PART ONE: THE ORIGINS OF THE TROJAN WAR

The city of Troy had several mythical founders and kings,

including Teucer, Dardanus, Tros, Ilus and Assaracus. The

most widely accepted story makes Ilus the actual founder,

and from him the city took the name it was best-known by

in ancient times, Ilium. In an episode similar to the founding

of Thebes, Ilus was given a cow and told to found a city

where it first lay down. As instructed, he followed the

animal, and on the land where it rested drew up the

boundaries of his city. He then received an additional sign

from the gods, a legless wooden statue called the Palladium,

which dropped from the heavens with the message that it

should be carefully guarded as it 'brought empire'. Some say

it was a statue of Athene's friend Pallas, but most believe it

was of Athene herself and that this statue was to make Troy

a great city.

Laomedon's Troy

Ilus was succeeded by his son Laomedon, who built great

walls around his city with the help of a mortal, Aeacus, and

the two gods Poseidon and Apollo. These two were forced

by Zeus to do a year's hard labour for their part in the Great

Conspiracy and were understandably angry when the king

would not give them the wages he had promised. When

Heracles rescued Laomedon's daughter, the princess

Hesione who had, like Andromeda, been chained to a rock

as a sacrifice to a sea monster, this time sent by Poseidon,

Laomedon again retreated behind his marvellous walls and

refused to honour his promise to reward the hero (see

Chapter 6, the account of the ninth labour of Heracles).

Heracles then led an expedition against the city, breaching

the western wall which had been built by the mortal Aeacus.

He killed Laomedon and all his sons except the infant

Podarces, whom he renamed Priam. Modern excavations

have actually revealed weaker stonework on the western

walls of Troy, suggesting that a

genuine difference in construction led to the myth that

the two gods built the other walls.

Mythical reasons behind the Trojan War

During Priam's

lifetime Troy

reached its

greatest

prosperity, but

when he was a

very old man it

was tota lly

destroyed after a

ten-year siege by

warriors from

Greece. Some say

Zeus himself

caused the Trojan

War to thin out

the human race,

which was

threatening to

overpopulate the

earth. Others think he caused it to make the whole world

aware of the beauty of his daughter Helen, or to give her

immortal fame as the cause of a war between West and

East. Or was it to give the second generation of heroes a

chance to achieve fame, since all the monsters on earth had

been slain by the first generation? The Romans were to

ascribe the fall of Troy to Fate, which had decided the

survivors from Troy should make their way to Italy and

begin the long process of creating the great empire of

Rome.

THE TROJAN WAR

The children of Priam and Hecabe

Priam had many children by his chief wife Hecabe and by

his concubines, and some accounts say he had fifty sons

and fifty daughters. Several of them were to play

important roles in the Trojan War.

• Hector was the greatest warrior of Troy who slew many

Greeks until he in turn was slain by Achilles, the only

man on the field greater than he. He was married to

Andromache and their infant son was named Astyanax.

• Deiphobus and Helenus argued about who should be

given Helen as his wife after her abductor Paris had

died. Priam awarded her to Deiphobus as the greater

warrior, and this was to have serious consequences

both for Deiphobus and for Troy.

• Troilus and Polyxena were both very young and very

beautiful, and were to become victims of Achilles after

he saw them drawing water from a sacred spring

outside the walls of Troy and fell in love with both of

them.

• Cassandra was loved by Apollo, who, with unusual

consideration, invited her to become his mistress and

gave her the gift of prophecy as an inducement.

Cassandra at first agreed, then changed her mind. Apollo

was unable to withdraw his gift because the present of a

god, once given, cannot be taken away. But it can be

altered, so Apollo added the curse that she would foresee

the future, including the slaughter of most of her family,

the fall of her city and her own death, but no one would

ever believe her.

• Creusa married Aeneas, son of Aphrodite and Anchises

and bore him a son, Ilus (also known as Ascanius).

Paris

The son of Priam and Hecabe who was destined to make the

greatest contribution to the fall of Troy was Paris, sometimes

called Alexander. Shortly before he was born, Hecabe

dreamed that she gave birth to a branch alive with fiery

snakes, which set Troy and the forests on near by Mount Ida

ablaze. Priam asked his son Aesacus the prophet what the

dream meant, and was told that he should destroy Hecabe's

child or it would cause Troy's destruction. Some days later

Aesacus said Priam should kill the woman from Troy's royal

family who gave birth that day, along with her child. Priam's

sister Cilla gave birth that morning and the king at once put

her and her son to death, and when Hecabe produced a son

that evening he did not think it was necessary to slay her too.

