[15] Possibly for one or both of these reasons,[16] Thetis was betrothed to an
elderly human king, Peleus son of Aeacus, either upon Zeus' orders,[17] or because she
wished to please Hera, who had raised her. [18]
All of the gods were invited to Peleus and Thetis' wedding and brought many gifts,
[19]
 except Eris (the goddess of discord), who was stopped at the door by Hermes, on
Zeus' order.[20] Insulted, she threw from the door a gift of her own: [21] a golden apple (το
μήλον της έριδος) on which was inscribed the word καλλίστῃ Kallistēi ("To the fairest").
[22]
 The apple was claimed by Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. They quarreled bitterly over
it, and none of the other gods would venture an opinion favoring one, for fear of earning
the enmity of the other two. Eventually, Zeus ordered Hermes to lead the three
goddesses to Paris, a prince of Troy, who, unaware of his ancestry, was being raised as
a shepherd in Mount Ida,[23] because of a prophecy that he would be the downfall of
Troy.[24] After bathing in the spring of Ida, the goddesses appeared to him naked, either
for the sake of winning or at Paris' request. Paris was unable to decide among them, so
the goddesses resorted to bribes. Athena offered Paris wisdom, skill in battle, and the
abilities of the greatest warriors; Hera offered him political power and control of all
of Asia; and Aphrodite offered him the love of the most beautiful woman in the
world, Helen of Sparta. Paris awarded the apple to Aphrodite, and, after several
adventures, returned to Troy, where he was recognized by his royal family.

Thetis gives her son Achilles weapons forged by Hephaestus (detail of Attic black-figure hydria, 575–550 BC)

Peleus and Thetis bore a son, whom they named Achilles. It was foretold that he would
either die of old age after an uneventful life, or die young in a battlefield and gain
immortality through poetry.[25] Furthermore, when Achilles was nine years
old, Calchas had prophesied that Troy could not again fall without his help. [26] A number
of sources credit Thetis with attempting to make Achilles immortal when he was an
infant. Some of these state that she held him over fire every night to burn away his
mortal parts and rubbed him with ambrosia during the day, but Peleus discovered her
actions and stopped her.[27]
According to some versions of this story, Thetis had already killed several sons in this
manner, and Peleus' action therefore saved his son's life. [28] Other sources state that
Thetis bathed Achilles in the Styx, the river that runs to the underworld, making him
invulnerable wherever he was touched by the water. [29] Because she had held him by the
heel, it was not immersed during the bathing and thus the heel remained mortal and
vulnerable to injury (hence the expression "Achilles' heel" for an isolated weakness). He
grew up to be the greatest of all mortal warriors. After Calchas' prophecy, Thetis hid
Achilles in Skyros at the court of King Lycomedes, where he was disguised as a girl.
[30]
 At a crucial point in the war, she assists her son by providing weapons divinely forged
by Hephaestus (see below).
Elopement of Paris and Helen
The Abduction of Helen (1530–39) by Francesco Primaticcio, with Aphrodite directing

The most beautiful woman in the world was Helen, one of the daughters of Tyndareus,
King of Sparta. Her mother was Leda, who had been either raped or seduced by Zeus
in the form of a swan.[31] Accounts differ over which of Leda's four children, two pairs of
twins, were fathered by Zeus and which by Tyndareus. However, Helen is usually
credited as Zeus' daughter,[32] and sometimes Nemesis is credited as her mother.
[33]
 Helen had scores of suitors, and her father was unwilling to choose one for fear the
others would retaliate violently.
Finally, one of the suitors, Odysseus of Ithaca, proposed a plan to solve the dilemma. In
exchange for Tyndareus' support of his own suit towards Penelope,[34] he suggested that
Tyndareus require all of Helen's suitors to promise that they would defend the marriage
of Helen, regardless of whom he chose. The suitors duly swore the required oath on the
severed pieces of a horse, although not without a certain amount of grumbling. [35]
Tyndareus chose Menelaus. Menelaus was a political choice on her father's part. He
had wealth and power. He had humbly not petitioned for her himself, but instead sent
his brother Agamemnon on his behalf. He had promised Aphrodite a hecatomb, a
sacrifice of 100 oxen, if he won Helen, but forgot about it and earned her wrath.
[36]
 Menelaus inherited Tyndareus' throne of Sparta with Helen as his queen when her
brothers, Castor and Pollux, became gods,[37] and when Agamemnon married Helen's
sister Clytemnestra and took back the throne of Mycenae.[38]
Paris, under the guise of a supposed diplomatic mission, went to Sparta to get Helen
and bring her back to Troy. Before Helen could look up to see him enter the palace, she
was shot with an arrow from Eros, otherwise known as Cupid, and fell in love with Paris
when she saw him, as promised by Aphrodite. Menelaus had left for Crete[39] to bury his
uncle, Crateus.[40]
According to one account, Hera, still jealous over the judgement of Paris, sent a storm.
[39]
 The storm caused the lovers to land in Egypt, where the gods replaced Helen with a
likeness of her made of clouds, Nephele.[41] The myth of Helen being switched is
attributed to the 6th century BC Sicilian poet Stesichorus, while for Homer the Helen in
Troy was one and the same. The ship then landed in Sidon. Paris, fearful of getting
caught, spent some time there and then sailed to Troy. [42]
A map of Homeric Greece

