Iliad: Plot, Characters, Battles, Fighting | Early European History And Religion

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ILIAD

Homeric Greece
The “Iliad” is the oldest surviving European poem. Not a "true story," but based on major events that may have happened around 1500 to 1200 B.C., it describes the Trojan War between the Trojans and the Myceneans, which the Trojans lost even though they fought like "ravening lions." Consisting of 24 books written in dactylic hexameter, the “Iliad” addresses timeless themes like honor, morality, friendship. the horror of war, mortality and death.

Joshua Hammer wrote in Smithsonian magazine: The epic poem describes, in gory and lyrical detail, 52 days near the end of the ten-year siege of Troy, the “well-fortified” city ruled by the kindly King Priam. According to the legend, Priam’s son Paris ignited the war by seducing the “lovely haired Helen,” wife of the Spartan king Menelaus, and spiriting her to the Citadel at Troy. In response, Menelaus’ brother Agamemnon, the “king of kings” who ruled from Mycenae on the Greek mainland, led a fleet of warships across the Aegean to recapture Helen and take revenge against the city. [Source: Joshua Hammer, Smithsonian magazine, March 2022]

According to the legend, that the Greeks, led by “god-like” Achilles, confronted Priam’s son Hector and his Trojan force. With its stirring descriptions of martial pageantry, its dramatic accounts of close combat, its heroic but flawed characters, its sacrifices, betrayals, grieving lovers and parents, and its powerful descriptions of loss and human suffering, the Iliad shaped Western literature through millennia. “Poets must sing the story over and over again, passing it from generation to generation, lest in losing Troy we lose a part of ourselves,” the British actor and scholar Stephen Fry wrote in his best seller Troy.

Based on centuries of oral tradition, The “Iliad” wasn't authored by Homer until 500 years after the events it described took place and wasn't written down until a couple of centuries after that. Yet it is rich Bronze Age details — helmets covered with boar’s tusks, man-size tower shields and 30 Mycenaean kingdoms — that no one in Homer’s time would have known about. Before Homer’s time the story was a poem sung by story tellers who passed it down orally from generation to generation, no doubt with changes made in the story to keep audiences on the edges of their seats. It later provided a model for epic works by Virgil, Dante, and Milton. However the way it was patched together with information from different historical period makes it difficult to use as an accurate historical source for clearly delineated historical periods.

Websites on Ancient Greece: Aegean Prehistoric Archaeology sites.dartmouth.edu; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Greece sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Hellenistic World sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; BBC Ancient Greeks bbc.co.uk/history/; Perseus Project - Tufts University; perseus.tufts.edu ; ; Gutenberg.org gutenberg.org; British Museum ancientgreece.co.uk; Illustrated Greek History, Dr. Janice Siegel, Department of Classics, Hampden–Sydney College, Virginia hsc.edu/drjclassics ; The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization pbs.org/empires/thegreeks ; Oxford Classical Art Research Center: The Beazley Archive beazley.ox.ac.uk ; Ancient-Greek.org ancientgreece.com; Metropolitan Museum of Art metmuseum.org/about-the-met/curatorial-departments/greek-and-roman-art; The Ancient City of Athens stoa.org/athens;Cambridge Classics External Gateway to Humanities Resources web.archive.org/web; Ancient Greek Sites on the Web from Medea showgate.com/medea ; Greek History Course from Reed web.archive.org; Classics FAQ MIT rtfm.mit.edu

Books: The translation of the “Iliad “ by Alexander Pope was a great influence on Keats and others. The 1997 translation by Stanley Lombardo is regarded as the most accessible translations. The Penguin Classic version translated by Robert Fagles is also supposed to be good. Also recommended is “Homer: poet of the Iliad” by Mark W. Edwards (John Hopkins University Press) and "Try" by Stephen Fry.

