How many years did the Trojan War last? The Trojan War and its heroes - myths and legends
Many works of Greek literature and art are devoted to the description of the siege of Troy. However, there is no single authoritative source describing all the events of that war. The story is scattered across the works of many authors, sometimes contradicting each other. The most important literary sources telling about the events are two epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the authorship of which is traditionally attributed to Homer. Each poem tells only part of the war: the Iliad covers the short period leading up to the siege of Troy and the war itself, while the Odyssey tells the story of the return of one of the heroes of the epic to their native Ithaca after the capture of the city.
Other events of the Trojan War are reported in the so-called “Cyclic Epic” - a whole group of poems, the authorship of which was also initially attributed to Homer. However, it later turned out that their authors were followers of Homer, who used his language and style. Most of the works chronologically complete the Homeric epic: “Aethiopida”, “Small Iliad”, “Returns”, “Telegony” and others describe the fate of Homer’s heroes after the end of the siege of Troy. The only exception is “Cyprius,” which tells about the pre-war period and the events that caused the conflict. Most of these works have survived to this day only partially.
Preconditions for war
It is believed that the cause of the conflict was the abduction of the beautiful Helen, who was the wife of the king of Sparta, Menelaus, by the Trojan prince Paris. Elena was so beautiful that her father, King Tyndareus, could not decide to marry her off, fearing the revenge of rejected suitors. Then a decision, unheard of at that time, was made to allow the girl to choose her betrothed. In order to avoid a possible conflict, all potential suitors bound themselves with an oath not to pursue the lucky one who would be chosen by the princess, and subsequently to help him in every possible way if necessary. Helen chose Menelaus and became his wife.
However, even earlier, the three most powerful goddesses of Olympus - Hera, Athena and Aphrodite - argued over a golden apple thrown by the goddess of discord Eris. There was only one word on the apple - “most beautiful”, but it was this that became the cause of further events. Each goddess believed that the apple rightfully belonged to her and did not want to give in to her rivals. The male gods refused to get involved in female feuds, but man did not have enough wisdom. The goddesses asked Paris, the son of King Priam, who ruled Troy, to judge them. Each promised something in return: Hera - power, Athena - military glory, and Aphrodite - the love of any woman he desired. Paris chose Aphrodite, making two of the most powerful enemies for himself and the people of Troy.
The Trojan prince arrived in Sparta, where, in the absence of Menelaus, he persuaded Helen to flee with him (according to other sources, he kidnapped). Perhaps things would not have come to such a large-scale conflict if the fugitives had not taken Menelaus’ treasures with them. The offended husband could no longer bear this and called out all of Elena’s former suitors, who had once bound themselves by an oath.
Siege of Troy
The Greek army, totaling 100 thousand people, boarded ships and set off for Troy. The Achaeans were led by Menelaus and the Mycenaean king Agamemnon, who was his brother. After the Greeks camped under the walls of the city, it was decided to try to resolve the matter peacefully, for which purpose they would send envoys to Troy. However, the Trojans did not agree to the terms of the Greeks, counting on the strength of the fortress walls and their army. The siege of the city began.
Quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon
According to the prediction, the war was supposed to last 9 years, and only in the 10th year was the fall of Troy promised. All these years, the Achaeans were engaged in petty robbery and raids on nearby cities. During one of the campaigns, Chryseis, the daughter of the priest Chryses, and Briseis, the daughter of King Briseis, became the prey of the Greeks. The first went to the king of Mycenae Agamemnon, and the second to Achilles, the famous Greek hero.
Soon a pestilence began in the Greek camp, which was interpreted by the soothsayer Calchas as the wrath of the god Apollo, to whom the saddened father of Chryseis turned. The Greeks demanded that Agamemnon return the captive to her father, and he reluctantly agreed, but in return began to demand Briseis, the legal captive of Achilles, for himself. A verbal skirmish ensued, in which Achilles accused Agamemnon of greed, and he, in turn, called the great hero a coward. As a result, the offended Achilles refused to participate in the further siege of the city, and besides, he asked his mother, the sea nymph Thetis, to beg Zeus to grant victory to the Trojans in order to punish the presumptuous Agamemnon.
Meeting Thetis' request, Zeus sent the Mycenaean king a deceptive dream that promised victory. Inspired by their leader, the Greeks rushed into battle. The Trojan army was led by Hector, the eldest son of King Priam. The king himself was already too old to participate in the battle. Before the battle began, Hector proposed a duel between Menelaus and his brother Paris. The winner will receive the beautiful Helen and the stolen treasures, and the Greeks and Trojans will take a sacred oath that peace will be concluded after the duel.
Start of the battle
Both sides happily agreed - many were tired of the protracted war. Menelaus won the duel, and Paris remained alive only thanks to the intercession of the goddess Aphrodite. It seemed that the war should now end, but this was not part of the plans of Hera and Athena, who harbored a grudge against Paris. Hera vowed to destroy Troy and was not going to retreat. Athena, sent by her, took the form of a warrior and turned to the skilled archer Pandarus, offering to shoot Menelaus. Pandarus did not kill the Spartan king only because Athena herself slightly deflected his arrow. The wounded Menelaus was carried off the field, and the Greeks, outraged by the treachery of the Trojans, rushed into battle.
People fought in a terrible battle, but the gods did not stand aside - Aphrodite, Apollo and the god of war Ares supported the Trojans, and Hera and Pallas Athena supported the Greeks. Many people died on both sides; Aphrodite herself was wounded in the hand by one of the Greeks and was forced to return to Olympus to heal the wound. Neither the Trojans nor the Achaeans could prevail, and on the advice of the wise Greek elder Nestor, it was decided to interrupt the battle for one day to bury the dead.
A day later, remembering the promise made to Thetis, Zeus forbade any of the gods to interfere in the course of the battle. Feeling the support of the supreme deity, the Trojans began to push back the Greeks, causing enormous damage to their army. To all of Hera’s reproaches, Zeus replied that the extermination of the Achaeans would last until Achilles returned to the battlefield.
