University of Zadar Centre for Foreign Languages Course:JEA 101_1314, g 1 Instructor: Marijana Birti Vui Student: Luka Mandir

Email address: [email protected] / [email protected]

How did the Trojan War start?

Zadar December 30th 2013

How did the Trojan War start?

Name/surname of a student: Luka Mandir JEA 101, g 1

Abstract

The events of the Trojan War, captured forever in Homers epic poem the Iliad, captured the imagination of people not only in ancient times, but into our modern era. In this paper I will try to answer to some of these questions: Did Troy actually exist? And if so, where is it located? Was the Trojan War actually fought? If it was, did it take place over the course of ten years, as Homer wrote, or was it a much longer series of battles? And why was the war fought? Could Helens face alone really have launched a thousand ships? It is going to be an interesting ride, so sit back, relax, fasten your seatbelts and enjoy in this timeless tale of love and war, rivalry and greed, heroism and cowardice.

The Tale of the Trojan War

In Greek legend, the Trojan War was fought between the Greeks and the city of Troy. The direct cause of this war was the beauty of Helen of Troy, daughter of the Greek god Zeus and Leda, the Queen of Sparta. The tale of the Trojan War, as traditionally related by the blind Greek poet Homer in the eighth century BCE, is easily told. Helen was most desired woman in Troy, so when she chose a husband, the king of Sparta (king Menelaus) made all men swear that they would accept Helen's choice of a husband and that they would also defend her if anyone tried to take her away from that man. The ten year conflict, known forever as the Trojan War, began when three goddesses, Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, asked the Trojan prince Paris, to chose the most beautiful goddess between the three. Each goddess tried to influence the prince, and in the end, he chose Aphrodite because she promised him his choice of the most beautiful women. Paris, the son of King Priam of Troy, sails to mainland Greece on a diplomatic mission to Menelaus, the king of Sparta, and falls in love with Menelauss beautiful wife, Helen. Helen, the most beautiful woman known to man, was Paris's object of desire and he asked Aphrodite for her. Helen, soon fell under the influence of Aphrodite and agreed to go with Paris to Troy. According to the Trojans, she did that voluntarily or, according to the Greeks, she was taken by the force. Furious, Menelaus persuades his brother Agamemnon, king of Mycenae and the leader of the Greeks, to send an armada of a thousand ships and 50,000 men against Troy to get Helen back. A ten-year war follows in which Greek and Trojan heroes such as Hector and Achilles died by acts of singular courage. In the end, the Greeks claimed victory, gaining entry to Troy by the stratagem of appearing to leave, but hiding warriors inside a huge wooden horse left outside the walls. The hollow horse was filled with soldiers led by Odysseus. When the Trojans discovered that the Greeks were gone, believing the war was over, they joyfully dragged the horse inside the city, while they debated what to do with it. The Trojans decided to keep the horse and turned to a night of mad revelry and celebration. The soldiers from inside the horse emerged and killed the guards, the Acheans entered the city and killed the sleeping population, a great massacre followed which continued into the day. Troy is sacked and Helen returns home to Sparta with Menelaus. Here is the basic story of the Trojan War, mixed with scenes of warfare and themes of love, honor, betrayal, heroism, and cowardice. This timeless tale of love and war, rivalry and greed, and glorious death has captured the imagination of people during the Greek and Roman periods, throughout the Middle Ages, and now into our modern era. But did it happen? Was there really a Trojan War? Did Troy even exist? How much truth is there behind Homers story? Did Helen really have a face that launched a thousand ships? Was the Trojan War fought because of one mans love for a woman or was that the excuse for a war fought for other reasons - land, power, glory?

When and where did the war take place?

Several dates are given for the fall of Troy, but it is generally belived that the war took place in the beginning of 12th century BCE, lasting from 1193 - to 1184 BCE. The location is Northwestern Turkey, known back then as Anatolia and the two opponents are the Trojans on the one hand and the Mycenaeans from Mainland Greece on the other: two peoples separated only by the Aegean Sea.

