The Trojan War is a legendary event, an essential element of ancient Greek culture.
It gave rise to many artistic works, particularly literary works. Some of it is told in Homer’s Iliad; the poem bears this name because the Greek name for the city of Troy is Ilion: it is the first epic written in Greek and has a foundational value.
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War
The Trojan War begins after the kidnapping of Helena, wife of the king of Sparta, Menelaus, by Trojan Paris.
In fact, Aphrodite had promised Helena, in gratitude for the judgment on Mount Ida, to grant her the golden apple.
The Greek kings, descendants of Pelopus, then met. Bound by the Tyndarus oath, they decided to wage war against Troy with a very large force.
After gathering other heroes such as Achilles, they form a fleet that in the second year after Helen’s kidnapping, docks in Mysia, not far from Eleaea.
They are first confronted by Telephus, king of Mysia and son of Heracles, who, alarmed by the landing of such a large army, sent his own troops against him.
After a fierce fight, Telephe learns the identity of the leaders of the enemy army, and the battle ceases.
The Greek fleet returns home after this first expedition, and rests for eight years.
Ten years after Helen’s kidnapping, the Greeks launch a second expedition that, thanks to Telefeo’s advice, lands on the coast opposite Troy.
After the first battles with the Trojans, the Achaeans begin the siege of Troy.
In order to weaken the city, and to obtain supplies, they launch raids on neighboring cities.
An embassy led by Menelaus and Odysseus claims to Priam, king of Troy, the return of Helen, without success.
Apollo
In the tenth year of the siege, and on the occasion of one of the incursions, Chrysalis, daughter of a priest of Apollo, was captured and awarded as an act of honor to Agamemnon, commander-in-chief of the Greeks.
In anger, Apollo attacks the Greek camp with a plague, and Agamemnon is forced to return his captive.
In compensation, he assumes the authority that had fallen to Achilles as a share of honor. Furious, Achilles retreats to his tent and asks his mother, Thetis, to make Zeus favor the Trojans.
Despite the feats of heroes like Diomedes and Ajax the Great, the Greeks are losing their footing.
Patrocle, Achilles’ companion, gets Achilles’ permission to carry his weapons in order to galvanize the troops.
Thus dressed, he launches a vast assault on the city, but is defeated by Hector, Priam’s eldest son. Mad with grief, Achilles takes up arms again and kills Hector. He also defeats Priam’s new allies: Penthelesia, queen of the Amazons, and Memnon, Ethiopian prince.
Odysseus then had the idea of the Trojan horse: Greek warriors hidden on a large wooden horse, disguised as an offering to Poseidon.
The Greek fleet pretends to withdraw, leaving the horse on the beach. As a sign of victory, the Trojans bring the trap to their walls.
Believing that the war is over, they feast and rejoice. When night falls, the Greek warriors get off their horses and open the gates.
Troy is sacked, members of the royal family are killed or taken into slavery, and Menelaus is finally able to bring Helen back to Sparta, twenty years after her kidnapping. During the battle, Achilles is wounded in the heel by an arrow shot by Paris and dies.
war history
The discovery in 1870 by the archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann of the ruins of Troy on the Hissarlik hill in Turkey, revived an old debate about the historicity of the events related by Homer.
Today, archaeologists believe that the Trojan War did take place, but for economic reasons. Homer turned this rather banal war into an epic.
The ancient authors place the war two generations before the arrival of the Dorics in Greece, that is, according to the duration of a generation, between 1334 and 1135 BC.
Eratosthenes sets the most frequently accepted date as 1184 BC. Two levels indicating destruction correspond to this period.
Level VIIa seems to bear the marks of human destruction. Its dating is based on the study of the pottery found there.
However, it can be estimated at the end of the 13th century BC, or even the beginning of the 12th century BC, a time when the Mycenaean palace system practically no longer exists.
Under these conditions, it is hard to imagine a concerted operation by the Mycenaean warlords.
The second possible level is the VIh, which dates from around 1250 BC, and which bears witness to a brilliant period, especially from an architectural point of view.
The destruction of Troy at that time was due to an earthquake and was followed by a change in urban planning with the disappearance of the megara and thus, it seems, the ruling power as well.
This natural disaster could be at the origin of the legend of the wooden horse, which would have been an offering to Poseidon, the god of earthquakes, which would have allowed the destruction of a hitherto impregnable city.
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