What The Iliad Is About

Joshua Hammer wrote in Smithsonian magazine: The “Iliad” is a book about power and force with brave heroes who are driven by violence and guided by a warrior’s code and use their power and strength to take matters into their own hands. Although the “Iliad” is mainly an action-adventure story with long descriptions of battles and competitive games it has a fair amount of depth. It features, for example, main characters with both virtuous and despicable characteristics to ponder ideas and issues we still think about today. People who read the book today often find the battle scenes excruciatingly long and speeches by the gods as undecipherable as they are dull. [Source: Joshua Hammer, Smithsonian magazine, March 2022]

Caroline Alexander wrote in National Geographic: The poem focuses on the tragic consequences of their rash act of passion, the war itself. Thus, The Iliad’s subjects are the relentless engagement of armies, of individual warriors locked in perpetual battle, of constant preparation for and recovery from combat, and the cost in human terms of this combat — the killing and the dying, and the rage and grief the deaths incur. [Source: Caroline Alexander, National Geographic, February 20, 2021]

Legendary and Real Troy

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model of the walls of Troy
Troy is an ancient city and archaeological site in modern-day northwest Turkey. Homer's “Iliad” takes place mostly in Troy. Odysseus begins his journey home from there in Homer's "Odyssey." Troy (Ilium) was a royal city in the river valley of the Skamander River, about five kilometers from the Hellespont — the Dardanelles near the modern town of Hissarlik — a strait where Europe and Asia are separated by only 1.2 kilometers of water. Hellespont literally means “Sea of Helen.” Helen was a main character in the Iliad. The archaeological site of Ilium was excavated by Heinrich Schliemann in the 1870s. [Source: John Adams, California State University, Northridge (CSUN), “Classics 315: Greek and Roman Mythology class ++]

Legendary Troy was besieged for 10 years and eventually conquered by a Greek army led by King Agamemnon. According to the "Iliad", this "Trojan War began when Helen, a queen from Sparta, was abducted by Paris, the son of Troy's King Priam. Throughout the "Iliad," the gods — including Hera, Athena and Poseidon supporting the Greeks, and Aphrodite, Apollo and Ares rooting for the Trojans — constantly intervene. [Source Owen Jarus, Live Science, February 29, 2024]

The real ancient city of Hisarlık has been identified by many as the site of legendary Troy. Whether the Trojan War actually took place, and whether the site in northwest Turkey is the same Troy, are matters of debate. The idea that Hisarlık is the real-life location of the city portrayed by Homer goes back at least 2,700 years, when the ancient Greeks were colonizing the west coast of what is now Turkey. In the 19th century, the idea again came to popular attention when Heinrich Schliemann, a German businessman and early archaeologist, conducted a series of excavations at Hisarlık and discovered treasures he claimed belonged to King Priam.

Trojan Wars: Did They Really Take Place?

The “Iliad” is set during the Trojan Wars. It is not clear if these wars really took places and if they did it is not clear how accurate the “Iliad” ‘s account of them are. Based on layers of soot found at the archaeological site of Troy, indicating that city had been burned, it seems that ancient Trojans were involved in wars. But the details of these wars is unknown and the soot layers don’t match up exactly with the time the wars described in the "Iliad” are said to gave taken place (around 1200 B.C.). There are also inconsistencies between the time the wars are said to gave taken place (around 1200 B.C.) and the weapons and military tactics used (which date to 1150-750 B.C.) It is also clear the some of events in the book did not happened unless the Greek gods really existed and influenced the war.

According to the “Iliad” , the Trojan wars were fought around Troy, in present-day northwestern Turkey between the Troy-based Trojans and the Mycenaeans, who lived in southern Greece. The Mycenaeans predate the Greeks of classical Greece and they are sometimes called the Greeks. The Trojan War, if it occurred, is thought to have taken place near the end of the Bronze Age at a time when the Greek Mycenaean civilization — as well as the nearby Hittite Empire — was collapsing. The Mycenaens built great palaces and developed a system of writing, and their culture dominated the Greek world for about 300 years before their decline. In the "Iliad," the Greek forces are led by Agamemnon, the king of Mycenae. [Source Owen Jarus, Live Science, February 29, 2024]

The earliest accounts of the Trojan War come from Homer, who lived around the eighth century B.C. about 500 years after the war supposedly took place. Homer's works were told through oral stories and do not appear to have been written down until even later, likely during the sixth century B.C. There are few written clues to go by in regard to determining whether the Trojan War really took place. . The only written record found at Troy that dates to before the Greek colonization in the eighth century B.C. is a seal written in a language called Luwian, which was perhaps brought to Troy from elsewhere in Turkey.

