Encyclopedia
The
Trojan War was a war waged, according to legend, against the city of
Troy in
Asia Minor , by the armies of the Achaeans, after
Paris of Troy stole
Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of
Sparta. The war is among the most important events in
Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, of which the two most famous are the
Iliad is, together with the
Odyssey [i], one of two ancient Greek [i] epic [i]...
and the
Odyssey is one of the two major ancient Greek [i] epic poem [i] ...
of
Homer. The
Iliad relates a part of the last year of the siege of Troy, and the
Odyssey describes the journey home of
Odysseus, one of the Achaean leaders. Other parts of the story were narrated in a cycle of epic poems, which has only survived in fragments. Episodes from the war provided material for Greek tragedy and other works of Greek literature, and Roman poets like
Virgil and
Ovid.
The war sprang from a quarrel between the goddesses
Athena, Hera and
Aphrodite, after the goddess Eris gave them a golden apple with the inscription "to the fairest" . The goddesses went to Paris, who
judged that Aphrodite, as the "fairest", should receive the apple. In exchange, Aphrodite made
Helen, the most beautiful of all women, fall in love with Paris, who took her to Troy.
Agamemnon, king of
Mycenae, and the brother of Helen's husband Menelaus, led an expedition of Achaean troops to Troy and besieged the city for ten years. After the deaths of many heroes, including the Achaeans
Achilles and Aias, or Ajax, and the Trojans
Hector and Paris, the city fell to the ruse of the
Trojan Horse. The Achaeans mercilessly slaughtered the Trojans and desecrated the temples, thus earning the gods' wrath. Few of the Achaeans returned to their homes and many founded colonies in distant shores. The
Romans later traced their origin to
Aeneas, one of the Trojans, who was said to have led the surviving Trojans to Italy.
Ancient Greeks believed that the Trojan War was a historical event. They believed that this war took place in the
13th or 12th century BC, and that Troy was located in the vicinity of the
Dardanelles in what is now north-western Turkey. By modern times both the war and the city were widely believed to be non-historical. In 1870, however, the German
archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann excavated a site in this area which he believed to be the site of Troy, and at least some archaeologists agree. There remains no certain evidence that Homer's Troy ever existed, still less that any of the events of the Trojan War cycle ever took place. Many scholars would agree that there is a historical core to the tale, though this may simply mean that the Homeric stories are a fusion of various stories of
sieges and expeditions by the Greeks of the
Bronze Age or
Mycenean period. Those who think that the stories of the Trojan War derive from a specific historical conflict usually date it to between 1300 BC and 1200 BC, usually preferring the dates given by
Eratosthenes which roughly corresponds with the burning of Troy VIIa.
Sources
The events of the Trojan War were narrated in many works of Greek literature and depicted in numerous works of
Greek art. There is no single, authoritative text which tells the entire story of the war. Instead, the story is assembled from many different sources, which sometimes report contradictory versions of events. The most important literary sources are the two epic poems traditionally credited to
Homer, the
Iliad is, together with the
Odyssey [i], one of two ancient Greek [i] epic [i]...
and the
Odyssey is one of the two major ancient Greek [i] epic poem [i] ...
, composed sometime between the ninth and sixth centuries BC. Each poem narrates only a part of the war. The
Iliad covers a short period in the last year of the siege of Troy, while the
Odyssey concerns Odysseus's return to his home island of Ithaca after the sack of Troy.
Other parts of the Trojan War were told in the poems of the Epic Cycle, also known as the Cyclic Epics: the
Kypria,
Aithiopis,
Little Iliad,
Iliou Persis,
Nostoi, and
Telegony. These poems only survive in fragments, but their content is known from a summary included in Proclus'
Chrestomathy. The authorship of the Cyclic Epics is uncertain. It is thought that the poems were written down in the seventh and sixth century BC, after the composition of the Homeric poems.
Both the Homeric epics and the Epic Cycle had their origins in a flourishing oral tradition of stories of the Trojan War. Even after the composition of the
Iliad,
Odyssey, and the Cyclic Epics, the myths of the Trojan War were passed on orally, in many genres of poetry and through non-poetic storytelling. Events and details of the story that are only found in later authors may have been passed on through oral tradition and could be as old as the Homeric poems. Visual art, such as vase-painting, was another medium in which myths of the Trojan War circulated.
