Cyclic Poets is a shorthand term for the early Greek epic poets, approximate contemporaries of Homer. We know no more about these poets than we know about Homer, but modern scholars regard them as having composed orally, as did Homer. In the classical period, surviving early epic poems were ascribed to these authors, just as the Iliad and Odyssey were ascribed to Homer. Together with Homer, whose Iliad covers a mere 50 days of the war, they cover the complete war "cycle", thus the name. Most modern scholars place Homer in the 8th century BC. The other poets listed below seemed to have lived in the 7th–5th centuries BC. Excluding Homer's, none of the works of the cyclic poets survive.

List of named poets[link]

• Homer
• Stasinus of Cyprus
• Creophylus of Samos
• Panyassis of Halicarnassus
• Arctinus of Miletus
• Lesches of Pyrrha
• Cinaethon of Sparta
• Thestorides of Phocaea (the pseudo-Herodotean Life of Homer says that Thestorides used writing)
• Antimachus of Teos
• Eumelus of Corinth
• Agias of Troezen
• Diodorus of Erythrae
• Hegesias of Salamis (or Hegesinus)
• Cyprias of Halicarnassus
• Carcinus of Naupactus
• Prodicus of Phocaea
• Eugammon of Cyrene
• Pisinous of Lindus
• Pisander of Camirus

List of early Greek epics[link]

The Epic Cycle[link]

• Cypria, ascribed to Homer or Stasinus of Cyprus or Hegesinus (or Hegesias) of Salamis or Cyprias of Halicarnassus
• Iliad, nearly always ascribed to Homer
• Aethiopis, ascribed to Arctinus of Miletus
  • Amazonia once ascribed to Homer (perhaps a different version of or another name for Aethiopis)
• Little Iliad, ascribed to Lesches of Pyrrha or Cinaethon of Sparta or Diodorus of Erythrae or Homer
• Sack of Troy, ascribed to Arctinus of Miletus
• Return from Troy, ascribed to Eumelus of Corinth or Agias of Troezen or Homer
• Odyssey, usually ascribed to Homer
• Telegony, ascribed to Cinaethon of Sparta; otherwise said to have been stolen from Musaeus by Eugammon of Cyrene
  • Thesprotis (perhaps a different version of or another name for Telegony)

The Theban Cycle[link]

• Oedipodea, ascribed to Cinaethon of Sparta
• Thebaid, sometimes ascribed to Homer
• Epigoni, ascribed to Antimachus of Teos or Homer
• Alcmeonis

Other epics[link]

• Titanomachy, ascribed to Eumelus of Corinth
• Heracleia, said to have been stolen from Pisinous of Lindus by Pisander of Camirus
• Capture of Oechalia, said to have been given by Homer to Creophylus of Samos
• Naupactia, ascribed to Arctinus of Miletus or Carcinus of Naupactus
• Phocais, ascribed to Thestorides of Phocaea or Homer
• Minyas, ascribed to Prodicus of Phocaea
• Danais or Danaides
• Europia, perhaps also called Bougonia, ascribed to Eumelus of Corinth

Bibliography[link]

• West, Martin L. Greek Epic Fragments. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2003.

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and has been narrated through many works of Greek literature, most notably through Homer's Iliad and the Odyssey. The Iliad relates a part of the last year of the siege of Troy; the Odyssey describes Odysseus's journey home. Other parts of the war are contained in a cycle of epic poems, which have survived through fragments. Episodes from the war provided material for Greek tragedy and other works of Greek literature, and for Roman poets including Virgil and Ovid.

The war originated from a quarrel between the goddesses Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite, after Eris, the goddess of strife and discord, gave them a golden apple, sometimes known as the Apple of Discord, marked "for the fairest". Zeus sent the goddesses to Paris, who judged that Aphrodite, as the "fairest", should receive the apple. In exchange, Aphrodite made Helen, the most beautiful of all women and wife of Menelaus, fall in love with Paris, who took her to Troy. Agamemnon, king of Mycenae and the brother of Helen's husband Menelaus, led an expedition of Achaean troops to Troy and besieged the city for ten years because of Paris' insult. After the deaths of many heroes, including the Achaeans Achilles and Ajax, and the Trojans Hector and Paris, the city fell to the ruse of the Trojan Horse. The Achaeans slaughtered the Trojans (except for some of the women and children whom they kept or sold as slaves) and desecrated the temples, thus earning the gods' wrath. Few of the Achaeans returned safely to their homes and many founded colonies in distant shores. The Romans later traced their origin to Aeneas, one of the Trojans, who was said to have led the surviving Trojans to modern day Italy.

