The Trojan War is one of the most legendary events in human history. It was sung in Homer's poem "The Iliad" and for many years was considered a myth, but after Heinrich Schliemann dug up Troy, this event took on quite historical outlines. Every educated person must have heard about such heroes of the Trojan War as:Achilles (Achilles), Odysseus, Hector, Agamemnon, Priam, Aeneas, Paris and others, as well as a beautiful legend about the Trojan horse and the abduction of Queen Helen. However, many facts are most often blurred and it is difficult to recall the full picture of the Trojan War. In this article, I propose to recall the main events of the Trojan War, because of which it began and how it ended.
The Trojan War, according to the ancient Greeks, was one of the most significant events in their history. Ancient historians believed that it took place around the turn of the 13th-12th centuries. BC e., and began with it a new - "Trojan" era:the ascent of the tribes inhabiting Balkan Greece to a higher level of culture associated with life in cities. Numerous Greek myths were told about the campaign of the Greek Achaeans against the city of Troy, located in the northwestern part of the peninsula of Asia Minor - Troad, which were later combined into a cycle of legends - cyclic poems. The most authoritative for the Hellenes was the epic poem "Iliad", attributed to the great Greek poet Homer, who lived in the VIII century. BC e. It tells about one of the episodes of the final, tenth year of the siege of Troy-Ilion - this is the name of this Asia Minor city in the poem.
What do ancient legends tell about the Trojan War? It began by the will and fault of the gods. All the gods were invited to the wedding of the Thessalian hero Peleus and the sea goddess Thetis, except for Eris, the goddess of discord. The angry goddess decided to take revenge and threw a golden apple with the inscription "To the most beautiful" to the feasting gods. Three Olympian goddesses, Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, argued which of them it was meant for. Zeus ordered the young Paris, the son of the Trojan king Priam, to judge the goddesses. The goddesses appeared to Paris on Mount Ida, near Troy, where the prince was tending herds, and each tried to seduce him with gifts. Paris preferred the love offered to him by Aphrodite to Helen, the most beautiful of mortal women, and handed the golden apple to the goddess of love. Helena, daughter of Zeus and Leda, was the wife of the Spartan king Menelaus. Paris, who was a guest in the house of Menelaus, took advantage of his absence and, with the help of Aphrodite, convinced Helen to leave her husband and go with him to Troy. The fugitives took with them slaves and treasures of the royal house. About how Paris and Helen got to Troy, the myths tell in different ways. According to one version, three days later they arrived safely in the hometown of Paris. According to another, the goddess Hera, hostile to Paris, raised a storm on the sea, his ship skidded to the shores of Phoenicia, and only a long time later the fugitives finally arrived in Troy. There is another option:Zeus (or Hera) replaced Helen with a ghost, which Paris took away. Helen herself during the Trojan War was in Egypt under the protection of the wise old man Proteus. But this is a late version of the myth, the Homeric epic does not know it.
The Trojan prince committed a serious crime - he violated the law of hospitality and thus brought a terrible disaster to his hometown. Offended, Menelaus, with the help of his brother, the powerful king of Mycenae Agamemnon, gathered a large army to return his unfaithful wife and stolen treasures. All the suitors who once wooed Elena and swore an oath to protect her honor came to the call of the brothers. The most famous Achaean heroes and kings:Odysseus, Diomedes, Protesilaus, Ajax Telamonides and Ajax Oilid, Philoctetes, the wise elder Nestor and many others brought their squads. Took part in the campaign and Achilles, the son of Peleus and Thetis, the most courageous and powerful of the heroes. According to the prediction of the gods, the Greeks could not conquer Troy without his help. Odysseus, as the most intelligent and cunning, managed to persuade Achilles to take part in the campaign, although it was predicted that he would die under the walls of Troy. Agamemnon was chosen as the leader of the entire army, as the ruler of the most powerful of the Achaean states.
A Greek fleet of 1,000 ships has assembled at Aulis, a harbor in Boeotia. To ensure the fleet's safe navigation to the shores of Asia Minor, Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia to the goddess Artemis. Having reached Troas, the Greeks tried to return Helen and the treasures by peaceful means. The tried diplomat Odysseus and the insulted husband Menelaus went as messengers to Troy. The Trojans refused them, and a long and tragic war began for both sides. The gods also took part in it. Hera and Athena helped the Achaeans, Aphrodite and Apollo helped the Trojans.