In later ages playwrights, historians and other intellectuals would create works inspired by the Trojan War. The three great tragedians of
Athens,
Aeschylus,
Sophocles and
Euripides, wrote many dramas that portray episodes from the Trojan War. Among Roman writers the most important is the 1st century BC poet
Virgil. In Book 2 of the
Aeneid : is a Latin [i] epic [i] written by Virgil [i] in the 1st century BC [i] th ...
,
Aeneas narrates the sack of Troy; this section of the poem is thought to rely on material from the Cyclic Epic
Iliou Persis.
The following summary of the Trojan War follows the order of events as given in Proclus' summary along with the
Iliad,
Odyssey, and
Aeneid, supplemented with details drawn from other authors.
Origins of the war
The plan of Zeus
- For the foundation of Troy and her first fall to Heracles see .
According to Greek mythology,
Zeus had become king of the gods by overthrowing his father
Cronus; Cronus in turn had overthrown his father
Ouranos. Zeus was not faithful to his wife Hera and had many relationships from which many children were born. Since there were too many people populating the earth already he came up along with either Momos or
Themis with the idea of the Trojan War in order to depopulate the Earth, especially of his demigod descendants.
The marriage of Peleus and Thetis, the Apple of Discord, and the Judgment of Paris
- See also Judgement of Paris
...
.
Zeus came to learn from either
Themis or
Prometheus, after
Heracles had released him from
Caucasus, that he himself would be overthrown by a son. Another prophecy said of the sea-nymph
Thetis, with whom Zeus had an affair, that her son would be greater than his father. Possibly for one or both of these reasons, Thetis was betrothed to a now-elderly human king,
Peleus son of Aiakos, either upon Zeus' orders, or because Thetis wished to please Hera since she had raised her.
All of the gods were invited to Peleus and Thetis' wedding and brought gifts, except Eris . Insulted, she either attended invisibly and brought a gift of her own or threw it from the door: Her gift was a golden apple on which were inscribed the words
Te Kallisti, . The apple was claimed by Hera,
Athena, and
Aphrodite. They quarreled bitterly over it, and none of the other gods would venture an opinion favoring one, for fear of earning the enmity of the other two. Eventually, Zeus ordered
Hermes to lead the three goddesses to Paris, a prince of
Troy, who, unaware of his ancestry, was being raised as a
shepherd in Mount Ida, because of a prophecy that he would be the downfall of Troy. The goddesses tried to bribe the shepherd. Athena offered Paris wisdom, skill in battle, and the abilities of the greatest warriors; Hera offered him political power and control of all of
Asia, and Aphrodite offered him the love of the most beautiful woman in the world. Paris awarded the apple to Aphrodite, and, after several adventures, returned to Troy and was recognized by his family.
To Peleus and Thetis a son was born, named
Achilles. It was foretold that he would either die of old age after an uneventful life, or die young in a battlefield and gain immortality through poetry. Furthermore Calchas had prophesied, when Achilles was nine, that Troy could not fall again without his help. As an infant Thetis tried to make Achilles immortal. First she held him over fire to burn away his mortal parts every night and rubbed him with ambrosia during the day Peleus, who had already lost six sons this way, discovered this and stopped it. Then she bathed him in the River Styx, making him invulnerable wherever he had touched the water. She had held him by the heel, so that part remained mortal, and so he remained human and not a god . He grew up to be the greatest of all mortal warriors. After Calchas' prophesy Thetis hid Achilles in Skyros at the court of king Lycomedes where he was disguised as a girl.
The elopement of Paris and Helen
The most beautiful woman in the world was Helen, one of the daughters of Tyndareus, king of Sparta. Her mother was Leda, who had been seduced by Zeus in the form of a
swan; accounts differ over which of Leda's four children were fathered by Zeus and which by Tyndareus. Helen though is usually given as Zeus' daughter and sometimes Nemesis is given as her mother. Helen had
scores of suitors, and her father was unwilling to choose one for fear the others would retaliate violently.
