1.
John Flaxman
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John Flaxman R. A. was a British sculptor and draughtsman, and a leading figure in British and European Neoclassicism. Early in his career he worked as a modeller for Josiah Wedgwoods pottery and he spent several years in Rome, where he produced his first book illustrations. He was a maker of funerary monuments. His father, also named John, was known as a moulder and seller of plaster casts at the sign of the Golden Head, New Street, Covent Garden. His wifes maiden name was Lee, and they had two children, William and John, within six months of Johns birth the family returned to London. He was a child, high-shouldered, with a head too large for his body. His mother died when he was nine, and his father remarried and he had little schooling, and was largely self-educated. He took delight in drawing and modelling from his fathers stock-in-trade and his fathers customers helped him with books, advice, and later with commissions. Particularly significant were the painter George Romney, and a clergyman, Anthony Stephen Mathew. In the same year,1770, he entered the Academy as a student, in the competition for the gold medal of the Academy in 1772, however, Flaxman was defeated, the prize being awarded by the president, Sir Joshua Reynolds, to a competitor named Engleheart. This episode seemed to help cure Flaxman of a tendency to conceit which led Thomas Wedgwood V to say of him in 1775, It is and he continued to work diligently, both as a student and as an exhibitor at the Academy, with occasional attempts at painting. To the Academy he contributed a wax model of Neptune, four models in wax, a terracotta bust, a wax figure of a child, an historical figure, a figure of Comedy. During this period he received a commission from a friend of the Mathew family for a statue of Alexander the Great, but he was unable to obtain a regular income from private contracts. From 1775 he was employed by the potter Josiah Wedgwood and his partner Bentley, for whom his father had also some work. The usual procedure was to model the reliefs in wax on slate or glass grounds before they cast for production, dHancarvilles engravings of Sir William Hamiltons collection of ancient Greek vases were an important influence on his work. By 1780 Flaxman had also begun to earn money by sculpting grave monuments, during the rest of Flaxmans career memorial bas-reliefs of this type made up the bulk of his output, and are to be found in many churches throughout England. One example, the monument to George Steevens, originally in St Matthais Old Church, is now in the Fitzwilliam Museum, in 1782, aged 27, Flaxman married Anne Denman, who was to assist him throughout his career. She was well-educated, and a devoted companion and they set up house in Wardour Street, and usually spent their summer holidays as guests of the poet William Hayley, at Eartham in Sussex
2.
Trojan War
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In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans 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 Homers Iliad. The Iliad relates four days in the year of the decade-long siege of Troy. Other parts of the war are described in a cycle of epic poems, episodes from the war provided material for Greek tragedy and other works of Greek literature, and for Roman poets including Virgil and Ovid. Zeus sent the goddesses to Paris, who judged that Aphrodite, as the fairest, 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 Helens 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 heroes, including the Achaeans Achilles and Ajax, and the Trojans Hector and Paris. The Achaeans slaughtered the Trojans 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, in 1868, however, the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann met Frank Calvert, who convinced Schliemann that Troy was a real city at what is now Hissarlik in Turkey. On the basis of excavations conducted by Schliemann and others, this claim is now accepted by most scholars, whether there is any historical reality behind the Trojan War remains an open question. The events of the Trojan War are found in works of Greek literature. There is no single, authoritative text which tells the events of the war. Instead, the story is assembled from a variety of sources, 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. 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 Odysseuss 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 an included in Proclus Chrestomathy. The authorship of the Cyclic Epics is uncertain, 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, 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
3.
