< war and social upheaval : Trojan War








War and Social Upheaval: Trojan War (about 1200 BC)


Figure 1.--This is a Renaissance view of the fall of Troy. It pictures Prince Aeneas fleeing the burning city. He is pictured with his son Ascanius and his wife Creusa. Aeneas was the son of Anchises and Aphrodite. He is carrying his father. Creusa was the daughter of King Priam and first wife of Aeneas. The marriage gave him the rank of prince. Roman mythology identified Aeneas as the ancestor of Romulus and Remus. It was Romulus of course who after killing his brother, founded Rome. The painting was done by Federico Barocci in 1598.

The Greek Mycenaean civilization was controlled by a warrior aristocracy. The best known military conflict during the Mycenean Age was the Trojan War. It was once thought to be mythological. We now know that Troy was real and there actually was a Trojan War. The War is not dated with any certainty and historians debate precisely when it occurred, Most estimates fall between 1250-1135 BC. In fact there appears to have been more than one. The Trojan War is the single Bronze Age War for which we have detiled actual refrences--in fact one of the great literary trasure of Western Civilization. Most of what we know about the Trojan War come from Homer's Iliad, but the earliest surviving written version comes centuries after the War and thus can not be treated as an accurate historical description. This of course does not mean that the work does not provide valuable historical information. Modern archeological work is providing increasingly useful insights.

Mythology

The Greek accounts of the Trojan War are imbedded in mythology which is one reason why historians for many years regarded the War as alo mythological. The Greek acount begins with the marriage of Peleus and Thetis--a sea-goddess. Peleus and Thetis did not invite Eris, the goddess of discord. The outraged Eris barged into the wedding banquet and tossed a golden apple onto the table. Eris scorfully declared that the golden apple belonged to whomever was the fairest. This of course was an invitation to a fight. Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite each grabbed for the apple. Zeus to settled the dispute, selected, prince of Troy to be thejudge. Pris was considered to be the most beautiful living man. Hermes was appointed to contact Paris. Paris agreed to be the judge. The varioos contenders attempted to influence Paris. Hera offered him power. Athena tantaized him with wealth. Aphrodite enducement was the world's most beautiful woman. Paris thus decided on Aphrodite. And the prize was Helen, wife of Menelaus the king of Sparta.

The Abduction

Mixed in with the gods, Paris and Helen were thought to also be mythological creaions. They are now thought to actual historical people. We do not know the precise course of events. Homer tells us that as Paris was preparing to leave for Sparta to claim his prize, twin prophets (Cassandra and Helenus) tried toconvince him to reconsider. Hecuba, his mother, also tried to disuade him. Paris would not be disuaded. He embarked for Sparta. We do not know just why Paris went to Sparta, but he apparently was treated by King Menelaus as an important state guest. Troy ws one of the great city states of the Argenan world and an important trading center. States visits like this seem historically consistent with the time and place. Menelaus left Sparta to attend a funeral. We do not know the actual circumstances, but Paris was smitten by Helen and abducted her. Here Homer is not very clear. It would have been very difficult for Paris to abduct a queen frm her palace. The clear infrence is that Helen was herself smitten by Paris and thus willingly accompanied him. Homer does not say this, but it is the clear inference. And it does seem like the most likely sequence of events. Homer adds that Paris carried off much of Menelaus' wealth. That seems rather far fetched. Helen and Paris when they reached Troy married. This id Homer's explanation for the War. It can not be dismissed. There are , howver, many other possible reasons for a War between the Greeks and Trojans. Troy was a rich city astride trade routes into the Black Sea. At such it would have been an akluring target for the Greeks.

