The Troy War
Part 3
The First Nine Years: Telephus, Iphigenia, Tenes
Even though he was the only one not to have taken a vow to fight for Menelaus’ honor, once Odysseus had discovered him, Achilles decided to join the Greek army, commanding a fleet of 50 ships, each one carrying 50 of his men, the mighty Myrmidons.
However, soon after its departure, the Greek fleet lost its way and landed in Mysia by mistake. Mysia was then ruled by Heracles’ son, Telephus, whose army managed to drive the Greeks away from his country. But during the battle, Telephus was wounded by Achilles, and could not be healed in any way whatsoever. After consulting an oracle, he was told that only he who had inflicted the wound would be able to repair it; so, Telephus asked Achilles to heal him, and, in return, he agreed to guide the Greeks to Troy.
Even so, the Greeks soon faced another problem. After killing a sacred deer at Aulis, Agamemnon enraged the goddess Artemis who subsequently decided to hold back the favorable winds until she was offered a human sacrifice in return for her loss: Agamemnon’s oldest daughter, Iphigenia. Iphigenia was lured to Aulis on the pretext of a marriage with Achilles; after finding out that Agamemnon had used him deliberately in such a cruel ruse, Achilles tried to save the life of the poor girl, but barely managed to keep his head on his shoulders: everybody supported Agamemnon’s attempt to appease Artemis. Eventually, Iphigenia agreed to be sacrificed, and the Greeks set sail once again.
Near Troy, Achilles’ fleet landed on the island of Tenedos and in the fight which ensued – contrary to his mother’s advice – Achilles killed Tenedos’ king, Tenes. This enraged Tenes’ father who happened to be none other than Apollo. The Olympian never forgot Achilles’ offense and, eventually, got his revenge.
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Recruiting Achilles
Soon after joining the Trojan expedition, Odysseus learned of Achilles’ whereabouts;
so, he teamed up with Telamonian Ajax and Phoenix, an old tutor of Achilles, and the three went to Skyros to recruit the hero.
There, they either blew a war horn, on the sound of which Achilles was the only woman that took a spear in hand, or they appeared as merchants selling jewels and weapons,
and Achilles was the only woman interested in the latter. Either way, now the Achaean forces were complete; and ready to attack Troy.
The Rage of Achilles
On the tenth year, Chryses, a Trojan priest of Apollo, visited Agamemnon and asked for his daughter Chryseis’ return. Agamemnon,
who had taken her as war booty and kept her to be his concubine, refused to give Chryseis back.
So, Chryses prayed to Apollo for some kind of a divine payback, and Apollo inflicted the Greek army with а plague. Pressed by his armies,
Agamemnon had no option but to return Chryseis to her father; however, so as to salvage his ego and reputation, he took Achilles’ concubine Briseis as his own. Achilles, infuriated,
retired to his hut and announced that he had no intention of fighting any longer – at least not as long as Agamemnon was in charge.
Patroclus
Now that Achilles was out of the action, the Trojans started winning battle after a battle, eventually driving the Greeks back to their ships and almost setting the ships on fire.
Patroclus, Achilles’ closest friend, couldn’t take this any longer; so, he asked Achilles for his armor and, disguised as him, took command of the Myrmidon army.
Their morale boosted, the Achaeans successfully repelled the Trojan attack; ever the fearless warrior and never shying away from a duel,
Hector barely spared a moment before he ran in the direction of the man everyone thought was Achilles;
in the fight which followed, Hector managed to kill his opponent – only to realize that it had been Patroclus all along.
The Victorious Return of Achilles
Achilles, maddened with grief, swore vengeance; with him back on the battlefield, the war took an entirely different course.
After slaying a vast number of Trojans, Achilles eventually got the fight he wanted: Hector himself. Even though this duel paired off the best fighters of both armies, everyone was well aware that there could be only one victor from it;
in fact, even before its commencement, fully aware of his opponent’s demigod status, Hector had said goodbye to his wife Andromache and his little boy Astyanax.