Achilles
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In Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greek hero of the Trojan War and the central character and greatest warrior of Homers Iliad. His mother was the immortal nymph Thetis, and his father, Achilles’ most notable feat during the Trojan War was the slaying of the Trojan hero Hector outside the gates of Troy. Although the death of Achilles is not presented in the Iliad, other sources concur that he was killed near the end of the Trojan War by Paris, later legends state that Achilles was invulnerable in all of his body except for his heel. Alluding to these legends, the term Achilles heel has come to mean a point of weakness, Achilles name can be analyzed as a combination of ἄχος grief and λαός a people, tribe, nation. In other words, Achilles is an embodiment of the grief of the people, Achilles role as the hero of grief forms an ironic juxtaposition with the conventional view of Achilles as the hero of κλέος kleos. Laos has been construed by Gregory Nagy, following Leonard Palmer, to mean a corps of soldiers, a muster. With this derivation, the name would have a meaning in the poem, when the hero is functioning rightly, his men bring grief to the enemy. The poem is in part about the misdirection of anger on the part of leadership, R. S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin of the name. The name Achilleus was a common and attested name among the Greeks soon after the 7th century BC. It was also turned into the female form Ἀχιλλεία attested in Attica in the 4th century BC and, in the form Achillia, Achilles was the son of the Nereid Thetis and Peleus, the king of the Myrmidons. Zeus and Poseidon had been rivals for the hand of Thetis until Prometheus, for this reason, the two gods withdrew their pursuit, and had her wed Peleus. Thetis, although a daughter of the sea-god Nereus, was brought up by Hera. According to the Achilleid, written by Statius in the 1st century AD, and to no surviving previous sources, however, he was left vulnerable at the part of the body by which she held him, his heel. It is not clear if this version of events was known earlier, in another version of this story, Thetis anointed the boy in ambrosia and put him on top of a fire, to burn away the mortal parts of his body. She was interrupted by Peleus and abandoned both father and son in a rage, however, none of the sources before Statius makes any reference to this general invulnerability. To the contrary, in the Iliad Homer mentions Achilles being wounded, in Book 21 the Paeonian hero Asteropaeus, son of Pelagon and he cast two spears at once, one grazed Achilles elbow, drawing a spurt of blood. Peleus entrusted Achilles to Chiron the Centaur, on Mt. Pelion, Achilles consuming rage is at times wavering, but at other times he cannot be cooled. Thetis foretold that her sons fate was either to gain glory and die young, or to live a long, Achilles chose the former, and decided to take part in the Trojan war
4.
Patroclus
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In Greek mythology, as recorded in Homers Iliad, Patroclus was the son of Menoetius, grandson of Actor, King of Opus, and Achilles beloved and brother-in-arms. According to Hyginus, Patroclus is the child of Menoetius and Philomela, Homer also references Menoetius as the individual who gave Patroclus to Peleus. Menoetius is the son of Actor, King of Opus in Locris by Aegina, Aegina was a daughter of Asopus and mother of Aeacus by Zeus. Aeacus was father of Peleus, Telamon and Phocus, Actor was a son of Deioneus, King of Phocis and Diomede. His paternal grandparents were Aeolus of Thessaly and Enarete and his maternal grandparents were Xuthus and Creusa, daughter of Erechtheus and Praxithea. During his childhood, Patroclus had killed another child in anger over a game, Menoetius gave Patroclus to Peleus, Achilles father, who named Patroclus one of Achilles henchmen as Patroclus and Achilles grew up together. Patroclus acted as a role model for Achilles, as he was both older than Achilles and wise regarding counsel. According to the Iliad, when the tide of war had turned against the Greeks, Achilles consented, giving Patroclus the armor Achilles had received from his father, in order for Patroclus to impersonate Achilles. Achilles then told Patroclus to return after beating the Trojans back from their ships, Patroclus defied Achilles order and pursued the Trojans back to the gates of Troy. Patroclus killed many Trojans, including a son of Zeus, Sarpedon, while battling, Patroclus wits were removed by Apollo, after which Patroclus was hit with the spear of Euphorbos. Hector then killed Patroclus by stabbing him in the stomach with a spear, Achilles retrieved the body, which had been stripped of armor by Hector and protected on the battlefield by Menelaus and Ajax. Achilles did not allow for the burial of Patroclus body until the ghost of Patroclus appeared and demanded burial in order to pass into Hades, Patroclus was then cremated on a funeral pyre, which was covered in the hair of his sorrowful companions. As the cutting of hair was a sign of grief while also acting as a sign of the separation of the living and the dead, the ashes of Achilles were said to have been buried in a golden urn along with those of Patroclus by the Hellespont. Although Homer does not mention it, there is whether or not Achilles. Morales and Mariscal continue stating, there is a tradition concerning the nature of the relationship between the two heroes. According to Grace Ledbetter, there is a train of thought that Patroclus could have been a representation of the side of Achilles. In fact, the first line of Homers Iliad mentions Achilles anger, Ledbetter does so by comparing how Thetis comforts the weeping Achilles in Book 1 of the Iliad to how Achilles comforts Patroclus as he weeps in Book 16. Achilles uses a simile containing a young girl looking at her mother to complete the comparison
5.