Paris' abduction of Helen had several precedents. Io was taken

from Mycenae, Europa was taken from Phoenicia, Jason took Medea from Colchis,
[43]
 and the Trojan princess Hesione had been taken by Heracles, who gave her
to Telamon of Salamis.[44] According to Herodotus, Paris was emboldened by these
examples to steal himself a wife from Greece, and expected no retribution, since there
had been none in the other cases.[45]
Gathering of Achaean forces and the first expedition
According to Homer, Menelaus and his ally, Odysseus, traveled to Troy, where they
unsuccessfully sought to recover Helen by diplomatic means. [46]
Menelaus then asked Agamemnon to uphold his oath, which, as one of Helen's suitors,
was to defend her marriage regardless of which suitor had been chosen. Agamemnon
agreed and sent emissaries to all the Achaean kings and princes to call them to observe
their oaths and retrieve Helen.[47]
Odysseus and Achilles

A scene from the Iliad where Odysseus (Ulysses) discovers Achilles dressed as a woman and hiding among

the princesses at the royal court of Skyros. A late Roman mosaic from La Olmeda, Spain, 4th–5th centuries AD

Since Menelaus's wedding, Odysseus had married Penelope and fathered a

son, Telemachus. In order to avoid the war, he feigned madness and sowed his fields
with salt. Palamedes outwitted him by placing Telemachus, then an infant, in front of the
plough's path. Odysseus turned aside, unwilling to kill his son, so revealing his sanity
and forcing him to join the war.[39][48]
According to Homer, however, Odysseus supported the military adventure from the
beginning, and traveled the region with Pylos' king, Nestor, to recruit forces.[49]
At Skyros, Achilles had an affair with the king's daughter Deidamia, resulting in a
child, Neoptolemus.[50] Odysseus, Telamonian Ajax, and Achilles' tutor Phoenix went to
retrieve Achilles. Achilles' mother disguised him as a woman so that he would not have
to go to war, but, according to one story, they blew a horn, and Achilles revealed himself
by seizing a spear to fight intruders, rather than fleeing. [26] According to another story,
they disguised themselves as merchants bearing trinkets and weaponry, and Achilles
was marked out from the other women for admiring weaponry instead of clothes and
jewelry.[51]
Pausanias said that, according to Homer, Achilles did not hide in Skyros, but rather
conquered the island, as part of the Trojan War. [52]

The Discovery of Achilles among the Daughters of Lycomedes (1664) by Jan de Bray

First gathering at Aulis

The Achaean forces first gathered at Aulis. All the suitors sent their forces except
King Cinyras of Cyprus. Though he sent breastplates to Agamemnon and promised to
send 50 ships, he sent only one real ship, led by the son of Mygdalion, and 49 ships
made of clay.[53] Idomeneus was willing to lead the Cretan contingent in Mycenae's war
against Troy, but only as a co-commander, which he was granted. [54] The last
commander to arrive was Achilles, who was then 15 years old.
Following a sacrifice to Apollo, a snake slithered from the altar to a sparrow's nest in a
plane tree nearby. It ate the mother and her nine chicks, then was turned to stone.
Calchas interpreted this as a sign that Troy would fall in the tenth year of the war. [55]
Telephus
When the Achaeans left for the war, they did not know the way, and accidentally landed
in Mysia, ruled by King Telephus, son of Heracles, who had led a contingent
of Arcadians to settle there.[56] In the battle, Achilles wounded Telephus, [57] who had
killed Thersander.[58] Because the wound would not heal, Telephus asked an oracle,
"What will happen to the wound?". The oracle responded, "he that wounded shall heal".
The Achaean fleet then set sail and was scattered by a storm. Achilles landed in Skyros
and married Deidamia. A new gathering was set again in Aulis. [39]
Telephus went to Aulis, and either pretended to be a beggar, asking Agamemnon to
help heal his wound,[59] or kidnapped Orestes and held him for ransom, demanding the
wound be healed.[60] Achilles refused, claiming to have no medical knowledge. Odysseus
reasoned that the spear that had inflicted the wound must be able to heal it. Pieces of
the spear were scraped off onto the wound, and Telephus was healed. [61] Telephus then
showed the Achaeans the route to Troy.[59]
Some scholars have regarded the expedition against Telephus and its resolution as a
derivative reworking of elements from the main story of the Trojan War, but it has also
been seen as fitting the story-pattern of the "preliminary adventure" that anticipates
events and themes from the main narrative, and therefore as likely to be "early and
integral".[62]
Second gathering