Finally, one of the suitors,
Odysseus of Ithaca, proposed a plan to solve the dilemma. In exchange for Tyndareus' support of his own suit towards
Penelope, he suggested that Tyndareus allow Helen to choose her husband and require all of Helen's suitors to promise that they would defend the marriage of Helen, regardless of whom she chose. The suitors duly swore the required oath on the severed pieces of a horse, although not without a certain amount of grumbling.
Helen chose Menelaus to wed. He had humbly not petitioned for her himself, but instead sent his brother
Agamemnon on his behalf. He had promised Aphrodite a hecatomb, a sacrifice of 100 oxen, if he won Helen, but forgot about it, and earned her wrath. The two brothers had been living at Tyndareus' court since being exiled from their homeland of
Argos after their father,
Atreus, was killed and had his throne usurped by his brother Thyestes and Thyestes' son
Aegisthus. Menelaus inherited Tyndareus' throne of Sparta with Helen as his queen when her brothers
Castor and Pollux became gods and Agamemnon married Helen's sister Clytemnestra and took back the throne of Argos.
On a diplomatic mission to Sparta, Paris fell in love with Helen. Menelaus had to leave for
Crete to bury his uncle Crateus. Paris with Aphrodite's help, kidnapped or seduced her and sailed to Troy carrying part of Menelaus' treasure. Hera, still jealous over his judgement sent a storm. . Then the ship landed in
Sidon before reaching Troy. Paris, fearful of getting caught, spent some time there and then sailed to Troy.
Paris' abduction of Helen had several precedents. Io was taken from
Argos, Eurropa, was taken from
Phoenicia,
Jason took
Medea from
Colchis, and the Trojan princess Hesione had been taken by
Heracles who gave her to
Telamon of Salamis. According to Herodotus, Paris was emboldened by these examples to steal himself a wife from Greece, and expected no retribution, since there had been none in the other cases.
The gathering of Achean forces and the first expedition
Menelaus asked Agamemnon to uphold his oath. He agreed and sent him Nestor along with other emissaries to all the Achean kings and princes, who were called to make good their oaths and retrieve Helen.
Odysseus and Achilles
Odysseus had by this time married
Penelope and fathered a son,
Telemachus. In order to avoid the war, he feigned madness, and sowed his fields with salt. Palamedes outwitted him by putting his infant son in front of the plough, and Odysseus turned aside, unwilling to kill his son, and so revealed his sanity and joined the war.
At Skyros Achilles had an affair with the king's daughter Deidamea, resulting in a child,
Neoptolemus. Odysseus, Telamonian Aias, and Achilles' tutor Phoenix went to retrieve Achilles. Achilles' mother disguised him as a woman so that he wouldn't need to go to war, but, according to one story they blew a horn, and Achilles revealed himself by seizing a spear to fight intruders rather than fleeing. According to another, they disguised themselves as merchants bearing trinkets and weaponry, and Achilles was marked out from the other women by admiring the wrong goods.
Pausanias says that according to Homer, Achilles did not hide in Scyros, but rather conquered the island, as part of the Trojan War.
First gathering at Aulis
The Achean forces gathered at Aulis. All the suitors sent their forces except King Cinyras of Cyprus. Though he sent breastplates to Agamemnon and promised to send 50 ships, he sent only one real ship led by the son of Mygdalion and 49 ships made of mud. King Echepolus of Sicyon convinced Agamemnon not to participate by offering the mare Aethe as a gift. Idomeneus was willing to lead the Cretan contingent in Mycenae's war against Troy, but only as a co-commander which he was granted. The last one to arrive was Achilles, who was then 15 years old.
Following a sacrifice to Apollo, a snake slithered from the altar to a sparrow's nest in a plane tree nearby. It ate the mother and her eight babies, then was turned to stone. Calchas interpreted this as a sign that Troy would fall in the tenth year of the war.