Pottery of ancient Greece
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The shards of pots discarded or buried in the 1st millennium BC are still the best guide available to understand the customary life and mind of the ancient Greeks. There were various specific regional varieties, such as the South Italian ancient Greek pottery, throughout these places, various types and shapes of vases were used. Some were highly decorative and meant for consumption and domestic beautification as much as serving a storage or other function. As the culture recovered Sub-Mycenaean pottery finally blended into the Protogeometric style, the rise of vase painting saw increasing decoration. Geometric art in Greek pottery was contiguous with the late Dark Age and early Archaic Greece, the pottery produced in Archaic and Classical Greece included at first black-figure pottery, yet other styles emerged such as red-figure pottery and the white ground technique. Styles such as West Slope Ware were characteristic of the subsequent Hellenistic period, interest in Greek art lagged behind the revival of classical scholarship during the Renaissance and revived in the academic circle round Nicholas Poussin in Rome in the 1630s. Though modest collections of vases recovered from ancient tombs in Italy were made in the 15th and 16th centuries these were regarded as Etruscan. It is possible that Lorenzo de Medici bought several Attic vases directly from Greece and it was Gerhard who first outlined the chronology we now use, namely, Orientalizing, Black Figure, Red Figure, Polychromatic. Where the 19th century was a period of discovery and the out of first principles the 20th century has been one of consolidation. Efforts to record and publish the totality of public collections of vases began with the creation of the Corpus vasorum antiquorum under Edmond Pottier, Beazley and others following him have also studied fragments of Greek pottery in institutional collections, and have attributed many painted pieces to individual artists. Scholars have called these fragments disjecta membra and in a number of instances have been able to identify fragments now in different collections that belong to the same vase, some vase shapes were especially associated with rituals, others with athletics and the gymnasium. Within each category the forms are roughly the same in scale and whether open or closed, some have a purely ritual function, for example white ground lekythoi contained the oil used as funerary offerings and appear to have been made solely with that object in mind. Many examples have a second cup inside them to give the impression of being full of oil. There was a market for Greek pottery since the 8th century BC. An idea of the extent of trade can be gleaned from plotting the find maps of these vases outside of Greece. Only the existence of a second hand market could account for the number of found in Etruscan tombs. South Italian wares came to dominate the trade in the Western Mediterranean as Athens declined in political importance during the Hellenistic period. The process of making a pot and firing it is fairly simple, the first thing a potter needs is clay
6.
Troy
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The present-day location is known as Hisarlik. It was the setting of the Trojan War described in the Greek Epic Cycle, in particular in the Iliad, a new capital called Ilium was founded on the site in the reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus. It flourished until the establishment of Constantinople and declined gradually in the Byzantine era and these excavations revealed several cities built in succession. Troy VII has been identified with the city that the Hittites called Wilusa, the origin of the Greek Ἴλιον. Today, the hill at Hisarlık has given its name to a village near the ruins. It lies within the province of Çanakkale, some 30 km south-west of the provincial capital, the map here shows the adapted Scamander estuary with Ilium a little way inland across the Homeric plain. Troy was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1998, Ancient Greek historians variously placed the Trojan War in the 12th, 13th, or 14th centuries BC, Eratosthenes to 1184 BC, Herodotus to 1250 BC, Duris of Samos to 1334 BC. Modern archaeologists associate Homeric Troy with archaeological Troy VII, in the Iliad, the Achaeans set up their camp near the mouth of the River Scamander, where they had beached their ships. The city of Troy itself stood on a hill, across the plain of Scamander, recent geological findings have permitted the identification of the ancient Trojan coastline, and the results largely confirm the accuracy of the Homeric geography of Troy. In November 2001, the geologist John C, kraft from the University of Delaware and the classicist John V. Luce from Trinity College, Dublin, presented the results of investigations, begun in 1977, into the geology of the region. Besides the Iliad, there are references to Troy in the major work attributed to Homer. The Homeric legend of Troy was elaborated by the Roman poet Virgil in his Aeneid, the Greeks and Romans took for a fact the historicity of the Trojan War and the identity of Homeric Troy with the site in Anatolia. Alexander the Great, for example, visited the site in 334 BC and there made sacrifices at tombs associated with the Homeric heroes Achilles and Patroclus. After the 1995 find of a Luwian biconvex seal at Troy VII, with the rise of critical history, Troy and the Trojan War were, for a long time, consigned to the realms of legend. However, the location of ancient Troy had from classical times remained the subject of interest. The Troad peninsula was anticipated to be the location, leChavaliers location, published in his Voyage de la Troade, was the most commonly accepted theory for almost a century. In 1822, the Scottish journalist Charles Maclaren was the first to identify with confidence the position of the city as it is now known, the hill, near the city of Çanakkale, was known as Hisarlık. In 1868, Heinrich Schliemann visited Calvert and secured permission to excavate Hisarlık, in 1871–73 and 1878–79, he excavated the hill and discovered the ruins of a series of ancient cities dating from the Bronze Age to the Roman period
7.