To be on the safe side, though, he had the baby exposed on

Mount Ida. The herdsman who had left the child in the

woods returned some days later, and was amazed to find it

was still alive, as it had been suckled by a she-bear. Assuming

that this was due to t,he intervention of the gods, he took

the baby and brought him up as his own son.

Paris grew up as a cowherd. He was handsome, intelligent

and an exceptional athlete, but though a great deal has

been written about his charm, his courage has not received

the same prominence. He was an adept with the bow and

arrow, which, on its own, was regarded as a coward's

weapon in an age extolling hand-to-hand combat. He

became the lover of the nymph Oenone, and his other

main source of recreation was provoking bulls into fighting

one another, and pitting his own champion bull against

those of other herds. For a joke, Ares turned himself into a

bull, and Paris without hesitation awarded him the prize,

thereby impressing Zeus with his impartiality.

The judgement of Paris

Soon the opportunity to make a more important judgement

came his way. Zeus had been about to seduce the Nereid

Thetis, but changed his mind when he heard from

Prometheus that she was destined to bear a son greater than

his father. Zeus wisely decided it would be safer to marry

Thetis to a mortal, and gave his blessing to the Argonaut

Peleus. The wedding of Thetis and Peleus was attended by

most of the immortals but one who was not invited was Eris,

goddess of Discord. She turned up just the same and tossed

into the middle of the guests a golden apple inscribed 'For

the Fairest'. The goddesses began to argue over who

deserved it and Zeus selected Paris to be the judge of the first

recorded beauty contest. On this occasion, however, Paris

was not quite so disinterested. The three leading

competitors, Hera, Athene and Aphrodite each offered him a

tempting bribe. Hera promised to make him a great and

wealthy king, while Athene offered wisdom and military

glory. Aphrodite, however, read the young man's character

best. She suggested that if such a handsome young man had

the discrimination to see that she was clearly lovelier than

her competitors he might also appreciate a similar beauty for

his wife, no less a woman than Aphrodite's half-sister. She,

Aphrodite, was very experienced in arranging such matters.

Not surprisingly, the prize went to Aphrodite.

Fate had decreed that Troy must fall, so Paris was saved by

divine intervention and a she-bear on Mount Ida. But what

would have happened if he had selected one of the other

contestants? No doubt Zeus would have caused the Trojan

War by some other means, as Paris used Hera's bribe of

wealth and a kingdom, or Athene's of military glory. And

regardless of his choice, Paris could not have avoided making

enemies of the other two. Aphrodite now set about fulfilling

her promise, while Hera and Athene planned their revenge.

Paris returns to Troy

Soon after this Paris decided to go to compete in some games

at Troy. There he attracted the attention of all spectators by

his beauty and athletic skills, and when some of Priam's sons

attacked him out of jealousy, the herdsman who had saved

the life of the infant Paris told Priam that this was the son he

had believed dead. Priam was delighted to welcome such a

fine young man as his son, and when he was warned that

Troy would fall if Paris were allowed to live he answered

'Better Troy should fall than my marvellous son should die.'

Paris abducts Helen

Paris now took advantage of his newly-acquired wealth and

status and embarked on a voyage to Greece. He received a

sad farewell from his former lover Oenone, who first tried to

persuade him not to go, and then kissed him and said 'If you

are ever wounded return to me, because my skill alone will

heal you.' When he reached Sparta he was warmly

welcomed by the unsuspecting Menelaus. However, his host

had a prior engagement, and, apologising to Paris, sailed off

to Crete. Paris made no apologies at all - Aphrodite had done

her work well, and as soon as Menelaus was gone he and

Helen took off. When the enraged husband returned he sent

ambassadors demanding that Helen be handed back, but

they came back without her. Despite Greek threats the

Trojans were delighted with Helen, and Priam vowed that

they would never let her go.

The Greeks sail to Troy

Menelaus then invoked the vow taken by all her former

suitors to defend his rights. His brother Agamemnon, as lord

of Mycenae, had the greatest prestige in Greece, so with him

as commanderchief, a great force of heroes and their

followers gathered at Aulis, and, after the sacrifice of

Agamemnon's daughter Iphigenia had secured the required

west wind, sailed off to Troy.

In another version of the myth, the goddess Artemis saved

Iphigenia from being sacrificed and took her to 'the land of

the Tauri'to be her priestess.

On the way there, they landed on an obscure island where

one of their number, Philoctetes, was bitten by a snake. He

did not die but his wound did not heal either and caused him

constant pain. When it also began to smell foul the Greeks

abandoned him on the island. Philoctetes had inherited

Heracles' bow and arrows and survived on his own by killing

and eating small animals, until, after several years, his former

companions were to find that they needed him.

