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Did the Greeks defeat Troy? Trojan War and its heroes - myths and legends

Did the Greeks defeat Troy? Trojan War and its heroes - myths and legends

Message about the Trojan War 6th grade will briefly tell you a lot useful information about the military conflict between the Greek city-states.

Report on the Trojan War by History

Trojan War - This is a military conflict that arose between the Greek city-states, led by Mycenae and Sparta against Troy. Approximately this event took place in the XIII-XII century BC. The only source that contains information about the Trojan War is the famous poem "Iliad" by the Greek author Homer.

Since the poem is a work of art, until the excavations of Heinrich Schliemann at the beginning of the 19th century, no one believed not only in the military action itself, but also in the existence of Troy as such. She was considered a fiction and a figment of the imagination of Homer. However, the archaeologist managed to find a whole city in the place where, according to the description of Homer, Troy was located. This is where her story began.

Briefly about the Trojan War

Trojan war reason

During the period of Antiquity, the Greek city-states (especially Mycenae) sought to become masters of the Aegean Sea. But one of the most powerful states, Troy, stood in their way. Therefore, in order to subdue the trade, rich sea routes to the Aegean, it was necessary to subjugate or destroy Troy.

Reason for war

Today the whole world knows the wonderful story of what gave the Greeks a reason to make war on Troy. She was Elena the Beautiful - the wife of the king of Sparta and an ally of Mycenae. The legend says that Paris, the young prince of Troy, fell in love with her and kidnapped Helen, bringing him to his home. The indignant Greeks immediately declared war on Troy. Nobody knows if that was really the case.

Military operations and how long did the Trojan War last?

The Greeks with a huge army of 50-100 thousand people from all city-states advanced towards Troy. From the sea they were supported by a huge fleet, a total of 1,000 ships. The Trojan army was much smaller, but the walls of the state could withstand even the longest siege. After the declaration of war, a year passed, and the Greeks landed on the banks of the enemy. The Trojans met the enemy on the shore, but under their pressure and superiority retreated behind the walls of the city. For many years there were bloody clashes, with no apparent advantage to either side. However, human losses were great among the Greeks. The troops of Troy were led by the heir to the throne and warrior - Hector, and the Greeks - Achilles. In a protracted battle of these great warriors, the Greek Achilles wins. And the war continues. For 10 years the Greeks besieged Troy to no avail, until they realized that the city had to be taken by cunning. They built the famous Trojan horse from wood and rolled it up to the city gates as a sign that they were leaving Troy, recognizing its superiority.

In fact, warriors were sitting on the horse. When the Trojans rolled the gift of the Greeks into the city, those, after dark, got out of the horse and opened the gates for their associates. The Greek army broke into the sleeping city, and by morning it was already on fire with might and main.

Consequences of the Trojan War

Mighty Troy was destroyed. Mycenae, having suffered serious human and economic losses, also soon fell.

We hope that the report on the Trojan War helped you prepare for the lesson. And you can leave a small message about the Trojan War through the comment form below.

The Trojan War is one of the most legendary events in human history. It was sung in Homer's poem "The Iliad" and for many years was considered a myth, but after Heinrich Schliemann dug up Troy, this event took on quite historical outlines. Every educated person definitely heard about such heroes of the Trojan War as: Achilles (Achilles), Odysseus, Hector, Agamemnon, Priam, Aeneas, Paris and others, as well as a beautiful legend about the Trojan horse and the abduction of Queen Helen. However, many facts are most often blurred and it is difficult to recall the full picture of the Trojan War. In this article, I propose to recall the main events of the Trojan War, because of which it began and how it ended.

