Among the oldest monuments of literature, a poem dedicated to the last year of the Trojan War occupies a place of honor. The Iliad, like the Odyssey, is attributed to Homer, a singer about whom very little information has survived. But whoever the author of the heroic Greek work was, the important thing is that it has reached us and we can enjoy the melodic language, amazing images and comparisons.
Storyteller from the past
Perhaps we would never have known about the blind man if not for the titanic work of the latter. Seven cities dispute the honor of being called the birthplace of Homer, scientists are racking their brains as to whether he was actually blind, whether he took part in the war or not, whether he composed the poems that made him famous or only organized and systematized them. One thing is certain - the narrator knew very well the events he described, empathized with all his characters and had an amazing command of speech. So much so that the poem dedicated to the last year of the Trojan War was considered fiction for a long time, until Heinrich Schliemann unearthed the remains of the powerful city. Today the poem amazes every reader. What can we say about the epic, the plot alone inspires writers and artists, screenwriters and poets, historians and adventurers.
reasons and beginning
As you know, Homer's poem about the Trojan War describes only the last year of the ten-year siege of Ilion. What was the reason for such a long confrontation? The son of the Trojan king Paris stole his wife, the beautiful Helen, from Menelaus. When rulers from all over the world wooed the girl, her father made all the suitors swear that they would not take revenge for Elena’s choice, but, on the contrary, help her betrothed. When Paris insulted the Spartan prince, he gathered a large army, everyone who had previously promised to help, and went to Troy. The siege of the great city lasted for ten years, but the winner was not determined. The poem about the Trojan War tells that the Olympian gods intervened in the destinies of people, who also divided into two warring camps. Finally, the die was cast, and the Thunderer gave victory to the Greeks.
Tenth year of the war
So, it was the tenth year of the war. Homer's work begins with a description of the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon, after which Achilles decides not to take part in the battles. The poem, dedicated to the last year of the Trojan War, recalls that without this hero, according to predictions, the united Greek army would not have been able to capture the city. Seeing how the Greeks became depressed and the Trojans perked up, Achilles’ friend Patroclus puts on his armor. His idea to cheer up the tired warriors is a success, but he himself dies. Achilles, greatly saddened and angry, decides to take revenge and goes on the attack.
The enraged hero kills many Trojans, forcing them to retreat. Then, having fought in a duel with Hector, the eldest son of Priam and brother of Paris, he kills him. At night, the king of Ilion comes to Achilles and begs him to give up the body of the Trojan prince. Taking pity on the old man, the son of the goddess Thetis promises that the Greeks will not attack until Hector is buried. After a touching funeral, which Homer describes in great detail, the battles continue. But the poem ends there. What happened next?
Die is cast
Achilles himself was also not destined to capture Ilion. Paris's arrow, directed by Apollo, hits the hero's only weak spot - the heel. He's dying. As the poem dedicated to the last year of the Trojan War tells, the gods finally decided on the outcome of the battles. They awarded victory to the Greeks, telling them how to take the city by cunning. But the world will learn about this much later, from Virgil’s work “Aeneid”. will tell about the fall of Troy at the hands of soldiers hidden in a wooden horse, about how Aeneas, having gathered the surviving townspeople, sets off to carry out the task of the gods on the territory of modern Rome. The Greeks, having destroyed the once great city, set off on their journey. By the way, another poem by Homer tells about the return of the hero of this war, Odysseus, to his homeland.
Instead of an afterword
Homer told a lot about the Trojan War, although he did not describe the entire course of this confrontation. By reading this brilliant work, you can learn a lot about the life of Greece in the past, about traditions, about cruelty and nobility, military valor and pure love. The Iliad is an inexhaustible source that can fill minds thirsty for knowledge.
In the Iliad and Odyssey, Troy is described as a vast settlement, protected by powerful walls and towers. Inside the fortress there is enough space not only for numerous townspeople, but also for a large number of allies who gathered to help the city repel the attack of the Achaeans. The fortress could house their horses, chariots and all the equipment they needed in battle. Analyzing Homer's descriptions of the city, scientists estimate that it could accommodate more than 50 thousand people. There were wide streets, and at the top of the citadel, next to the "beautiful" palace of King Priam, there was an open agora(square).