The Greek leaders, saddened by the defeat, gathered for a council, where, on the advice of the wise Nestor, it was decided to send ambassadors to Achilles with a request to return. For a long time the ambassadors, among whom was Odysseus, persuaded the great hero, but he remained deaf to their requests - the offense against Agamemnon was too great.
The death of Patroclus and the return of Achilles
The Greeks had to continue fighting the Trojans without the support of Achilles. In a terrible battle, the Trojans destroyed many Achaeans, but they themselves suffered heavy losses. The Greeks had to not only move away from the city walls, but also defend their ships - so strong was the enemy onslaught. Achilles’ friend Patroclus, who was following the progress of the battle, could not hold back his tears as he watched his fellow tribesmen die. Turning to Achilles, Patroclus asked to be released to help the Greek army, since the great hero did not want to fight himself. Having received permission, Patroclus and his soldiers went to the battlefield, where he was destined to die at the hands of Hector.
Saddened by the death of his closest friend, Achilles mourned his body, vowing to destroy Hector. After reconciliation with Agamemnon, the hero entered into battle with the Trojans, mercilessly exterminating them. The battle began to boil with renewed vigor. Achilles drove the Trojan soldiers to the very gates of the city, who barely managed to hide behind the walls. Only Hector remained on the battlefield, waiting to fight the Greek hero. Achilles killed Hector, tied his body to a chariot and sent the horses galloping. And only a few days later the body of the fallen Trojan prince was returned to King Priam for a large ransom. Taking pity on his unfortunate father, Achilles agreed to interrupt the battle for 11 days so that Troy could mourn and bury its leader.
The death of Achilles and the capture of Troy
But the war did not end with Hector’s death. Soon Achilles himself died, struck by an arrow from Paris, which was directed by the god Apollo. As a child, Achilles' mother, the goddess Thetis, bathed her son in the waters of the River Styx, which divides the world of the living dead, after which the body of the future hero became invulnerable. And only the heel, by which his mother was holding, remained the only unprotected place - that’s where Paris ended up. However, he himself soon found death, dying from a poisonous arrow fired by one of the Greeks.
Many Trojan and Greek heroes were killed before the cunning Odysseus figured out how to penetrate the city. The Greeks built a huge wooden horse and pretended to sail away. A scout sent to the Trojans convinced them that the marvelous structure was a gift from the Achaeans to the gods. The intrigued residents of Troy dragged the horse into the city, despite the warnings of the priest Laocoont and Cassandra's belongings. Inspired by the imaginary departure of the Achaeans, the Trojans rejoiced until late at night, and when everyone fell asleep, Greek warriors climbed out of the belly of the wooden horse and opened the city gates to a huge army.
This night was the last in the history of Troy. The Achaeans destroyed all the men, not even sparing infants. Only Aeneas, whose descendants were destined to found Rome, with a small detachment was able to escape from the captured city. The women of Troy were destined for the bitter fate of slaves. Menelaus sought out his unfaithful wife, wanting to take her life, but struck by Helen’s beauty, he forgave the betrayal. The sack of Troy lasted for several days, and the ruins of the city were set on fire.
Trojan War in historical facts
For a long time it was believed that the Trojan War was just a beautiful legend that had no basis in reality. However, in the second half of the 19th century, an ancient city was discovered on the Hissarlik hill in western Anatolia by amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann. Schliemann announced that he had found the ruins of Troy. However, it later became clear that the ruins of the found city were much older than Troy, described in Homer’s Iliad.
Although the exact dating of the Trojan War is unknown, most researchers believe that it occurred in the 13th-12th centuries BC. The ruins that Schliemann managed to discover turned out to be at least a thousand years older. Nevertheless, excavations at this site continued by many scientists for many years. As a result, 12 cultural layers were discovered, one of which is quite consistent with the period of the Trojan War.
However, logically speaking, Troy was not an isolated city. Even earlier, a number of states with a highly developed level of culture arose in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East: Babylon, the Hittite Empire, Phenicia, Egypt and others. Events of such magnitude, as Homer described them, could not but leave traces in the legends of the peoples inhabiting these states, but this is exactly the case. No evidence of the confrontation between the Achaeans and Troy was found in the legends and myths of these countries.
Apparently, Homer retold the story of several military conflicts and conquests that occurred at different time periods, generously seasoning them with his imagination. Reality and fiction are intertwined so intricately that it is not always possible to distinguish one from the other.
For example, some researchers are inclined to consider the Trojan horse episode to be quite real. According to some historians, this structure should be understood as a battering ram or battering ram, with the help of which the besiegers destroyed the fortress walls.
The debate about the reality of the Trojan War will likely continue for a long time. However, it is not so important what the real events were, because they inspired Homer to create the greatest literary monument in the history of human civilization.
Troy, a city whose existence was doubted for many centuries, considering it a figment of the imagination of myth-makers, was located on the banks of the Helespont, now called the Dardanelles. A wonderful legend, to which many conjectures, conjectures, disputes, scientific research, and archaeological excavations are devoted, was a few kilometers from the coast, and in its place is now the unremarkable Turkish town of Hisarlik. The common and deep-rooted belief that the Trojan War broke out because of a woman certainly has some basis, but historians suggest that there were many reasons for such a war, and they had serious economic and political reasons.
The presence of a beautiful and imaginative legend, the basis of which was love and betrayal, is not the most plausible explanation for why the famous war broke out and why so many characters were drawn into it. And the divine providence by which it is explained in myths is nothing more than the fantasy of those who sincerely believed in their Pantheon of gods similar to people. Homer also contributed a lot to this point of view, whose immortal work became the basis for the view of the Trojan events. But, without the atmosphere of mystery and romantic haze around these events, world culture would have been left without outstanding works of great authors inspired by the Trojan War.
Cause and effect, more real
Troy was located at the junction of busy trade routes passing through the Helespont, which connected the Black and Mediterranean seas. Located on the shores of the Asia Minor peninsula, in close proximity to the strait, Troy controlled all the routes leading past it, receiving considerable income from this. The Trojans interfered with the trade of the Greeks, among whom were the Achaeans, Danaans and Argives, who started a war against it, uniting in a military alliance. Troy had its own quite powerful allies, for example, the Lyceans, Anatolians from nearby territories and the Thracians, some of whom fought on the opposite side.