The Trojan War, according to the ancient Greeks, was one of the most significant events in their history. Ancient historians believed that it occurred around the turn of the XIII-XII centuries. BC e., and began with it a new - "Trojan" era: the ascent of the tribes inhabiting Balkan Greece to a higher level of culture associated with life in cities. Numerous Greek myths were told about the campaign of the Greek Achaeans against the city of Troy, located in the northwestern part of the peninsula of Asia Minor - Troad, later combined into a cycle of legends - cyclic poems. The most authoritative for the Hellenes was the epic poem "Iliad", attributed to the great Greek poet Homer, who lived in the VIII 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 for Eris, the goddess of discord. The angry goddess decided to take revenge and threw a golden apple with the inscription "To the most beautiful" to the feasting gods. Three Olympian goddesses, Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, argued which of them it was meant for. Zeus ordered the 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 herds, and each tried to seduce him with gifts. Paris preferred the love offered to him by Aphrodite to Helen, the most beautiful of mortal women, and handed the golden apple to the goddess of love. Helena, daughter of Zeus and Leda, was the wife of the Spartan king Menelaus. Paris, who was a guest in 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. About how Paris and Helen got to Troy, the myths tell in different ways. According to one version, three days later they arrived safely in the hometown of Paris. According to another, the goddess Hera, hostile to Paris, raised a storm on the sea, his ship skidded to the shores of Phoenicia, and only a long time later the fugitives finally arrived in Troy. There is another option: Zeus (or Hera) replaced Helen with a ghost, which Paris took away. Helen herself during the Trojan War 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.

The Trojan prince committed a serious crime - he violated the law of hospitality and thereby brought a terrible disaster to his native city. Offended, 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 once wooed Elena and swore an oath to protect her honor came to the call of the brothers. The most famous Achaean heroes and kings: Odysseus, Diomedes, Protesilaus, Ajax Telamonides and Ajax Oilid, Philoctetes, the wise elder Nestor and many others brought their squads. Took part in the campaign and Achilles, the son of Peleus and Thetis, the most courageous and powerful of the heroes. According to the prediction of the gods, the Greeks could not conquer Troy without his help. Odysseus, as the most intelligent and cunning, managed to persuade Achilles to take part in the campaign, although it 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 navigation to the shores of Asia Minor, Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia to the goddess Artemis. Having reached the Troad, the Greeks tried to return Helen and the treasures by peaceful means. The tried diplomat Odysseus and the insulted husband Menelaus went as messengers 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 helped the Trojans.

The Greeks could not immediately take Troy, surrounded by powerful fortifications. They built a fortified camp on the seashore near their ships, began to devastate 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 the captive Briseis from him, and he, angry, refused to enter the battlefield. No persuasion could convince Achilles to leave his anger and take up arms. The Trojans took advantage of the inaction of the most courageous and strong 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, pretended to offer to stop the war and return home, the Achaeans greeted the offer with enthusiasm and rushed to their ships. And only the decisive actions of Odysseus stopped the soldiers and saved the situation.

The Trojans broke into the Achaean camp and almost burned their ships. The closest friend of Achilles, Patroclus, begged the hero to give him his armor and chariot and rushed to help the Greek army. Patroclus stopped the onslaught of the Trojans, but he himself died at the hands of Hector. The death of a friend makes Achilles forget about the offense. The thirst for revenge inspires him. Trojan hero Hector dies in a duel with Achilles. The Amazons come to the aid of the Trojans. Achilles kills their leader Penthesilea, but soon dies 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 spot on his body. The god Apollo knew where to direct the arrow of Paris. It is to this episode of the poem that humanity owes the expression "Achilles' heel".

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 Achilles Neoptolemus to the camp of the Achaeans. Philoctetes kills Paris, and Neoptolemus kills an ally of the Trojans, the Mysian Eurynil. 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 decided to take the city by cunning. A huge wooden horse was built, inside which a select detachment of warriors hid. The rest of the army, in order to convince the Trojans that the Achaeans are going home, burns their camp and sails on ships from the coast of Troad. In fact, the Achaean ships took refuge not far from the coast, near the island of Tenedos.

Surprised by the abandoned wooden monster, the Trojans gathered around him. Some began to offer to bring the horse into the city. Priest Laocoön, warning about the treachery of the enemy, exclaimed: “Beware of the Danaans (Greeks) who bring gifts!” (This phrase also became winged 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 hidden in the belly of the horse come out and open the gate. The secretly returned Achaeans break into the city, and the beating of the inhabitants taken by surprise begins. Menelaus with a sword in his hands is looking for an unfaithful wife, but when he sees the beautiful Elena, he is unable to kill her. The entire male population of Troy perishes, with the exception of Aeneas, the son of Anchises and Aphrodite, who received a command from the gods to flee the captured city and revive its glory elsewhere (see the article "Ancient Rome"). The women of Troy faced a no less sad fate: they all became captives and slaves of the victors. The city perished in a fire.