After killing Hector, Achilles refused to surrender his body to the Trojans for burial, and instead, he desecrated it by dragging it with his chariot in front of the city walls. He eventually agreed to return it,
after he was moved to tears by the visit of King Priam of Troy, who had come alone to the Greek camp to plead for the body of his son with his son’s murderer.
The Troy War
Did the Trojan War actually happen?
ssembling a new book of ancient stories translated by great writers, Of Gods and Men, I was surprised to discover how prevalent the tale of the Trojan War has been down the ages.
Authors as diverse as John Dryden, Alexander Pope and Louis MacNeice have been moved to translate various versions of the classical myth. One reason the Trojan War has struck such a chord is that,
besides being an excellent story, it has long been suspected to have actually happened.
For most ancient Greeks, indeed, the Trojan War was much more than a myth. It was an epoch-defining moment in their distant past. As the historical sources – Herodotus and Eratosthenes – show, it was generally assumed to have been a real event.
According to Homer’s Iliad, the conflict between the Greeks – led by Agamemnon, King of Mycenae – and the Trojans – whose king was Priam – took place in the Late Bronze Age, and lasted 10 years. It began when Paris,
Priam’s hapless son, judged Aphrodite to be the most beautiful goddess, for which she gifted him Agamemnon’s gorgeous sister-in-law, Helen in return.
Determined to get Helen back and punish the Trojans, Agamemnon and his brother marched a mighty army against Troy, and eventually succeeded in bringing its people to their knees.
In antiquity, even respected historians were willing to believe that this war actually happened. In the second half of the 5th Century BC, Herodotus, the so-called ‘Father of History’, placed the Trojan War almost 800 years before his own time.
Eratosthenes, a mathematician, was more specific, dating the war at 1184/3 BC.
Modern scholars, however, have tended to be more sceptical. Did the Trojan War happen at all?
The question is at the heart of Troy: Myth and Reality, a major exhibition at London’s British Museum. Greek vases, Roman frescoes,
and more contemporary works of art depicting stories inspired by Troy are exhibited alongside archaeological artefacts dating from the Late Bronze Age.
What emerges most palpably from the exhibition is how eager people have been through history to find some truth in the story of the Trojan War.
The Romans went so far as to present themselves as the descendants of the surviving Trojans. In his poem, the Aeneid,
Virgil described how the hero Aeneas escaped the burning citadel with a group of followers after the Greeks entered in their wooden horse. John Dryden,
England’s first official poet laureate, translated superbly the part where the horse was made: “The Greeks grew weary of the tedious war,/
And, by Minerva’s aid, a fabric rear’d,/ Which like a steed of monstrous height appear’d”. Aeneas and his men left to found a new home in Italy.
The Judgment of Paris
Zeus knew that any choice meant inciting the anger of at least two goddesses, so he wisely decided to abstain from judgment; instead, he appointed Paris, the young prince of Troy, to be the judge.
Paris was tending his flocks on Mount Ida when the three goddesses approached him.
However, he was unable to make a choice even after seeing each of the three goddesses naked. So, unsurprisingly, it was time for some bribing.
First, Hera gave her word to Paris that, in gratitude for choosing her, she would grant him both political power and the throne of the continent of Asia; then, Athena offered him wisdom and excellent skills in battle; finally,
Aphrodite promised Paris the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen of Sparta.
here could be only one outcome: without batting an eyelash, Paris awarded the apple to Aphrodite, and, disregarding the prophecies of his brother and sister, Helenus and Cassandra, set off for Sparta to claim his reward
One of the most well-known tales ever narrated (most notably in Homer’s “Iliad”), the Trojan War is undoubtedly the greatest war in classical mythology.
Waged by an Achaean alliance against the city of Troy, the war originated from a quarrel between three goddesses (Hera, Athena,
and Aphrodite) over a golden apple, thrown by the goddess of strife at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, and inscribed with the words “for the fairest.”
Unwilling to settle the dispute himself, Zeus sent the goddesses to Paris, the young prince of Troy, who gifted the apple to Aphrodite for the goddess had promised him, as a token of gratitude, the love of Helen, the most beautiful girl in the world.