Mycenaean Greeks


Troy

Troy is believed to have been a flourishing trafing center during the Bronze Age. It was stragegically located on the Dardanelles. This mean tha any Greek or other merchant vessel from the Aegean Sea heading for the Black Sea had to pass by Troy and could be attacked. Many ships may have used Troy to trade for Black sea prodyucts rather than making the long dangerous trip into the Black Sea. Al this would have helped make Troy rich. The classical Greeks and Romans had not doubt that Troy was an actual historical city. After the fall of Rome, scholars in the West came to view Troy in largely mythological terms. Only after archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann's discoveies (1870s) did scholars begin to see Troy as an actual historical city. This and other archeological work has located Troy. It is in Hisarlık (western Anatolia), close to the seacoast in what is now Çanakkale province in northwest Turkey, southwest of the Dardanelles on the slopes of Mount Ida. It is now a few miles from the sea, but this is not uncommon with ancient sea ports where sea access has become silted over. Archelogical work found not only Homeric Troy, but many different levels of occupation dating back to aout 3000 BC. This of course set off a lively academic debate as to which level was Homeric Troy. It is now believed to be Troy VIIa which has been dated to 1300-1190 BC.While the ruins of Troy have been found, virtully nothing is known about the people and culture of Troy. The best clues are linuistic relationships. Some scholars believe that the Tojans spoke Luwian (Luvian) which is one of the extinct language of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language group. Luwian is closely related to Hittite, the language of the Hittite Empire. Luwianand was among the languages spoken by the people in Arzawa located west of the core Hittite area in southeast Anatolia. Scholars claim to have found diplomatic references to Troy in Egyptian and Hittite texts, but they are not universally recognized. Note that despite the cultural differences, there appears to have been no real difference between the the Greeks and Trojans technologically. They used the same military equipment.

Greek Alliance

King Menelaus was of course outraged when he found Prince Paris had abducted his wife. King Agamemnon pledged to aid him and put together a Greek invasion force. Homer tells us that Menelaus informed Helen's old suitors. They had taken an oath to defend her honor. This seems far fetched. We know of no actual historical example of such an alliance. Many of Helen's former suitors did not wish to go to war. Odysseus for one resisted. He pretended to be insane but Palamedes found him out. Achilles was one of the most respected Greek wariors at the time. He was not one of Helen's previous suitors. The seer Calchas had divined that Troy would not be taken unless Achilles joined the fight. Cinyras, king of Paphos (in Cyprus) was one of Helen's suitors. He did not wish to join the War. He promised Agamemnon 50 ships. He did provide a ship commanded by his son. The other 49 wee clay toy ships. [Tripp, p. 584.] Probably what Homer was describing was the difficulty of orming an allince in Greece. The Greek city states were ften at war with each other and all had their individual interests to consider. Medieval acounts show how difficult it often was for kings to form armies among quarelsome nobels.

Greek Fleet

Agamemnon assembeled the Greek fleet at Aulis. Homer claims that the fleet was inormous, including 1,000 ships. This is why Helen is referred to as "the face who launched a thousand shps". That number sems exagerated. And we know that the ancients had a tendency to exagerate as a kind of emphasis. Early historians were judged more on effective story telling than numerical accuracy. In fact, numerical accuracy was not a strong point for early historians, including Herodatous. And the Trojan War occurred nearly a milenium before Hedrodtous. Modern historians believe tht that the fleet may have been exagerated by a factor of 10. Thus 100 seems a more likely number. Even so, it would have been an emposing naval force. Here Homer enlivens the story. Agamemnon outraged the godess Diana. He killed one of Diana's sacred stags. Othr accounts cite a careless boast. She responded by calming the seas. This immobilized the Greek fleet. Greek ships at the time operated by acombinatiin of sail and oars. The seer Calchas told King Agamemnon that his daughter Iphigenia would have to be sacrificed to assage Diana. Agamemnon did so and the Greek fleet sailed when the winds arrived.

Telephus

Homer tells us that finding Helen proved difficult. Agamemnon and the Greek fleet at first landed in Mysia. The Greeks believed that Helen had been taken by the Teuthranians (Teucrians). Telephus, king of the Teuthranians, denied the allegations, the Greeks layed siege to the city. [Herodotus, Bk. II.118.] The Greeks managed to take the city, but sustaied heavy casualties. Achilles wounded Helen. Although victorious, theGreeks had to return home without Helen. The wounded Telephus went to Greece to seek a cure. An oracle told Telephus that the only cure was from the person who had wounded him. Achilles agreed and in return, Telephus told the Greeks how to find Troy. Historians to not understand this account. Perhaps Teuthranium was a client state of Troy. If not why would Telephus not have provided this information to the Greeks to begin with. And if Troy was indeed a great trading city, surely the Greeks would have known where it was lovated before the War.

Peace Offer

Homer tells us that the Greeks decided to attempt to avoid war. They chose Odysseus, who was known for his eloquence, and Menelaus to make an offer to Priam--Paris' father and king of Troy. They only demand was that King Priam return the stolen treasure and Helen. Priam refused apparently believing the Greeks could not mount a force capable of defeating Troy. Odysseus and Menelaus thus returned to the Greek fleet that war could not be avoided. Again this is a part of Homer's account that seems difficult to believe. This sounds more like war propaganda intended to put the Greeks on a high moral plain.