After the death of Troy, strife begins in the Achaean camp. Ajax Oilid incurs the wrath of the goddess Athena on 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. The wanderings of Odysseus after the end of the Trojan War are sung in the second poem of Homer - "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 triumphant, the campaign against Troy ended for the Achaeans.

As already mentioned, the ancient Greeks did not doubt the historical reality of the Trojan War. Even such a critically thinking and not accepting ancient Greek historian as Thucydides was convinced that the ten-year siege of Troy described in the poem is a historical fact, only embellished by the poet. Indeed, there is very little fairy-tale fantasy in the poem. If scenes with the participation of the gods are isolated from it, which Thucydides does, then the story will look quite reliable. Separate parts of the poem, such as the "catalog of ships" or the list of the Achaean army under the walls of Troy, are written as a real chronicle.

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For the possession of the apple that I tossed to them Eris with the inscription "most beautiful" ("apple of discord") (Apollod. epit. III 2). Apparently, already quite early, the mythological tradition dated this event to the wedding. Peleia And Thetis to which all the gods were invited except Eris (Hyg. Fab. 92). In order to judge the arguing goddesses, Zeus instructed Hermes to take them to Mount Ida (in Troad), where the young herd was grazing Paris. Faced with the need to choose and seduced by the promise of Aphrodite to give him the love of Elena, Paris recognized Aphrodite as the most beautiful of the goddesses (Eur. Troad. 924-932), which earned him her help in the future, but forever made Hera and Athena his enemies (Hom. Il. XXIV 25-30). This explains the support that Aphrodite provides during the war to the Trojans, and Hera and Athena to their opponents, the Achaeans. Then Paris sailed on a ship to Greece, stayed in the house Menelaus and, taking advantage of his departure, with the assistance of Aphrodite, convinced Helen to leave Sparta and her husband and become his wife (Apollod. epit. III 3). The abduction of Helen was the direct cause of the Trojan War. Supported by his brother Agamemnon Menelaus gathered a large army, since Helen's former suitors were bound by a joint oath to avenge, if necessary, an insult to her husband (Hes. frg. 204, 78-85; Eur. Iphig. A. 57-71). The most notable heroes were included in the Achaean army: Odysseus, Philoctetes, both ajax, Diomedes, Sthenel, Protesilaus and others. We also managed to involve Achilles(Hyg. Fab. 96), although he did not participate in the marriage of Helena (Hes. frg. 204, 87-92). The Achaean fleet, gathered in the Boeotian harbor of Aulis, numbered over a thousand ships (1013 - Apollod. epit. III 14; 1186 - Hom. Il. II). Agamemnon was chosen as the leader of the entire army, as the most powerful of the Achaean kings.

By the time of the stay of the Achaean army in Aulis, the sources attribute two events. The first is a sign sent to the Achaeans by the gods at the altar of Apollo: the appearance of a snake that stole eight chicks from the nest along with their mother. Calhant explained this phenomenon in the following way: the Trojan war will last nine years and end with the victory of the Greeks only in the tenth year of the siege (Hom. Il. II 299-330). The second sign is the sacrifice Iphigenia. According to one version of the legend, these two events are separated from each other by ten years: having sailed from Aulis for the first time, the Achaeans supposedly ended up not in Troy, but in Misia, south of the Troad. Sailing from here after a collision with the king of the Mysians, Telephos, the Greeks fell into a storm and each returned to their native places. Only ten years after the abduction of Helen, the Achaean army again gathered in Aulis, and then Agamemnon had to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia to Artemis in order to ensure the safe arrival of the fleet near Troy (Apollod. epit. III 17-23). In this case, the ruin of Troy should be attributed to the twentieth year after the abduction of Helen (Hom. Il. XXIV 765 following). Since, however, such a significant interval between the beginning of the Trojan War and the fall of Troy significantly violates the rest of the epic chronology, the first expedition is not taken into account in all sources.