The Achaeans and Trojans were actually supporters of different great empires that were constantly at war with each other - the Egyptians and the Hittites, and the strengthened Troy, which controlled the trade routes, prevented the Achaeans, who saw that the city was turning from a peripheral Mycenaean territory into a powerful citadel, and a dangerous enemy. One of the compelling reasons for the war was the military mobilization in Mycenae, whose ruler, Agamemnon, was alarmed by the accumulation of armed men in his state, and found a use for them by starting a war with Troy. Agamemnon's brother, Menelaus, who inherited the throne in Sparta after his marriage, was the husband of that same Helen the Beautiful, whose bright face is considered the main reason for the ten-year feud. In fact, the abduction of Elena the Beautiful was just the impetus that led to the development of further events that involved so many participants.
Mythological coverage of the Trojan War
Divine intervention in the course of events was also far from ambiguous. The mortal Argonaut Peleus, who married the goddess of the sea, Thetis (the result of this marriage was the birth of the famous hero of the Trojan War, Achilles), did not invite the goddess of discord to the wedding, and she, enraged by this fact, threw an apple with the inscription “most beautiful.” Athena, Aphrodite and Hera took part in the dispute over the possession of this apple, and this dispute was resolved by Paris, whom Hermes, at the instigation of Zeus, appointed as a judge. He gave the apple to Aphrodite, who promised him the love of the most beautiful of women, and neglected dominion and glory.
Paris's mother, Hecuba, while pregnant with him, had a prophetic dream that her son would become a flaming brand that would burn Troy. Therefore, he was abandoned in the forest, where he was raised by shepherds. Aphrodite brought Paris to Sparta, where, obeying her promise, she awakened Helen's love for the handsome man. But he was not content with adultery, but kidnapped someone else’s wife, and the treasures of Menelaus, along with her. Hera intervened in the course of events, whose wounded pride forced her to incite the Greeks to stand up for Menelaus, and Athena, no less enraged by Paris’s decision not in her favor. According to a deeper version, it was Zeus who threw the apple of discord at Eris, because he was tired of humanity, which he decided to get rid of by starting this war. There is information that King Odysseus and Menelaus of Ithaca came to Troy to take away their unfaithful wife peacefully, but the gates were simply not opened for them, and Helen flatly refused to return to her husband.
Troy at that time was ruled by King Priam, the army was led by Hector, his son, brother of Paris. On the side of the Achaeans were numerous suitors of Helen, bound by an oath of revenge and treaties of alliance that obliged them to respond if necessary. Neither Agamemnon nor Menelaus had forces with which to go to conquer Troy, since it was in a favorable location and was well fortified. The support of the remaining kings made it possible to gather an army of 100,000 and a fleet of 2,000 ships. The Achaean army included the greatest heroes of Greece, many of whom are mentioned in ancient Greek myths: Odysseus, Philoctetes, Ajax, Diomedes, Protesilaus, Sthenelus. Agamemnon was chosen as the leader, as the most powerful of the Achaean kings.
Siege of Troy and significant events
The siege of Troy lasted 9 years and was completely unsuccessful. An interesting interpretation of the reasons for the siege of Troy by Helen's former suitors is that she dissolved her marriage with Menelaus, leaving Sparta, and retained the rights to the royal throne, while her abandoned husband lost them. But she chose her new husband without observing the appropriate ceremony, and they considered themselves offended by this fact. In the union, Agamemnon alone was not a former suitor, but he was interested in preserving the throne for his brother Menelaus. As paradoxical as it sounds, the goal of the siege of Troy was the Spartan throne. And if we consider that in mythology there is no indication that Helen returned to Sparta, then the main goal of the siege was never achieved.
Most studies tend to date the Trojan War to the 12th-13th centuries BC. e. The first voyage was unsuccessful, the Greeks landed in Mysia, which was ruled by the son of Hercules, Telephus, and mistakenly entered into battle with the soldiers of a friendly king. On the way from Mysia to Troy, a terrible storm dispersed the ships, and the participants had to gather in Aulis. And only after Artemis, who was angry with them, almost sacrificed Iphigenia, the daughter of Agamemnon, whom Artemis saved and made her priestess, did the Greek ships manage to achieve their goal. The Greek army was very numerous, but the Trojans were courageous and brave, and defended their native lands, and allies from many countries came to their aid.
Since Troy was surrounded by a high, jagged stone wall, the Achaeans did not dare to storm it, and camped nearby, putting the city under siege. The fighting took place mainly between the camp and the fortress; the Trojans periodically made military forays, trying to set fire to the Greek warships. The many years of siege did not bring any fruit, except for numerous skirmishes, during which the most worthy heroes on both sides were killed. The Greek Patroclus died at the hands of Hector, Hector himself was killed by Achilles,
who also killed the leader of the Amazons who came to the aid of the Trojans, Penthesilea, but he himself died from an arrow from Paris that hit him in the heel, the only vulnerable spot on his body. Apollo, who knew where to direct the arrow, helped Paris in this, who was killed by Philoctetes, who arrived at the Achaean camp. The ten-year unsuccessful siege, which exhausted the Greeks, became the reason that they began to grumble, and almost went home when Agamemnon, to test their fighting spirit, invited them to sail back. Only cunning helped the Greeks take Troy. They made a huge wooden horse, which they left on the shore, dedicated to Athena, and they themselves pretended to lift the siege. Despite the warnings of the priest Laocoon, the Trojans dragged the wooden monster outside the city gates. At night, the Greeks hiding inside the statue opened the gate, into which the Greek soldiers secretly returned. All the Trojans died, with the exception of Aeneas, the son of Anchises and Aphrodite, on whom the gods entrusted the mission to found a city in another place. Residents of Troy became captives or slaves, and the city itself burned to the ground. The wooden horse, which to this day bears the name Trojan, has become a symbol of betrayal and betrayal, a dangerous and harmful treacherous gift.