Trojan Wars

Owen Jarus wrote in Live Science: Archaeologists unearthed historical records at Hattusa, the capital city of the Hittite Empire, in modern-day Turkey in the late 19th and early centuries. The Hittite Empire thrived in the region from roughly 1750 B.C. to 1200 B.C, and Hittite records claim that Troy (which the Hittites called "Wilusa") was likely a vassal state of the empire around the time of the Trojan War, British Museum curators Lesley Fitton and Alexandra Villing wrote in a blog post. This means that Troy may not have been an independent kingdom, something that contradicts the story told by Homer. The records do, however, mention fighting between the Hittites and people from Greece over Wilusa, the curators noted, suggesting that it's possible that this fighting could have served as a basis for the Trojan War stories. [Source Owen Jarus, Live Science, February 29, 2024]

As mentioned earlier, the archaeological evidence at Harsalik is ambiguous regarding the Trojan War: While there is evidence that Troy was attacked around the time period the stories are set in, there is no strong evidence that the city was assailed by a Greek force. These issues leave researchers with a mystery about the truth of the Trojan War. "At one end of the spectrum of opinion is the conviction that there was indeed a war and that it was pretty much as the poet described it," Trevor Bryce, a researcher at the University of Queensland in Australia, wrote in his book "The Trojans and their Neighbours". "From that we pass through varying degrees of scepticism and agnosticism to the other end of the spectrum where the tradition is consigned wholly to the realm of fantasy." Korfmann, a modern-day excavator of Hisarlık, believes that the story of the Trojan War contains some truth. "According to the current state of our knowledge, the story told in the "Iliad" most likely contains a kernel of historical truth or, to put it differently, a historical substrate," he wrote. "Any future discussions about the historicity of the Trojan War only make sense if they ask what exactly we understand this kernel or substrate to be."

Book: “The Trojan Wars” by Diane Thompson, a study of Troy literature; “The War That Killed Achilles: The True Story of Homer’s Iliad and the Trojan War” by Caroline Alexander.

Main Greek Characters in the Iliad

Achilles called Pelides, was the son of Peleus (king of Phthia and Hellas in Thessaly) and Thetis. He was the leader of the Myrmidons beginning at 15. [Source: John Adams, California State University, Northridge (CSUN), “Classics 315: Greek and Roman Mythology class ++]

Patroklos was Achilles best friend, guardian, and lover. He was Achilles squire at Troy and the son of Menoitios (a friend of Heracles from Opis; another son was Abderus, Heracles' lover). One passage of the Iliad reads: "Achilles was also accompanied by Patroklos, son of Menoetios and Sthenele daughter of Akastos (or the mother of Patroklos was Periopis daughter of Pheres, or, as Philocrates says, she was Polymele daughter of Peleus). At Opus, in a quarrel over a game of dice, Patroklos killed the boy Klitonymos son of Amphidamas, and flying with his father he dwelt at the house of Peleus and became the lover [eromenos] of Achilles." [Source: Apollodoros Library of Greek Mythology III. 13.8]

abduction of Helen

Agamemnon was the son of Atreus, grandson of Pelops, great-grandson of Tantalus and king of Mycenae. He was commander-in- chief (wanax) of the Greek expedition that went to Troy to free Helen . He was married to Clytamnestra, half-sister of Helen of Sparta.

Menelaus, brother of Agamemnon, was married to Helen. He was successor of Helen's father Tyndareus as King of Sparta, also called Atreides. Agamemnon and Menelaus are dubbed "the Atreides" or, sons of Atreus.

Helen was daughter of Zeus and Leda. She was the wife of Tyndareus and mistress of Paris the Trojan.