The dimensions of the main palace were enormous: in addition to the halls for state meetings with porticoes made of carefully fitted hewn stones and the king’s personal chambers (megara, there is no detailed description of them in the poems), there were 50 rooms in the palace where the sons of Priam lived with their married wives. Apparently, across the courtyard from them were the chambers of the daughters of Priam and their husbands - these are 12 more rooms, the walls of which were also made of perfectly processed stone. There were other palaces nearby, including one consisting of many rooms home Hector - very comfortable, with spacious halls (megara). Nearby stood a beautiful house where Alexander, or Paris, lived with the beautiful Elena. He built it himself, assisted by the best builders and craftsmen that could be found in Troy. His thalamos(perhaps these were Elena’s chambers), a hall and a courtyard. IN megaron Elena usually worked at the loom. Another palace house, consisting of several rooms (domata), belonged to Priam's son Deiphobus, who married Helen after the death of Alexander. When the Achaeans emerged from the wooden horse and captured Troy, Odysseus and Menelaus went straight to this house, killed Deiphobus and regained the beautiful-haired Helen.
Homer also mentions some public buildings. One of them is the Temple of Athena in the upper part of the city. It contained a figure of the seated goddess Athena. When Hecuba and the elderly women of Troy prayed to the goddess that Diomedes would be thrown back from the city walls, they placed expensive clothes on her lap. In the “sacred Pergamon” in the very heart of the fortress there was a similar temple, only built in honor of Apollo. This temple complex included a spacious and rich inner temple (aditon), where Leto and Artemis healed the wounds of Aeneas, and Apollo filled his heart with courage. There may have been a council chamber somewhere in the city - at least Hector speaks to elders and councilors who probably held some sort of secret meeting place.
Homer's poems say almost nothing about the plan of the city. The defensive wall is also described very sparingly, although we learn that it was a reliable structure made from ordinary building blocks.
At certain distances there were high towers on the wall. One of them was called the Great Tower of Ilion and, apparently, was near or somewhere near the Scaean Gate. It was there that the assembled elders of the city, eloquent as cicadas on a tree, admired the beauty of Helen as she left the house, sat down next to her father-in-law Priam and told him the names of several heroes who stood out in the ranks of the Achaeans: King Agamemnon, son of Atreus; the cunning and resourceful Odysseus; huge and mighty Ajax. But in vain she searched among the warriors for her twin brothers - Castor and Pollux. She did not know that the sword of fate had already fallen on their heads and that they were already buried in the land of Lacedaemon.
It was to the Great Tower of Ilion near the Scaean Gate that Andromache went with her little son and his nanny. It was there that Hector found them and said goodbye to them before the battle. The road to the valley passed through this gate, and Priam rode through it in his chariot when he went to watch the duel between Paris and Menelaus. It was there, outside the gates of the fortress, that the villainous fate left Hector, who alone had to fight Achilles, while Hector’s comrades hid behind the walls of the city.
The Iliad mentions the Dardanian Gate three times; it probably received its name from the name of the area to which the road that passed through it led. Dardania was located quite far to the south from Troy, on the slopes of Mount Ida, “where there were many springs.” In the poem, the goddess Hera ridicules the Achaeans, saying that without Achilles they are helpless: when he participated in the battle, the Trojans were afraid to even leave the Dardanian Gate, and in his absence they dared to get to the ships. Running just past the Dardanian Gate, Hector sought refuge in it three times in vain, pursued by Achilles. And when Hector was killed and Achilles, tying his body to a chariot, dragged him through the dust, it was from the Dardanian Gate that Priam was going to emerge to ask for decent treatment of the body of the fallen. Only with difficulty did the Trojans manage to persuade the king not to do this.
It is obvious that in addition to the two gates whose names are known, there were other gates in Troy. In any case, this is evidenced by the following episode from the second book of the Iliad: on the advice of the messenger of the gods, Iris, Hector ordered the Trojans and their allies to line up in order to bring everyone out in battle order; “all the gates were open” and the soldiers went out through them. Of course, this means that there were more than two gates in the city. Using the plural of a word pylai is not surprising - undoubtedly, this is due to the fact that the gate usually consisted of two leaves, each of which was fixed on an axis and opened in its own direction.