The Mycenaeans and the Trojans

Mycenaean civilization originated and evolved from the society and culture of the Early and Middle Helladic periods in mainland Greece. Quite unlike the Minoans, whose society benefited from trade, the Mycenaeans advanced through conquest. Mycenaean civilization was dominated by a warrior aristocracy. The Trojan civilization existed for a relatively long time, a period known as the Late Bronze Age. Unfortunately, though very little is known about the Trojan due to the lack of written sources. Archaeologists thought that the settlers of Troy were one of the Mycenaeans, who created colonies in the east Mediterranean and in Asia Minor1 and developed the first Greek culture in Hellas2. In Troia VI a-h3 between 1800 1275 BC the Trojans reached the peak of their civilization, architecturally and economically, attested by wide roads, tall walls and towers, large houses and beautiful stone works on the city walls.

Evidence for the Trojan War

The Greek literary sources for the Trojan War are, first and foremost, the Iliad and the Odyssey, both usually attributed to the eighth-century BCE poet Homer. There is also the Epic Cycle, containing fragments of other lost epics dating to the same time or later. Of all these, the most helpful to us today are the Iliad and the fragmentary pieces in the Epic Cycle. We have other Greek sources, in addition to Homer, that talk about the Trojan War. We are especially concerned with the information from the so-called Epic Cycle, which consists of fragments from epics now long lost but which originally included the Cypria, the Little Iliad, the Sack of Ilium, and the Returns. Since the Iliad only deals with the last one hundred days of the final year of the war, and ends before the final destruction of Troy, and the Odyssey is only concerned with the travels and travails of Odysseus as he makes his way home after the war, we are dependent upon these other lost epics for more details that flesh out the story of the Trojan War, including the entire episode and description of the Trojan Horse. One of the most important of these lost epics is the Cypria, which apparently came immediately before the Iliad in terms of telling the story of the Trojan War. Within the Cypria, which starts out with the gods and goddesses interacting, we are told about the original journey made by the Trojan Paris/Alexander to the kingdom of Menelaus and Helen, and the fact that Menelaus then goes off to Crete, leaving Paris and Helen alonein other words, here is the beginning to the story that everyone knows, which then continues along familiar lines, including the

1 2

Asia Minor has other names, such as Little Asia, Anatolia and Anadolu. The Mycenaean mainland. 3 The ancient people of these times, built their new cities on top of the destroyed ones. So classification of the cities with letters and numbers is a way for archaeologists to identify the various epochs of the city history.

gathering of the Mycenaean forces at Aulis4 and the preparations for an attack on Troy. However, then comes a rather interesting element to the story, which is not usually told. When the Mycenaeans first set out from Aulis to attack Troy, they - apparently mistakenly attacked a city on the Anatolian coast named Teuthrania, rather than attacking Troy itself. Only after capturing the city did they realize their mistake and return back to Aulis to regroup before venturing out again, this time to properly attack Troy and retrieve Helen. It is unclear how long a period of time elapsed between these two expeditions, that is, the first mistaken one to Teuthrania and the second one to Troy itself; some authorities suggest that as many as eight years elapsed, which would go a long way toward explaining why the Trojan War took ten years in all. Even more interesting is that there is some evidence that the attack on Teuthrania may well be a memory of a small war in which the Mycenaeans apparently took part during the fifteenth century BCE, that is, approximately two hundred years before Homers Trojan War. After the Cypria, we must insert the Iliad; after the Iliad comes first the Little Iliad and then the Sack of Ilium as the next installments in the ongoing saga. These two texts provide us with a number of additional details that add to the story and allow us (and the later Greek playwrights) to flesh it out even further. These include discussions about the weapons of Achilles, the description of Ajaxs5 rapid descent into insanity and the destruction that he wrought upon the herds of the Mycenaeans before killing himself, and so on. We also get the full story of the Trojan Horse here, including the name of the man who actually built itEpeius (not Odysseus, as most would have it)and the events that led to the Trojans sealing their fate by bringing the horse within the walls of their city. Following the destruction of Troy, the Returns is concerned with the return voyages of many of the other Mycenaean heroes, including Agamemnon and Menelaus, with the exception of Odysseus, for his story is saved for the Odyssey, which follows immediately in the cycle. Thus, it is only through all of these tales, the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Epic Cycle, that we get the full story, with all of the gory details, of the Trojan War. It is these texts that comprise the Greek literary evidence for the Trojan War, to be fleshed out even further by the later Greek playwrights who used these texts, and perhaps others that are now missing, in order to create their own epic masterpieces in turn.