A map of the Troäd (Troas)

Eight years after the storm had scattered them, [63] the fleet of more than a thousand
ships was gathered again. But when they had all reached Aulis, the winds ceased. The
prophet Calchas stated that the goddess Artemis was punishing Agamemnon for killing
either a sacred deer or a deer in a sacred grove, and boasting that he was a better
hunter than she.[39] The only way to appease Artemis, he said, was to sacrifice Iphigenia,
who was either the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra,[64] or of Helen
and Theseus entrusted to Clytemnestra when Helen married Menelaus. [65]
Agamemnon refused, and the other commanders threatened to make Palamedes
commander of the expedition.[66] According to some versions, Agamemnon relented and
performed the sacrifice, but others claim that he sacrificed a deer in her place, or that at
the last moment, Artemis took pity on the girl, and took her to be a maiden in one of her
temples, substituting a lamb.[39] Hesiod says that Iphigenia became the goddess Hecate.
[67]
The Achaean forces are described in detail in the Catalogue of Ships, in the second
book of the Iliad. They consisted of 28 contingents from mainland Greece,
the Peloponnese, the Dodecanese islands, Crete, and Ithaca,
comprising 1186 pentekonters, ships with 50 rowers. Thucydides says[68] that according
to tradition there were about 1200 ships, and that the Boeotian ships had 120 men,
while Philoctetes' ships only had the fifty rowers, these probably being maximum and
minimum. These numbers would mean a total force of 70,000 to 130,000 men. Another
catalogue of ships is given by the Bibliotheca that differs somewhat but agrees in
numbers. Some scholars have claimed that Homer's catalogue is an original Bronze
Age document, possibly the Achaean commander's order of operations. [69][70][71] Others
believe it was a fabrication of Homer.
The second book of the Iliad also lists the Trojan allies, consisting of the Trojans
themselves, led by Hector, and various allies listed as Dardanians led
by Aeneas, Zeleians, Adrasteians, Percotians, Pelasgians, Thracians, Ciconian spearm
en, Paionian archers, Halizones, Mysians, Phrygians, Maeonians, Miletians, Lycians led
by Sarpedon and Carians. Nothing is said of the Trojan language; the Carians are
specifically said to be barbarian-speaking, and the allied contingents are said to have
spoken many languages, requiring orders to be translated by their individual
commanders.[72] The Trojans and Achaeans in the Iliad share the same religion, same
culture and the enemy heroes speak to each other in the same language, though this
could be dramatic effect.
Nine years of war
Philoctetes

Philoctetes on Lemnos, with Heracles' bow and quiver (Attic red-figure lekythos, 420 BC)

Philoctetes was Heracles' friend, and because he lit Heracles's funeral pyre when no

one else would, he received Heracles' bow and arrows. [73] He sailed with seven ships full
of men to the Trojan War, where he was planning on fighting for the Achaeans. They
stopped either at Chryse Island for supplies,[74] or in Tenedos, along with the rest of the
fleet.[75] Philoctetes was then bitten by a snake. The wound festered and had a foul
smell; on Odysseus's advice, the Atreidae ordered Philoctetes to stay on Lemnos.[39]
Medon took control of Philoctetes's men. While landing on Tenedos, Achilles killed
king Tenes, son of Apollo, despite a warning by his mother that if he did so he would be
killed himself by Apollo.[76] From Tenedos, Agamemnon sent an embassy to
the Priam king of Troy composed of Menelaus and Odysseus, asking for Helen's return.
The embassy was refused.[77]
Philoctetes stayed on Lemnos for ten years, which was a deserted island according to
Sophocles' tragedy Philoctetes, but according to earlier tradition was populated
by Minyans.[78]
Arrival
Calchas had prophesied that the first Achaean to walk on land after stepping off a ship
would be the first to die.[79] Thus even the leading Greeks hesitated to land.
Finally, Protesilaus, leader of the Phylaceans, landed first.[80] Odysseus had tricked him,
in throwing his own shield down to land on, so that while he was first to leap off his ship,
he was not the first to land on Trojan soil. Hector killed Protesilaus in single combat,
though the Trojans conceded the beach. In the second wave of attacks, Achilles
killed Cycnus, son of Poseidon. The Trojans then fled to the safety of the walls of their
city.[81]
The walls served as sturdy fortifications for defense against the Greeks. The build of the
walls was so impressive that legend held that they had been built by Poseidon and
Apollo during a year of forced service to Trojan King Laomedon.[82] Protesilaus had killed
many Trojans but was killed by Hector in most versions of the story,[83] though others list
Aeneas, Achates, or Ephorbus as his slayer.[84] The Achaeans buried him as a god on
the Thracian peninsula, across the Troäd.[85] After Protesilaus' death, his
brother, Podarces, took command of his troops.
Achilles' campaigns