In Homer we read that the city wall had three corners. Along the ridge of one of them, Patroclus tried to climb the wall three times, and all three times Apollo did not allow him to do this. Maybe in this case we are talking about the well-known characteristic projections on the great wall of Troy VI and Vila?
One of the oddities about the city was that it had two names. In the Iliad and Odyssey it is called either Troy or Ilion. Perhaps the name “Troy” came from the name of the entire area adjacent to the city - Troas, and “Ilion” was the actual name of the city. However, in Homer's poems such a distinction is not visible, and both names are used to refer to the same city. In the Iliad, the name Ilium appears 106 times - twice as often as Troy (it is mentioned 50 times). In the Odyssey the ratio is different: Troy - 25 times, Ilion - 19 times. In the ancient period and later, the city that existed on the site of ancient Troy again began to be called Ilion.
Despite the fact that Homer's poems, as we have seen, do not provide any systematic description of the city, quite a lot of information contains definitions that often appear next to one or another of its names. Thus, with the name “Ilion” 11 different definitions are used, and with “Troy” - only 10. Only one of them is euteicheos(behind a powerful fortress wall) - used to describe both cities: Troy - 2 times, Ilion - 4 times. This is the only exception, and in other cases, descriptions of one city are never used when characterizing another - and this despite the similarity of the descriptions in essence.
Troy is a “wide-spread city”, “with spacious streets”; surrounded by fortress walls, above which rise “beautiful towers”, within the walls there are “big gates”; this is the “great city”, “the city of Priam”, “the city of the Trojans”. In addition, the city has “good fertile land.”
Ilion is “sacred”; “unique” and “inimitable”; "terrifying"; but at the same time a “well-built” city in which it is “comfortable to live”, although “strong winds blow” there. He is also “handsome” and famous for his “good foals.”
The last thought is confirmed by the following description of the inhabitants of Troy used in the Iliad (out of 16 definitions - most often than others): 19 times the author calls them hippodamoi- “horse wrestlers.” Like a word eupolos- “having good foals” (characterizes exclusively Ilion), it is never used in poems in relation to any other people except the Trojans. However, it should be noted that the definition hippodamoi applied to nine heroes due to their ability to handle horses (Antenor, Atreus, Castor, Diomedes, Hector, Hippasus, Hypenor, Tarasimedes, Tydeus). Thus, it becomes clear that the inhabitants of Troy were known for their ability to break horses and own good horses.
Among other definitions characterizing the Trojans, the words are used more or less often in the Iliad: megathymoi –“brave”, “courageous” (11 times); hypertymoi – very close in meaning to the previous adjective (occurs 7 times); agerochoi“noble” (5 times); hyperphialoi– “arrogant”, “arrogant” (4 times); agavoi -“famous”, “famous” (3 times); megaletores –“generous” (2 times). Mentioned once each: agenores- "brave"; hyperenoreontes –"domineering" and hybhstanai- “disdainful”, “contemptuous”. All nine epithets listed above belong to the same semantic series and indicate that the Trojans were proud and arrogant people.
The remaining definitions applied to the Trojans in the Iliad are neutral, purely descriptive: “with shields” (4 times); “in cuirass” and “loving to fight” (3 times each); “wear bronze jewelry” (2 times); “spearmen” (1 time). The author also names them once each eupheneis- “rich”, “prosperous”.
To characterize individual characters - both the Achaeans and the Trojans - definitions are usually also used. Many of them are not individualized and can be applied to any warrior of either one or the other warring side. However, there are a number of definitions that are used strictly individually for specific people. As a rule, they emphasize some feature of a person’s character, behavior or appearance. For example, King Priam apparently had a spear with an ash shaft. Therefore, when describing Priam, the author uses the word eummeles- “with a good ash spear.” In the Iliad, this definition applies only to the Trojans - Priam, the son (or sons) of Pantos, and to no one else. Achilles also had a spear with an ash shaft, but it is called differently - melie, Moreover, this definition applies only to this spear. Achilles has a kind of monopoly on one more adjective - podarkes –“swift-footed”, as well as the expression podas okus, meaning the same as podarkes(except for a single case in the Odyssey). Certain words are also used to describe Hector - korythaiolos- “in a shiny helmet” and chalkokorystes –"in a bronze helmet." In the poems they are used in relation to him alone. Alexander is called “the husband of Helen the Fair-haired” 6 times. His brother Deiphobus is distinguished by a “white shield”. Agamemnon, Odysseus, Patroclus, Ajax, Nestor and almost all other heroes are described using characteristic expressive means.