On the way to Troy, the Greeks stopped at the island of Tenedos, where Achilles killed King Tenes, and Philoctetes was bitten by a snake, and he was left on the island of Lemnos (Apollod. epit. III 26-27; Plut. Quest. graec. 28). Before landing on the Trojan plain, the Greeks sent Odysseus and Menelaus to negotiate with the Trojans about the extradition of Helen and the return of treasures. The embassy ended unsuccessfully and war became inevitable (Hom. Il. III 205-224; XI 138-142).

The main events of the Trojan War unfolded in its tenth year. The temporary self-withdrawal from the battles of Achilles (offended by the fact that Agamemnon took away the captive Briseis from him) makes it possible for the rest of the Achaean leaders (Diomedes, Agamemnon, Menelaus, Odysseus, Nestor and his son Antilochus, Ajax Telamonides) to show their prowess. Among the Trojans, the main character is Hector, because the king of Troy, Priam, was too old to lead the defense of the city. Since, after Achilles' refusal to participate in hostilities, success clearly leans towards the Trojans approaching the most Achaean ships (Book XV of the Iliad), Achilles allows his best friend and brother Patroclus join the fight. Patroclus stops the onslaught of the Trojans, but he himself perishes at the hands of Hector, supported by Apollo (Book XVI). Achilles, obsessed with a thirst for revenge, slays many enemies; in a duel with him, Hector also perishes (book XX-XXII). However, as it is already clear from post-Homeric sources, even after that the Trojans still have enough strength to resist the Greeks. Although Achilles kills the leader of the Amazons Penthesilea and the king of the Ethiopians Memnon in the battle, who came to the aid of the Trojans, he himself dies from the arrow of Paris directed by Apollo. For the weapon of the deceased hero, a dispute flares up between Odysseus and Ajax Telamonides, culminating in the suicide of the offended Ajax (Apollod. epit. V 6-7; Soph. Ai).

A new stage of the Trojan War is associated with the arrival of Philoctetes from Lemnos and Neoptolemus from Skyros near Troy. From the arrow of the first Paris perishes, the second slays the Mysian Eurypylus. After that, the Trojans no longer risk going out to battle in the open field, but the powerful walls of Troy still remain an insurmountable obstacle for the Greeks. Odysseus finds a way out; on his advice, the master Epeus builds a huge wooden horse, in the hollow interior of which a select detachment of Achaean warriors hides, and the rest of the army fakes a return to their homeland: they burn the camp on the plain, then the fleet sets sail from the Trojan coast and takes refuge on the island of Tenedos (Hom. Od. IV 271-289; VIII 492-520). On the shore, the Achaeans leave Sinon, who prompts the Trojans to bring a wooden horse into the city as a gift to Athena. At night, the Greeks, hidden in the belly of a horse, get out and open the city gates to their soldiers who have returned from the island of Tenedos. The beating of the Trojans taken by surprise begins. The entire male population perishes, with the exception of Aeneas with several associates, who receives instructions from the gods to flee from Troy taken in order to revive its glory elsewhere (Verg. Aen. II). The women of Troy also face a sad fate: Andromache becomes a prisoner of Neoptolemus, Cassandra give as concubines to Agamemnon, Polixenos sacrificed at the tomb of Achilles (Eur. Troad. 240-291). The city is dying in a terrible fire.

In the camp of the Achaeans immediately after the fall of Troy, strife arises (Apollod. epit. VI 1). Ajax Oileid, having defiled the altar of Athena by violence against Cassandra, incurs the wrath of the goddess on the departed Achaean fleet (Eur. Troad. 69-94). During a terrible storm, many ships perish from the waves and wind, others crash on the coastal rocks, deceived by a false signal from Nauplius. Menelaus and Odysseus are carried by a storm to distant lands, after which their long-term wanderings begin. Agamemnon, upon returning home, becomes a victim of a conspiracy of his wife Clytemestre and Aegisthus. The myth of the Trojan War is a complex set of folklore motifs and heroic legends. Such traditional plots as “the abduction of his wife”, a dispute over her (the battle of Menelaus with Paris in Book III of the Iliad), a heroic duel (Hector and Ajax in Book VII, Achilles and Hector in Book XXII), mourning for the hero and funeral games (in honor of Patroclus in Book XXIII), were combined in the legend of the Trojan War with memories of historical events that took place in the last century of the existence of the Mycenaean civilization. The settlement of Troy (known in antiquity more often under the name Ilion), which arose already in the end. 4th millennium BC, due to its strategic position on the way from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea, it repeatedly became the object of attack by neighboring and distant tribes. Its destruction in the middle. 13th c. BC. as a result of the war of the Trojans and their allies with the unification of the Achaean states, it was imprinted in the memory of posterity as the largest event of the past, and ideas about its predecessor, a rich city, also died in a fire at the end of the 3rd millennium BC, could be transferred to Homeric Troy.