Telephus
When the Acheans left for the war, they did not know the way, and accidentally landed in
Mysia, ruled by King Telephus son of Heracles who had led a contingent of Arcadians to settle there. In the battle, Achilles wounded Telephus, who had killed Thersander. The wound would not heal so Telephus asked an oracle "What will happen to the wound?". The oracle responded, "he that wounded shall heal". The Achean fleet then set sail and was scattered by a storm. Achilles landed in Scyros and married Deidameia. A new gathering was set again in Aulis. or kidnapped Orestes and held him for ransom, demanding the wound be healed. Achilles refused, claiming to have no medical knowledge. Odysseus reasoned that the spear had inflicted the wound and the spear must be able to heal it. Pieces of the spear were scraped off onto the wound, and Telephus was healed. Then Telephus showed the Acheans the route to Troy.
The second gathering
Eight years after the storm had scattered them, the fleet of more than a thousand ships was gathered again. But when they had all reached Aulis, the winds ceased. The prophet Calchas stated that the goddess
Artemis was punishing Agamemnon for killing a sacred deer and boasting that he was a better hunter than she. or of Helen and
Theseus entrusted to Clytemnestra when Helen married Menelaus. Agamemnon refused, and the other commanders threatened to make Palamedes commander of the expedition. According to some versions, Agamemnon relented, but others claim that he sacrificed a deer in her place, or that at the last moment, Artemis took pity on the girl, and took her to be a maiden in one of her temples, substituting a lamb.
The Achean forces are described in detail in the
Catalogue of Ships, in the second book of the
Iliad. They consisted of 28 contingents from mainland Greece, the
Peloponnese, the Dodecanese islands,
Crete and Ithaca, comprising 1178 pentekontoroi, that is ships with 50 rowers. Thucydides says that according to tradition there were about 1200 ships, the Boeotian ships had 120 men while Philoctetes ships only had the fifty rowers, these probably being maximum and minimum. These numbers would mean a total force of 70,000 to 130,000. Another catalogue of ships is given by Apollodorus that differs somewhat but agrees in numbers. Some scholars have claimed that Homer's catalogue is an original Bronze age document, possibly the Achaean commander's order of operations. Others believe it was a fabrication of Homer.
The Trojan allies are also listed in the second book of the Iliad, consisting of the Trojans themselves, led by
Hector, and various allies listed as Dardanians led by
Aeneas, Zeleians, Adrasteians, Percotians, Pelasgians,
Thracians, Ciconian spearmen, Paionian archers, Halizones,
Mysians,
Phrygians,
Maeonians,
Miletians,
Lycians led by
Sarpedon and Carians. Nothing is said of the Trojan language; the Carians are specifically said to be barbarian-speaking, and the allied contingents are said to have spoken multiple languages, requiring orders to be translated by their individual commanders. It should be noted though that the Trojans and Acheans in the
Iliad share the same religion, same culture and the enemy heroes speak to each other in the same language, though this could be dramatic effect.
For Virgil Dardanus, founder of Troy was from Italy . According to Greek mythographers though he was Arcadian and thus the Trojan War was a Greek civil war.
Nine years of war
Philoctetes
Philoctetes was
Heracles' friend and, because he lit Heracles's funeral pyre when no one else would, he received Heracles' bow and arrows. He sailed with seven ships full of men to the Trojan War, where he was planning on fighting for the Acheans. They stopped either at Chryse for supplies, or in
Tenedos along with the rest of the fleet. Philoctetes was then bitten by a snake. The wound festered and had a foul smell; Odysseus advised, and the Atreidae ordered Philoctetes to stay on
Lemnos. From Tenedos Agamemnon sent an embassy to Priam composed of Menelaus, Odysseus and Palamedes asking for Helen's return. Priam refused.
Philoctetes stayed on Lemnos for ten years, which was a deserted island according to Sophocles' tragedy
Philoctetes, but according to earlier tradition was populated by Minyans.
Arrival
Calchas had prophesied that the first Achean to walk on land after stepping off a ship, would be the first to die. Thus even Achilles hesitated to land. Finally Protesilaus, leader of the Phylaceans, landed first.. Achilles jumped second and killed Cycnus son of Poseidon. The Trojans then fled to the safety of the walls of their city. Protesilaus had killed many Trojans but was killed by
Hector or Aeneas, Achates or Ephorbus. The Acheans buried him as a god on the Thracian peninsula, across the Troad.. After Protesilaus' death, his brother, Podarces, joined the war in his place.