In general, these fragmentary pieces of information scattered throughout the text of Homer’s poems about Troy and the Trojans (as well as about the Achaeans) are clearly not enough to create a complete picture. In addition, this information, as a rule, is general and not specific. This is very typical of epic poems, where the author, using fiction, tells about states, kings and peoples. On the other hand, as we have seen, the texts contain quite a lot of information that the author could hardly have simply made up.
The brilliant achievements of several people with outstanding intelligence and abilities made a deep impression on their contemporaries and descendants, which cannot be ignored when studying the poems of Homer and the history of the Aegean states of the late Bronze Age. Perhaps the highlight of the region's exploration was Michael Ventris' 1952 discovery of clay tablets from Knossos and Pylos inscribed in Linear B, the ancient syllabary of Greek. Thus, it becomes clear that the Greek language was used in the palace of the Mycenaean civilization.
In fact, long before this, Martin Nilsson had noted that almost all major groups of Greek myths centered around palaces or large cities that flourished during the Mycenaean civilization. He also made a compelling case that the origins of Greek mythology must be placed in that period.
Meanwhile, Milman Parry, in a series of works that examined this issue in detail, came to the conclusion that both the Iliad and the Odyssey are largely built on the combination of numerous formulaic phrases that originally appeared in oral poetry. Before the lyrics were written down, they were passed down almost unchanged by word of mouth from one generation of traveling singers to another.
More recently, Dennis Page has demonstrated further evidence that many of the linguistic features of the two poems are in fact an almost unchanged legacy of the Achaean or Mycenaean dialect of the Mycenaean civilization: the epithets used and the characteristics of people and places were created by wandering singers who saw it all with their own eyes and were familiar with the places , culture and the main characters whose glorious exploits they sang. During and after wars, they sang their songs and poems in the palaces of kings who participated in military campaigns. Moreover, as evidence to support his conclusions, Professor Page cited all the archaeological finds relating to the Mycenaean civilization, the Trojan War and the problems reflected in the poems of Homer.
Taking into account the state of our knowledge of that period, there is no longer any doubt that the Trojan War is a real historical fact, that it was fought by a coalition of Achaeans (Mycenaeans) led by Agamemnon; that they fought against the inhabitants of Troy and their allies. In later periods, popular memory greatly increased the scope and duration of the war. In addition, the number of participants in epic poems tends to be exaggerated. It is safe to say that large and small episodes are also fictitious and included in the narrative in subsequent centuries. However - and this has been brilliantly demonstrated by Professor Page - even without the presence of archaeological finds, the evidence contained in the text of the Iliad itself (including numerous linguistic features preserved from that time) is quite sufficient not only to demonstrate that the basis of the The tradition of the campaigns against Troy lies in historical facts, but also in order to show that many of the characters in the poems (although probably not all) had their prototypes in real life. Apparently, the traveling singers observed these people in various historical situations, and the resulting impressions were later reflected in their stories.
Alexander Salnikov
Great city of Troy
Did Troy exist?
The first thing we know about Troy is that the great Homer sang it in his poems “Iliad” and “Odyssey”. Did Homer's Troy really exist? It is impossible to answer this question precisely yet. But most researchers still believe that it existed. Even the very fact that Troy was sung in the epic poems of antiquity rather suggests that the city once existed, since in ancient times there was no practice of chanting non-existent cities and battles. Basically, the tales were based on legends or real events. The legends and myths themselves were also based on real events, which, however, did not prevent them from being embellished with a fair amount of fiction.
Unfortunately, even Schliemann’s find does not provide a clear answer about the existence of Troy. Whether Schliemann is right or not, we will not examine this issue here, since this already relates to professional archeology and history. But we’ll still talk about whether Schliemann’s find is similar or not to Homer’s Troy.