Aphrodite fulfilled her promise and, before too long, Helen eloped with Paris from her royal court in Sparta to the Trojan palace. Helen’s husband, Menelaus – incited by his even more powerful brother, Agamemnon
– assembled a large army of Achaean leaders, most of them obliged to protect the sanctity of his marriage by a previous oath.
After the diplomatic attempts to settle the dispute early on yielded no result, the Greek forces surrounded the city of Troy and held it under siege for a decade.
In the tenth year of the war, after the fighting had already taken the lives of some of the greatest heroes on either side (Achilles, Ajax, Patroclus, Protesilaus; Hector, Sarpedon, Memnon, Cycnus),
Odysseus devised the ruse of the Trojan Horse, which finally brought the downfall of Troy.
The Achaeans raided the city and set it afire, slaughtering scores of innocent people and desecrating too many hallowed grounds to escape the subsequent wrath of the gods.
As a result, few of them managed to return safely to their homes; and those who did may have been the less f
The Background of the War
Peleus and Thetis
The genesis of the Trojan War goes all the way back to a divine love contest, and a prophecy concerning the very foundations of the Olympian order.
Namely, decades before its commencement, both Zeus and Poseidon fell in love with a beautiful sea-nymph named
Thetis. Each of them wanted to make her his bride, but both backed away once they were told (whether by Themis or Prometheus) the dire consequences of such an action; for
“it was fated that the sea-goddess should bear a princely son, stronger than his father, who would wield another
weapon in his hand more powerful than the thunderbolt or the irresistible trident, if she lay with Zeus or one of his brothers.” So as not to risk anything,
Zeus decided to give Thetis’ hand in marriage to King Peleus, “the most pious man living on the plain of Iolcus.”
The Apple of Discord
Now that the husband was determined, Zeus organized a grand feast in celebration of Peleus’ and Thetis’ marriage, at which all the other gods were invited, except for the disagreeable goddess of strife,
Eris. Annoyed at being stopped at the door by Hermes, before leaving the gathering, she threw her gift amidst the guests; it was the Apple of Discord,
a golden apple upon which the words “for the fairest” had been inscribed. Before long, Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite started quarreling over who should be the one to take the apple,
and, not being able to decide on their own, demanded from Zeus to settle the dispute.
Recruiting Achilles
Soon after joining the Trojan expedition, Odysseus learned of Achilles’ whereabouts;
so, he teamed up with Telamonian Ajax and Phoenix, an old tutor of Achilles, and the three went to Skyros to recruit the hero.
There, they either blew a war horn, on the sound of which Achilles was the only woman that took a spear in hand, or they appeared as merchants selling jewels and weapons,
and Achilles was the only woman interested in the latter. Either way, now the Achaean forces were complete; and ready to attack Troy.
Recruiting the Greek Heroes
Menelaus returned home and, before too long, realized that his wife had left him – and left him for a lesser man.
He wasted no time: incited by his much more powerful brother, Agamemnon, he invoked the Oath of Tyndareus and called upon the help of all Achaean leaders who had previously sought with him the hand of Helen.
And they all came, each the head of a mighty army: Ajax and Teucer of Salamis, sons of Telamon; Ajax of Locris, son of Oileus, and Idomeneus of Crete, son of Deucalion; Diomedes of Argos, son of Tydeus, and Elephenor of Euboea,
son of Chalcodon; Philoctetes of Meliboea, son of Poeas, and Protiselaus of Philace, son of Iphicles; and many, many more: in fact, as many as forty-five great Achaean leaders and warriors.
There was nowhere any sign of Odysseus, though
Recruiting Odysseus
And for a good reason: by this time, Odysseus was a happily married father of a one-year-old boy named Telemachus, a
nd he had learned from the seer Halitherses that if he took part in the Trojan expedition, it would take him many years to return home.