When the Greeks landed at Troy they once more formally

requested that Helen be returned. The Trojans refused and

the Greeks established themselves in their camp and

prepared to lay siege to the city.

The opposing forces at Troy

The armies which faced each other at Troy for ten years

were organised in quite different ways. Troy was under the

command of its king Priam, and although he was now an

old man he still had the wisdom of the great warrior he had

once been. His second-in-command was his son Hector,

Troy's greatest fighter and a son totally loyal to his father.

Beside the forces of Troy fought independent allies from

lands both near and far.

The Greeks were led by Agamemnon, their most powerful

king, but neither the wisest leader nor the greatest warrior.

Menelaus, the aggrieved husband was also far from being

the best leader. The other contingents were there to fight a

war not of their own making, to fulfil their leaders' vow, and

with the hope of looting the city when they had captured it.

During the long siege many disagreements broke out among

the Greeks, and there was a constant threat that chiefs might

withdraw their troops from the fight at any time.

The Greek chiefs

The oldest and wisest Greek was Nestor, king of Pylos in the

west of the Peloponnese. He was respected in the Greek

councils of war and managed to survive the war, though his

best-loved son Archilochus was killed.

Achilles

To lure Iphigenia to Aulis, Agamemnon had pretended she

was to marry Achilles, and Clytemnestra hastened there with

her daughter because of the greatness of the match. Achilles

was the strongest, most ruthless and most successful warrior

of all those who fought at Troy. He was the son of Peleus and

Thetis, whose marriage, attended by all the gods, had seen

Eris sowing the seeds of disharmony with her golden apple. In

keeping with the tone of the wedding festivities, Achilles was

the product of a family that today might be described as

highly dysfunctional. Thetis had not wanted to marry a mortal

because he was her inferior, and she resented the fact that

her children would be mortal. She attempted to render

several sons - some say up to six - immortal by burning away

their mortal parts in a fire. In one version she succeeded and

they left Earth for Olympus, while in another version she only

succeeded in killing them. Peleus' intervention saved Achilles

from a similar fate, whatever it was, and Thetis had had to be

content with making him invulnerable to weapons by dipping

him in the river Styx. But her fingers had prevented the

waters reaching two tiny places on his ankle, and these (his

Achilles heel) were ultimately to be responsible for his death.

Soon after this, Thetis left Peleus to return to the sea, but

kept spasmodic contact with her son. Peleus for his part

went off to hunt the Calydonian boar and bring back the

Golden Fleece, but first entrusted Achilles to the wise

centaur Chiron to be educated on Mount Pelion.

Achilles had been one of Helen's suitors, and so was obliged

to go to Troy to reclaim her from Paris. Thetis knew that her

son would die if he went to Troy, so she disguised him as a

girl and hid him among the females in the palace on the

island of Scyros. But Odysseus, who had himself been

unwilling to go to Troy, discovered Achilles by placing a

variety of rich gifts on a table and inviting the women and

girls to take their pick. Then he ordered a war trumpet to

sound outside the hall. Achilles dropped his jewellery and

embroidered robes, and seized the shield and spear

Odysseus had cunningly placed among the gifts. He was thus

obliged to go to fight. Another story claims that Achilles was

told by a prophet on Scyros that he might have a short and

glorious life or a long life in total obscurity. He himself chose

the first, and gladly seized the occasion of the Trojan War to

win himself everlasting fame.

Ajax

The second most powerful warrior was Ajax of Aegina, called

the Great to distinguish him from another warrior of the

same name, commonly called Little Ajax. Ajax the Great was

a cousin of Achilles, an enormous man possessed of great

strength, courage and fighting skill. Unfortunately he was not

very bright, and lacked both guile and a persuasive tongue,

which put him at a disadvantage when dealing with his chief

rival, Odysseus.

Odysseus

Odysseus was not lacking in courage and strength, but he

was best-known for his cunning. After suggesting to

Tyndareos how to avoid future strife when Helen's husband

was chosen, he had married Penelope and become king of

the island of Ithaca, his father Laertes abdicating in his

favour. When messengers arrived summoning him to go to

Troy he was not pleased, as he had heard a prophecy that if

he went he would not return for twenty years, and then

alone and as a destitute beggar. So he pretended he had lost

his wits, and ploughed the seashore, scattering handfuls of

salt as if sowing seed. One of the heralds, Palamedes, put

down Odysseus' infant son Telemachus in front of the

plough, making the father stop to avoid injuring the child.