Homer in his poem provides too little data to accurately indicate not only the location of the city, but also determine its size, or find out how many people lived in it. But still, Homer gives enough instructions so that we can imagine this wondrous city with a certain reliability.
The first thing we learn from Homer about Troy is that the city was the capital of the ancient vast state of Troas and was located somewhere near the western entrance to the Hellespont (the modern Dardanelles) on the northwestern coast of Asia Minor (modern Turkey) . We also learn that the city has two equivalent names: Troy and Ilion. The etymology of these names can be read in many sources, including Hittite writings, so we will not dwell on them. In our not scientific, but rather literary research, we, following Schliemann, will assume that Troy did exist, and we will try, based on the texts of the poem, to find out what the city itself was like.
What was the city of Troy like?
First of all, the Iliad repeatedly points out that Troy is a city with wide streets and squares. In the poem we find many indications of this, as well as the fact that Troy was not only wide, but also beautiful, that is, with beautiful architecture. We see one such indication in the sixth song:
390 This is how she answered him. He quickly left the house.
He hurried back along the vast Troy along the same road:
Its bright squares and marvelous streets. To the gate
The Scaeans were already approaching, leading to the plain from Troy.
When Andromache saw her husband, she ran up to him in tears,
395 A rich family, daughter of Etion, beautiful in appearance.
But how do we know exactly how wide these streets and squares of Troy were? Some clues to this question can be found in the poem itself. For example, in the 18th song there is one interesting place where the leader Polydamas gives Hector practical advice to return with the whole army to Troy and wait out the night in the city square:
“Do as you say! Even though I know: it’s sad for my heart.
We will all spend the night in the square; Well, the city has walls,
275 The towers are tall and have huge, strong-built sections,
Long and smooth gates with bolts will provide protection.
In the morning, at dawn, we will occupy the walls and towers, taking up arms
With copper weapons. Then woe to those who want to go with Pelid
Come to us from the ships and fight around Ilion!”
We are talking here, apparently, about the main square of the city. And at first glance, there seems to be nothing strange in this proposal. But if we find out how many warriors the leader Polydamas proposes to place in this square, then we will look at it completely differently. From a small text at the end of the eighth canto we can definitely find out how big the army the Trojans had:
560 So between the black ships and the deep river
Many lights of the Trojan troops could be seen from the walls of Ilion.
A thousand fires were burning in the field there. Around in front of everyone, -
Fifty people each, illuminated by a bright glow.
Their horses ate white barley and sweet spelt,
565 Waiting for the Beautiful Throne Dawn at their chariots.
So, a thousand fires were burning in the field, and fifty people were sitting around each one. That turns out to be 50 thousand warriors. Now let’s think about what the main square of the city should be like so that a 50,000-strong army could fit there for an overnight stay? And what should the city itself be like?
Some researchers argue that all of Troy was nothing more than the Moscow Luzhniki Stadium. But Luzhniki accommodates only about 80 thousand seats for spectators. It's shoulder to shoulder. No, such a small city cannot possibly have an area on which 50 thousand warriors could fit for an overnight stay, and not shoulder to shoulder, but freely, with chariots, weapons and fires for cooking dinner. Perhaps, only the upper city, the Acropolis of Troy, which the Trojans also called Pergamum, could be the size of Luzhniki. By the way, there is also a lot of controversy about the size of the Acropolis of Troy.
What was on the Acropolis of Troy?
Let's see what could be located in the acropolis of Troy? From the poem we know that the acropolis housed temples of the gods, for example the temple of Zeus, Apollo, and Athena. Perhaps temples of some other gods, for example, Hera, Poseidon, Aphrodite, Ares, all those gods who, according to the beliefs of the Trojans, could influence the daily lives of people. It is unlikely that there was only one temple on the acropolis.