Achilles' campaigns
The Acheans besieged Troy for nine years. This part of the war is the least developed among surviving sources, which prefer to talk about events in the last year of the war. After the initial landing the army was gathered in its entirety again only in the tenth year, due to lack of money as Thucydides deduces. They raided the Trojan allies and spent time farming the Thracian peninsula. Troy was never completely besieged, thus it maintained communications with the interior of
Asia Minor. Reinforcements continued to come until the very end. Also the Acheans controlled only the entrance to the Dardanelles, Troy and her allies controlled the shortest point at Abydos and Sestus and communicated with allies in Europe.
Achilles was the most active of the Acheans. According to Homer he conquered 11 cities and 12 islands. According to Apollodorus he raided the land of Aeneas in the Troad region and stole his cattle. He also captured Lyrnassus and Pedasus and many of the neighbouring cities, and killed Troilus, son of Priam who was 19 and was said that if he reached 20 Troy would not fall. Then:
- He also took Lesbos and Phocaea, then Colophon, and Smyrna, and Clazomenae, and Cyme; and afterwards Aegialus and Tenos, the so-called Hundred Cities; then, in order, Adramytium and Side; then Endium, and Linaeum, and Colone. He took also Hypoplacian Thebes and Lyrnessus, and further Antandrus, and many other cities.
Kakrides comments that the list is wrong in that it extends too far into the south. Other sources talk of him taking Pedasus,Monenia Mythemna and Peisidice.
Among the loot from these cities was
Briseis from Lyrnessus who was awarded to him and Chryseis from Hypoplacian Thebes who was awarded to Agamemnon. while he was cutting branches in his father's orchards.
Patroclus sold him as a slave in Lemnos,
The campaigns of Aias
Aias the Telamonian laid waste the Thracian peninsula of which Polymestor, a son-in-law of Priam, was king. Polymestor surrendered Polydorus, one of Priam's children, of whom he had custody. He then attacked the town of the Phrygian king Teleutas, killed him in single combat and carried off his daughter Tecmessa. Aias also hunted the Trojan flocks, both on Mount Ida and in the countryside.
Achilles and Aias playing pentagram
From paintings on pottery we know of one tale of this war not mentioned in the literary traditions. At some point in the war Achilles and Aias were playing pentagram and were absorbed in the game. The Trojans attacked and reached the heroes, who were only saved by an intervention of Athena.
The death of Palamedes
Odysseus was sent to Thrace to return with grain but came back empty handed. When scorned by Palamedes he challenged him to do better. Palamedes set out also and returned with a shipload.
Odysseus had never forgiven Palamedes for threatening the life of his son. So Odysseus conceived a plot. An incriminating letter was forged, from Priam to Palamedes. Gold was planted in Palamedes' quarters. The letter and gold were "discovered", and Agamemnon had Palamedes stoned to death for treason.
However, Pausanias quoting the
Cypria, says that Odysseus and
Diomedes drowned Palamedes, while he was fishing, and Dictys says that Odysseus and Diomedes, lured Palamedes into a well, which they said contained gold, then stoned him to death.
Palamedes' father Nauplius sailed to the Troad and asked for justice, but was refused. In revenge Nauplius traveled among the Achaean kingdoms and told the wives of the kings that they were bringing Trojan concubines to dethrone them. Many of the Greek wives were persuaded to betray their husbands, most significantly Agamemnon's wife, Clytemnestra with
Aegisthus, son of Thyestes.
The Iliad
Chryses, a priest of Apollo and father of Chryseis, came to Agamemnon to ask for the return of his daughter. Agamemnon refused, and insulted Chryses, who prayed to Apollo to avenge his ill-treatment. Enraged, Apollo afflicted the Achaean army with plague. Agamemnon was forced to return Chryseis to end the plague, and took Achilles' concubine
Briseis as his own. Enraged at the dishonor Agamemnon had inflicted upon him, Achilles decided he would no longer fight. He asked his mother, Thetis, to intercede with Zeus, who agreed to give the Trojans success in the absence of Achilles, the best warrior of the Achaeans.