Who was Homer?

No one knows. Even the ancient Greeks were not able to agree about when and where Homer lived. One popular account was that he was born some time in the 8th century BC in Smyrna in Asia Minor, lived on the island of Chios, and died on the small island of Ios. Greek writers also claimed that he was blind, that his real name was Melesigines, and that his father was the river Meles and his mother a nymph named Kretheis. Though they could not agree about the details of his life, ancient Greeks did not doubt that there was a poet named Homer who had written the Iliad, the Odyssey, and possibly a number of other poems. Many modern scholars dispute even this. Scholars in the last two hundred years have established that the Iliad and Odyssey are products of a long oral tradition which became fixed sometime in the eighth century BC. How exactly the poems took their final shape (Was it the work of one person or several? Did the process involve writing?) is still a matter of speculation.

Aulis (modern Avlida), an ancient Greek town in Boeotia and traditionally the port from which the Greek army set sail for the Trojan War. 5 Ajax was a mythological Greek hero, the son of Telamon and Periboea, and king of Salamis. He plays an important role in Homer's Iliad and in the Epic Cycle, a series of epic poems about the Trojan War.

Start of the Trojan War according to Greek Myth

The Trojan war is arguably the most notable tale from Greek mythology. It has its roots in the marriage between Peleus and Thetis, a sea-goddess. Peleus and Thetis had not invited Eris, the goddess of discord, to their marriage and the outraged goddess stormed into the wedding banquet and threw a golden apple onto the table. The apple belonged to, Eris said, whomever was the fairest. Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite each reached for the apple. Zeus proclaimed that Paris, prince of Troy and thought to be the most beautiful man alive, would act as the judge. Hermes went to Paris, and Paris agreed to act as the judge. Hera promised him power, Athena promised him wealth, and Aphrodite promised the most beautiful woman in the world. Paris chose Aphrodite, and she promised him that Helen, wife of Menelaus, would be his wife. Paris then prepared to set off for Sparta to capture Helen. Twin prophets Cassandra and Helenus tried to persuade him against such action, as did his mother, Hecuba. But Paris would not listen and he set off for Sparta. In Sparta, Menelaus, husband of Helen, treated Paris as a royal guest. However, when Menelaus left Sparta to go to a funeral, Paris abducted Helen (who perhaps went willingly) and also carried off much of Menelaus' wealth. In Troy, Helen and Paris were married. Menelaus, however, was outraged to find that Paris had taken Helen. Menelaus then called upon all of Helen's old suitors, as all of the suitors had made an oath long ago that they would all back Helen's husband to defend her honor. Many of the suitors did not wish to go to war. Odysseus6 pretended to be insane but this trick was uncovered by Palamedes7. Achilles8, though not one of the previous suitors, was sought after because the seer Calchas9 had stated that Troy would not be taken unless Achilles would fight. One of the most interesting stories is of Cinyras, king of Paphos, in Cyprus, who had been a suitor of Helen. He did not wish to go to war, but promised Agamemnon fifty ships for the Greek fleet. True to his word, Cinyras did send fifty ships. The first ship was commanded by his son. The other forty-nine, however, were toy clay ships, with tiny clay sailors. They dissembled soon after being placed in the ocean. The Greek fleet assembled, under Agamemnon's inspection, in Aulis. However, Agamemnon either killed one of Diana's10 sacred stags or made a careless boast. Either way, Diana was outraged and she calmed the seas so that the fleet could not take off. The seer Calchas proclaimed that Iphigenia, daughter of Agamemnon, must be sacrificed before the fleet could set sail. This was done, and the Greek ships set off in search of Troy.
6