The Trojan War, according to the ancient Greeks, was one of the most significant events in their history. Ancient historians believed that it happened around the turn of the 13th-12th centuries. BC, and with it began a new “Trojan” era - the ascent of the tribes inhabiting Balkan Greece to a higher level of culture associated with life in cities. The campaign of the Achaean Greeks against the city of Troy, located in the northwestern part of the Asia Minor peninsula - Troas, was told by numerous Greek myths, later united into a cycle of legends - cyclic poems. The most authoritative for the Hellenes was the epic poem “The Iliad,” attributed to the great Greek poet Homer, who lived in the 8th 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 Eris, the goddess of discord. The angry goddess decided to take revenge and tossed a golden apple to the feasting gods with the inscription: “To the most beautiful.” Three Olympic goddesses - Hera, Athena and Aphrodite - argued over which of them it was intended for. Zeus ordered 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 flocks, and each tried to seduce him with gifts. Paris preferred the love of Helen, the most beautiful of mortal women, offered to him by Aphrodite, and handed the golden apple to the goddess of love. Helen, daughter of Zeus and Leda, was the wife of the Spartan king Menelaus. Paris, who came as a guest to 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. Myths tell different stories about how Paris and Helen got to Troy. According to one version, three days later they arrived safely in Paris’s hometown. According to another, the goddess Hera, hostile to Paris, raised a storm at sea, his ship was carried to the shores of Phenicia, and only a long time later the fugitives finally arrived in Troy. There is another option: Zeus (or Hera) replaced Helen with a ghost, who was taken away by Paris. During the Trojan War, Helen herself 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.
Achilles kills the Amazon queen. Fragment of the painting of a Greek amphora. Around 530 BC.
The Trojan prince committed a serious crime - he violated the law of hospitality and thereby brought a terrible disaster on his hometown. Insulted 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 had once wooed Elena and swore an oath to defend her honor came to the brothers’ call. The most famous Achaean heroes and kings - Odysseus, Diomedes, Protesilaus, Ajax Telamonides and Ajax Lacrian, Philoctetes, the wise old man Nestor and many others - brought their squads. Achilles, the son of Peleus and Thetis, the most courageous and powerful of the heroes, also took part in the campaign. According to the prediction of the gods, the Greeks could not conquer Troy without his help. Odysseus, being the smartest and most cunning, managed to persuade Achilles to take part in the campaign, although he 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.
The Greek fleet, numbering a thousand ships, assembled at Aulis, a harbor in Boeotia. To ensure the fleet's safe voyage 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 peacefully. The experienced diplomat Odysseus and the insulted husband Menelaus went as envoys 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 - the Trojans.
The Greeks were unable to immediately take Troy, which was surrounded by powerful fortifications. They built a fortified camp on the seashore near their ships, began to ravage 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 his captive Briseis, and he, angry, refused to enter the battlefield. No amount of persuasion could convince Achilles to abandon his anger and take up arms. The Trojans took advantage of the inaction of the bravest and strongest 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, feignedly offered to end the war and return home, the Achaeans greeted the proposal with delight and rushed to their ships. And only the decisive actions of Odysseus stopped the soldiers and saved the situation.
Neoptolemus kills King Priam, in the temple at the altar of Zeus
The Trojans broke into the Achaean camp and nearly burned their ships. Achilles's closest friend, Patroclus, begged the hero to give him his armor and chariot and rushed to the aid of the Greek army. Patroclus stopped the onslaught of the Trojans, but he himself died at the hands of Hector. The death of a friend made Achilles forget about the offense. The thirst for revenge inspired him. The Trojan hero Hector died in a duel with Achilles. The Amazons came to the aid of the Trojans. Achilles killed their leader Penthesilea, but soon died 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 place on his body. God Apollo knew where to direct Paris's arrow. Humanity owes the expression “Achilles’ heel” to this episode of the poem.
After the death of Achilles, a dispute begins among the Achaeans over the possession of his armor. 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 A1hill Neoptolemus to the Achaean camp. Philoctetes kills Paris, and Neoptolemus kills the Trojans' ally, the Mysian Eurinil. 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 decide to take the city by cunning. A huge wooden horse was built, inside which a selected squad of warriors hid. The rest of the army, in order to convince the Trojans that the Achaeans were going home, burned their camp and sailed on ships from the coast of Troas. In fact, the Achaean ships took refuge not far from the coast, near the island of Tenedos.