The ancient Greeks thought that the Trojan War was a historical event that had taken place in the 13th or 12th century BC, and believed that Troy was located in modern-day Turkey near the Dardanelles. By modern times, both the war and the city were widely believed to be non-historical. In 1870, however, the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann excavated a local site that he had identified as Troy; this claim is now accepted by most scholars.^[1][2] Whether there is any historical reality behind the Trojan War is an open question. Many scholars believe that there is a historical core to the tale, though this may simply mean that the Homeric stories are a fusion of various tales of sieges and expeditions by Mycenaean Greeks during the Bronze Age. Those who believe that the stories of the Trojan War are derived from a specific historical conflict usually date it to the 12th or 11th centuries BC, often preferring the dates given by Eratosthenes, 1194–1184 BC, which roughly corresponds with archaeological evidence of a catastrophic burning of Troy VIIa.^[3]

Sources[link]

The Burning of Troy (1759/62), oil painting by Johann Georg Trautmann

The events of the Trojan War are found in many works of Greek literature and depicted in numerous works of Greek art. There is no single, authoritative text which tells the entire events of the war. Instead, the story is assembled from a variety of sources, some of which report contradictory versions of the events. The most important literary sources are the two epic poems traditionally credited to Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey, composed sometime between the 9th and 6th centuries BC.^[4] Each poem narrates only a part of the war. The Iliad covers a short period in the last year of the siege of Troy, while the Odyssey concerns Odysseus's return to his home island of Ithaca, following the sack of Troy.

Other parts of the Trojan War were told in the poems of the Epic Cycle, also known as the Cyclic Epics: the Cypria, Aethiopis, Little Iliad, Iliou Persis, Nostoi, and Telegony. Though these poems survive only in fragments, their content is known from a summary included in Proclus' Chrestomathy.^[5] The authorship of the Cyclic Epics is uncertain. It is generally thought that the poems were written down in the 7th and 6th century BC, after the composition of the Homeric poems, though it is widely believed that they were based on earlier traditions.^[6] Both the Homeric epics and the Epic Cycle take origin from oral tradition. Even after the composition of the Iliad, Odyssey, and the Cyclic Epics, the myths of the Trojan War were passed on orally, in many genres of poetry and through non-poetic storytelling. Events and details of the story that are only found in later authors may have been passed on through oral tradition and could be as old as the Homeric poems. Visual art, such as vase-painting, was another medium in which myths of the Trojan War circulated.^[7]

In later ages playwrights, historians, and other intellectuals would create works inspired by the Trojan War. The three great tragedians of Athens, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, wrote many dramas that portray episodes from the Trojan War. Among Roman writers the most important is the 1st century BC poet Virgil. In Book 2 of the Aeneid, Aeneas narrates the sack of Troy; this section of the poem is thought to rely on material from the Cyclic Epic Iliou Persis.^{[citation needed]}

Legend[link]

The following summary of the Trojan War follows the order of events as given in Proclus' summary, along with the Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid, supplemented with details drawn from other authors.

Origins of the war[link]

The plan of Zeus[link]

According to Greek mythology, Zeus had become king of the gods by overthrowing his father Cronus; Cronus in turn had overthrown his father Uranus. Zeus was not faithful to his wife and sister Hera, and had many relationships from which many children were born. Since Zeus believed that there were too many people populating the earth, he envisioned Momus^[8] or Themis,^[9] who was to use the Trojan War as a means to depopulate the Earth, especially of his demigod descendants.^[10]

The Judgement of Paris[link]

Zeus came to learn from either Themis^[11] or Prometheus, after Heracles had released him from Caucasus,^[12] that, like his father Cronus, one of his sons would overthrow him. Another prophecy stated that a son of the sea-nymph Thetis, with whom Zeus fell in love after gazing upon her in the oceans off the Greek coast, would become greater than his father.^[13] Possibly for one or both of these reasons,^[14] Thetis was betrothed to an elderly human king, Peleus son of Aiakos, either upon Zeus' orders,^[15] or because she wished to please Hera, who had raised her.^[16]

El Juicio de Paris by Enrique Simonet,1904. This painting depicts the event. Aphrodite is shown naked, having disrobed either at will or at Paris' request.

All of the gods were invited to Peleus and Thetis' wedding and brought many gifts,^[17] except Eris (the goddess of discord), who was stopped at the door by Hermes, on Zeus' order.^[18] Insulted, she threw from the door a gift of her own:^[19] a golden apple (το μήλον της έριδος) on which were inscribed the word καλλίστῃ Kallistēi ("To the fairest").^[20] The apple was claimed by Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. They quarreled bitterly over it, and none of the other gods would venture an opinion favoring one, for fear of earning the enmity of the other two. Eventually, Zeus ordered Hermes to lead the three goddesses to Paris, a prince of Troy, who, unaware of his ancestry, was being raised as a shepherd in Mount Ida,^[21] because of a prophecy that he would be the downfall of Troy.^[22] After bathing in the spring of Ida, the goddesses appeared to him naked, either for the sake of winning or at Paris' request. Paris was unable to decide between them, so the goddesses resorted to bribes. Athena offered Paris wisdom, skill in battle, and the abilities of the greatest warriors; Hera offered him political power and control of all of Asia; and Aphrodite offered him the love of the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen of Sparta. Paris awarded the apple to Aphrodite, and, after several adventures, returned to Troy, where he was recognized by his royal family.