Achilles' surrender of Briseis to Agamemnon, from the House of the Tragic Poet in Pompeii, fresco, 1st century
AD, now in the Naples National Archaeological Museum

The Achaeans besieged Troy for nine years. This part of the war is the least developed
among surviving sources, which prefer to talk about events in the last year of the war.
After the initial landing the army was gathered in its entirety again only in the tenth year.
Thucydides deduces that this was due to lack of money. They raided the Trojan allies
and spent time farming the Thracian peninsula. [86] Troy was never completely besieged,
thus it maintained communications with the interior of Asia Minor. Reinforcements
continued to come until the very end. The Achaeans controlled only the entrance to the
Dardanelles, and Troy and her allies controlled the shortest point
at Abydos and Sestos and communicated with allies in Europe.[87]
Achilles and Ajax were the most active of the Achaeans, leading separate armies to raid
lands of Trojan allies. According to Homer, Achilles conquered 11 cities and 12 islands.
[88]
 According to Apollodorus, he raided the land of Aeneas in the Troäd region and stole
his cattle.[89] He also captured Lyrnassus, Pedasus, and many of the neighbouring cities,
and killed Troilus, son of Priam, who was still a youth; it was said that if he reached 20
years of age, Troy would not fall. According to Apollodorus,
He also took Lesbos and Phocaea, then Colophon, and Smyrna, and Clazomenae,
and Cyme; and afterwards Aegialus and Tenos, the so-called Hundred Cities; then, in
order, Adramytium and Side; then Endium, and Linaeum, and Colone. He took also
Hypoplacian Thebes and Lyrnessus, and further Antandrus, and many other cities.[90]
Kakrides comments that the list is wrong in that it extends too far into the south. [91] Other
sources talk of Achilles taking Pedasus, Monenia,[92] Mythemna (in Lesbos),
and Peisidice.[93]
Among the loot from these cities was Briseis, from Lyrnessus, who was awarded to him,
and Chryseis, from Hypoplacian Thebes, who was awarded to Agamemnon. [39] Achilles
captured Lycaon, son of Priam,[94] while he was cutting branches in his father's
orchards. Patroclus sold him as a slave in Lemnos,[39] where he was bought by Eetion
of Imbros and brought back to Troy. Only 12 days later Achilles slew him, after the
death of Patroclus.[95]
Ajax and a game of petteia
Ajax son of Telamon laid waste the Thracian peninsula of which Polymestor, a son-in-
law of Priam, was king. Polymestor surrendered Polydorus, one of Priam's children, of
whom he had custody. He then attacked the town of the Phrygian king Teleutas, killed
him in single combat and carried off his daughter Tecmessa.[96] Ajax also hunted the
Trojan flocks, both on Mount Ida and in the countryside.

