Trojan War terms Greeks Achaians Argives Danans Trojans

Trojan War - terms Greeks = Achaians, Argives, Danaäns Trojans = Dardanians Troy = Ilion, Ilium Rossetti’s Helen

Back-up - a few facts • Son of Peleus and Thetis was Achilles, greatest fighter of the Greeks • Offspring of Leda & Swan, along with Helen and Clytemnestra, were Polydeuces (Pollux) and Castor, called the Dioscuroi, they were protectors of sailors and shared immortality • Leda, wife of Tyndareus and mother of Helen, was the sister of Althea, Meleager’s mother • Additional name for Paris, son of Priam, is Alexander • Aeneas, who fought with the Trojans, was the son of Anchises and Aphrodite

Greek & Trojan marriages • Agamemnon & Clytemnestra (she kills him on return with her lover Aigisthus) • Odysseus & Penelope • Menelaus & Helen & Paris • Hector & Andromache • King Priam & Hecuba

Events of Iliad • In 9 th year of war, a quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles over a girl • Achilles sits out of the war, planning to go home • The Greeks are driven to their ships • Patroclus, Achilles’ best friend, puts on Achilles’ armor in order to raise morale of Greeks • Hector, best fighter of the Trojans, kills Patroclus • Achilles reenters the war, eventually killing Hector • Priam goes in person to ask for the corpse of his son • Hector’s funeral

So Iliad ends, but war continued • Amazon tribe joined the Trojans • Achilles was killed by arrow of Paris, he was shot in his heel, the only part of his body that could be hurt. • Competition for the armor of Achilles – Ajax, son of Telemon, lost and went mad; Odysseus won • Calchas the seer gave conditions for Troy’s fall – 1. Neoptolemus fighting 2. Palladium removed from Troy 3. Bow of Heracles (held by Philoctetes) on hand

All conditions fulfilled, then the device of the wooden horse was used. Troy could not be taken by force, but could be by stealth.

Laocoon and sons – Laocoon, Trojan priest of Poseidon, advised the Trojans to burn the wooden horse. In punishment, he and his sons were killed by a giant sea snake.

Wooden Horse taken into the city as Laocoon and his sons die in foreground.

Aftermath • Trojan men and boys killed • Trojan women handed out as booty • Cassandra went to Agamemnon; Hecuba to Odysseus; Andromache to Neoptolemus, son of Achilles • All the Greeks had difficulties getting home and staying home.

Homecomings, as with any war, even the winners have difficulty. • Ajax the Lessor was shipwrecked by Athena and drowned by Poseidon for raping Cassandra in Athena’s temple during the sack of Troy • Agamemnon arrived home and was murdered by his wife and her lover, Aegisthus. • Menelaus was driven by a storm to Egypt where he stayed for eight years before returning to Sparta. He lost 55 of the 60 ships that sailed with him.

Homecoming, continued… • Diomedes returned home to an unfaithful wife. He left and kept moving, finally landing in Italy. • Idomeneus of Crete was rejected by his wife and family. He also kept wandering until he came at last to Italy. • Neoptolemus went home by land married Helen’s daughter, Hermione. He was killed by her fiancée, Orestes, son of Agamemnon.

And Odysseus – wandered for 10 more years before he could come home to Ithaca. This is the story of the Odyssey – the wanderings of Odysseus, the aftermath of war, and Odysseus’ homecoming.