Peleus and Thetis bore a son, whom they named Achilles. It was foretold that he would either die of old age after an uneventful life, or die young in a battlefield and gain immortality through poetry.^[23] Furthermore, when Achilles was nine years old, Calchas had prophesied that Troy could not again fall without his help.^[24] A number of sources credit Thetis with attempting to make Achilles immortal when he was an infant. Some of these state that she held him over fire every night to burn away his mortal parts and rubbed him with ambrosia during the day, but Peleus discovered her actions and stopped her.^[25] According to some versions of this story, Thetis had already destroyed several sons in this manner, and Peleus' action therefore saved his son's life.^[26] Other sources state that Thetis bathed Achilles in the River Styx, the river that runs to the under world, making him invulnerable wherever he had touched the water.^[27] Because she had held him by the heel, it was not immersed during the bathing and thus the heel remained mortal and vulnerable to injury (hence the expression "Achilles heel" for an isolated weakness). He grew up to be the greatest of all mortal warriors. After Calchas' prophesy, Thetis hid Achilles in Skyros at the court of king Lycomedes, where he was disguised as a girl.^[28] At a crucial point in the war, she assists her son by providing weapons divinely forged by Hephaestus (see below).

Elopement of Paris and Helen[link]

Aphrodite directs the abduction of Helen by Paris (Francesco Primaticcio, 1530/39)

The most beautiful woman in the world was Helen, one of the daughters of Tyndareus, King of Sparta. Her mother was Leda, who had been either raped or seduced by Zeus in the form of a swan.^[29] Accounts differ over which of Leda's four children, two pairs of twins, were fathered by Zeus and which by Tyndareus. However, Helen is usually credited as Zeus' daughter,^[30] and sometimes Nemesis is credited as her mother.^[31] Helen had scores of suitors, and her father was unwilling to choose one for fear the others would retaliate violently.

Finally, one of the suitors, Odysseus of Ithaca, proposed a plan to solve the dilemma. In exchange for Tyndareus' support of his own suit towards Penelope,^[32] he suggested that Tyndareus require all of Helen's suitors to promise that they would defend the marriage of Helen, regardless of whom he chose. The suitors duly swore the required oath on the severed pieces of a horse, although not without a certain amount of grumbling.^[33]

Tyndareus chose Menelaus. Menelaus was a political choice on her father's part. He had wealth and power. He had humbly not petitioned for her himself, but instead sent his brother Agamemnon on his behalf. He had promised Aphrodite a hecatomb, a sacrifice of 100 oxen, if he won Helen, but forgot about it and earned her wrath.^[34] Menelaus inherited Tyndareus' throne of Sparta with Helen as his queen when her brothers, Castor and Pollux, became gods,^[35] and when Agamemnon married Helen's sister Clytemnestra and took back the throne of Mycenae.^[36]

Paris, under the guise of a supposed diplomatic mission, went to Sparta to get Helen and bring her back to Troy. Before Helen could look up, to see him enter the palace, she was shot with an arrow from Eros, otherwise known as Cupid, and fell in love with Paris when she saw him, as promised by Aphrodite. Menelaus had left for Crete^[37] to bury his uncle, Crateus.^[38] Hera, still jealous over his judgement, sent a storm.^[37] The storm caused the lovers to land in Egypt, where the gods replaced Helen with a likeness of her made of clouds, Nephele.^[39] The myth of Helen being switched is attributed to the 6th century BC Sicilian poet Stesichorus. For Homer the true Helen was in Troy. The ship then landed in Sidon before reaching Troy. Paris, fearful of getting caught, spent some time there and then sailed to Troy.^[40]

Map of Homeric Greece

Paris' abduction of Helen had several precedents. Io was taken from Mycenae, Europa was taken from Phoenicia, Jason took Medea from Colchis,^[41] and the Trojan princess Hesione had been taken by Heracles, who gave her to Telamon of Salamis.^[42] According to Herodotus, Paris was emboldened by these examples to steal himself a wife from Greece, and expected no retribution, since there had been none in the other cases.^[43]

The gathering of Achaean forces and the first expedition[link]

According to Homer, Menelaus and his ally, Odysseus, traveled to Troy, where they unsuccessfully sought to recover Helen by diplomatic means.^[44]

Menelaus then asked Agamemnon to uphold his oath. He agreed and sent emissaries to all the Achaean kings and princes to call them to observe their oaths and retrieve Helen.^[45]

Odysseus and Achilles[link]

Since Menelaus's wedding, Odysseus had married Penelope and fathered a son, Telemachus. In order to avoid the war, he feigned madness and sowed his fields with salt. Palamedes outwitted him by placing his infant son in front of the plough's path, and Odysseus turned aside, unwilling to kill his son, so revealing his sanity and forcing him to join the war.^[37][46]

According to Homer, however, Odysseus supported the military adventure from the beginning, and traveled the region with Pylos' king, Nestor, to recruit forces.^[47]

At Skyros, Achilles had an affair with the king's daughter Deidamia, resulting in a child, Neoptolemus.^[48] Odysseus, Telamonian Ajax, and Achilles' tutor Phoenix went to retrieve Achilles. Achilles' mother disguised him as a woman so that he would not have to go to war, but, according to one story, they blew a horn, and Achilles revealed himself by seizing a spear to fight intruders, rather than fleeing.^[49] According to another story, they disguised themselves as merchants bearing trinkets and weaponry, and Achilles was marked out from the other women for admiring weaponry instead of clothes and jewelry.^[50]

Pausanias said that, according to Homer, Achilles did not hide in Skyros, but rather conquered the island, as part of the Trojan War.^[51]

The Discovery of Achilles among the Daughters of Lycomedes (1664) by Jan de Bray

First gathering at Aulis[link]

The Achean forces first gathered at Aulis. All the suitors sent their forces except King Cinyras of Cyprus. Though he sent breastplates to Agamemnon and promised to send 50 ships, he sent only one real ship, led by the son of Mygdalion, and 49 ships made of clay.^[52] Idomeneus was willing to lead the Cretan contingent in Mycenae's war against Troy, but only as a co-commander, which he was granted.^[53] The last commander to arrive was Achilles, who was then 15 years old.