From the establishment of the historicity of a number of battles for the Troad region in the 2nd millennium BC. one should not draw a conclusion about the same historical accuracy of the description of the Trojan War and its participants in the ancient Greek epic, the final form of which took place in the 8th-7th centuries. BC. and separated from the events described there by 4-5 centuries. During the formation of the ancient Greek epic, the laws of concentration of action around a single plot center and the principles of typification of heroic images, common to the heroic poetry of all peoples, acted.

Along with the Iliad, the events of the Trojan War were reflected in the “kyklic” poems of the 7th-6th centuries that were not preserved, but known in later retellings. BC. ("Ethiopia", "Destruction of Ilion" and "Small Iliad"), used, probably by Virgil in the 2nd book. "Aeneids" and the late poet Quintus of Smyrna (4th century AD) in the compilation poem "Continuation of Homer". From Athenian tragedies of the 5th c. BC, who abundantly drew material from the kyklic epos, the ruin of Troy is dedicated to the "Trojans" by Euripides, used in the tragedy of the same name by Seneca. For medieval Europe, one of the sources was the late antique stories "Diary of the Trojan War" and "On the death of Troy". It is to these works that the medieval “Romance of Troy” by Benoît de Saint-Maur, “The History of the Destruction of Troy” by Guido de Columna, as well as Slavic stories of the 15th century, in many respects go back. "On the Creation and Captivity of Troy" and "The Parable of the Kralekh". From the works of modern times: Berlioz's opera The Conquest of Troy, Giraudoux's drama There Will Be No Trojan War.

Lit.:Grabar-Passek M.E., Antique plots and forms in Western European literature, M., 1966; Trojan tales. Medieval chivalric novels about the Trojan War based on Russian manuscripts of the 16th-17th centuries, L., 1972; Robert C., Die griechische Heldensage, Bd. 3. Abt. 2, B., 1923; Bethe E., Die Sage vom Troischen Krieg, Lpz.-B., 1927; Blegen C.W., Troy, v. 1-4, L., 1952-58; Kullmann W., Die Quellen der Jlias, Wiesbaden, 1960; Friis Johansen K., The Iliad in the early Greek art, Kbh., 1967.

IN.H. Yarkho

Myths of the peoples of the world. Encyclopedia. (In 2 volumes). Ch. ed. S.A. Tokarev. - M .: "Soviet Encyclopedia", 1982. T. II, p. 528-532.

The Trojan War is one of the most legendary events in human history. It was sung in Homer's poem "The Iliad" and for many years was considered a myth, but after Heinrich Schliemann dug up Troy, this event took on quite historical outlines. Every educated person must have heard about such heroes of the Trojan War as: Achilles (Achilles), Odysseus, Hector, Agamemnon, Priam, Aeneas, Paris and others, as well as the beautiful legend of the Trojan horse and the abduction of Queen Helen. However, many facts are most often blurred and it is difficult to recall the full picture of the Trojan War. In this article, I propose to recall the main events of the Trojan War, because of which it began and how it ended.

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The Trojan War is an important milestone in Greek mythology. Paris, son of the king of Troy, is invited to discuss the beauty of the three goddesses of Olympus. In return for his verdict, he is promised the most beautiful woman in the world. Since Helen was already married to the king of Sparta by that time, Paris kidnaps her in Troy.

The abduction of Helen the Beautiful gives rise to the ten-year Trojan War between the Greeks and the Trojans. In the end, it is resolved not by a battle, but by the trick of Odysseus: hidden in a wooden horse (“Trojan horse”), Greek soldiers fall into an enemy city and open the gates to their comrades at night. Thus, Troy was taken and destroyed.