The Trojans roll their horse into the city
Surprised by the abandoned wooden monster, the Trojans gathered around it. Some began to offer to bring the horse into the city. The priest Laocoon, warning about the treachery of the enemy, exclaimed: “Fear the Danaans (Greeks), who bring gifts!” (This phrase also became popular 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 hiding in the belly of the horse came out and opened the gate. The Achaeans who returned secretly burst into the city and began beating the residents who were taken by surprise.
Golden funeral mask of Agamemnon
Menelaus, with a sword in his hands, was looking for his unfaithful wife, but when he saw the beautiful Helen, he was unable to kill her. The entire male population of Troy died, with the exception of Aeneas, the son of Anchises and Aphrodite, who received orders from the gods to flee the captured city and revive its glory elsewhere. His descendants Romulus and Remus became the founders of Ancient Rome. The women of Troy faced an equally sad fate: they all became captives and slaves of the jubilant victors. The city was destroyed by fire.
After the destruction of Troy, strife began in the Achaean camp. Ajax of Lacria brings the wrath of the goddess Athena upon 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. Odysseus's wanderings after the end of the Trojan War are sung in Homer's second poem, 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 triumphantly, the campaign against Troy ended for the Achaeans.
The existence of Troy was confirmed thanks to excavations by the famous German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann (1822–1890) back in the century before last. These excavations fully confirm the events that occurred at the end of the 13th - beginning of the 12th centuries BC and even today they are finding more and more details of the Trojan War and related circumstances.
According to today's historical point of view, the military conflict of the union of the Achaean states with the city of Troy (Ilion), which once stood on the shores of the Aegean Sea, occurred between 1190 and 1180 (according to other sources, around 1240 BC) years BC.
The first works telling about the Trojan War were Homer’s poems “Iliad” and “Odyssey”, and a little later the Trojan War was described in Virgil’s “Aeneid” and other works, but when describing these events, history and fiction were always tightly intertwined, which does not allow to say with complete certainty whether this is how real events unfolded.
However, if we turn to the works described above, we can see that the reason for the war was the abduction by Paris, the son of the Trojan king Priam, of the beautiful Helen, the wife of the king of Sparta, Menelaus. At the call of Menelaus, oath-bound suitors, famous Greek heroes, came to his aid.
The facts of the Iliad are exaggerated
The Iliad reports that an army of Greeks, led by the Mycenaean king Agamemnon, the brother of Menelaus, set out to free the kidnapped Helen. Negotiations on the voluntary release of the abducted woman did not end in anything, and then the Greeks began a long siege of the city. The gods also took part in the war: Athena and Hera - on the side of the Greeks, Artemis, Aphrodite, Ares and Apollo - on the side of the Trojans. There were ten times fewer Trojans, but Troy remained impregnable.
Since the most detailed source telling about that war is considered to be Homer’s poem “The Iliad,” let us turn to it, although the Greek historian Thucydides said that in this work the significance of the war was significantly exaggerated, and many facts were distorted, so we turn to the reliability of the events in the “Iliad” should be treated very carefully.
According to the Iliad, the city of Troy was located several kilometers from the shore of the Hellespont (Dardanelles). Trade routes used by Greek tribes passed through Troy. Most likely, the Trojans interfered with the trade of the Greeks, which forced the Greek tribes to unite and start a war with Troy, which had numerous allies on its side, which is why the war dragged on for many years. But the powerful defensive walls of Troy remained impregnable.
Seeing that military operations had reached a dead end, the cunning Odysseus came up with an extraordinary military stratagem...
For a long time, in secret, Odysseus talked with Epeus, the most skilled carpenter in the Achaean camp, and in the evening, having gathered all the leaders, he presented his insidious plan. According to the plan, it was necessary to build a large wooden horse, inside of which a dozen of the bravest and most skilled warriors could fit. The rest of the army had to board ships and move away from the Trojan shore, and then take refuge behind the island of Tendos.
Once the Trojans realize that the enemy has left the coast, they will decide that the siege of the city is over and will want to drag the wooden horse into the city. Under cover of night, the Achaean ships will return, and the warriors hidden inside the horse will come out and open the fortress gates, and then the city will fall.