This

indicated that Odysseus was not insane because if he had

been, he would not have realised that he would injure his

son if he continued. So Odysseus went to Troy, but he never

forgave Palamedes for making him leave home.

Diomedes

Another warrior who is usually associated with Odysseus

was Diomedes of Argos. They were both clever and skilled

warriors, and favourites of Athene, but Diomedes was much

more reckless than Odysseus, even taking on gods when

they appeared before him on the battlefield, so confident

was he that Athene would protect him.

The war at Troy - fact or fiction?

The ancient Greeks and Romans had no doubts that a Greek

force had, in the remote past, sacked the city of Troy, and

that these events had been described by Homer and other

poets. Later European societies enjoyed the tales of Troy but

slowly came to believe they were only fantasy, and that rich

Troy and the equally wealthy Mycenaean cities in Greece

were pure myth. Then, in 1870, the German archaeologist

Heinrich Schliemann began digging on a low hill that was one

of several places where Troy might have been situated, and

uncovered the ruins of a manylayered city dating back to

around 2000 BC (the era when the Achaeans were invading

Greece), and possibly earlier. Today this is generally accepted

as the site of ancient Troy. Though it may never be proven, it

now seems quite possible that around 1250 BC warriors from

Greece combined to raid and destroy a trade rival, or to loot

a rich city, and, incidentally! to create a legend that has never

died.

When Paris carried off Helen to Troy it had not occurred to

him that he might be pursued by an army. In years past,

several women had been abducted from the east without

retaliation, including Europa, Medea and Ariadne. More

recently Hesione, sister of Priam, had been taken by Telemon

of Aegina after he had helped Heracles capture Troy. The

Trojans, completely captivated by Helen's beauty and

impressed by her status as daughter of Zeus, were proud of

their prince who had carried off such a prize, and, ignoring

the threat of war, refused on several occasions to return her.

PART TWO: THE TROJAN WAR

The beginning of the war

It had been prophesied that the first Greek ashore would be

the first to be killed, so all the great men prudently waited to

disembark until a minor hero, Protesilaus, had been killed by

Hector. The Greeks then forced their way ashore, established

a permanent camp and settled in for a lengthy siege. They

could not hope to breach the walls, which had been built

largely by Poseidon and Apollo, so they attempted to wear

down both the spirits and the resources of the Trojans by

slowly killing off their warriors and by attacking their allies to

force them to withdraw support.

The gods at Troy

There were many short battles outside the walls of Troy as

the Trojans attempted to push the Greeks off the land they

had occupied. The gods intervened freely in these

skirmishes to help their various favourites. Zeus was largely

neutral, but he could be provoked or seduced into taking

sides. Hera and Athene were implacable enemies of the

Trojans, because, in addition to resenting Paris for having

awarded the golden apple to Aphrodite, they each had

favourites among the Greek heroes. Poseidon was also

hostile to Troy, never having forgiven Laomedon for

cheating him out of his promised wages.

On the Trojan side were Aphrodite, who continued to

support Paris, and also looked after the interests of her son

Aeneas. Unlike the other offspring of Zeus, Aphrodite made

no pretence of being a warrior. On one occasion when

Aeneas was wounded and his mother simply seized him and

ran from the battlefield, she was pursued by Diomedes and

wounded in the hand. Diomedes was openly contemptuous

of the love goddess, but when he returned home after the

war he would find that she had taken her revenge.

On another occasion it was agreed that the war should be

settled in solo combat between Paris and Menelaus, but

when Paris was clearly getting the worst of it, Aphrodite

again intervened. She prudently wrapped herself in a cloud

this time, snatched Paris out of the fight and dropped him

back in his own bedroom - with Helen. Helen had been

watching the combat and abused Paris for being an inferior

warrior compared to her former husband. Paris laughed,

saying he'd win next time, and meantime they should make

the most of life. He then proceeded to demonstrate how in

one area at least (that of making love), he was much better

than Menelaus.

Artemis, Apollo and Ares also favoured the Trojans, but Ares

was an untrustworthy ally as he was capable of switching

sides to keep a battle going, and once he was actually chased

from the field by a mere mortal, the impetuous Diomedes.

Achilles at Troy

Like heroes who go on a quest, the Greeks had to meet

many conditions before they could capture Troy. When it

was foretold that Troy would not fall to the Greeks if

Priam's son Troilus reached the age of twenty, Achilles

undertook to slay him. However, when the Greek hero saw

Troilus and his sister Polyxena getting water from a sacred

spring, he fell in love with them and chased them. Polyxena

escaped Achilles for the moment, but Troilus was slain.