Odysseus was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and a hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in that same Epic Cycle. 7 In Greek mythology, Palamedes was the son of Nauplius and either Clymene or Philyra or Hesione, and prince of Nauplia who led the Nauplians in the Trojan War. 8 Achilles was a Greek hero of the Trojan War and the central character and greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad. Achilles was said to be a demigod; his mother was the nymph Thetis, and his father, Peleus, was the king of the Myrmidons. 9 Calchas, son of Thestor, was an Argive (the city in Greece) seer, with a gift for interpreting the flight of birds that he received of Apollo (Greek and Roman god). He also interpreted the entrails of the enemy during the tide of battle 10 Diana was the goddess of the hunt, the moon and birthing, being associated with wild animals and woodland, and having the power to talk to and control animals.

The Trojan Horse

Still seeking to gain entrance into Troy, clever Odysseus (some say with the aid of Athena) ordered a large wooden horse to be built. Its insides were to be hollow so that soldiers could hide within it. Once the statue had been built by the artist Epeius, a number of the Greek warriors, along with Odysseus, climbed inside. The rest of the Greek fleet sailed away, so as to deceive the Trojans. One man, Sinon, was left behind. When the Trojans came to marvel at the huge creation, Sinon pretended to be angry with the Greeks, stating that they had deserted him. He assured the Trojans that the wooden horse was safe and would bring luck to the Trojans. Only two people, Laocoon and Cassandra, spoke out against the horse, but they were ignored. The Trojans celebrated what they thought was their victory, and dragged the wooden horse into Troy. That night, after most of Troy was asleep or in a drunken stupor, Sinon let the Greek warriors out from the horse, and they slaughtered the Trojans. Priam was killed as he huddled by Zeus' altar and Cassandra was pulled from the statue of Athena and raped.

There still remain a number of additional questions

Even if we are agreed that the Trojan War was a historical event, there still remain a number of additional questions. Is it possible that the Trojan War was a process, rather than an event, and that Homer used literary license to telescope two centuries of intermittent warfare into a single ten-year epic struggle? In a list of possible reasons, where does love rank? Was the war really fought because of Helen? Would it not make more sense to argue for an economic or political motivea Mycenaean grab for more territory? Was Helen just an excuse for a war that would have been fought anyway? In the end, what do we know and what do we believe? Much nonsense has been written about Troy and the Trojan War in both the distant and the recent past. Assertions that Troy was located in England or Scandinavia, that the story was actually a garbled version of the legend of Atlantis, and other flights of fantasy have found their way into print. At this time,many scholars believe that Troy is most likely to be found at the site of Hisarlik, that some sort of a Trojan War did take place, and that it was the sixth city that was destroyed during this conflict, in approximately 1250 BCE. As for the Trojan Horse, it was probably either Homers metaphor for an earthquake, or a battering ram, or some other machine of war. And finally, Helens abduction makes a nice story, but there were far more compelling economic and political motives for conflict some 3,000 years ago; the war itself was probably fought for the usual reasons of greed, glory, and territorial expansion, with Helen serving as a convenient excuse, if she even existed. Hopefully, future excavations in this area will give us additional informations that will help to fill in the gaps within our knowledge and determine answers when the Trojan War took place and whether Helen was really the reason why the war was fought.

Bibliography:
Cline, Eric H. Archaeology and the Iliad: The Trojan War in Homer and History, 2006

Trojan War. The Encarta Encyclopedia 1997. Stewart, Michael. People, Places & Things: Troy, Greek Mythology: From the Iliad to the Fall of the Last Tyrant en.wikipedia.org