Following a sacrifice to Apollo, a snake slithered from the altar to a sparrow's nest in a plane tree nearby. It ate the mother and her nine babies, then was turned to stone. Calchas interpreted this as a sign that Troy would fall in the tenth year of the war.^[54]

Telephus[link]

When the Achaeans left for the war, they did not know the way, and accidentally landed in Mysia, ruled by King Telephus, son of Heracles, who had led a contingent of Arcadians to settle there.^[55] In the battle, Achilles wounded Telephus,^[56] who had killed Thersander.^[57] Because the wound would not heal, Telephus asked an oracle, "What will happen to the wound?". The oracle responded, "he that wounded shall heal". The Achaean fleet then set sail and was scattered by a storm. Achilles landed in Scyros and married Deidamia. A new gathering was set again in Aulis.^[37]

Telephus went to Aulis, and either pretended to be a beggar, asking Agamemnon to help heal his wound,^[58] or kidnapped Orestes and held him for ransom, demanding the wound be healed.^[59] Achilles refused, claiming to have no medical knowledge. Odysseus reasoned that the spear that had inflicted the wound must be able to heal it. Pieces of the spear were scraped off onto the wound, and Telephus was healed.^[60] Telephus then showed the Achaeans the route to Troy.^[58]

Some scholars have regarded the expedition against Telephus and its resolution as a derivative reworking of elements from the main story of the Trojan War, but it has also been seen as fitting the story-pattern of the "preliminary adventure" that anticipates events and themes from the main narrative, and therefore as likely to be "early and integral".^[61]

Map of the Troad (Troas)

The second gathering[link]

Eight years after the storm had scattered them,^[62] the fleet of more than a thousand ships was gathered again. But when they had all reached Aulis, the winds ceased. The prophet Calchas stated that the goddess Artemis was punishing Agamemnon for killing either a sacred deer or a deer in a sacred grove, and boasting that he was a better hunter than she.^[37] The only way to appease Artemis, he said, was to sacrifice Iphigenia, who was either the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra,^[63] or of Helen and Theseus entrusted to Clytemnestra when Helen married Menelaus.^[64] Agamemnon refused, and the other commanders threatened to make Palamedes commander of the expedition.^[65] According to some versions, Agamemnon relented, but others claim that he sacrificed a deer in her place, or that at the last moment, Artemis took pity on the girl, and took her to be a maiden in one of her temples, substituting a lamb.^[37] Hesiod says that Iphigenia became the goddess Hecate.^[66]

The Achaean forces are described in detail in the Catalogue of Ships, in the second book of the Iliad. They consisted of 28 contingents from mainland Greece, the Peloponnese, the Dodecanese islands, Crete, and Ithaca, comprising 1178 pentekontoroi, ships with 50 rowers. Thucydides says^[67] that according to tradition there were about 1200 ships, and that the Boeotian ships had 120 men, while Philoctetes' ships only had the fifty rowers, these probably being maximum and minimum. These numbers would mean a total force of 70,000 to 130,000 men. Another catalogue of ships is given by the Bibliotheca that differs somewhat but agrees in numbers. Some scholars have claimed that Homer's catalogue is an original Bronze Age document, possibly the Achaean commander's order of operations.^[68][69][70] Others believe it was a fabrication of Homer.

The second book of the Iliad also lists the Trojan allies, consisting of the Trojans themselves, led by Hector, and various allies listed as Dardanians led by Aeneas, Zeleians, Adrasteians, Percotians, Pelasgians, Thracians, Ciconian spearmen, Paionian archers, Halizones, Mysians, Phrygians, Maeonians, Miletians, Lycians led by Sarpedon and Carians. Nothing is said of the Trojan language; the Carians are specifically said to be barbarian-speaking, and the allied contingents are said to have spoken multiple languages, requiring orders to be translated by their individual commanders.^[71] It should be noted, however, that the Trojans and Achaeans in the Iliad share the same religion, same culture and the enemy heroes speak to each other in the same language, though this could be dramatic effect.