The Greeks could not immediately take Troy, surrounded by powerful fortifications. They built a fortified camp on the seashore near their ships, began to devastate the outskirts of the city and attack the allies of the Trojans. In the tenth year of the siege, a dramatic event occurred that resulted in serious setbacks for the Achaeans in battles with the defenders of Troy. Agamemnon insulted Achilles by taking away the captive Briseis from him, and he, angry, refused to enter the battlefield. No persuasion could convince Achilles to leave his anger and take up arms. The Trojans took advantage of the inaction of the most courageous and strong of their enemies and went on the offensive, led by the eldest son of King Priam, Hector. The king himself was old and could not take part in the war. The Trojans were also helped by the general fatigue of the Achaean army, which had been unsuccessfully besieging Troy for ten years. When Agamemnon, testing the morale of the warriors, pretended to offer to stop the war and return home, the Achaeans greeted the offer with enthusiasm and rushed to their ships. And only the decisive actions of Odysseus stopped the soldiers and saved the situation.
The Trojans broke into the Achaean camp and almost burned their ships. The closest friend of Achilles, Patroclus, begged the hero to give him his armor and chariot and rushed to help the Greek army. Patroclus stopped the onslaught of the Trojans, but he himself died at the hands of Hector. The death of a friend makes Achilles forget about the offense. The thirst for revenge inspires him. Trojan hero Hector dies in a duel with Achilles. The Amazons come to the aid of the Trojans. Achilles kills their leader Penthesilea, but soon dies himself, as predicted, from the arrow of Paris, directed by the god Apollo. Achilles' mother Thetis, trying to make her son invulnerable, dipped him into the waters of the underground river Styx. She held Achilles by the heel, which remained the only vulnerable spot on his body. The god Apollo knew where to direct the arrow of Paris. It is to this episode of the poem that mankind owes the expression "Achilles' heel".
Achilles' death is followed by a dispute over possession of his armor among the Achaeans. They go to Odysseus, and, offended by this outcome, Ajax Telamonides commits suicide.
A decisive turning point in the war occurs after the arrival of the hero Philoctetes from the island of Lemnos and the son of Achilles Neoptolemus to the camp of the Achaeans. Philoctetes kills Paris, and Neoptolemus kills an ally of the Trojans, the Mysian Eurynil. Left without leaders, the Trojans no longer dare to go out to battle in the open field. But the powerful walls of Troy reliably protect its inhabitants. Then, at the suggestion of Odysseus, the Achaeans decided to take the city by cunning. A huge wooden horse was built, inside which a select detachment of warriors hid. The rest of the army, in order to convince the Trojans that the Achaeans are going home, burns their camp and sails on ships from the coast of Troad. In fact, the Achaean ships took refuge not far from the coast, near the island of Tenedos.
Surprised by the abandoned wooden monster, the Trojans gathered around it. Some began to offer to bring the horse into the city. Priest Laocoön, warning about the treachery of the enemy, exclaimed:“Beware of the Danaans (Greeks) who bring gifts!” (This phrase also became winged over time.) But the priest's speech did not convince his compatriots, and they brought a wooden horse into the city as a gift to the goddess Athena. At night, the warriors hidden in the belly of the horse come out and open the gate. The secretly returned Achaeans break into the city, and the beating of the inhabitants taken by surprise begins. Menelaus with a sword in his hands is looking for an unfaithful wife, but when he sees the beautiful Elena, he is unable to kill her. The entire male population of Troy perishes, with the exception of Aeneas, the son of Anchises and Aphrodite, who received a command from the gods to escape from the captured city and revive its glory elsewhere (see the article "Ancient Rome"). The women of Troy faced a no less sad fate:they all became captives and slaves of the victors. The city died in the fire.
After the death of Troy, feuds begin in the Achaean camp. Ajax Oilid incurs the wrath of the goddess Athena on the Greek fleet, and she sends a terrible storm, during which many ships sink. Menelaus and Odysseus are carried by a storm to distant lands. The wanderings of Odysseus after the end of the Trojan War are sung in the second poem of Homer - "The Odyssey". It also tells about the return of Menelaus and Helen to Sparta. The epic treats this beautiful woman favorably, since everything that happened to her was the will of the gods, which she could not resist. The leader of the Achaeans, Agamemnon, after returning home, was killed along with his companions by his wife Clytemnestra, who did not forgive her husband for the death of her daughter Iphigenia. So, not at all triumphant, the campaign against Troy ended for the Achaeans.
As already mentioned, the ancient Greeks did not doubt the historical reality of the Trojan War. Even such a critically thinking and not accepting ancient Greek historian as Thucydides was convinced that the ten-year siege of Troy described in the poem is a historical fact, only embellished by the poet. Indeed, there is very little fairy-tale fantasy in the poem. If scenes with the participation of the gods are isolated from it, which Thucydides does, then the story will look quite reliable. Separate parts of the poem, such as the “catalog of ships” or the list of the Achaean army under the walls of Troy, are written as a real chronicle.
From the Historical Encyclopedia
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