The capture of Troy did not bring anything good to the Greeks. Many of them died on the way home, internecine strife began in the camp of the recent victors, Menelaus and Odysseus were sent on long wanderings to distant lands, and the leader of those besieging Troy, Agamemnon, was killed by his wife Clytemnestra, who did not forgive him for the supposed death of Iphigenia. The ancient Greeks did not doubt the reality of the Trojan War, which was an absolutely real event for them, even though the gods also participated in it on equal terms with people. Today, thanks to Schliemann's excavations, no one has any reason to doubt that Troy really existed.
TROJAN WAR
One of the central events in Greek mythology. Ancient sources explain the occurrence of the Trojan War by the will of Zeus, who wished either to “reduce the burden of the earth” (Eur. Hel. 36 - 41; Procl. Chrest. 1), or to give the opportunity to glorify divine heroes, or to preserve in the memory of posterity the beauty of his daughter Helen (Apollod . epit. III 1). The impetus for the war was a dispute between three goddesses - Hera, Athena and Aphrodite for the possession of an apple, which Eris threw to them with the inscription “most beautiful” (“apple of discord”) (Apollod. epit. III 2). Apparently, quite early, the mythological tradition timed this event to coincide with the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, to which all the gods were invited except Eris (Hyg. Fab. 92). In order to judge the arguing goddesses, Zeus instructed Hermes to take them to Mount Ida (in Troas), where young Paris was tending herds. Faced with the need to choose and seduced by Aphrodite's promise to give him the love of Helen, Paris recognized Aphrodite as the most beautiful of the goddesses (Eur. Troad. 924 - 932), which later earned her help, but forever made Hera and Athena his enemies (Hom. Il. XXIV 25-30). This explains the support that Aphrodite provides to the Trojans during the war, and Hera and Athena to their opponents, the Achaeans. Then Paris sailed by ship to Greece, stayed at the house of Menelaus and, taking advantage of his departure, with the assistance of Aphrodite, convinced Helen to leave Sparta and her husband and become his wife (Apollod. epit. III 3). The abduction of Helen was the direct cause of the Trojan War. With the support of his brother Agamemnon, Menelaus gathered a large army, since Helen's former suitors were bound by a joint oath to take revenge if necessary for insulting her husband (Hes. frg. 204, 78-85; Eur. Iphig. A. 57 - 71). The Achaean army included the most noble heroes: Odysseus, Philoctetes, both Ajaxes, Diomedes, Sthenelus, Protesilaus, etc. It was also possible to attract Achilles to the campaign (Hyg. Fab. 96), although he did not participate in seeking the hand of Helen Hes. frg. 204, 87-92). The Achaean fleet, gathered in the Boeotian harbor of Aulis, numbered over a thousand ships (1013 - Apollod. epit. III 14; 1186 - Hom. Il. II). Agamemnon was chosen as the leader of the entire army, as the most powerful of the Achaean kings.
Sources attribute two events to the time of the Achaean army’s stay in Aulis. The first is the sign sent to the Achaeans by the gods at the altar of Apollo: the appearance of a snake that stole eight chicks from the nest along with their mother. Kalkhant explained this phenomenon as follows: The Trojan War will last nine years and will end with the victory of the Greeks only in the tenth year of the siege (Hom. Il. II 299 - 330). The second sign is the sacrifice of Iphigenia. According to one version of the legend, these two events are separated from each other by ten years: sailing from Aulis for the first time, the Achaeans supposedly ended up not in Troy, but in Mysia, which lies south of the Troas. Sailing from here after a collision with the Mysian king Telephus, the Greeks were caught in a storm and each returned to their native places. Only ten years after the abduction of Helen did the Achaean army gather again in Aulis, and then Agamemnon had to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia to Artemis in order to ensure the safe arrival of the fleet at Troy (Apollod. epit. III 17-23). In this case, the destruction of Troy should be attributed to the twentieth year after the abduction of Helen (Hom. Il. XXIV 765 seq.). Since, however, such a significant interval between the beginning of the Trojan War and the fall of Troy significantly violates the rest of the epic chronology, the first expedition is not taken into account in all sources.
On the way to Troy, the Greeks stopped on the island of Tenedos, where Achilles killed King Tenes, and Philoctetes was bitten by a snake, and he was left on the island of Lemnos (Apollod. epit. III 26-27; Plut. Quest, graec. 28). Before landing on the Trojan plain, the Greeks sent Odysseus and Menelaus to negotiate with the Trojans about handing over Helen and returning the treasures. The embassy ended unsuccessfully, and war became inevitable (Hom. Il. III 205-224; XI 138-142).
The main events of the Trojan War unfolded in its tenth year. The temporary withdrawal from the battles of Achilles (offended by the fact that Agamemnon took away his captive Briseis) gives the opportunity to show their valor to the rest of the Achaean leaders (Diomedes, Agamemnon, Menelaus, Odysseus, Nestor and his son Antilochus, Ajax Telamonides). Among the Trojans, Hector is the main character, since King Priam of Troy was too old to lead the defense of the city. Since after Achilles’s refusal to participate in hostilities, success clearly leans on the side of the Trojans approaching the most Achaean ships (Book XV of the Iliad), Achilles allows his best friend and brother-in-arms Patroclus to enter the battle. Patroclus stops the onslaught of the Trojans, but he himself dies at the hands of Hector, supported by Apollo (Book XVI). Achilles, obsessed with a thirst for revenge, kills many enemies; Hector also dies in a duel with him (book XX - XX11). However, as is clear from post-Homeric sources, even after this the Trojans still had enough strength to resist the Greeks. Although Achilles kills the leader of the Amazons Penthesilea and the king of the Ethiopians Memnon, who came to the aid of the Trojans, in battle, he himself dies from the arrow of Paris, directed by Apollo. A dispute breaks out between Odysseus and Ajax Telamonides over the weapons of the deceased hero, ending with the suicide of the offended Ajax (Apollod. epit. V 6-7; Soph. Ai).
Construction of the Trojan horse. Painting by D. B. Tiepolo. 1757-62. London, National Gallery.