Ajax, son of Telamon, was the king of the Island of Salamis in the Saronic Gulf. He brought 12 ships and 400 men, including Athenians. The Achaean hero fought duels with Hector in the Trojan War. A great asset to King Agamemnon's army, Ajax has a reputation for strength and courage. At one point he fought off the Trojan warriors almost single-handed, in stark contrast to his cousin Achilles, who could not be induced to fight.

1) Nestor was son of Neleus, grandson of Poseidon and king of Pylos. He brought 90 ships to Troy with 4500 men. 2) Odysseus son of Laertes and Antikleia, was king of Ithaca (possibly Zakynthos. He came with 12 ships and 600 men. 3) Diomedes, son of Tydeus one of the Epigonoi in the Theban Saga, was king of Argos. He brought 80 ships and 4000 men from Argos, Tiryns, Troezen and Epidauros.

Main Trojan Characters in the Iliad

Tros, the king of Troy, was the son of an Erechthonius ('born of the earth') and of the daughter of the River Simois, Astioche. Ilos was the son of Tros and Callirhoe ('beautifully flowing'). She was a daughter of the river god Skamandros. Other siblings were: Ganymede, Assaracus, Cleopatra. Ilos married Eurydice, and had the children: Laomedon and Themiste (She married Capys, son of Assaracus, who was her first-cousin). ++

Heroes of Iliad by Tischbein

Laomedon, for whom Poseidon and Apollo built the walls of Troy, had nine children including Priam (his successor as King of Troy) and Hesione (Heracles story). Priam married: 1) Arisbe (They had a son, Aesacus) and 2) Hecuba, whose children were: Helenus (the seer) Troilus Deiphobus, Alexandros (Paris) Polydoros Hector, Cassandra Polyxena and others. ++

Priam was the king of Troy during the Trojan War and youngest son of Laomedon. Priam had many wives; his first was Arisbe, who had given birth to his son Aesacus, who met his death before the Trojan War. Priam later divorced her in favor of Hecuba (or Hecebe), daughter of the Phrygian king Dymas. By his various wives and concubines Priam was the father of fifty sons and many daughters. Hector was Priam's eldest son by Hecuba, and heir to the Trojan throne. Paris (also known as Alexander), another son, was the cause of the Trojan War. [Source: Wikipedia +]

Paris, also known as Alexander, was the son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy. He appears in a number of Greek legends but is best known was his elopement with Helen, queen of Sparta, the cause of the Trojan War. Later in the war, he fatally wounds Achilles in the heel with an arrow, an act foretold by Achilles’s mother, Thetis. The name Paris is probably of Luwian origin. The Luwians were contemporaries of the Hittites. +

Hector was a Trojan prince and the greatest fighter for Troy in the Trojan War. As the first-born son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba, who was a descendant of Dardanus and Tros, the founder of Troy, and the heir apparent to his father's throne. He acted as leader of the Trojans and their allies in the defence of Troy, "killing 31,000 Greek fighters". Homer’s Hector is peace-loving, thoughtful as well as bold. He is a good son, husband and father, and without darker motives. +

Gods in the Illiad

1) Gods who favored the Greeks included: Hera, Athena, and Thetis. 2) Gods who supported the Trojans were: Aphrodite, Apollo, Poseidon, and (for a while) Athena. 3) Gods who were uncommitted were: Zeus, Hades, Hermes, Iris, Persephone and Demeter. [Source: John Adams, California State University, Northridge (CSUN), “Classics 315: Greek and Roman Mythology class ++]

Some gods who were "uncommitted" ended up supporting "The Will of Zeus" and therefore the Greeks. Athena, who had a temple in Troy, decided to support Odysseus and supplied him and Epeus with the plans for the Wooden Horse; she also had her statue (the Palladion) removed from Troy by Aeneas. Poseidon and Apollo, who built the walls of Troy, both killed thousands of Greeks, either at Troy during the war, or on the sea on the way home.