The Campaign

The Trojan War was a campaign lasting for more than a decade. Troy was alarge well-defended city with towering ciy walls. The Greeks did not have the technology to break through massive, well defended city walls. Troy was not just an isolated city state, but the center of a powerful alliance of trading states. The Greeks decided that the way to defeat Troy was to isolate it from its allies and the surrounding region that supplied it. The first 9 years of the war thus consisted of not only besiging Troy but by defeating its allies and occupying the neighboring area. Gradually the Greeks undermined the Trojan econonmy. The conquests at the same tme strengthen the Greeks through obtaining supplies and booty. Some sources mention women as well. Homer recounts the major incidents of the War. Achilles kills the Trojan hero Hector in individual combat. The Trojan ally Penthesilea is also defeated. Patroclus is killed and Paris kills Achilles with a poisoned arrow. The walls of Troy, however, prevent the Greeks from totally defeating Troy. Odysseus captured Helenus, one of King Priam's sons. Helenus prophisized that Troy could not fall unless four circumstances occurred. 1) Pyrrhus, Achilles' son, joined the war. 2) The Greeks obtained the bow and arrows of Hercules. 3) The Greek brought the remains of Pelops, the famous Eleian hero, to Troy. 4) The Palladium, a statue of the godess Athena, was stolen from Troy. [Tripp, p. 587.] Homer next goes into detail as to how all of this was accomplished. Phoenix persuaded Pyrrhus to fight the Trojans. Philoctetes had the bow and arrows of Hercules. There was, however, a problem. He had been bitten by a snake and his wound festered with a revolting smell. The Greek thus abandoned him on Lemnos. When the Greeks return to get the bow and arrows, Philoctetes was bitter, but the Greeks managed to convince him to rejoin them. The remains of Pelops were retrived. The ever resourceful Odysseus managed to openetrte the Trojan defenses and steal Palladium.

The Trojan Horse

The best known story and enduring image from the Trojan War is of course the Trojan Horse. It is another element in Homer's account that convinced many that the Trojan War was mythological. There is no evidence that the Trojan Horse is a factual account, but it should not be dimissed out of hand. And again the wily Odysseus is behind it. The Greeks realized that the only weakness on the defenses of Troy was the great gate. The problem was how to get it opened. The artist Epeius was instructed build a large wooden horse. The horse was hollow so a few men could hide inside. And of curse Odysseus commanded the comndo forse secreted inside. The Greek fleet sailed away to fool the Trojans. The Greeks left Sinon behind. He explained that his comrads had deserted him. He told the Trojans that the Greeks had given up on taking the city. The great horse was a peace offering, honoring a valiant foe. It would bring them good luck. The only Troans to suspect trechery were Laocoon and Cassandra. The TRojans in their jubilation ignored them. They pulled the Greek offering into the city and comenced a racaous victory celebration with much libation that went well into the night. Went the Trojans fianally went home and slept, Sinon let Odysseus and his companions out of the horse. They opened the great doors which allowed the Greek army which had returned ito the city. The Greeks commenced the slaughter of the Trojans and the destruction of the city. It was by all accounts one of the most terrible sackings of the ancient world. They slayed King Priam as he cowered by Zeus' altar. They pulled Cassandra from the statue of Athena and raped her.

Aftermath

There were immediate retribution to pay. The Greeks sacrificed Polyxena, daughter of Priam, at the tomb of Achilles. Astyanax, son of Hector, was also sacrificed. This was meant to signify the end of the long war. There was meant to be no survivors of the hated Trojan royal family. Aeneas, a Trojan prince, susposedly managed to escape. This is of course the great Roman classic--Virgil's Aeneid. There are accounts of other survivors. Andromache, another Trojan prince, was said to have married Helenus, twin of Cassandra, after the war. King Menelaus of Sparta, was intent on killing Helen after Troy finally fell. But in the end could not bring himself to do so, he was apparently mesmerized by her beauty. He brought her back with him to Sparta. Some Trojan women were allowed to live. They were divided among the Greek warriors as war booty. The Greeks after leaving Troy a smoldering ruin set sail for home. Odysseus and Menelaus would find this a difficult undertaking.

Sources

Herodotus. Trans. David Grene. Histories (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1988).

Tripp, Edward. Crowell's Handbook of Classical Mythology (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1970).






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Created: 4:18 AM 2/10/2009
Last updated: 5:45 PM 2/11/2009