The new stage of the Trojan War is associated with the arrival of Philoctetes from Lemnos and Neoptolemus from Skyros near Troy. Paris dies from the arrow of the first, the second kills the Mysian Eurypylus. After this, the Trojans no longer risk going to battle in the open field, but for the Greeks the powerful walls of Troy still remain an insurmountable obstacle. Odysseus finds a way out of the situation; on his advice, master Epeus builds a huge wooden horse, in the hollow interior of which a selected detachment of Achaean warriors hides, the rest of the army stages a return to their homeland: he burns the camp on the plain, then the fleet sails from the Trojan coast and takes refuge on the island of Tenedos (Hom. Oct. IV 271 - 289; VIII 492 - 520). On the shore, the Achaeans leave Sinon, who encourages the Trojans to introduce a wooden horse into the city as a gift to Athena. At night, the Greeks, hidden in the belly of the horse, get out and open the city gates to their soldiers returning from the island of Tenedos. The beating of the Trojans, taken by surprise, begins. The entire male population dies, with the exception of Aeneas with several associates, who receives instructions from the gods to flee from taken Troy in order to revive its glory elsewhere (Verg. Aen. II). The women of Troy also face a sad fate: Andromache becomes a captive of Neoptolemus, Cassandra is given as a concubine to Agamemnon, Polyxena is sacrificed at the grave of Achilles (Eur. Troad, 240 - 291). The city perishes in a terrible fire.
In the Achaean camp, immediately after the fall of Troy, strife arose (Apollod. epit. VI 1). Ajax Ocleides, having desecrated the altar of Athena by violence against Cassandra, brings the wrath of the goddess upon the sailing Achaean fleet (Eur. Troad. 69-94). During a terrible storm, many ships are destroyed by waves and wind, others are broken on the coastal rocks, deceived by Nauplius's false signal. The storm carries Menelaus and Odysseus to distant lands, after which their long-term wanderings begin. Agamemnon, upon returning home, becomes a victim of a conspiracy between his wife Clytaemestra and Aegisthus. The myth of the Trojan War is a complex complex of folklore motifs and heroic legends. Such traditional subjects as “the kidnapping of a wife,” a dispute over her (the battle of Menelaus with Paris in Book III of the Iliad), a heroic duel (Hector and Ajax in Book VII, Achilles and Hector in Book XXII), mourning of a hero and funeral games (in honor of Patroclus in book XXIII) were combined in the legend of the Trojan War with memories of historical events that took place in the last century of the existence of the Mycenaean civilization. The settlement of Troy (known in ancient times more often under the name Ilion), which arose already in the late. 4th millennium BC e., due to its strategic position on the way from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea, it repeatedly became the target of attack by neighboring and distant tribes. Its destruction in mid. 13th century BC e. as a result of the war of the Trojans and their allies with the unification of the Achaean states, it was imprinted in the memory of posterity as the largest event of the past, and ideas about its predecessor, a rich city, which also died in a fire at the end of the 3rd millennium BC, could be transferred to Homer’s Troy . e.
From establishing the historicity of a number of battles for the Troad region in the 2nd millennium BC. e. One should not conclude that the description of the Trojan War and its participants in the ancient Greek epic, the final form of which occurred in the 8th-7th centuries, is equally historically accurate. BC e. and is separated from the events described there by 4-5 centuries. During the formation of the ancient Greek epic, the laws of concentration of action around a single plot center and the principles of typification of heroic images, common to the heroic poetry of all peoples, were in effect.
Along with the Iliad, the events of the Trojan War were reflected in the unsurvived, but well-known and later retold “cyclic” poems of the 7th–6th centuries. BC e. (“Ethiopida”, “Destruction of Ilion” and “Small Iliad”), probably used by Virgil in the 2nd book. “Aeneids” and the late poet Quintus of Smyrna (4th century AD) in the compilation poem “Continuation of Homer”. From Athenian tragedies of the 5th century. BC BC, which abundantly drew material from the cyclic epic, Euripides’s “Trojan Women”, used in Seneca’s tragedy of the same name, are dedicated to the destruction of Troy. For medieval Europe, one of the sources was the late antique stories “Diary of the Trojan War” and “On the Death of Troy.” It is to these works that the medieval “Roman of Troy” by Benoit de Saint-Maur, “The History of the Destruction of Troy” by Guido de Columna, as well as Slavic stories of the 15th century largely go back to these works. “On the Creation and Captivity of Troy” and “The Parable of the Stealers.” From the works of modern times: Berlioz’s opera “The Conquest of Troy”, Giraudoux’s drama “There Will Be No Trojan War”.