It took the Achaean carpenters three days to bring the plan to life. On the fourth day, the Trojans discovered that the enemy camp was empty, the sails of enemy ships were disappearing over the horizon, and on the coastal sand, where only yesterday the enemy’s tents and tents were colorful, stood a huge wooden horse.
Rejoicing, the Trojans immediately surrounded the wonderful horse and began to decide what to do with it. Some said that he should be drowned in the sea, others suggested burning him, but many wanted to drag him into the city and leave him in the main square of Troy as a symbol of the end of the bloody war.
Prophecy of the priest Laocoon
The local priest from the temple of Apollo Laocoon with his two sons cried out:
Fear the Danaans who bring gifts!
He grabbed the spear from the hands of the nearest warrior and threw it at the belly of the Trojan horse. However, no one listened to Laocoon, since all the attention of the crowd was already focused on the young man who was leading the captive Achaean. Approaching King Priam, the prisoner was forced to identify himself. He said that his name was Sinon and explained that he himself had escaped from the Achaeans, who were supposed to sacrifice him to the gods - this was a condition for a safe return home.
The captive convinced the Trojan people that the horse was a dedication gift to Athena, who could bring down her wrath on Troy if the Trojans destroyed the horse. And if you place it in the city in front of the temple of Athena, then Troy will become indestructible. At the same time, Sinon emphasized that this is why the Achaeans built the horse so huge that the Trojans could not drag it through the fortress gates...
As soon as the captive told everything described above to the king, a scream full of horror was heard from the direction of the sea. Two huge snakes crawled out of the sea and entwined the priest Laocoon, as well as his two sons, with the deadly rings of their smooth and wet bodies and dragged them into the depths of the sea. Seeing this, no one doubted that Sinon was telling the truth. This means we need to quickly install a wooden horse next to the Temple of Athena.
Having dismantled part of the fortress gates, the Trojans dragged the horse into the city and began to celebrate. The soldiers inside the Trojan horse waited until late at night and opened the gates of the city. The Greek army, having received Sinon's signal, returned and easily captured the city. As a result, Troy was sacked and destroyed.
Since Homer's Iliad is full of fiction and metaphors, today the Trojan horse is an allegory of some kind of military trick used by the Achaeans when taking the city. Some historians believe that perhaps the Trojan horse was a tower on wheels, made in the shape of a horse and upholstered in horse skins.
Others suggest that the Greeks entered the city through an underground passage, on the doors of which a horse was depicted, and someone says that the horse was a sign by which the Achaeans in the dark distinguished each other from their opponents...
Trojan horse - a symbol of birth and death
It is possible that the Trojan horse carries a deeper meaning, because during the years of war, most of the heroes, both Achaeans and Trojans, died under the walls of Troy. And those who survive the war die on the way home. Some, like King Agamemnon, will find death at home at the hands of loved ones, others will be expelled and spend their lives in wanderings.
In essence, this is the end of the heroic age. Under the walls of Troy there are no victors and no vanquished, heroes are becoming a thing of the past, and the time of ordinary people is coming.
Symbolically, the horse is also associated with birth and death. A horse made of spruce wood, bearing something in its belly, symbolizes the birth of a new one, and the Trojan horse is made of spruce boards, and armed warriors are placed in its hollow belly. It turns out that the Trojan horse brings death to the defenders of the fortress, but at the same time it also means the birth of something new.
And indeed, at about the same time, another important event happened, one of the largest migrations of peoples. Tribes of the Dorians, a barbarian people who completely eradicated the ancient Mycenaean civilization, moved from the north to the Balkan Peninsula.
Only after a few centuries will Greece be reborn and only then will it be possible to talk about Greek history. The destruction will be so great that the entire pre-Dorian history will become a myth, and many states will cease to exist.
Recent archaeological expeditions have not yet made it possible to completely reconstruct the scenario of the Trojan War. However, their results do not exclude the possibility that behind the Trojan epic there is a story of Greek expansion against a major power located on the western coast of Asia Minor, acting as an obstacle to the Greeks gaining power over this region.
We can only hope that the true history of the Trojan War will someday be written, and with it the history of the Trojan horse will be revealed.