Accounts vary as to whether Troilus met his end during

excessively violent love making, or while he was claiming

sanctuary in a temple of Apollo, or simply during combat on

the battlefield. Achilles then asked Priam what he must do

to obtain his daughter Polyxena as his wife, and was told he

had to first betray the Greek camp to the Trojans. Achilles

was seriously considering this proposition when another

incident prompted him to withdraw his troops from the

Greek forces. This incident, commonly called 'The Wrath of

Achilles', is the best known story of the Trojan War, as it

forms the plot of Homer's epic the Iliad, the earliest

surviving work in Western literature and still one of the

greatest.

The Wrath of Achilles

During the raids made by the Greeks on the territories of

the allies of Troy, two young women were captured and

allocated as slaves: Briseis to Achilles and Chryseis to

Agamemnon. Chryseis was the daughter of a priest of

Apollo, who offered a large ransom for the return of his

daughter. Agamemnon refused to return her, so the priest

asked his god for help. Instead of destroying Agamemnon,

Apollo sent a plague to kill the Greek troops

indiscriminately, and Agamemnon was finally forced to give

up his concubine. But his pride was hurt, so he used his

power as commander-in-chief to demand Briseis from

Achilles instead. Now it was Achilles' turn to suffer hurt

pride, so he announced that he and his men would take no

further part in the war and retired to his tent to sulk.

Thetis was upset at her son's unhappiness and went up to

Olympus to ask Zeus to avenge the slight to her son's honour.

Zeus had a soft spot for Thetis she had, after all, sent the

hundred-handed monster Briareus to free him during the

Great Conspiracy and agreed to help. He put heart into the

Trojans and fear into their enemies until the Trojans reached

the Greek ships and began to set fire to them. Agamemnon

now offered to return Briseis, and also offered many gifts to

prove that the Greeks did really value the great hero, but

Achilles refused them contemptuously and declared that he

was going home the very next day. Meantime his close friend

Patroclus was touched by the plight of his comrades and,

borrowing Achilles' armour, dashed into the battle and

chased the Trojans back inside their walls. But by the city

gates he was met by Hector, who slew him and took Achilles'

armour as proof of his success. When Achilles heard the news

he at last shared a little of the grief he had inflicted on

countless others during his raids on cities and in his ruthless

efforts to establish himself as number-one hero of the day.

Totally unable to cope, he went almost insane with grief,

while those around him feared he would attempt suicide.

Thetis was very upset that her scheme to have Zeus avenge

her son's wrongs had ended by causing him even more grief,

and, after comforting him, she rushed to ask Hephaestus to

make him a new set of armour. Hephaestus was also aware

of what he owed Thetis, who had rescued and sheltered him

when Hera threw him from Olympus, and the very next day

Achilles put on his magnificent armour and weapons and

strode out looking for Hector. At first he was unable to find

his foe and in his wrath filled the river Scamander with Trojan

corpses. When he did find Hector, the Trojan was tricked by

Athene into thinking she was his brother Deiphobus coming

to his support. When she vanished he tried to run, but was no

match for the fleet-footed Achilles. After killing him, Achilles

tied the body to the back of his chariot and drove it back to

his camp in triumph. He buried Patroclus with magnificent

ceremony, funeral games and the sacrifice of twelve noble

Trojan captives. He then continued to take out his fury on the

body of Hector, refusing all offers of ransom and dragging it

every day around the walls of Troy. After eleven days King

Priam came in person to humbly beg for his son's body and at

Zeus' command Achilles accepted the ransom. The

description of the funeral of Hector concludes the Iliad. This

brief summary of its plot cannot convey the vitality, tragedy

and irony of the full story, and students should try to read at

least a small part of it in a good translation.

Achilles' further deeds and death

Many other stories were told of the deeds of Achilles. He

fought the Amazons who had come to help the Trojans and

killed their queen, Penthesileia, but even as his spear pierced

her breast he fell in love with her. Some accounts allege he

raped her as she died. The other Greeks wished to mutilate

and dishonour her body to show their contempt for a woman

who had dared to practise skills of warfare, which they

considered proper only for males. Achilles defended her, and

gave her an honourable burial.

Another of Achilles' victims was Memnon from Ethiopia, son

of Eos, goddess of the dawn and her husband Tithonus, who

was Priam's half-brother. Memnon killed Antilochus, Nestor's

son, and Achilles avenged the death of his young friend by

slaying Memnon in his turn. But finally it was Achilles turn to

die. He had slain enough men to guarantee that his fame

would last forever, and had aroused the anger of Poseidon

and Apollo with his arrogance and insolent boasting. During

battle Apollo directed an arrow from the bow of Paris into

Achilles' vulnerable ankle and he swiftly died from its

poisoned tip. The joy of the Trojans at the death of their

greatest enemy and the dismay of the Greeks were equally

unbounded. Fierce fighting raged around the corpse until

Achilles' cousin Ajax the Great risked his life to carry the body

from the battlefield.