Characters and cult objects of Greek mythology. 2012
See also interpretations, synonyms, meanings of the word and what the TROJAN WAR is in Russian in dictionaries, encyclopedias and reference books:
- TROJAN WAR in the Dictionary of Fine Arts Terms:
- (Greek myth) the war of the ancient Greeks against Troy at the end of the 13th or beginning of the 12th century. BC e. Sources: ... - TROJAN WAR in the Dictionary-Reference Book of Myths of Ancient Greece:
- according to the Iliad and the Odyssey, a ten-year war of a coalition of Achaean kings led by Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, against Troy, the city... - TROJAN WAR in the Concise Dictionary of Mythology and Antiquities:
See Troy... - TROJAN WAR
- TROJAN WAR
war, according to Greek tradition, a war of a coalition of Achaean kings under the leadership of the Mycenaean king Agamemnon against Troy, which ended in the defeat of Troy... - TROJAN WAR
Tales of the T. war were widespread among the Greek people even before the composition of the Homeric epic: the author of the first rhapsody of the Iliad suggests in ... - TROJAN WAR in the Modern Encyclopedic Dictionary:
according to the Iliad and Odyssey, a 10-year war of a coalition of Achaean kings led by Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, against Troy. Ended with the taking... - TROJAN WAR in the Encyclopedic Dictionary:
according to the Iliad and Odyssey, a 10-year war of a coalition of Achaean kings led by Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, against Troy. Ended with the taking... - TROJAN WAR
? Tales of the T. war were widespread among the Greek people even before the composition of the Homeric epic: the author of the first rhapsody of the Iliad suggests ... - TROJAN WAR in Lopatin's Dictionary of the Russian Language:
Trojan... - TROJAN WAR in the Spelling Dictionary:
Tro`jan... - TROJAN WAR in the Modern Explanatory Dictionary, TSB:
according to the Iliad and Odyssey, a 10-year war of a coalition of Achaean kings led by Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, against Troy. Ended with the taking... - WAR in Wiki Quotebook:
Data: 2009-02-19 Time: 11:23:11 * An invasion of a neighboring country is usually carried out for the benefit of its citizens. (Boris Krieger) * ... - WAR in Miller's Dream Book, dream book and interpretation of dreams:
Seeing a war in a dream is a sign of a difficult state of affairs, as well as disorder and strife in the house. If a young woman sees… - WAR in the One-Volume Large Legal Dictionary:
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- in international law, military actions between states, as well as between states and national liberation movements, accompanied by a complete break in peaceful relations. ... - WAR
ECOLOGICAL - see ECOLOGICAL... - WAR in the Dictionary of Economic Terms:
PRICE is a repeated long-term reduction by firms in the prices of their products, through which they expect to increase sales volumes and their own income. ... - WAR in the Dictionary of Economic Terms:
AIR - see AIR WAR. CREDIT WAR - see CREDIT WAR. CUSTOMS WAR - see CUSTOMS... - WAR in the Dictionary of Economic Terms:
- in international law. organized armed struggle, in which states, peoples waging a national liberation struggle, etc. can take part. ... - WAR in the Directory of Characters and Cult Objects of Greek Mythology:
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The Celts were a warlike tribe. This is clearly shown by the materials of archaeological excavations. Shields, swords, spears are often found in... - WAR in the Big Encyclopedic Dictionary:
organized armed struggle between states, nations (peoples), and social groups. In war, the armed forces are used as the main and decisive means, and ... - WAR in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, TSB:
“When applied to wars,” V.I. Lenin pointed out, “the main position of dialectics... is that “war is simply... - WAR in the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Euphron:
armed struggle between states, peoples or hostile parties in the same state, taking place in the form of restoration, preservation... - WAR in the Encyclopedic Dictionary:
, -s, pl. wars, wars, wars, w. 1. Armed struggle between states or peoples, between classes within a state. Located in… - TROJAN
TROJAN WAR, according to the Iliad and Odyssey, a 10-year war of a coalition of Achaean kings led by Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, against Troy. ... - WAR in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE OF THE SPANISH COLONIES IN AMERICA 1810-26. Began with uprisings mainly. adm. centers - Caracas, Buenos Aires, Bogota, etc. ... - WAR in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
NORTH AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 1775-83, will liberate. war 13 eng. colonies, during which an independent state was created - the USA. ... - WAR in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
WAR, organized by armed forces. the struggle between states, nations (peoples), social groups. V. within the country for the state. power called civil war. ... - WAR in the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedia:
? armed struggle between states, peoples or hostile parties in the same state, taking place in the form of reconstruction, ... - WAR in the Complete Accented Paradigm according to Zaliznyak:
war", wars, wars, wars, wars, wars, wars, wars, wars, wars, wars, wars, ... - WAR in the Dictionary of epithets:
About just wars. Great, national, protective (obsolete), popular, liberating, reciprocal, patriotic, righteous, sacred, fair. About unjust wars. Adventurous, aggressive, gangster, ... - WAR in the Anagram Dictionary.
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Card… - WAR in the Thesaurus of Russian Business Vocabulary:
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‘an activity aimed at overcoming, destroying something’ Syn: struggle, battle (strengthened), military action, collision Ant: ... - WAR in Abramov's Dictionary of Synonyms:
struggle, struggle; collision; campaign, campaign, invasion, blockade, bombing. War: internal, external, newspaper, bloody, internecine, sea, land, offensive, defensive, partisan, customs. ... - WAR in the Russian Synonyms dictionary:
ares, athena, bellona, blitzkrieg, struggle, abuse, gazavat, guerrilla, jihad, mars, radio war, army, holy, hazavat, ... - WAR in the New Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language by Efremova:
and. 1) a) Armed struggle, fighting between tribes, peoples, states, etc. b) transfer A fight that uses means...
Troy (Turkish Truva), second name - Ilion, is an ancient city in the north-west of Asia Minor, off the coast of the Aegean Sea. It was known thanks to the ancient Greek epics and was discovered in the 1870s. during G. Schliemann's excavations of the Hissarlik hill. The city gained particular fame thanks to the myths about the Trojan War and the events described in Homer’s poem “The Iliad,” according to which the 10-year war of the coalition of Achaean kings led by Agamemnon, the king of Mycenae, against Troy ended with the fall of the fortress city. The people who inhabited Troy are called Teucrians in ancient Greek sources.
Troy is a mythical city. For many centuries, the reality of Troy's existence was questioned - it existed like a city from legend. But there have always been people looking for a reflection of real history in the events of the Iliad. However, serious attempts to search for the ancient city were made only in the 19th century. In 1870, Heinrich Schliemann, while excavating the mountain village of Gissrlik on the Turkish coast, came across the ruins of an ancient city. Continuing excavations to a depth of 15 meters, he unearthed treasures that belonged to an ancient and highly developed civilization. These were the ruins of Homer's famous Troy. It is worth noting that Schliemann excavated a city that was built earlier (1000 years before the Trojan War); further research showed that he simply walked right through Troy, since it was built on the ruins of the ancient city he found.
Troy and Atlantis are one and the same. In 1992, Eberhard Zangger suggested that Troy and Atlantis are the same city. He based his theory on the similarity of the descriptions of cities in ancient legends. However, this assumption did not have a widespread and scientific basis. This hypothesis did not receive widespread support.
The Trojan War broke out because of a woman. According to Greek legend, the Trojan War broke out because one of the 50 sons of King Priam, Paris, kidnapped the beautiful Helen, the wife of the Spartan king Menelaus. The Greeks sent troops precisely to take Helen away. However, according to some historians, this is most likely only the peak of the conflict, that is, the last straw that gave rise to the war. Before this, there were supposedly many trade wars between the Greeks and the Trojans, who controlled trade along the entire coast of the Dardanelles.