Nine years of war[link]

Philoctetes[link]

Philoctetes abandoned at Lemnos (detail of Attic red-figure stamnos ca. 460 BC)

Philoctetes was Heracles' friend, and because he lit Heracles's funeral pyre when no one else would, he received Heracles' bow and arrows.^[72] He sailed with seven ships full of men to the Trojan War, where he was planning on fighting for the Achaeans. They stopped either at Chryse Island for supplies,^[73] or in Tenedos, along with the rest of the fleet.^[74] Philoctetes was then bitten by a snake. The wound festered and had a foul smell; on Odysseus's advice, the Atreidae ordered Philoctetes to stay on Lemnos.^[37] Medon took control of Philoctetes's men. While landing on Tenedos, Achilles killed king Tenes, son of Apollo, despite a warning by his mother that if he did so he would be killed himself by Apollo.^[75] From Tenedos, Agamemnon sent an embassy to Priam, composed of Menelaus, Odysseus, and Palamedes, asking for Helen's return. The embassy was refused.^[76]

Philoctetes stayed on Lemnos for ten years, which was a deserted island according to Sophocles' tragedy Philoctetes, but according to earlier tradition was populated by Minyans.^[77]

Arrival[link]

Calchas had prophesied that the first Achean to walk on land after stepping off a ship would be the first to die.^[78] Thus even the leading Greeks hesitated to land. Finally, Protesilaus, leader of the Phylaceans, landed first.^[79] Odysseus had tricked him, in throwing his own shield down to land on, so that while he was first to leap off his ship, he was not the first to land on Trojan soil. Hector killed Protesilaus in single combat, though the Trojans conceded the beach. In the second wave of attacks, Achilles killed Cycnus, son of Poseidon. The Trojans then fled to the safety of the walls of their city.^[80] Protesilaus had killed many Trojans but was killed by Hector in most versions of the story,^[81] though others list Aeneas, Achates, or Ephorbus as his slayer.^[82] The Achaeans buried him as a god on the Thracian peninsula, across the Troad.^[83] After Protesilaus' death, his brother, Podarces, took command of his troops.

Briseis and Achilles in a 17th-century book illustration by Wenzel Hollar

Achilles' campaigns[link]

The Achaeans besieged Troy for nine years. This part of the war is the least developed among surviving sources, which prefer to talk about events in the last year of the war. After the initial landing the army was gathered in its entirety again only in the tenth year. Thucydides deduces that this was due to lack of money. They raided the Trojan allies and spent time farming the Thracian peninsula.^[84] Troy was never completely besieged, thus it maintained communications with the interior of Asia Minor. Reinforcements continued to come until the very end. The Acheans controlled only the entrance to the Dardanelles, and Troy and her allies controlled the shortest point at Abydos and Sestus and communicated with allies in Europe.^[85]

Achilles and Ajax were the most active of the Achaeans, leading separate armies to raid lands of Trojan allies. According to Homer, Achilles conquered 11 cities and 12 islands.^[86] According to Apollodorus, he raided the land of Aeneas in the Troad region and stole his cattle.^[87] He also captured Lyrnassus, Pedasus, and many of the neighbouring cities, and killed Troilus, son of Priam, who was still a youth; it was said that if he reached 20 years of age, Troy would not fall. According to Apollodorus,

He also took Lesbos and Phocaea, then Colophon, and Smyrna, and Clazomenae, and Cyme; and afterwards Aegialus and Tenos, the so-called Hundred Cities; then, in order, Adramytium and Side; then Endium, and Linaeum, and Colone. He took also Hypoplacian Thebes and Lyrnessus, and further Antandrus, and many other cities.^[88]

Kakrides comments that the list is wrong in that it extends too far into the south.^[89] Other sources talk of Achilles taking Pedasus, Monenia,^[90] Mythemna (in Lesbos), and Peisidice.^[91]

Among the loot from these cities was Briseis, from Lyrnessus, who was awarded to him, and Chryseis, from Hypoplacian Thebes, who was awarded to Agamemnon.^[37] Achilles captured Lycaon, son of Priam,^[92] while he was cutting branches in his father's orchards. Patroclus sold him as a slave in Lemnos,^[37] where he was bought by Eetion of Imbros and brought back to Troy. Only 12 days later Achilles slew him, after the death of Patroclus.^[93]

Ajax and Achilles playing a board game (Black-figure Attic lekythos, ca. 500 BC)

[edit] Ajax and a game of petteia

Ajax son of Telamon laid waste the Thracian peninsula of which Polymestor, a son-in-law of Priam, was king. Polymestor surrendered Polydorus, one of Priam's children, of whom he had custody. He then attacked the town of the Phrygian king Teleutas, killed him in single combat and carried off his daughter Tecmessa.^[94] Ajax also hunted the Trojan flocks, both on Mount Ida and in the countryside.

Numerous paintings on pottery have suggested a tale not mentioned in the literary traditions. At some point in the war Achilles and Ajax were playing a board game (petteia).^[95][96] They were absorbed in the game and oblivious to the surrounding battle.^[97] The Trojans attacked and reached the heroes, who were only saved by an intervention of Athena.^[98]

The death of Palamedes[link]

Odysseus was sent to Thrace to return with grain, but came back empty-handed. When scorned by Palamedes, Odysseus challenged him to do better. Palamedes set out and returned with a shipload of grain.^[99]

Odysseus had never forgiven Palamedes for threatening the life of his son. In revenge, Odysseus conceived a plot^[100] where an incriminating letter was forged, from Priam to Palamedes,^[101] and gold was planted in Palamedes' quarters. The letter and gold were "discovered", and Agamemnon had Palamedes stoned to death for treason.

