The Trojan War

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The Trojan War

• Background to
• The Odyssey

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Causes of the WarThe Fairer Sex

• The marriage of Peleus and Thetis, mother of
  Achilles
• Eris (goddess of discord) not invited, becomes
  the wedding crasher
• Throws down the Apple of Discord For the
  Fairest
• Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite all reach for it. . .
  .

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Causes of the WarThe Weaker Sex

• Zeus appoints Pretty Boy Paris, a Trojan prince,
  as the judge
• Enticing party favors are offered
• Hera greatness, power, wealth
• Athena prowess in war
• Aphrodite the love of the most beautiful woman
  in the world
• and the winner is . . .

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• Aphrodite!

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Causes of the WarThe Weaker Sex

• Party favor Helen, wife of Menelaus, King of
  Sparta
• Menelaus brother Agamemnon, King of Mycenae
• Hera and Athena vow revenge against Paris and
  Troy. . .

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Causes of the War

• Paris visits Menelaus, and is treated to lavish
  Greek hospitality
• Paris then runs off with his hosts wife and
  other booty
• Paris marries Helen in 1200 B.C.

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• Was this the face that launched a thousand ships
• And burnt the topless towers of Ilium (Troy)?
• -Christopher Marlowe
• Dr. Faustus

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Preparation for WarBattlefield of the Gods

• Achaian (Greek) Side
• Athena, goddess of wisdom
• Hera, wife of Zeus
• Hermes, ambassador to the gods
• Poseidon, god of the sea

• Trojan Side
• Aphrodite, goddess of love
• Apollo, god of prophecy, light, poetry
• Ares, god of war
• Artemis, goddess of the hunt
• Zeus, sympathetic to the Trojans

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Preparation for WarMenelaus Rallies the Troops

• Long ago, at Odysseus request, Helens father
  Tyndareus had made all her suitors swear to
  support whomever Helen married
• Menelaus calls on Helens old boyfriends to
  defend her honor
• However, he encounters some resistance. . .

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Preparation for WarMenelaus Rallies the Troops

• To dodge the draft, Achilles mom dresses him up
  as a girl and hides him with King Lycomedes

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Preparation for WarMenelaus Rallies the Troops

• Odysseus pretends to be insane to dodge the
  draft
• Plows a field sowing salt
• The gigs up when Palamedes throws Odysseus
  infant son Telemachus in front of the plow
• Odysseus later dimes out (exposes!) Achilles

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Preparation for WarThe Greeks
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Preparation for WarAgamemnon Sets Sail

• Artemis, whom Agamemnon had offended by killing a
  stag, stills the great kings sails
• Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter Iphigenia to
  make nice, causing marital discord with his wife
  Clytemnestra
• First he sails to the wrong place, but thats
  another story for another time. . .

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Preparation for WarThe Trojans
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War The first Nine Years

• Battles in Troy and neighboring regions for nine
  years
• Greeks win lots of spoils, including women

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The Iliad Internal Conflict

• Homers epic begins in the tenth year of the
  Trojan War
• Agamemnon steals Achilles war prize, Briseis
• Achilles refuses to fight and withdraws his
  warriors, the Myrmidons

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The Iliad Endgame

• The gods take sides, intervening for their
  favorites
• Achilles pal Patroklos is killed in battle
  wearing Achilles armor
• Achilles returns and kills Hector, dragging his
  body around Troy from a chariot
• The Iliad ends with Achilles allowing Hector to
  be buried.

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The Fall of Troy

• Apollo guides Paris arrow to Achilles heel
• Ajax and Odysseus fight over Achilles armor
• Odysseus wins the armor and Ajax commits suicide

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The Fall of Troy

• The frustrated Greeks cannot penetrate Troy
• Odysseus cleverly schemes up the wooden horse
• Odysseus steals the Palladium, a powerful
  talisman of Pallas Athena which had ensured
  Troys invincibility
• Helen recognizes Odysseus but does not betray him

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The Fall of Troy

• Greeks sail away as a decoy, Trojans take in the
  horse, Greeks slaughter Trojans

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The Fall of Troy

• Achilles son Neoptolemus kills Priam , whose
  daughter, the seër Cassandra, is raped at
  Athenas altar and becomes Agamemnons concubine
• The children of Priam and Hector are sacrificed
  at Achilles tomb

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The Fall of Troy

• Aeneas, a Trojan prince, escapes (see The Aeneid
  for the Trojan point of view)
• Odysseus convinces Philoctetes to kill Paris with
  a magic arrow
• Trojan women are divided as plunder
• Helens beauty spares her death

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The Fallout of the War

• The Greeks burn Troy and sail home, meeting
  various miserable fates themselves
• Angered about Iphigenias death, Clytemnestra
  cozies up to Aegisthus, who kills Agamemnon upon
  his return
• Orestes murders his mother and her lover to
  avenge his fathers death

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The Fallout of the War

• After another ten years Telemachus laments that
  his father Odysseus has not returned home. . . .

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Troy Myth or Reality?

• Legendary city built under Zeus protection
• Huge protective wall built with divine aid of
  Poseidon
• Trojans refused to pay tribute to Poseidon, who
  withdrew his protection

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Dardanelles
Modern-day Turkey
(http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ImageMap_of_Lydia_a
ncient_times.jpg)
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Troy Myth or Reality?

• Heinrich Schliemann (19th cent.) uncovered nine
  successive cities on the same site in modern-day
  Turkey
• Schliemann declared the second level Priams Troy
  (aka Ilium), a burnt city
• Greeks may have wanted control of the Hellespont
  Strait (Dardanelles) for access to the Black Sea
• The archaeological dig is still active but
  inconclusive

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Archaeological Site Troy II
(http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ImagePlan_Troy-Hisa
rlik-en.svg)
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Works Cited

• Archaeological Plan of Hisarlik.
  http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ImagePlan_Troy-Hisar
  lik-en.svg.
• Map of Troy. http//en.wikipedia.
  org/wiki/ImageMap_of_Lydia_ancient_times. jpg.