The tragedy of Ajax the Great

Achilles was buried with due honour, but a dispute now

arose over who should inherit his armour. Ajax believed

that he deserved it as he was generally esteemed as a

warrior second only to his cousin; he had risked his life to

carry the body from the battlefield, and had always shown

devotion to Achilles. Athene, however, decided the armour

should be given to her favourite, Odysseus; she disliked

Ajax for boasting that he did not need the gods' help to

prevent the enemy from breaking the Greek line or to win

glory for his deeds.

Ajax was both hurt and angry and planned revenge, but

Athene temporarily sent him insane, and he slaughtered a

number of sheep and cows in the belief he was killing

those who had agreed to dishonour him. When he

recovered his senses, in shame he fastened his sword in

the ground and fell on it. Agamemnon and Menelaus, who

had been included in those Ajax had thought he was

killing, decided he deserved no honour as a traitor and

should lie unburied, but Odysseus felt pity for his rival and

insisted that he receive the funeral rites which were his

due. In due course Odysseus presented the armour to

Achilles' son Neoptolemus.

Odysseus and Palamedes

Odysseus was not so honourable in his treatment of

Palamedes, who had compelled him to honour his promise

and join the expedition against Troy. Odysseus was jealous

that Palamedes was called 'the wise' as he was himself

renowned for his cunning and was not prepared to accept

any rivals except the elderly Nestor. Finally he was moved to

action when Palamedes insulted his sense of honour.

Agamemnon had sent Odysseus on an expedition to gather

food, and, when he returned emptyhanded, Palamedes

accused him of being both lazy and a coward. Odysseus

challenged Palamedes to do better, whereupon Palamedes

set out at once and returned with a whole shipload of corn.

Not for nothing was Odysseus famous for his cunning, and he

thought up an ingenious scheme to get his revenge. He

invented an oracle that said the Greek camp had to be moved

temporarily, and he then buried a sack of gold under

Palamedes' tent. Next he claimed to have found a letter on a

prisoner he had slain. The letter, which he had written and

placed on the body himself, was apparently from Priam to

Palamedes telling him he had sent 'the gold' as payment for

agreeing to betray the Greek camp. Naturally Palamedes

denied receiving any gold so Odysseus suggested that his tent

be searched. The sack was unearthed and the Greeks stoned

Palamedes to death as a traitor.

Philoctetes and the death of Paris

Achilles had withdrawn his troops and

had genuinely contemplated turning

traitor, but by comparison to

Palamedes he was mourned, as the

chances of the Greeks taking Troy

seemed very small once he had died.

Now the Greek prophet Calchas

announced that Troy could not be

taken without aid from the bow and

arrows of Heracles, which had helped

in its capture years earlier. The two

greatest surviving Greek heroes, Odysseus and Diomedes,

pledged themselves to find the arrows and bring them to

Troy. They sailed off to where they had abandoned

Philoctetes and found him still suffering from the pain of his

foul-smelling wound. Odysseus tricked him into handing over

the bow but Diomedes refused to take away Philoctetes' only

means of survival and insisted he be taken back with them to

Troy. There he was finally cured, and took the field with

Heracles' weapons. His very first victim was Paris, who, when

injured, had himself carried to Mount Ida to beg his former

lover Oenone to heal him. But she refused, still bitter

because he had left her for Helen, and Paris, who had

brought so much destruction to his people, finally died.

Oenone was then overcome with grief and remorse and

killed herself.

Helenus and the Palladium

Priam's sons Helenus and Deiphobus now put their cases to

their father to be allowed to marry Helen. Priam awarded her

to Deiphobus as the better warrior, and in anger Helenus

turned traitor. He went to the Greeks, and, after requesting

safe conduct to another land, told them three additional

conditions they must meet to capture the city. Firstly they

must bring from Pisa to Troy the ivory shoulder blade which

Demeter had given Pelops. Next they must bring to Troy

Neoptolemus, the son whom Achilles had begotten while

hiding on the island of Scyros. Finally, they had to steal from

Troy the wooden image called the Palladium, because while

it remained inside the city, Troy would never fall to the

Greeks.