Ajax suicide
The the involvement of the gods in the war goes back to a feast attended by the gods and goddesses. Eris, the goddess of discord, wasn't invited but shows up anyway with a golden apple inscribed — for the fairest." Hera, the wife of Zeus, Athena and Aphrodite all claim it and Paris is called in as a judge. He ends up giving the apple to Aphrodite because she promises him the hand of the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen. She protects Paris and makes Helen fall in love with him. In the meantime, Hera and Athena are furious they didn't get the golden apple and decide to take out their anger on the Trojans.

Plot of the Iliad

Owen Jarus wrote in Live Science: Homer's "Iliad" is set in the 10th year of the Greeks' siege of Troy and tells of a series of events that appear to take place over a few weeks. The story makes clear that the siege had taken its toll on the Greek force sent to recover Helen. The "timbers of our ships have rotted away and the cables are broken and far away are our wives and our young children," the poem says. By this point, the war had essentially become a stalemate, with the Greeks unable to take the city and the Trojans unable to drive the invading force into the sea. We "sons of the Achaians [Greeks] outnumber the Trojans — those who live in the city; but there are companions from other cities in their numbers, wielders of the spear to help them," the "Iliad" says. [Source Owen Jarus, Live Science, February 29, 2024]

A number of key events happen in the poem, including a duel between the Trojan Prince Paris and Menelaos (or Menelaus), the king of Sparta and husband of Helen. The winner is supposed to receive Helen as a prize, ending the war. However, the gods intervene to break up the duel before it is finished, and the war continues. Another important duel occurs near the end of the poem between Achilleus (or Achilles) and a great Trojan warrior named Hektor (or Hector). The Trojan knows that he's no match for the Greek warrior and initially runs three laps around Troy, with Achilleus chasing him. Finally, the gods force him to face the Greek warrior, and Hektor is killed.

Contrary to popular belief, the "Iliad" does not end with the destruction of Troy but with a temporary truce, after which the fighting presumably continues. Another Homeric epic poem called the "Odyssey" is set after the destruction of the city and features the Greek hero Odysseus trying to get home. That poem briefly references how the Greeks took Troy using the famous "Trojan Horse." The Greeks left a gift to the Trojans "of a giant wooden horse as an offering to the goddess Athena" that concealed Greek warriors within, while the "Greek army, encamped outside the city walls, made as if to sail home," Armand D'angour, professor of Classics at Oxford University, wrote in a BBC article in 2014. The Trojans took the offering into the city, and the Greeks emerged from the horse and attacked the unsuspecting Trojans. "What a thing was this, too, which that mighty man wrought and endured in the carven horse, wherein all we chiefs of the Argives were sitting, bearing to the Trojans death and fate!" reads part of the poem.

Helen of Troy and Paris

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Abduction of Helen
The “Iliad” begins with Paris, a Trojan prince and son of King Priam of Troy, being invited to Sparta by Agamemnon, the brother of Menaleus. Paris immediately falls head-over-heels in love with Meneleus's wife, Helen, and, urged on by meddlesome gods, abducts her and takes her back to Troy.

Obviously outraged, Menelaus swears vengeance and convinces his brother King Agamemnon to assemble an army of warriors from all over Greece, including Achilles, Ajax, Nestor, Diomedes, and Odysseus, and sends them to Troy (Ilium) to rescue Helen, a legendary beauty with a "face that launched a thousand ships." A war ensues, with Agamemnon in command and the Greeks rallying around the demigod Achilles.

Joshua Hammer wrote in Smithsonian magazine: On the ramp of 3,500-year-old ramp to the remains of a late Bronze Age palace in Troy, I imagined Priam walking with Paris and Helen through its once ornately decorated halls. I had to remind myself that while the palace was real, the stories about those who lived here almost certainly sprang from Greek myth or Homer’s imagination. In one of numerous encounters between mortals and gods in the Iliad, for example, the messenger goddess Iris found Helen inside the palace “in her room, working at a great web of purple cloth for a double-cloak, and in it she was weaving many scenes of the conflict between the horse-taming Trojans and the bronze-clad Achaians” — what Homer called the Greeks — “which they were enduring for her sake.” Moments later, Helen learned that Paris had agreed to fight her jilted husband, Menelaus, in single combat, to decide the outcome of the war. “Over his shoulders he slung a bronze sword, the hilt nailed with silver, and then a great massive shield,” Homer writes of Paris preparing for the fateful duel. “On his mighty head he placed a well-made helmet, with a plume of horse-hair, and the crest nodded fearfully from its top. And he took up a strong spear, well fitted to the grip of his hand.” Alas, Menelaus soundly beat Paris, and is preparing to kill him when Paris was whisked to safety by the goddess Aphrodite, causing the agreement to fall apart and the bloody strife to resume. [Source: Joshua Hammer, Smithsonian magazine, March 2022]