After the withdrawal of Achilles, the Achaeans were initially successful. Both armies gathered in full for the first time since the landing. Menelaus and Paris fought a duel, which ended when Aphrodite snatched the beaten Paris from the field. The truce was broken, the Achean army nearly reached the wall, and
Diomedes, with the assistance of Athena, nearly killed
Aeneas, and wounded the gods
Aphrodite and
Ares. Through the next days, however, the Trojans had the upper hand. They drove back the Acheans to their camp. On the first day of the Trojan attack they were stopped at the Achean wall by Poseidon. The next day, though, with Zeus' help, the Trojans broke into the Achaean camp and were on the verge of setting fire to the Achaean ships. An earlier appeal to Achilles to return was rejected, but after Hector burned Protesilaus' ship, he allowed his close friend and relative Patroclus to go into battle wearing Achilles' armor and leading his army. Patroclus drove the Trojans back all the way to the walls of Troy and was only prevented from storming the city by the intervention of Apollo. Patroclus was then killed by Hector , who took Achilles' armor from the body of Patroclus.
Achilles, maddened with grief, swore to kill Hector in revenge. He was reconciled with Agamemnon and received Briseis back, untouched by Agamemnon. He received a new set of arms, forged by the god
Hephaestus, and returned to the battlefield. He slaughtered many Trojans, and nearly killed Aeneas, who was saved by Poseidon. Achilles fought with the river Scamander, and a battle of the gods followed. The Trojan army returned to the city, except for Hector, who remained outside because he was tricked by
Athena. Achilles killed Hector, and afterwards he dragged Hector's body from his chariot and refused to return the body to the Trojans for burial. The Achaeans then conducted funeral games for Patroclus. Afterwards, Priam came to Achilles' tent, guided by
Hermes, and asked Achilles to return Hector's body. The armies made a temporary truce to allow the burial of the dead. The
Iliad ends with the funeral of Hector.
After the Iliad
Penthesilea and the death of Achilles
Shortly after the burial of Hector, Penthesilea, queen of the
Amazons arrived with her warriors. Penthesilea, daughter of Otrere and Ares, had killed by accident her sister Hippolyte. She was purified from this by Priam and in exchange, she fought for him and killed many, including Machaon and according to one version Achilles himself, who was resurrected at the request of Thetis. Penthesilia was then killed by Achilles who fell in love with her beauty, after her death. Thersites, a simple soldier and the ugliest Achaean, taunted Achilles over his love Achilles slew Thersites, and after a dispute sailed to Lesbos where he was purified for his murder by Odysseus after sacrificing to Apollo, Artemis and Leto. came with his host to help his stepbrother Priam. He did not come directly from Ethiopia, but either from
Susa in Persia, conquering all the peoples in between, or from the
Caucasus, leading an army of Ethiopians and Indians. He wore armor made by Hephaestus, like Achilles. In the ensuing battle, Memnon killed Achilles' intimate friend Antilochus, who took one of Memnon's blows to save his father Nestor. Then Achilles and Memnon fought. Zeus weighed the fate of the two heroes, and the wale containing that of Memnon sank, and Memnon was slain by Achilles. Achilles chased the Trojans to their city which he entered. The gods, seeing that he had killed too many of their children decided that it was his time to die. He was killed by Paris with a poisoned arrow that was guided by Apollo. In another version he is killed by a knife to the back by Paris while marrying
Polyxena daughter of Priam in the temple of Thymbraean Apollo, the site where he had earlier killed Troilus. Both versions conspicuously deny the killer any sort of valour, saying Achilles remained undefeated on the battlefield. His bones were mingled with those of Patroclus, and funeral games were held. Like Ajax, he is represented as living after his death in the island of
Leuke at the mouth of the
Danube where he is married to Helen. Funeral games were held in his honor.
The Judgment of Arms: Achilles' armour and the death of Aias
A great battle raged around the dead Achilles. Odysseus held back the Trojans, while Aias carried the body away. Alternatively the Trojans and Pallas Athena were the judges in that, following Nestor's advice, spies were sent to the walls to overhear what was said. A girl said that Aias was braver:
- For Aias took up and carried out of the strife the hero, Peleus'
- son: this great Odysseus cared not to do.