The Trojan War is the central event of Greek mythology.

Divine controversy and the abduction of Helen the Beautiful

The reason for the Trojan War was the abduction of Helen the Beautiful by the son of the king of Troy, Paris.

All the Greek gods and goddesses were invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, except for Eris, the goddess of discord. In revenge, she comes uninvited and unleashes a dispute: in the middle of the holiday, at the center of the divine society, she throws a golden apple on which is written "To the most beautiful" (hence the "Apple of Discord"). There is a fierce dispute about who is the most beautiful among the goddesses on Olympus - Hera, the wife of Zeus, the goddess of wisdom or Aphrodite, the goddess of love.

Zeus wants to end the argument. Therefore, he gives the right to judge Paris, the son of the Trojan king Priam, to whom the apple should belong (this decision is the so-called "Judgement of Paris"). Paris rewards the goddess Aphrodite with an apple because he considers her the most beautiful woman in the world. However, Paris falls in love with Helen, who is already married to Menelaus, king of Sparta, and wants to redeem the title of beauty from Aphrodite. He does not succeed, and therefore Paris kidnaps Helen the Beautiful (Trojan).

Menelaus demands the return of his wife, but the Spartans refuse to return Helen. Then the powerful brother of Menelaus Agamemnon, who was the king of Mycenae, unites the Greek army and heads the high command. There were many brave heroes on the Greek side, of whom Odysseus, king of Ithaca, and Achilles, son of Peleus and Thetis, played the most important role.

On the Trojan side were, first of all, Hector, the son of King Priam, and Aeneas, the son of Aphrodite. The Greek gods also take sides: Athena supports the Greeks, Aphrodite and Apollo help the Trojans.

Wrath of Achilles

Troy is besieged for ten years, but the Greeks cannot capture the city. In the tenth year, a split occurs in the Greek army: Achilles was deprived by Agamemnon of his beloved slave Briseis. Achilles leaves out of anger. But when his best friend Patroclus is killed by Hector, Achilles wants revenge and returns to fight Troy. He was invulnerable, plunging in infancy into the waters of the Styx - only the heel by which his mother held him remained vulnerable (hence the vulnerable point or weak point of a person is called the "Achilles heel").

Achilles defeated and killed Hector and dragged him around the tomb of Patroclus. King Priam asks for the body of his son from Achilles, and the funeral procession leaves. Achilles himself was killed by Paris, whose arrow was controlled by Apollo and hit Achilles' heel.

The end of the war and the conquest of Troy happened thanks to the trick of Odysseus: on his advice, the Greeks build a wooden horse (“Trojan Horse”), in whose stomach the most daring heroes hide. The horse was left at the gates of the city of Troy, the Greek ships retreated.

The Trojans believe that the Greeks abandoned the siege and left the horse as a gift to the Trojans. Despite Laocoön's warnings of danger, they drag the horse into the city to dedicate it to the goddess Athena. At night, the Greek soldiers secretly get out of the wooden horse, call the ships with fiery torches and open the gates for the Greek soldiers. Thus, Troy was finally conquered and destroyed.

Aeneas escape from Troy

The Trojan king Priam, his family and his warriors were killed or captured. But Aeneas escapes from the burning city, saving not only his father Anchises, whom he carries on his shoulders, but also his son Ascanius. After long wanderings, he arrives in Italy, where his descendants founded Rome. Thus, Troy is associated with the myths surrounding the founding of Rome.

Mythological sources

Homer, 8th century BC The Iliad only describes the decisive final phase of the Ten Years' War, from the episode "The Wrath of Achilles" until the death and burial of Hector. The background and the Trojan War itself (the divine dispute and the abduction of Helen) are quite vividly woven into the narrative. Similarly, the end of the war, the conquest and destruction of Troy are also indirectly described in the Odyssey.

Historicity of the Trojan War

They were written long before Homer and passed down orally from generation to generation until Homer put them into writing. The myth reflects traditional poetry and legend, the historically unproven past. The question of the historicity of the Trojan War remains controversial. Although the events of the war are not confirmed by archaeological evidence, many scholars believe that the myth is based on real events during the period of the Mycenaean colonization in Asia Minor (in the 13th century BC).