The the involvement of the gods in the war goes back to a feast attended by the gods and goddesses. Eris, the goddess of discord, wasn’t invited but shows up anyway with a golden apple inscribed — for the fairest.” Hera, the wife of Zeus, Athena and Aphrodite all claim it and Paris is called in as a judge. He ends up giving the apple to Aphrodite because she promises him the hand of the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen. She protects Paris and makes Helen fall in love with him. In the meantime, Hera and Athena are furious they didn’t get the golden apple and decide to take out their anger on the Trojans.

Fighting in the Trojan War

Most of the Iliad takes place almost a decade after Helen is taken away by Paris. The Trojans are seriously outnumbered by the Greeks. Both sides are lead not by the troublemakers who created the conflict but by the brothers. Paris is not a fighter and asks his brother Hector to defend him and Troy against the Greeks.

After two years of preparations, the Greeks move on Troy with 1,000 ships and an army with 100,000 men. After setting off the fleet was slowed by calm winds because, an oracle reveals, Agamemnon earlier had killed a stag sacred to the goddess Artemis. The winds pick up after Agamemnon gives his daughter to Artemis. When the Greeks arrive in Asia Minor they lay siege to Troy, which is protected by high walls and the heros Hector (Priam’s son), Aeneas, and Sarpedon.

The siege of Troy lasted for 10 years. The Greek hero Ajax carried a "wall-like" shield that covered his entire body. Ajax wins praise for fighting without the gods acting on his behalf and once single-handedly holding off an entire army will Achilles sulks in his tent because of a lost slave girl. King Priam called Ajax “that great and goodly warrior whose head and broad shoulders tower above the rest.” Odysseus wore a helmet with "the shining teeth of a white-tusked boar...one after another" and bronze shin-guards called greaves. Depictions of these objects have been found in artwork dating back to the Trojan war period.

Describing the fighting, Homer wrote: "the screaming and the shouts of triumph rose up together of men killing men and men killed, and the ground ran blood." Agamemnon was rather inept as a commander of the Greeks but a fierce fighter. In one clash:
” But Agamemnon stabbed him, as he pressed forward.
straight in the face, with his sharp spear.
Nor did the helmet, bronze heavy, contain it;
But straight through it and the body the spear passed.
And all his brains inside spattered...
So Iphidamas falling there went into the brazen slumber.
pitiable one who helped his own people, left his new bride.”

Achilles and Hector

ICaroline Alexander wrote in National Geographic: The climactic battle to which all the epic action has been driving is the ferocious duel between the Greek Achilles and the Trojan Hector. Despite their very different personalities, the two men share general traits. Both are noble; Achilles is the son of a goddess and the king of Thessaly. Hector is the son of the king and queen of Troy. Both are the outstanding warriors of their respective armies. Both men are young and honorable in their different ways, and both men, as the epic takes pains to show, want desperately to live. [Source: Caroline Alexander, National Geographic, February 20, 2021]

After fighting for nine years, Achilles gets into an argument with Agamemnon and withdraws from the battle in a burst of anger, with disastrous results for the Greeks, only to re-enter after his best friend Patroclus is killed by Hector and he seeks vengeance.

Achilles got his revenge against Hector, killing him at the gates of Troy by stabbed him in the throat. "Hector made his swoop, swinging his sharp sword, and Achilles charged," wielding a "bronze barbed ash spear," Homer wrote. "Achilles charged against him, his heart filled with savage fury. In front of his chest he held the covering of his lovely decorated shield, and the bright [embossed] helmet nodded on his head....Achilles drove in there with his spear as Hector charged him, and the point went right through his soft neck....He crashed in the dust, and god-like Achilles triumphed over him.”

