THE TROJAN WAR

1
THE TROJAN WAR
2
Troy was a rich and powerful Bronze Age city in
Asia Minor (modern Turkey)
3
Its ruins were discovered and excavated in the
19th century but the myths and legends
surrounding it had been central to Western
literature and art for at least 2,500 years
before that
4
This is a reconstruction of how the city might
really have looked at the height of its power in
the 12th century B.C.
5
According to Greek and Roman legend, a Trojan
prince, Paris, was asked to judge a beauty
contest between three goddesses Juno (queen of
the gods), Minerva (goddess of wisdom) and Venus
(goddess of love). He gave the prize to Venus
because she promised to make the most beautiful
woman in the world fall for him.
6
The woman considered most beautiful at that time
was Helen, wife of the King Menelaus of Sparta in
southern Greece
7
Paris visited Sparta and, while a guest at the
royal court, persuaded Helen to desert her
husband and return with him to Troy
8
Enraged, Menelaus sought the help of his brother
Agamemnon, who was king of Mycenae, the most
powerful city in Greece at this time.
9
The previous slide showed the Lion Gate, the
most famous part of the ruins of Mycenae. Here
you see a reconstruction of how the city might
have looked at the supposed time of the Trojan
War.
10
Led by the two brothers, Agamemnon and Menelaus,
the Greeks states sent a great army to compel the
Trojans to return Helen.
11
In the tenth year of the war, a priest of Apollo
came to the Greek camp to beg Agamemnon to
release his daughter, who the king had captured
and was keeping as a concubine.
12
The king refused and the priest prayed to Apollo
for revenge. The god sent a terrible plague which
killed many in the Greek army.
13
The Greeks debated what to do and Achilles,
greatest of the Greek warriors, demanded that
Agamemnon return the priests daughter. Agamemnon
reluctantly agreed, but insisted that in
compensation Achilles should hand over to him his
own concubine, Briseis.
14
Achilles had to obey but, in his anger, refused
to take any more part in the fighting. When the
Trojans began to get the upper hand, Achilles
finally agreed to let his best friend, Patroclus,
help the Greeks. Patroclus was killed by Hector,
Pariss brother and Achilles (seen here with his
friends body) was grief-stricken
15
Achilles himself now went into battle and killed
Hector. In this Greek vase painting of the duel,
the names of both men are written besides them.
16
Achilles at first refused to return Hectors body
to the Trojans, but he relented after King Priam,
father of Hector and Paris, visited the Greek
camp to plead with him.
17
The war finally ended when the Greeks tricked the
Trojans by pretending to sail away but leaving a
great wooden horse on the shore. The priest
Laocoon realised this was a trap but, after he
struck the horse with his spear, great serpents
appeared from the sea and killed both him and his
sons.
18
Believing the horse was a holy object which could
protect them, the Trojans pulled it into their
city with great rejoicing
19
In fact, the horse was full of Greek soldiers,
who emerged at night to open the gates and let in
the rest of the Greek army. The city was
destroyed and is people killed or enslaved.
20
There were also many legends about the later
adventures of the heroes who had fought in the
war. The most famous Greek poet, Homer, who
perhaps wrote in the 8th century B.C, told the
story of the quarrel between Agamemnon and
Achilles in the Iliad, and, in the Odyssey,
described the return of a Greek leader Odysseus
(Ulysses) to his home on the island of Ithaca off
the west coast of Greece.
21
The family of Julius Caesar claimed that they
were descended from Aeneas, a Trojan leader who
escaped from the city carrying his father on his
shoulder and (in the version of the story shown
in this coin issued by Caesar himself) the
Palladium (sacred statue of Minerva/Athena) in
his hand.
22
In his epic poem the Aeneid, the Roman poet
Virgil, who wrote under the patronage of Caesars
nephew, Augustus, described both the destruction
of Troy and Aeneass quest to found a new city in
Italy.
23
THE BEGINNING OF VIRGILS AENEID(http//www.rhaps
odes.fll.vt.edu/audiofiles/aeneis1.mp3)

• Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris
  arms man also sing-I Troys who first
  from shores
• Italiam fato profugus Laviniaque
  venit Italy-to fate-by refugee
  Lavinian-also came
• Litora. multum ille et terris iactatus
  et alto coasts-to much he both land-on
  harassed and sea-at
• vi superum saevae memorem Iunonis ob iram.
  force-by gods cruel memorable Junos
  from anger