Lecture 13 The Trojan War The Marriage of

Lecture 13 : The Trojan War

The Marriage of Peleus and Thetis

“For the Fairest…”

The House of Tyndareus ---Leda | Clytemnestra Castor ---| Helen Polydeuces Zeus

The wooing of Helen • The “Catalogue of Women” • Gifts, then personal visits • All the main heroes involved (except for Achilles) • Agamemnon and Menelaus are the wealthiest • Agamemnon is already married (to Helen’s older sister Clytemnestra) • Menelaus wins because he gives most gifts • The oath

Variations • Helen’s father Tyndareus administers the oath to avoid violence among the suitors and protect himself from the hostility of the losers • Helen herself chooses Menelaus, because she likes him • Odysseus comes up with the oath idea in exchange for Tyndareus’ help with getting Penelope’s hand in marriage (he also sends no gifts knowing that his chances to get Helen are meager)

The blame game • No source claims that Helen was forced to go with Paris • Some (but next to none) exoneration: Tyndareus neglected to sacrifice to Aphrodite and to punish him the goddess made his daughters (Helen and Clytemnestra) promiscuous. • Complete (? ) exoneration: Helen never went to Troy at all, Paris takes a fake Helen, her “likeness”. Hermes transports the real Helen to Egypt

Helen and Menelaos c. 525 -515 BCE

The Gods Take Sides Pro-Greek Pro-Trojan Hera Apollo Athena Aphrodite Poseidon Artemis Hephaestus Ares (kinda) (Thetis)

Heroes of the Trojan War Greeks Trojans Agamemnon Hector Menelaus / Menelaos Paris / Alexander Odysseus Aeneas Diomedes Sarpedon Telamonian Ajax Memnon Oilean Ajax Penthesileia Patroclus Achilles

Achilles: Becoming a Hero Quiet Life of Pleasure vs. Glory and Premature Death His Antagonistic god? Why does he leave the fight? Why does he come back? Love vs. Honor

G. Nagy, The Best of the Achaeans (1979/1999) akhos - grief laos - host of fighting man Akhilleus - “whose loas has akhos” (L. Palmer) “When Achilles hear the news that Patroklos has been killed, his akhos is instantaneous in the narrative, and for this akhos there is to be no remedy. . . As Thetis predicts, Achilles will have grief for the rest of his life. Earlier, he was grieving for Briseis; now he can grieve for Patroklos, and after this akhos there can be no other. ”

The Beginning of the Iliad Anger be now your song, goddess, Akhilleus’ anger, doomed and ruinous, That caused the Akaiains loss on bitter loss And crowded brave souls into the undergloom, Leaving so many dead men—carrion For dogs and bird; and the will of Zeus was done.

Patroclus and Apollo Three times Patroclus reached the parapet, and three times Apollo’s fingers flicked against the human’s shield And pushed him off. But when he came back a forth time, like a spirit from beyond, Apollo’s voice split the daylight in two: ‘Get back, Patroclus, back where you belong. Troy is fated to fall, but not to you, Nor even to Achilles, a better man by far” Three times he charges into the Trojan ranks, With the raw power of Ares, yelling coldly, And on each charged he killed nine men. But when you made your fourth, demonic charge, Then—did you feel it, Patroclus? —out of the mist, Your death coming to meet you. It was Apollo, whom you did not see in the thick of battle

Achilles slaying Hektor

Events after the Iliad • • • Amazons Death of Achilles (killed by Paris) Contest for Achilles’ armor – death of Telamonian Ajax Trojan horse Death of Astyanax and enslavement of Andromache Death of Priam Cassandra and the statue of Athena Hecuba Polyxena Aeneas escapes

Death of Achilles, Paris (left) shooting , in the center Apollo directs the arrows to Achilles Heel, c. 460 BC Pelike, Niobid Painter

Cults of Achilles A heroic cult of Achilles on the White Island, (Leuce) in the Black Sea, which included an oracle and survived into the Roman period Various sea ports (because his mother was Thetis? ) Cenotaph @ Olympia: Honored at beginning of Olympic Games

The Trojan Horse

Trojan horse from a funerary pithos (ca. 670 BCE) and a Greek stamp based on the depiction

Laocoon and his sons