The first two condition were met relatively easily, but the

theft of the Palladium was more difficult. It was undertaken

by Odysseus and Diomedes, the two favourites of Athene,

who entered and left Troy through a sewer pipe. In the

enthusiasm of success Odysseus decided he would claim all

the credit and drew his sword to kill his friend, but

Diomedes, who was walking in front of him, saw the shadow

of the sword in the moonlight and, turning swiftly, disarmed

Odysseus.

The wooden horse

One major problem still remained: how to breach the walls

built by the gods? Athene now gave Odysseus the idea of

building the famous wooden horse. It was to be hollow, with

a cunningly concealed trapdoor and an inscription dedicating

it to Athene. Once it was built, some thirty Greek heroes hid

inside. The remainder burnt their camp and sailed some five

kilometres out to sea to hide on the island of Tenedos.

Next day, the Trojans woke to find the Greek camp burnt

to ashes, the ships gone and the plains before their city

empty, except for a great wooden horse. They could

scarcely believe that their ten-year ordeal was over, but

soon they began arguing about what they should do with

the horse. Some argued that a gift to Athene should be

treated with respect. Others argued that the goddess had

always favoured the Greeks and it was most likely the

horse was a trick and should be destroyed. The priest of

Poseidon, Laocoon, was particularly forceful in this view,

hurling a spear at the horse and declaring that the Greeks

should never be trusted, even when they offered gifts.

The story of Sinon

The Trojans were finally swayed by a brave and cunning

Greek, Sinon, who had stayed behind and allowed himself to

be caught. He pretended that he was hated by Odysseus

because he was a cousin of Palamedes. The Greeks had

realised they could never take Troy, he said, and had long

since wished to go home, but the winds had been against

them. Calchas said they must make another sacrifice, just as

they had made one to sail from Aulis ten years earlier.

Odysseus had persuaded the Greeks to choose Sin on, and

he was at the very altar awaiting the knife when the wind

had changed. In the rush to leave his captors had forgotten

him, allowing him to escape. The horse, he explained, was

an offering to placate Athene, who had been angry at the

theft of her Palladium. It had been made too large to be

taken inside the city because if it was pulled inside it would

bring great blessings on the Trojans. The Greeks, however,

hoped the Trojans would attempt to destroy it, because

then Athene would be angry, and would destroy Troy.

The tale Sin on told was a very clever mixture of truth and

lies. The Trojans knew that Odysseus had hated Palamedes,

that Iphigenia had been sacrificed to allow the Greek fleet to

sail, and that the Palladium had been stolen. They did not

know that Sin on was the cousin of Odysseus, not

Palamedes, or that he

had been carefully coached in his tale by the master of

cunning, and that no sacrifice had been demanded for the

Greeks' return. Above all, they did not know that Athene was

not unhappy about the theft of the Palladium and was, in

fact, masterminding the whole scheme.

The death of Laocoon

While the Trojans were wondering whether Sinon was to be

trusted, Laocoon was making a sacrifice to Poseidon on the

seashore, accompanied by his two sons. Suddenly he was

attacked by two terrible sea serpents who killed all three of

them and then entered the city and hid themselves in

Athene's temple. The Trojans recognised divine intervention

when they saw it and thought Laocoon had been punished

for damaging Athene's horse. They failed to realise that

Athene was really punishing him for his efforts to save his

city and thus thwart her plans to destroy Troy.

The capture of Troy

The Trojans hesitated no longer but pulled down part of

their walls to bring the horse inside the city, ignoring both

Cassandra's warnings and the clash of armour and weapons

from inside the horse as it bumped over the uneven ground.

Then they began to celebrate victory with feasting and

general revelling, decorating the gods' shrines to thank them

for the victory. By nightfall, all the inhabitants of Troy were

completely exhausted with the excitement and activity of

the day, and many were also drunk with wine. As they

collapsed in sleep, a deep silence fell over the city. Now

Sinon moved. With a torch he signalled to the Greeks waiting

on Tenedos to return, and released his compatriots from the

horse. They slew the guards at the gates and flung open all

entrances to admit the returning army. Soon there arose the

noise of destruction and battle. The Trojans, who had gone

to sleep believing the war was over awoke abruptly to find

that indeed it was, but it was they who had been defeated.

The city was full of armed and exultant Greek warriors and

resistance was disorganised and largely futile. By morning, it

was all over.

PART THREE: AFTER THE TROJAN WAR

The victory of the Greeks at Troy could not have been more

complete. All the Trojan men were slaughtered and the

women and children were taken as slaves, as was the custom

in the ancient world at the end of a siege. The victors looted

the city and burnt it, destroying it completely. An ancient

proverb, 'Now there is a cornfield where once there was

Troy', emphasised the transitory nature of all human wealth

and accomplishments.

