Troy and The Illiad

Homer

Homer
Homer

The poem is written in dactylic hexameter. The Iliad comprises roughly 16,000 lines of verse. Later Greeks divided it into twenty-four books, and this convention has lasted to the present day with little change

Judgment of Paris
The Judgement of Paris is a story from Greek mythology, which was one of the events that led up to the War and (in slightly later versions of the story) to the foundation of Rome. As with many mythological tales, details vary depending on the source. The Iliad (24.2530) alludes to the Judgement as a story which was familiar to its audience, and a fuller version was told in the Cypria, a lost work of the Epic Cycle, of which only fragments remain

It is recounted that Zeus held a banquet in celebration of the marriage of Peleus and Thetis (the mortal parents of Achilles). However, Eris, goddess of discord, was uninvited. Angered by this snub, Eris arrived at the celebration, where she threw a golden apple (the Apple of Discord) into the proceedings, upon which was the inscription ("for the fairest one"). Three goddesses claimed the apple: Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. They asked Zeus to judge which of them was fairest, and eventually Zeus, reluctant to favor any claim himself, declared that Paris, a Phrygian mortal, would judge their cases, for he had recently shown his exemplary fairness in a contest.

"Hermes bringing to Alexander the son of Priam the goddesses of whose beauty he is to judge, the inscription on them being: 'Here is Hermes, who is showing to Alexander, that he may arbitrate concerning their beauty, Hera, Athena and Aphrodite."
Paris = Alexander

Thus it happened that, with Hermes as their guide, all three of the candidates appeared to Paris on Mount Ida. Each attempted with her powers to bribe Paris; Hera offered to make him king of Europe and Asia, Athena offered wisdom and skill in war, and Aphrodite offered the love of the world's most beautiful woman. This was Helen of Sparta, wife of the Greek king Menelaus. Paris accepted Aphrodite's gift and awarded the apple to her, receiving Helen as well as the anger of the Greeks and especially of the goddess Hera.

Helen

The most beautiful woman in the world was Helen. Scores of men sought her hand. Her father was unwilling to choose any for fear the others would attack him; finally, at Odysseus' suggestion, he solved the problem by making all the suitors swear an oath to protect Helen and whoever her future husband might be. These suitors included Agamemnon, Ajax the Greater, Ajax the Lesser, Diomedes, Odysseus, Nestor, Idomeneus, and Philoctetes. Helen chose and married Menelaus of Sparta; her sister Clytemnestra married his brother, Agamemnon of Mycenae. On a diplomatic mission to Sparta, Paris fell in love with Helen, and she either ran away with him or was kidnapped by Paris and went with him to Troy. In anger, Menelaus called upon Helen's past suitors to make good their oaths to attack Troy.

The Face That Launched a Thousand Ships

People of Troy = The Trojans

Eventually a force of a thousand ships marshalled by Menelaus' brother Agamemnon was gathered at Aulis, including all the above-named men and their own forces. A prophet told them that the winds would not take them to Troy unless Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia (Hera was blowing the winds backwards and scattered the fleet). Agamemnon did sacrifice his daughter to Hera, and the fleet set off. They landed at Troy, eventually, where there ensued a siege of nine years, broken only intermittently by fighting until the tenth year. Shortly prior to the Iliad, Greek forces had raided a nearby town allied to Troy. Agamemnon had taken prisoner a girl, Chryseis, daughter of a local priest of Apollo. The priest begged the god to punish the Greeks, and a plague ravaged their army.

The Iliad itself focuses mainly on Achilles and his rage against king Agamemnon, the Greek commander-in-chief, who has taken an attractive slave and spoil of war Briseis from Achilles. Achilles, the greatest warrior of the age, follows the advice of his mother and withdraws from battle in revenge and the allied Achaean (Greek) armies nearly lose the war. In counterpoint to Achilles' pride and arrogance stands the Trojan prince Hector, son of King Priam, with a wife and child, who fights to defend his city and his family.

The death of Patroclus, Achilles' dearest friend, at the hands of Hector, brings Achilles back to the war for revenge, and he slays Hector. Later Hector's father, King Priam, comes to Achilles disguised as a beggar to ransom his son's body back, and Achilles is moved to pity; the funeral of Hector ends the poem.

Book Summaries Book 1: Ten years into the war, Achilles and Agamemnon quarrel over a slave girl, Achilles withdraws from the war in anger Book 2: Odysseus motivates the Greeks to keep fighting; Catalogue of Ships, Catalogue of Trojans and Allies Book 3: Paris challenges Menelaus to single combat Book 4: The truce is broken and battle begins Book 5: Diomedes has an aristea and wounds Aphrodite and Ares Book 6: Glaucus and Diomedes greet during a truce

Book 7: Hector battles Ajax Book 8: The gods withdraw from the battle Book 9: Agamemnon retreats: his overtures to Achilles are spurned Book 10: Diomedes and Odysseus go on a spy mission Book 11: Paris wounds Diomedes, and Achilles sends Patroclus on a mission Book 12: The Greeks retreat to their camp and are besieged by the Trojans Book 13: Poseidon motivates the Greeks

Book 14: Hera helps Poseidon assist the Greeks Book 15: Zeus stops Poseidon from interfering Book 16: Patroclus borrows Achilles' armor, enters battle, kills Sarpedon and then is killed by Hector, who thinks he is Achilles. Book 17: The armies fight over the body and armor of Patroclus Book 18: Achilles learns of the death of Patroclus and receives a new suit of armor Book 19: Achilles reconciles with Agamemnon and enters battle

Book 20: The gods join the battle; Achilles tries to kill Aeneas Book 21: Achilles fights with the river Scamander and encounters Hector in front of the Trojan gates Book 22: Achilles kills Hector and drags his body back to the Greek camp Book 23: Funeral games for Patroclus Book 24: Achilles lets Priam have Hector's body back, and he is burned on a pyre

After the Iliad:

Although certain events subsequent to the funeral of Hector are foreshadowed in the Iliad, and there is a general sense that the Trojans are doomed, a detailed account of the fall of Troy is not set out by Homer. The following account comes from later Greek and Roman poetry and drama: Achilles fights and kills the Amazon queen Penthesilea and the Aethiopean king Memnon. Very soon he gets killed on the battlefield by Paris, with a poisoned arrow to his vulnerable heel.

 Ajax the Greater and Odysseus feuded over who would keep his armor. They submitted the issue to an impromptu court and Odysseus won. Ajax went mad with grief and slaughtered his livestock, believing they were the Greek commanders. Overcome with grief, he then killed himself.

BEWARE OF GREEKS BEARING GIFTS

Odysseus finally devised a plan to take the city. He had his men build a large, hollow wooden horse, then he and twenty others hid inside. The Greek ships withdrew out of sight of Troy, admitting defeat, and left behind them only the horse, purportedly as an offering to Poseidon for good winds on the return trip. The Trojans took this inside the city, and then feasted and celebrated in the belief the war was over.

At night the soldiers crept out and opened the gates to the other Greeks who had sailed back under cover of night. The city was sacked, and in some accounts burned for seven years. Priam was killed.

Menelaus and Helen returned to Sparta to rule. Agamemnon took home as a slave the priestess Cassandra, who was gifted with prophecy but cursed never to be believed. When he returned home he was murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover, Aegisthus. They in turn were killed by Agamemnon's son, Orestes, and his daughter, Elektra. Odysseus' long journey home is narrated in Homer's Odyssey.