- To this another replied by Athena's contrivance:
- Why, what is this you say? A thing against reason and untrue!
- Even a woman could carry a load once a man had put it on her
- shoulder; but she could not fight. For she would fail with fear
- if she should fight.
According to Pindar, the decision was by secret ballot among the Acheans. In any case the arms were awarded to Odysseus. Driven mad with grief, Aias desired to kill his comrades, but Athena caused him to mistake the cattle and their herdsmen, for the Achean wariors. In his frenzy he scourged two rams, believing them to be Agamemnon and Menelaus. In the morning, he came to his senses and killed himself by jumping on the sword that had been given to him by Hector, so that it pierced his armpit, his only vulnerable part. According to an older tradition he was killed by the Trojans who, seeing he was invulnerable, attacked him with clay until he was covered by it and could no longer move, thus dying of starvation.
The prophecies
After the tenth year, it was prophesied that Troy could not fall without Heracles' bow . So Odysseus and Diomedes retrieved Philoctetes, whose wound was healed. Philoctetes then shot and killed Paris.
According to Apollodorus, Paris' brothers Helenus and Deiphobus vied over the hand of Helen. Deiphobus prevailed and Helenus abandoned Troy for Mt. Ida. But Chalcas said that Helenus knew the prophecies concerning the fall of Troy, so Odysseus waylaid Helenus. Under coercion, Helenus told the Acheans that they would win, if they retrieved Pelops' bones, persuaded Achilles' son
Neoptolemus to fight for them, and stole the Trojan
Palladium.
The Greeks retrieved Pelop's bones, and sent Odysseus to retrieve Neoptolemus, who was hiding from the war in king Lycomedes's court in Scyros. Odysseus gave him his father's arms. Eurypylus, son of Telephus, leading a large force of
Kêteioi according to Homer or
Mysians according to Apollodorus, arrived to aid the Trojans. He killed Machaon and Peneleus but was slain by Neoptolemus.
Disguised as a beggar, Odysseus went to spy inside Troy, but was recognized by Helen. Homesick, Helen plotted with Odysseus. Later, with Helen's help, Odysseus and Diomedes stole the Palladium.
Trojan Horse
The end of the war came with one final plan. Odysseus devised a new ruse — a giant hollow wooden horse, an animal that was sacred to the Trojans. It was built by Epeius, guided by Athena, from the wood of a
cornel tree grove sacred to Apollo, with the inscription:
- The Greeks dedicate this thank-offering to Athena for their return home.
The hollow horse was filled with soldiers led by Odysseus. The rest of the army burned the camp and sailed for
Tenedos.
When the Trojans discovered that the Greeks were gone, believing the war was over, they "joyfully dragged the horse inside the city", while they debated what to do with it. Some thought they ought to hurl it down from the rocks, others to burn it, while others said they ought to dedicate it to Athena.
Both
Cassandra and
Laocoön warned against keeping the horse. But Cassandra, given the gift of prophecy by Apollo, was also cursed by Apollo to never be believed. Then serpents came out of the sea and devoured, either Laocoön and one of his two sons, or only his sons, a portent which so alarmed the followers of Aeneas that they withdrew to Ida.
Some have suggested that the Trojan Horse actually represents an
earthquake that occurred between the wars that could have weakened Troy's walls and left them open for attack. Structural damage on Troy VI — its location being the same as that represented in Homer's
Iliad and the artifacts found there suggesting it was a place of great trade and power — shows signs that there was indeed an earthquake. Generally though today Troy VIIa is believed to be Homer's Troy .
Others have suggested that the Horse was a piece of siege machinery. Pausanias wrote:
- That the work of Epeius was a contrivance to make a breach in the Trojan wall is known to everybody who does not attribute utter silliness to the Phrygians.
where by Phrygians he means the Trojans. Karykas
The sack of Troy
The Acheans entered the city and killed the sleeping population. A great massacre followed which continued into the day.
- Blood ran in torrents, drenched was all the earth,
- As Trojans and their alien helpers died.
- Here were men lying quelled by bitter death
- All up and down the city in their blood.