Trojan Horse

The Trojan horse story comes originally from the “Odyssey” not the “Iliad”. After a ten year stalemate the Greeks realize that their siege tactics had not worked and they needed to try something new. Odysseus came up with idea of the wooden horse, aided by Athena. There are a number of different descriptions the Trojan horse incident. It is described in detail in Virgil's Aeneid” .

After feigning retreat, the Greeks left an enormous wooden horse on the beach as a gift to Athena and sailed away and hid their ships behind Tenedos, an island five miles offshore. The jubilant Trojans pulled the horse into the citadel of Troy, thinking it was a tribute of a defeated army. Some Trojans were suspicious. One of them, Laocoon, and his two sons were snatched by two serpents that emerged from the sea and crushed to death.

Trojan Horse on Mykonos vase
During the night the Greek ships returned and Greek warriors hidden in the horse opened the gates of Troy. Thousands of Greeks poured in. They set the city ablaze, slew all the men and enslaved the women and children. "You could see the flames," the Trojan hero. Aeneas said in the “ Aeneid” . "All over the town you saw heart rendering agony, panic, and every shade of death." Priam’s headless body was found on the beach and Helen was taken home. The event gave birth to the expression: "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts."

Joshua Hammer wrote in Smithsonian magazine: If there was a Trojan horse, the Scaean Gate at Archaeological site of Troy, today defined by little more than a well-preserved stone ramp. “was its entry point”. Priam and other Trojan leaders debated whether to accept the offering left behind by the Mycenaeans before finally carrying the giant equine into the city. Peering at the gate, I imagine Odysseus and his fellow Greek warriors emerging from the statue after dark, as recounted in the Odyssey, and throwing open the city’s gates for the returned Mycenaeans, who slaughtered the Trojan population in the streets. where I now stood. [Source: Joshua Hammer, Smithsonian magazine, March 2022]

Historical Troy

Troy was also known as or Ilios or Illium, source of the name Iliad. Archeologists say, in all, nine cities were built on the site of Troy. The oldest strata is from a 5500-year-old Bronze Age settlement. The most recent is from a Byzantine city abandoned in A.D. 1350. Historical Troy is thought to be Troy 6 (sixth from the bottom layer) or Troy 7A. Troy in Homer’s time, around 850 B.C., was largely a ruin.

Historical Troy has been dated between 1,700 to 1,250 B.C., a period of history when Egyptian civilization was at its height and Moses led the Jews to the Promised Land and the Mediterranean world was breaking up into a mosaic of regional states. Artifacts unearthed from the different layers showed that Troy was a major Hittite trading center and later became popular with ancient Greek and Roman tourists.

Ancient Troy was known as a "pirate fortress" and it was strategically located at the mouth of the Dardanelles, a critical link between the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. Trojan rulers demanded a toll from ships passing from the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea. It is believed that Trojan wars took place, on average, once every twenty years for possession of the strategic citadel and the tax revenues that went along with it.

According to legend, Poseidon sent a sea monster to destroy Homer’s Troy. More likely the city was brought down by earthquakes. Some even think that the Trojan horse story may have it roots in an earthquake story. Perhaps an earthquakes brought down the walls, letting the Greeks in and they in turn erected a horse to thank Poseidon, the god of earthquakes, whose symbol is a horse.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons, The Louvre, The British Museum

Text Sources: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Greece sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Hellenistic World sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; BBC Ancient Greeks bbc.co.uk/history/; Canadian Museum of History, Perseus Project - Tufts University; perseus.tufts.edu ; MIT Classics Online classics.mit.edu ; Gutenberg.org, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Live Science, Discover magazine, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, Encyclopædia Britannica, "The Discoverers" and "The Creators" by Daniel Boorstin. "Greek and Roman Life" by Ian Jenkins from the British Museum, Wikipedia, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP and various books and other publications.

Last updated September 2024