Troy survived for 10 years thanks to outside help. According to available sources, Agamemnon's army camped in front of the city on the seashore, without besieging the fortress from all sides. King Priam of Troy took advantage of this, establishing close ties with Caria, Lydia and other regions of Asia Minor, which provided him with assistance during the war. As a result, the war turned out to be very protracted.
The Trojan horse actually existed. This is one of the few episodes of that war that has never found its archaeological and historical confirmation. Moreover, there is not a word about the horse in the Iliad, but Homer describes it in detail in his Odyssey. And all the events associated with the Trojan horse and their details were described by the Roman poet Virgil in the Aeneid, 1st century. BC, i.e. almost 1200 years later. Some historians suggest that the Trojan horse meant some kind of weapon, for example, a ram. Others claim that Homer called Greek sea vessels this way. It is possible that there was no horse at all, and Homer used it in his poem as a symbol of the death of the gullible Trojans.
The Trojan horse got into the city thanks to a cunning trick by the Greeks. According to legend, the Greeks spread a rumor that there was a prophecy that if a wooden horse stood within the walls of Troy, it could forever defend the city from Greek raids. Most of the city's residents were inclined to believe that the horse should be brought into the city. However, there were also opponents. The priest Laocoon suggested burning the horse or throwing it off a cliff. He even threw a spear at the horse, and everyone heard that the horse was empty inside. Soon a Greek named Sinon was captured and told Priam that the Greeks had built a horse in honor of the goddess Athena to atone for many years of bloodshed. Tragic events followed: during a sacrifice to the god of the sea Poseidon, two huge snakes swam out of the water and strangled the priest and his sons. Seeing this as an omen from above, the Trojans decided to roll the horse into the city. He was so huge that he couldn’t fit through the gate and part of the wall had to be dismantled.
The Trojan Horse caused the fall of Troy. According to legend, on the night after the horse entered the city, Sinon released the warriors hiding inside from its belly, who quickly killed the guards and opened the city gates. The city, which had fallen asleep after the riotous festivities, did not even offer strong resistance. Several Trojan soldiers led by Aeneas tried to save the palace and the king. According to ancient Greek myths, the palace fell thanks to the giant Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, who smashed the front door with his ax and killed King Priam.
Heinrich Schliemann, who found Troy and amassed a huge fortune during his life, was born into a poor family. He was born in 1822 into the family of a rural pastor. His homeland is a small German village near the Polish border. His mother died when he was 9 years old. My father was a harsh, unpredictable and self-centered man who loved women very much (for which he lost his position). At the age of 14, Heinrich was separated from his first love, the girl Minna. When Heinrich was 25 years old and already becoming a famous businessman, he finally asked Minna's hand from her father in a letter. The answer said that Minna married a farmer. This message completely broke his heart. A passion for Ancient Greece appeared in the boy’s soul thanks to his father, who read the Iliad to the children in the evenings, and then gave his son a book on world history with illustrations. In 1840, after a long and grueling job in a grocery store that almost cost him his life, Henry boarded a ship bound for Venezuela. On December 12, 1841, the ship was caught in a storm and Schliemann was thrown into the icy sea; he was saved from death by a barrel, which he held on to until he was rescued. During his life, he learned 17 languages and made a large fortune. However, the peak of his career was the excavation of the great Troy.
Heinrich Schliemann undertook the excavations of Troy due to unsettled personal life. This is not excluded. In 1852, Heinrich Schliemann, who had many affairs in St. Petersburg, married Ekaterina Lyzhina. This marriage lasted 17 years and turned out to be completely empty for him. Being a passionate man by nature, he married a sensible woman who was cold towards him. As a result, he almost found himself on the verge of madness. The unhappy couple had three children, but this did not bring happiness to Schliemann. Out of desperation, he made another fortune by selling indigo dye. In addition, he took up the Greek language closely. An inexorable thirst for travel appeared in him. In 1868, he decided to go to Ithaca and organize his first expedition. Then he went towards Constantinople, to the places where Troy was located according to the Iliad and began excavations on the Hissarlik hill. This was his first step on the path to the great Troy.
Schliemann tried on jewelry from Helen of Troy for his second wife. Heinrich was introduced to his second wife by his old friend, 17-year-old Greek Sofia Engastromenos. According to some sources, when Schliemann found the famous treasures of Troy (10,000 gold objects) in 1873, he moved them upstairs with the help of his second wife, whom he loved immensely. Among them were two luxurious tiaras. Having placed one of them on Sophia’s head, Henry said: “The jewel that Helen of Troy wore now adorns my wife.” One of the photographs actually shows her wearing magnificent antique jewelry.
The Trojan treasures were lost. There is a deal of truth in it. The Schliemanns donated 12,000 objects to the Berlin Museum. During World War II, this priceless treasure was moved to a bunker from which it disappeared in 1945. Part of the treasury unexpectedly appeared in 1993 in Moscow. There is still no answer to the question: “Was it really the gold of Troy?”
During excavations at Hisarlik, several layers of cities from different times were discovered. Archaeologists have identified 9 layers that belong to different years. Everyone calls them Troy. Only two towers have survived from Troy I. Troy II was explored by Schliemann, considering it the true Troy of King Priam. Troy VI was the high point of the city's development, its inhabitants trading profitably with the Greeks, but the city appears to have been badly destroyed by an earthquake. Modern scientists believe that the found Troy VII is the true city of Homer's Iliad. According to historians, the city fell in 1184 BC, being burned by the Greeks. Troy VIII was restored by Greek colonists, who also built the temple of Athena here. Troy IX already belongs to the Roman Empire. I would like to note that excavations have shown that Homeric descriptions very accurately describe the city.
The structure and nature of Homer's narrative about the war between the Greeks and the Trojans is such that in the foreground are not military actions and the political reasons behind them, but the actions of individuals. The heroes of the Trojan War are the driving force behind the events described, their anger, joy, courage, valor and other feelings and qualities, combined with the intrigues of the Olympian gods.