Neoptolemus killed Priam, who had taken refuge at the altar of Zeus of the Courtyard. and took her to the ships.
Locrian Aias raped Cassandra on Athena's altar while she was clinging to her statue. Because of Aias' impiety, the Acheaens, urged by Odysseus, wanted to stone Aias to death, but he fled to Athena's altar, and was spared.
Antenor, who had given hospitality to Menelaus and Odysseus when they asked for the return of Helen, and who had advocated so, was spared, along with his family. Aeneas took his father on his back and fled, and according to Apollodorus, was allowed to go because of his piety.
The Achaeans threw Hector's infant son Astyanax down from the walls of Troy, either out of cruelty and hate or to end the royal line, and the possibllity of a son's revenge. They also sacrificed the Trojan princess
Polyxena on the grave of Achilles as demanded by his ghost, either as part of his spoil or because she had betrayed him.
Aethra,
Theseus' mother, and one of Helen's handmaids, was rescued by her grandsons, Demophon and Acamas.
Despite the mythographer's insistence that Troy was razed, archeology shows that the city survived and continued to exist. Later the land was colonised by Aeolians.
The returns
The gods were very angry over the destruction of their temples and other sacrilegious acts by the Acheans and decided that most would not return. A storm fell on the returning fleet off Tenos island. Also Nauplius, in revenge for the murder of his son Palamedes, set up false lights in Cape Caphereus and many were shipwrecked.
Nestor, who had the best conduct in Troy and did not take part in the looting, was the only hero who had a good, fast and safe return. Those of his army that survived the war also reached home with him safely but later left and colonised
Metapontium in Southern Italy.
Locrian Aias, who had endured more than the others the wrath of the Gods never returned. His ship was wrecked by a storm sent by Athena who borrowed one of Zeus' thunderbolts and tore it to pieces. The crew managed to land in a rock but Poseidon smote it and Aias fell in the sea and drowned. He was buried by Thetis in
Myconos or
Delos.
Teucer son of Telamon and brother of the other Aias stood trial by his father for his brother's death. He was not allowed to land and was at sea near Phreattys in
Peiraeus. He was acquitted of responsibility but found guilty of negligence because he did not return his dead body or his arms. He left with his army and founded Salamis in Cyprus. The Athenians later created a political myth that his son left his kingdom to Theseus' sons .
Neoptolemus, following Helenus' advice who accompanied him travelled over land, always accompanied by Andromache. He met Odysseus and they buried Phoenix, Achilles' teacher, on the land of the Ciconians. Then they conquered the land of the
Molossians and had a child by Andromache, Molossus to whom he later gave the throne. Thus the kings of Epirus claimed descendance from Achilles, and so did
Alexander the Great whose mother was of that royal house.
Alexander the Great and the kings of Macedon also claimed descendance from Heracles. Helenus founded a city in Molossia and inhabited it, and Neoptolemus gave him his mother Deidamia as wife. After Peleus died he also succeed Phtia's throne too. He had a feud with
Orestes, son of Agamemon over Menelaus' daughter Hermione and was killed in Delphi, where he was buried. In Roman myths the kingdom of Phtia was taken over by Helenus who married Andromache. They offered hospitality to other Trojan refugees including Aeneas who paid a visit there during his wonderings.
Diomedes was first thrown by a storm on the coast of Lycia, where he was to be sacrificed to Ares by king Lycus but Callirrhoe, the king's daughter, took pity upon him, and assisted him in escaping. Then he accidentally landed in Attica in Phaleron. The Athenians, unaware that they were allies attacked them. Many were killed and the Palladium was taken by Demophon. He finally landed in Argos where his wife Aegialeia was committing adultery and, in disgust, left for
Aetolia. According to later traditions he had some adventures and founded
Canusium and Argyrippa in Southern Italy.
Philoctetes due to a sedition was driven from his city and emigrated to Italy where he founded the cities of Petilia, Old Crimissa, and Chone, between Croton and
Thurii. After making war on the Leucanians he founded there a sanctuary of Apollo the Wanderer, to whom also he dedicated his bow.
For Homer Idomeneus reached his house safe and sound. Another traditio