So, when the envoy in charge for his recruitment arrived at his palace in Ithaca, he pretended to be mad by harnessing a donkey
and an ox to a plow and sowing salt instead of grain in his fields. However, Palamedes saw through the ruse and put Telemachus in front of the plow. Odysseus had no option but to change course and,
thus, he revealed both his plan and his sanity. Accepting his fate – and knowing from the seer Calchas that his presence was a prerequisite for Greek victory
– Odysseus almost immediately set on a mission to find and enlist the man fated to become the greatest of all Greek heroes under Troy:
Achilles: A Flashback
Achilles was none other than the child Zeus and Poseidon never wanted to have: the only surviving son of Peleus and
Thetis. Even before his birth, his mother knew that Achilles was destined to either lead an uneventful but long life or a glorious one that would end with him dying young on the battlefield.
Fearing for her son’s future wellbeing, Thetis decided to grant him immortality. While he was still an infant, she took him to the River Styx
– one of the rivers that ran through the Underworld – and dipped him in the waters, thus making him invulnerable.
However, Thetis did not realize that the heel of the boy, by which she had held him, did not touch the waters of the Styx;
this would later turn out to be the cause for Achilles’ downfall, and is the origin of the modern-day phrase “Achilles’ heel,” signifying a vulnerable spot despite overall strength.
Anyway, after she had completed the ritual – so as to be even safer – Thetis disguised Achilles as a girl and hid him among the maidens at the court of King Lycomedes of Skyros.
Reaching Troy
An Early Sign
The Achaean leaders first gathered at the port of Aulis. A sacrifice was made to Apollo, and the god sent an omen:
a snake appeared from the altar and slithered to a bird’s nest, where it ate the mother and her nine babies before it was turned to stone.
The seer Calchas interpreted the meaning of the event for everybody:
Troy was to eventually fall – but not before the tenth year of the war!
Telephus
There was no time for losing: the Achaeans immediately set sail for Troy, even though no one knew the exact way.
So, by mistake, they landed too far to the south, in the land of Mysia, ruled by King Telephus.
The battle which ensued took the life of many a great Greek warrior, all the while highlighting Achilles’ superhuman strength: in addition to killing numerous Mysians,
Achilles (who was barely fifteen at the time!) managed to also wound their king Telephus, a son of Heracles.
And as Telephus found out from an oracle soon after the Achaean ships left Mysia, this wound was so unique that it could only be cured by the one who had caused it.
Eight years did Telephus search for Achilles, and, eventually, he found him in Aulis, where the Achaean leaders had gathered once again for a consultation, despairing over their incapability of reaching Troy.
Now, Achilles had no medical knowledge whatsoever, so he was quite surprised when Telephus approached him with his request.
Always shrewder than everybody, Odysseus realized that the prophecy might not refer to the man – but to the weapon which had inflicted the wound; heeding his advice,
Achilles scraped off the rust of his Pelian spear over Telephus’ wound, and, just like that, it stopped bleeding. Out of gratitude, Telephus agreed to tell the Greeks the route to Troy.
Iphigenia at Aulis
However, the Greeks now faced an even bigger problem: even though they finally knew the way to Troy, they were unable to set sail from Aulis because,
for most of the time, there was no wind of any kind, let alone favorable one.
The seer Calchas realized that this must be some kind of retribution from the goddess Artemis, furious at Agamemnon for killing one of her sacred deer.
Artemis’ demand for appeasement was an unspeakably cruel one: the sacrifice of Agamemnon’s virgin daughter, Iphigenia.
After some deliberation, Odysseus lured Iphigenia to Aulis on the pretext of marriage with Achilles. After finding out that he had been used in such a vicious ruse,
Achilles tried to save Iphigenia’s life, only to learn that all of the other Greek commanders and soldiers are in support of the sacrifice. Bereaved of options,
Iphigenia gracefully accepted her fate and placed herself on the altar. Some say that, unfortunately, that was the end of her;
others, however, claim that just as Calchas was about to sacrifice her, Artemis substituted Iphigenia for a deer and took her to Tauris where she became the goddess’ high priestess.