However, Pausanias, quoting the Cypria, says that Odysseus and Diomedes drowned Palamedes, while he was fishing, and Dictys says that Odysseus and Diomedes lured Palamedes into a well, which they said contained gold, then stoned him to death.^[102]

Palamedes' father Nauplius sailed to the Troad and asked for justice, but was refused. In revenge, Nauplius traveled among the Achaean kingdoms and told the wives of the kings that they were bringing Trojan concubines to dethrone them. Many of the Greek wives were persuaded to betray their husbands, most significantly Agamemnon's wife, Clytemnestra, who was seduced by Aegisthus, son of Thyestes.^[103]

Mutiny[link]

Near the end of the ninth year since the landing, the Achaean army, tired from the fighting and from the lack of supplies, mutinied against their leaders and demanded to return to their homes. According to the Cypria, Achilles forced the army to stay.^[37] According to Apollodorus, Agamemnon brought the Wine Growers, daughters of Anius, son of Apollo, who had the gift of producing by touch wine, wheat, and oil from the earth, in order to relieve the supply problem of the army.^[104]

Chryses pleading with Agamemnon for his daughter (360–350 BC)

[edit] The Iliad

Chryses, a priest of Apollo and father of Chryseis, came to Agamemnon to ask for the return of his daughter. Agamemnon refused, and insulted Chryses, who prayed to Apollo to avenge his ill-treatment. Enraged, Apollo afflicted the Achaean army with plague. Agamemnon was forced to return Chryseis to end the plague, and took Achilles' concubine Briseis as his own. Enraged at the dishonour Agamemnon had inflicted upon him, Achilles decided he would no longer fight. He asked his mother, Thetis, to intercede with Zeus, who agreed to give the Trojans success in the absence of Achilles, the best warrior of the Achaeans.

After the withdrawal of Achilles, the Achaeans were initially successful. Both armies gathered in full for the first time since the landing. Menelaus and Paris fought a duel, which ended when Aphrodite snatched the beaten Paris from the field. With the truce broken, the armies began fighting again. Diomedes won great renown amongst the Achaeans, killing the Trojan hero Pandaros and nearly killing Aeneas, who was only saved by his mother, Aphrodite. With the assistance of Athena, Diomedes then wounded the gods Aphrodite and Ares. During the next days, however, the Trojans drove the Achaeans back to their camp and were stopped at the Achaean wall by Poseidon. The next day, though, with Zeus' help, the Trojans broke into the Achaean camp and were on the verge of setting fire to the Achaean ships. An earlier appeal to Achilles to return was rejected, but after Hector burned Protesilaus' ship, he allowed his close friend^[105] and relative Patroclus to go into battle wearing Achilles' armour and lead his army. Patroclus drove the Trojans all the way back to the walls of Troy, and was only prevented from storming the city by the intervention of Apollo. Patroclus was then killed by Hector, who took Achilles' armour from the body of Patroclus.

Thetis gives her son Achilles weapons forged by Hephaestus (detail of Attic black-figure hydria, 575–550 BC)

Achilles, maddened with grief, swore to kill Hector in revenge. He was reconciled with Agamemnon and received Briseis back, untouched by Agamemnon. He received a new set of arms, forged by the god Hephaestus, and returned to the battlefield. He slaughtered many Trojans, and nearly killed Aeneas, who was saved by Poseidon. Achilles fought with the river god Scamander, and a battle of the gods followed. The Trojan army returned to the city, except for Hector, who remained outside the walls because he was tricked by Athena. Achilles killed Hector, and afterwards he dragged Hector's body from his chariot and refused to return the body to the Trojans for burial. The Achaeans then conducted funeral games for Patroclus. Afterwards, Priam came to Achilles' tent, guided by Hermes, and asked Achilles to return Hector's body. The armies made a temporary truce to allow the burial of the dead. The Iliad ends with the funeral of Hector.

[edit] After the Iliad

Achilles killing the Amazon Penthesilea

Ajax preparing to commit suicide (drawing from black-figure amphora 530-525 BC)

Penthesilea and the death of Achilles[link]

Shortly after the burial of Hector, Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons, arrived with her warriors.^[106] Penthesilea, daughter of Otrere and Ares, had accidentally killed her sister Hippolyte. She was purified from this action by Priam,^[107] and in exchange she fought for him and killed many, including Machaon^[108] (according to Pausanias, Machaon was killed by Eurypylus),^[109] and according to another version, Achilles himself, who was resurrected at the request of Thetis.^[110] Penthesilia was then killed by Achilles^[111] who fell in love with her beauty after her death. Thersites, a simple soldier and the ugliest Achaean, taunted Achilles over his love^[108] and gouged out Penthesilea's eyes.^[112] Achilles slew Thersites, and after a dispute sailed to Lesbos, where he was purified for his murder by Odysseus after sacrificing to Apollo, Artemis, and Leto.^[111]

