THE Trojan War was fought in the Bronze Age between Greeks and Trojans, beginning in 1300 BC. Ç. and would have lasted a decade.
The conflict was narrated in two epic poems: a Iliad, which deals with battles; and the Odyssey, which narrates Ulysses' return home. Both were attributed to the Greek poet Homer.
Summary
Troy would be where today Western Turkey is, according to archaeological evidence.
The reason for the war would be the kidnapping or flight of Queen Helena from Sparta. She had run off with the prince of Troy, Paris. The situation infuriated the Spartan king, Menelaus, who ordered the siege of Troy.
Menelaus convinced his brother, Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, to lead the quest to retrieve the queen.
Achilles, Ulysses, Nestor and Ajax participated in the onslaught with Menelaus, who were supported by a fleet of a thousand ships.
After crossing the Aegean Sea, the Greeks besieged Troy for ten years.
the trojan horse
Illustration with the representation of the Trojan horse
The end of the war occurred from an unusual strategy to enemy territory. Led by Odysseus, the Greeks built a huge wooden horse.
They offered the horse as a gift of peace to the Trojans and pretended they were packing their belongings to board. However, inside the horse were the elite of the Greek soldiers.
The offer of peace was accepted by the Trojans, who opened the city gates and brought the "gift" inside its walls.
At night, however, the detachment that had been hiding inside the horse, got out of it, and opened the gates to the troops waiting outside.
The Greeks destroyed the city, proclaimed themselves the victors, and ended ten years of conflict. The episode gave way to the expression "Greek's gift".
Queen Helena returned to Menelaus' side, but the latter, in revolt, sent her into exile as revenge for so many years of war and instability.
The return of Odysseus, one of the most brilliant Greek strategists, was quite bumpy and his adventures were recounted in Odyssey. There, he recalls several episodes of the conflict.
Iliad and Odyssey
The constructions Iliad and Odyssey, by Homer, would have been written in 750 BC. Ç. and 725 a. Ç. respectively. The stories resulted from the oral tradition maintained centuries after the war.
The main episodes, such as the use of the horse, follow the narrative model called "epic cycle".
The imagery surrounding the Trojan War inspired the Roman poet Virgil to write "Aeneid", in the 1st century a. Ç.
Learn more about Iliad and the Odyssey.
Achilles
Achilles is the main character of a Iliad and in Greek legend he is a demigod elected to die at a young age in battle.
Fearing fate, Achilles' mother Thetis dipped him as a baby in the waters of the river Styx, also called the infernal river, to make him invincible.
The bath, however, was not complete and the Achilles' heel, just where his mother held him, was not touched by the water. This is the origin of the expression "Achilles' heel", because it indicates the weakest point of a person.
sculpture of Achilles dying by By Christophe Veyrier and Miguel José Joseph (1683)
Thetis tried yet another way to preserve her son's life and raised him as a girl. The strategy did not go well and Ulysses, when he learns that it was only with Achilles' help he had managed to win the war, identifies him among the women of the island of Cyrus.
As the prophecy stated, Achilles dies young in battle when struck by a poison arrow in the heel. He does not die without first demonstrating to be a brave and faithful warrior, as narrated in the stories of Homer.
Did the Trojan War Happen?
Recreation of the city of Troy
Did the Trojan War actually happen or was it just a cycle of mythological legends?
Many scholars believed that it was no more than a fine work of fiction. But recent research has found that there was indeed a conflict between the Greeks and the peoples of the Anatolia region.
However, the lack of any Hittite historical source – people who also inhabited that territory – calls this argument into question.
Thus, the veracity of the Trojan War cannot yet be confirmed.
Films
The Trojan War has inspired a multitude of works of art over the centuries. With the invention of cinema, several directors took their version of the conflict to the screen.
- Helen of Troy, Robert Wise. 1956.
- the Trojans, by Michael Cacoyannis. 1971.
- troy, Wolfgang Petersen. 2004.
Read more:
- Hittites
- achaeans
- Pre-Homeric Period
- Ancient Greece
- Greek mythology