Homer mentions a huge number of characters, primarily from the Greek side (although the Trojans are not deprived of attention), they are interconnected by an intricacy of motives and actions.
Achilles is the most powerful, famous and most beloved Greek hero by the author and readers. According to mythology, he is the son of Peleus, king of the Myrmidons, and the sea goddess Thetis. In early childhood, the mother tried to make her son immortal by dipping him into the magical river Styx, which separates the world of the living from the world of the dead. But at the same time, Thetis held her newborn son by the heel, thereby leaving the only place on his body vulnerable to weapons.
In his youth, Achilles did not perform great feats, but his reputation as a formidable warrior was high. By cunning, the Greeks convinced him to join the campaign against Troy (his mother was against it, knowing the prophecy about his death), during which he performed many feats. In the tenth year of the siege of Troy, he quarreled with Agamemnon over the captured captive Briseis. After the girl was taken to Agamemnon, Achilles became angry and refused to continue fighting. He returned to duty only after Hector killed his best friend Patroclus.
Achilles killed Hector under the walls of Troy, but he himself fell shortly before the capture of the city. He was struck in the heel by Paris, Hector's brother; According to another version, the arrow of Paris was directed by the sun god Apollo.
Patroclus
Patroclus is a distant relative and childhood friend of Achilles, who was raised with him. It is curious that in Western culture there has been a perception of Patroclus as the younger friend of Achilles, which is reflected in the Hollywood film “Troy” (2004). In fact, from Greek mythology it follows that Patroclus was older than Achilles, and quite significantly.
During the war, Patroclus was always a faithful ally of Achilles and accompanied him in all battles, even if it threatened him with death. After Achilles' quarrel with Agamemnon, Patroclus also refused to fight out of solidarity, but at a critical moment he entered the battle, wearing his friend's armor. The Greeks, encouraged by him, almost won, but at that moment Hector struck Patroclus.
Odysseus is the king of the island of Ithaca, one of the main heroes of the Iliad and the main character of the Odyssey. Not being the most powerful warrior of the Greeks, but possessing outstanding cunning, tactical and strategic thinking, he played a decisive role in the victory over Troy
. Initially, he did not want to go to war, as he received a prediction that he would return to his home to his beloved wife and newborn son only 20 years later. He pretended to be insane, but was forced to admit his incapacity in the face of a threat to his son’s life.
In the Iliad, he constantly appears as the most cunning and even insidious of the Greeks, whose tricks served them great service. Thus, the Greeks did not dare to land on the shores of the Troas because of the prediction of the inevitable death of the first to set foot on Asian soil. Odysseus jumped from the ship to entice the others, but not before throwing his shield at his feet. Thus, instead of him, another warrior was the first to touch the Asian shore. It was Odysseus who invented the Trojan Horse, a ruse that allowed the Greeks to capture Troy.
Ajax the Great (Telamonides) and Ajax the Lesser (Oilides) are two Greek heroes who were inseparable friends; the expression “two Ajaxes” later became synonymous with strong male friendship. Ajax Telamonides was the most skillful and courageous warrior of the Greeks after Achilles, described as a powerful tall man, virtually invincible in battle. At the same time, he was an extremely vain person: after the armor of the deceased Achilles was awarded to Odysseus, he fell into a rage, destroyed a herd of rams, which he angrily mistook for the Greek leaders who had insulted him, and then committed suicide.
Ajax the Small, who received his nickname due to his more modest dimensions compared to Telamonides, was a virtuoso javelin thrower and runner, and at the same time also had a violent disposition. During the storming of Troy, he overtook Cassandra in the temple, who was seeking protection from the statue of Athena, and raped her. For this he was killed by the gods during the sea return to his homeland.
Agamemnon - King of Mycenae, leader of the Greeks in the Trojan War. He was the first to support his brother, the Spartan king Menelaus, in his desire to go to Troy and destroy it. At the head of a hundred ships he was the most powerful of the military leaders of the Greeks. It is interesting that this character has a real historical prototype: Hittite sources of the 14th century BC mention King Akaganus from the country of Ahiyava.
The fate of Agamemnon was tragic: upon returning from the Trojan campaign with Cassandra as booty, he was killed by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover, who seized power. At the end of the century before last, the amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, while excavating Mycenae, discovered royal burials with golden funeral masks, one of which he hastened to solemnly declare the mask of Agamemnon. In fact, these masks belong to an earlier historical era and are not related to Agamemnon from the Homeric epic.
Menelaus is the king of Sparta, one of the most important characters not only in the Homeric epic, but also in all of ancient Greek mythology. In the modern interpretation, he is in the background and plays a subordinate role in relation to the more colorful characters - Agamemnon, Achilles and others. By and large, he was relegated to the type of a deceived husband - it was the betrayal of his wife Helen the Beautiful with the Trojan prince Paris that became the formal cause of the entire war.
Menelaus and Odysseus first went to Troy on a peaceful embassy demanding the return of Helen, but were ridiculed. He gathered an army together with Agamemnon and played an active role in the siege of Troy. In ancient times, he was a much more important character, since then a poem about the ten-year wanderings of Menelaus after the war in the East and Egypt, which has not survived to this day, was popular. It was an epoch-making story of a long and dangerous return home, modeled after the Odyssey. After the long-awaited return to Sparta, he ruled together with Helen, returned from Troy, and died a natural death.
Nestor
Nestor is perhaps the most prosperous of all the primary Greek heroes of the Trojan War. The king of Pylos, distinguished by his courage on the battlefield, personal valor (in his youth he was one of the participants in Jason’s legendary campaign for the Golden Fleece), prudence and wisdom (the most far-sighted of the Greek leaders along with Odysseus), and also enjoyed general respect and authority. With the blessing of the gods, he was distinguished by longevity and lived three “standard” lives.
Despite participating in the Trojan War at an advanced age, he personally participated in the battles, as well as in the running competitions during the ceremonial funeral games during the siege. The only leader of the Greek campaign whose return home was calm and whose subsequent life was cloudless.
Alexander Babitsky