Achilles and Ajax engaged in a game, c. 540–530 BC, Vatican Museums

Numerous paintings on pottery have suggested a tale not mentioned in the literary
traditions. At some point in the war Achilles and Ajax were playing a board
game (petteia).[97][98] They were absorbed in the game and oblivious to the surrounding
battle.[99] The Trojans attacked and reached the heroes, who were only saved by an
intervention of Athena.[100]
Death of Palamedes
Odysseus was sent to Thrace to return with grain, but came back empty-handed. When
scorned by Palamedes, Odysseus challenged him to do better. Palamedes set out and
returned with a shipload of grain. [101]
Odysseus had never forgiven Palamedes for threatening the life of his son. In revenge,
Odysseus conceived a plot[102] where an incriminating letter was forged, from Priam to
Palamedes,[103] and gold was planted in Palamedes' quarters. The letter and gold were
"discovered", and Agamemnon had Palamedes stoned to death for treason.
However, Pausanias, quoting the Cypria, says that Odysseus and Diomedes drowned
Palamedes, while he was fishing, and Dictys says that Odysseus and Diomedes lured
Palamedes into a well, which they said contained gold, then stoned him to death. [104]
Palamedes' father Nauplius sailed to the Troäd and asked for justice, but was refused.
In revenge, Nauplius traveled among the Achaean kingdoms and told the wives of the
kings that they were bringing Trojan concubines to dethrone them. Many of the Greek
wives were persuaded to betray their husbands, most significantly Agamemnon's
wife, Clytemnestra, who was seduced by Aegisthus, son of Thyestes.[105]
Mutiny
Near the end of the ninth year since the landing, the Achaean army, tired from the
fighting and from the lack of supplies, mutinied against their leaders and demanded to
return to their homes. According to the Cypria, Achilles forced the army to stay.
[39]
 According to Apollodorus, Agamemnon brought the Wine Growers, daughters
of Anius, son of Apollo, who had the gift of producing by touch wine, wheat, and oil from
the earth, in order to relieve the supply problem of the army. [106]
Iliad

Chryses pleading with Agamemnon for his daughter (360–350 BC)

Main article: Iliad
Chryses, a priest of Apollo and father of Chryseis, came to Agamemnon to ask for the
return of his daughter. Agamemnon refused, and insulted Chryses, who prayed
to Apollo to avenge his ill-treatment. Enraged, Apollo afflicted the Achaean army with
plague. Agamemnon was forced to return Chryseis to end the plague, and took Achilles'
concubine Briseis as his own. Enraged at the dishonour Agamemnon had inflicted upon
him, Achilles decided he would no longer fight. He asked his mother, Thetis, to
intercede with Zeus, who agreed to give the Trojans success in the absence of Achilles,
the best warrior of the Achaeans.
After the withdrawal of Achilles, the Achaeans were initially successful. Both armies
gathered in full for the first time since the landing. Menelaus and Paris fought a duel,
which ended when Aphrodite snatched the beaten Paris from the field. With the truce
broken, the armies began fighting again. Diomedes won great renown amongst the
Achaeans, killing the Trojan hero Pandaros and nearly killing Aeneas, who was only
saved by his mother, Aphrodite. With the assistance of Athena, Diomedes then
wounded the gods Aphrodite and Ares. During the next days, however, the Trojans
drove the Achaeans back to their camp and were stopped at the Achaean wall by
Poseidon. The next day, though, with Zeus' help, the Trojans broke into the Achaean
camp and were on the verge of setting fire to the Achaean ships. An earlier appeal to
Achilles to return was rejected, but after Hector burned Protesilaus' ship, he allowed his
relative and best friend Patroclus to go into battle wearing Achilles' armour and lead his
army. Patroclus drove the Trojans all the way back to the walls of Troy, and was only
prevented from storming the city by the intervention of Apollo. Patroclus was then killed
by Hector, who took Achilles' armour from the body of Patroclus.

Triumphant Achilles dragging Hector's body around Troy, from a panoramic fresco of the Achilleion

Achilles, maddened with grief over the death of Patroclus, swore to kill Hector in
revenge. The exact nature of Achilles' relationship to Patroclus is the subject of some
debate.[107] Although certainly very close, Achilles and Patroclus are never explicitly cast
as lovers by Homer,[108] but they were depicted as such in the archaic and classical
periods of Greek literature, particularly in the works of Aeschylus, Aeschines and Plato.
[109][110]
 He was reconciled with Agamemnon and received Briseis back, untouched by
Agamemnon. He received a new set of arms, forged by the god Hephaestus, and
returned to the battlefield. He slaughtered many Trojans, and nearly killed Aeneas, who
was saved by Poseidon. Achilles fought with the river god Scamander, and a battle of
the gods followed. The Trojan army returned to the city, except for Hector, who
remained outside the walls because he was tricked by Athena. Achilles killed Hector,
and afterwards he dragged Hector's body from his chariot and refused to return the
body to the Trojans for burial. The body nevertheless remained unscathed as it was
preserved from all injury by Apollo and Aphrodite. The Achaeans then conducted
funeral games for Patroclus. Afterwards, Priam came to Achilles' tent, guided
by Hermes, and asked Achilles to return Hector's body. The armies made a temporary
truce to allow the burial of the dead. The Iliad ends with the funeral of Hector.