The fate of individual Trojans

• King Priam took refuge at an altar in his palace, but when

he saw his son Po lites being pursued and stabbed by

Neoptolemus he could not restrain himself and threw a

spear at his son's attacker. The weapon bounced

uselessly off the armour of Neoptolemus, who then

seized the old man, dragged him from the altar, stabbed

him and left his headless body unburied on the shore.

• Hecabe was allocated to Odysseus but she abused him

and his men so much for their deeds that in exasperation

they killed her. Her ultimate fate was to be turned into

one of the black bitches that accompany the goddess

Hecate in the underworld.

• Cassandra took refuge at the altar of Athene and was

dragged away from the shrine by Little Ajax. Agamemnon

then claimed her but, unlike Apollo, did not respect her

virginity. When he took her back to Mycenae she and her

infant twins were slain by Clytemnestra.

• Polyxena was sacrificed at Achilles' tomb when his ghost

complained he was not getting his share of the victory

spoils.

• Because of his services in revealing how Troy might be

captured, Helenus was not slain, but he was not freed

either. He and Andromache were both allocated to

Neoptolemus as slaves.

• Andromache's son was not allowed to live. It was argued

that a hero's son might attempt to avenge the death of

his father, so Odysseus seized Astyanax from his mother's

arms and threw him off the battlements of Troy.

• Deiphobus paid a high price for his brief possession of the

world's greatest beauty. Helen had loved Paris but had no

such feelings for Deiphobus and he took her by force.

After Troy fell, to avert the anger of her former husband

Menelaus, Helen led Menelaus into the bedroom of her

current husband, from which she had removed all

weapons. Menelaus seized Deiphobus as he was sleeping

and mutilated him by cutting off his nose, ears and other

parts of his body before killing him. The king of Sparta was

also intending to murder Helen, but was so overcome by

her beauty that he changed his mind and took her once

more as his wife. It may also have struck him that as the

war had been fought on her account it would have been a

waste not to retrieve his property.

• Creusa did not leave Troy alive, though accounts vary

about exactly how she died. Aeneas first joined the futile

Trojan resistance, until he was told by Aphrodite to leave

the city. She then protected him, his son Ilus and his

father Anchises while they escaped, Aeneas carrying his

crippled father on his shoulders and leading his son by the

hand. But Anchises panicked when he saw some soldiers,

and Aeneas took off, forgetting all about Creusa. He

returned to look for her and was told by her ghost that he

had a great destiny in another land. Aeneas' story then

passes into Roman mythology.

The fate of individual Greeks

The Greeks had waited ten years to take Troy, living in

uncomfortable conditions far from their homes and

families, and had seen many of their companions die. It is

not surprising therefore that when they had the city and its

inhabitants at their mercy they displayed less politeness

and consideration than the gods expected. They committed

many atrocities and were duly punished for them in a

variety of ways. Many were caught in storms and did not

reach home, and many of those who did found that during

the ten years they had been away, rivals had taken over.

• Agamemnon took around a year to reach Mycenae and

his wife Clytemnestra at last took revenge for the

death of her daughter when she and her lover

Aegisthus slew him in his bath.

• Menelaus and Helen were caught in a storm and carried

first to Crete and then to Egypt. After eight years in exile

they at last made their way back to Sparta and lived out

their lives peacefully together.

• Diomedes returned to Argos and found that Aphrodite

had taken her revenge for his wounding her by making

his wife unfaithful. Eventually he was driven into exile

and established another kingdom for himself in Italy.

• Philoctetes and a number of other warriors were also

driven into exile and founded cities elsewhere, and it is

suggested that this may be a legendary memory of the

Greek migrations in the eleventh century BC.

• Little Ajax was shipwrecked on the way home

and managed to swim to a rock near the shore. He then

called out that he had saved himself, despite the ill-will of

the gods. Either Poseidon or Athene took offence and

smashed the rock he was clinging to, and Ajax was

drowned.

• Neoptolemus was advised by Thetis not to go home by

sea and took the long land route back to Phthia in

Greece. He then established a new kingdom in Epirus,

married Hermione, daughter of Helen and Menelaus, and

was eventually killed

at Delphi, leaving Hermione free to marry her cousin

Orestes.

• The wise Nestor appeared to be the only Greek who

avoided cruelty or arrogance, and as his reward he was

allowed to return without undue delay to his home at

Pylos, where he reached a ripe old age in peace and

prosperity.

• Odysseus spent ten years returning to his home of

Ithaca, because he loat favour with Posiedon. This

famous story is told in Homer’s the Odyssey