While they were away, Memnon of Ethiopia, son of Tithonus and Eos,^[113] came with his host to help his stepbrother Priam.^[114] He did not come directly from Ethiopia, but either from Susa in Persia, conquering all the peoples in between,^[115] or from the Caucasus, leading an army of Ethiopians and Indians.^[116] Like Achilles, he wore armour made by Hephaestus.^[117] In the ensuing battle, Memnon killed Antilochus, who took one of Memnon's blows to save his father Nestor.^[118] Achilles and Memnon then fought. Zeus weighed the fate of the two heroes; the weight containing that of Memnon sank,^[119] and he was slain by Achilles.^[111][120] Achilles chased the Trojans to their city, which he entered. The gods, seeing that he had killed too many of their children, decided that it was his time to die. He was killed after Paris shot a poisoned arrow that was guided by Apollo.^{[111][113][121]} In another version he was killed by a knife to the back (or heel) by Paris, while marrying Polyxena, daughter of Priam, in the temple of Thymbraean Apollo,^[122] the site where he had earlier killed Troilus. Both versions conspicuously deny the killer any sort of valour, saying Achilles remained undefeated on the battlefield. His bones were mingled with those of Patroclus, and funeral games were held.^[123] Like Ajax, he is represented as living after his death in the island of Leuke, at the mouth of the Danube River,^[124] where he is married to Helen.^[125]

The Judgment of the Arms: Achilles' armour and the death of Ajax[link]

A great battle raged around the dead Achilles. Ajax held back the Trojans, while Odysseus carried the body away.^[126] When Achilles' armour was offered to the smartest warrior, the two that had saved his body came forward as competitors. Agamemnon, unwilling to undertake the invidious duty of deciding between the two competitors, referred the dispute to the decision of the Trojan prisoners, inquiring of them which of the two heroes had done most harm to the Trojans.^[127] Alternatively, the Trojans and Pallas Athena were the judges^[128][129] in that, following Nestor's advice, spies were sent to the walls to overhear what was said. A girl said that Ajax was braver:

For Aias took up and carried out of the strife the hero, Peleus'

son: this great Odysseus cared not to do.

To this another replied by Athena's contrivance:

Why, what is this you say? A thing against reason and untrue!

Even a woman could carry a load once a man had put it on her

shoulder; but she could not fight. For she would fail with fear

if she should fight. (Scholiast on Aristophanes, Knights 1056 and Aristophanes ib)

According to Pindar, the decision was made by secret ballot among the Acheans.^[130] In all story versions, the arms were awarded to Odysseus. Driven mad with grief, Ajax desired to kill his comrades, but Athena caused him to mistake the cattle and their herdsmen for the Achean warriors.^[131] In his frenzy he scourged two rams, believing them to be Agamemnon and Menelaus.^[132] In the morning, he came to his senses and killed himself by jumping on the sword that had been given to him by Hector, so that it pierced his armpit, his only vulnerable part.^[133] According to an older tradition, he was killed by the Trojans who, seeing he was invulnerable, attacked him with clay until he was covered by it and could no longer move, thus dying of starvation.

The prophecies[link]

After the tenth year, it was prophesied^[134] that Troy could not fall without Heracles' bow, which was with Philoctetes in Lemnos. Odysseus and Diomedes^[135] retrieved Philoctetes, whose wound had healed.^[136] Philoctetes then shot and killed Paris.

According to Apollodorus, Paris' brothers Helenus and Deiphobus vied over the hand of Helen. Deiphobus prevailed, and Helenus abandoned Troy for Mt. Ida. Calchas said that Helenus knew the prophecies concerning the fall of Troy, so Odysseus waylaid Helenus.^[129][137] Under coercion, Helenus told the Acheans that they would win if they retrieved Pelops' bones, persuaded Achilles' son Neoptolemus to fight for them, and stole the Trojan Palladium.^[138]

The Greeks retrieved Pelop's bones,^[139] and sent Odysseus to retrieve Neoptolemus, who was hiding from the war in King Lycomedes's court in Scyros. Odysseus gave him his father's arms.^[129][140] Eurypylus, son of Telephus, leading, according to Homer, a large force of Kêteioi,^[141] or Hittites or Mysians according to Apollodorus,^[142] arrived to aid the Trojans. He killed Machaon^[109] and Peneleus,^[143] but was slain by Neoptolemus.

Disguised as a beggar, Odysseus went to spy inside Troy, but was recognized by Helen. Homesick,^[144] Helen plotted with Odysseus. Later, with Helen's help, Odysseus and Diomedes stole the Palladium.^[129][145]

The earliest known depiction of the Trojan Horse, from the Mykonos vase ca. 670 BC

Trojan Horse[link]

This is a drawing of the Greeks leaving their hiding place inside the Trojan Horse in order to attack Troy. The drawing is based on an oil painting by Henri Motte.

The end of the war came with one final plan. Odysseus devised a new ruse—a giant hollow wooden horse, an animal that was sacred to the Trojans. It was built by Epeius and guided by Athena,^[146] from the wood of a cornel tree grove sacred to Apollo,^[147] with the inscription:

The Greeks dedicate this thank-offering to Athena for their return home.^[148]

The hollow horse was filled with soldiers^[149] led by Odysseus. The rest of the army burned the camp and sailed for Tenedos.^[150]

When the Trojans discovered that the Greeks were gone, believing the war was over, they "joyfully dragged the horse inside the city",^[151] while they debated what to do with it. Some thought they ought to hurl it down from the rocks, others thought they should burn it, while others said they ought to dedicate it to Athena.^[152][153]

Both Cassandra and Laocoön warned against keeping the horse.^[154] While Cassandra had been given the gift of prophecy by Apollo, she was also cursed by Apollo never to be believed. Serpents then came out of the sea and devoured either Laocoön and one of his two sons,^[152] Laocoön and both his sons,^[155] or only his sons,^[156] a portent which so alarmed the followers of Aeneas that they withdrew to Ida.^[152] The Trojans decided to keep the horse and turned to a night of mad revelry and celebration.^[129] Sinon, an Achaean spy, signaled the fleet stationed at Tenedos when "it was midnight and the clear moon was rising"^[157] and the soldiers from inside the horse emerged and killed the guards.^[158]

The Sack of Troy[link]

Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, kills King Priam (detail of Attic black-figure amphora, 520–510 BC)

The Acheans entered the city and killed the sleeping population. A great massacre followed which continued into the day.

Blood ran in torrents, drenched was all the earth,

As Trojans and their alien helpers died.

Here were men lying quelled by bitter death

All up and down the city in their blood.^[159]

The Trojans, fuelled with desperation, fought back fiercely, despite being disorganized and leaderless. With the fighting at its height, some donned fallen enemies' attire and launched surprise counterattacks in the chaotic street fighting. Other defenders hurled down roof tiles and anything else heavy down on the rampaging attackers. The outlook was grim though, and eventually the remaining defenders were destroyed along with the whole city.

Neoptolemus killed Priam, who had taken refuge at the altar of Zeus of the Courtyard.^[152][160] Menelaus killed Deiphobus, Helen's husband after Paris' death, and also intended to kill Helen, but, overcome by her beauty, threw down his sword^[161] and took her to the ships.^[152][162]

Ajax the Lesser raped Cassandra on Athena's altar while she was clinging to her statue. Because of Ajax's impiety, the Acheaens, urged by Odysseus, wanted to stone him to death, but he fled to Athena's altar, and was spared.^[152][163]

Antenor, who had given hospitality to Menelaus and Odysseus when they asked for the return of Helen, and who had advocated so, was spared, along with his family.^[164] Aeneas took his father on his back and fled, and, according to Apollodorus, was allowed to go because of his piety.^[160]

The Greeks then burned the city and divided the spoils. Cassandra was awarded to Agamemnon. Neoptolemus got Andromache, wife of Hector, and Odysseus was given Hecuba, Priam's wife.^[165]

The Achaeans^[166] threw Hector's infant son Astyanax down from the walls of Troy,^[167] either out of cruelty and hate^[168] or to end the royal line, and the possibility of a son's revenge.^[169] They (by usual tradition Neoptolemus) also sacrificed the Trojan princess Polyxena on the grave of Achilles as demanded by his ghost, either as part of his spoil or because she had betrayed him.^[170]

Aethra, Theseus' mother, and one of Helen's handmaids,^[171] was rescued by her grandsons, Demophon and Acamas.^[152][172]

The returns[link]

The gods were very angry over the destruction of their temples and other sacrilegious acts by the Acheans, and decided that most would not return home. A storm fell on the returning fleet off Tenos island. Additionally, Nauplius, in revenge for the murder of his son Palamedes, set up false lights in Cape Caphereus (also known today as Cavo D'Oro, in Euboea) and many were shipwrecked.^[173]

• Nestor, who had the best conduct in Troy and did not take part in the looting, was the only hero who had a fast and safe return.^[174] Those of his army that survived the war also reached home with him safely, but later left and colonised Metapontium in Southern Italy.^[175]

Poseidon smites Ajax the Lesser, by Bonaventura Genelli (1798–1868)

• Ajax the Lesser, who had endured more than the others the wrath of the Gods, never returned. His ship was wrecked by a storm sent by Athena, who borrowed one of Zeus' thunderbolts and tore it to pieces. The crew managed to land in a rock, but Poseidon struck it, and Ajax fell in the sea and drowned. He was buried by Thetis in Myconos^[176] or Delos.^[177]

• Teucer, son of Telamon and half-brother of Ajax, stood trial by his father for his half-brother's death. He was disowned by his father and wasn't allowed back on Salamis Island. He was at sea near Phreattys in Peiraeus.^[178] He was acquitted of responsibility but found guilty of negligence because he did not return his dead body or his arms. He left with his army (who took their wives) and founded Salamis in Cyprus.^[179] The Athenians later created a political myth that his son left his kingdom to Theseus' sons (and not to Megara).

• Neoptolemus, following the advice of Helenus, who accompanied him when he traveled over land, was always accompanied by Andromache. He met Odysseus and they buried Phoenix, Achilles' teacher, on the land of the Ciconians. They then conquered the land of the Molossians (Epirus) and Neoptolemus had a child by Andromache, Molossus, to whom he later gave the throne.^[180] Thus the kings of Epirus claimed their lineage from Achilles, and so did Alexander the Great, whose mother was of that royal house. Alexander the Great and the kings of Macedon also claimed to be descended from Heracles. Helenus founded a city in Molossia and inhabited it, and Neoptolemus gave him his mother Deidamia as wife. After Peleus died he succeeded Phtia's throne.^[181] He had a feud with Orestes (son of Agamemnon) over Menelaus' daughter Hermione, and was killed in Delphi, where he was buried.^[182] In Roman myths, the kingdom of Phtia was taken over by Helenus, who married Andromache. They offered hospitality to other Trojan refugees, including Aeneas, who paid a visit there during his wanderings.