Hisarlik
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Hisarlik, often spelled Hissarlik, is the modern name for the generally agreed site of ancient Troy, also known as Ilion, and is located in what is now Turkey. The unoccupied archaeological site lies approximately 6.5 km from the Aegean Sea, the archaeological site of Hisarlik is known in archaeological circles as a tell. A tell is a hill, built up over centuries. The assumed location of Troy was apparently known in the ancient world. This place is situated on the sea opposite the harbour of Tenedos, the whole of this country is strewn with villages, and the Turks regard the ancient buildings as relics and do not destroy anything, but they build their houses adjoining. Pedro, like most early visitors, was distracted by the more prominent Hellenistic, an alternative site, Hisarlik tell, a thirty-meter-high mound, was identified as a possible site of ancient Troy by a number of amateur archaeologists in the early to mid 19th century. The most dedicated of these was Frank Calvert, whose work was overshadowed by the now infamous German amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann in the 1870s. Paleogeographic studies carried out around Hisarlik by John C, above this natural harbour, the hill was large enough to support extensive building, providing natural protection from invasion and a commanding view of the sea. Elsewhere in Anatolia, there is abundant archaeological evidence of a neolithic culture at least as early as the seventh millennium B. C. What may have been the worlds first urban settlement has been uncovered at Çatalhüyük in the Konya Ovasi, evidence from a cave at Karain near Antalya shows human occupation in the region extending over an estimated 25,000 year period. While the archaeological record has much to say about the physical remains, Homer was not, however, overly concerned with history. Not surprisingly, the context for the epic Iliad and Odyssey is not as clear as one would wish. Various attempts have been made over time to identify the origins of the inhabitants of Troy, in the Iliad, the word most commonly used for the city of the Trojans is not Troy but Ilion. Carpenter saw this as evidence of the possibility that Troy was not the name of a town at all, the Greeks clearly had a legend about a war against the Trojans, but may have disagreed about where these people lived. At least one group of Greeks put them at a place called Teuthrania in the known as Mysia. C. Homers interest in Troy ends with the fall of the city, troy’s history does not end with the fall of Priam’s city. The history of Troy is inextricably linked with the Bronze Age and later cultures of Anatolia, the inhabitants of Hisarlik lived among a number of vigorous, interactive and often warlike cultures. Apart from the mainland Greeks whence they may have sprung, the Trojans counted such neighbours as the Hittites and it has been suggested that the polity at ancient Hisarlik might be one and the same with that known to the Hittites as Wilusa
8.
Turkey
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Turkey, officially the Republic of Turkey, is a transcontinental country in Eurasia, mainly in Anatolia in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. Turkey is a democratic, secular, unitary, parliamentary republic with a cultural heritage. The country is encircled by seas on three sides, the Aegean Sea is to the west, the Black Sea to the north, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. The Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles, Ankara is the capital while Istanbul is the countrys largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Approximately 70-80% of the countrys citizens identify themselves as ethnic Turks, other ethnic groups include legally recognised and unrecognised minorities. Kurds are the largest ethnic minority group, making up approximately 20% of the population, the area of Turkey has been inhabited since the Paleolithic by various ancient Anatolian civilisations, as well as Assyrians, Greeks, Thracians, Phrygians, Urartians and Armenians. After Alexander the Greats conquest, the area was Hellenized, a process continued under the Roman Empire. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm ruled Anatolia until the Mongol invasion in 1243, the empire reached the peak of its power in the 16th century, especially during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. During the war, the Ottoman government committed genocides against its Armenian, Assyrian, following the war, the conglomeration of territories and peoples that formerly comprised the Ottoman Empire was partitioned into several new states. Turkey is a member of the UN, an early member of NATO. Turkeys growing economy and diplomatic initiatives have led to its recognition as a regional power while her location has given it geopolitical, the name of Turkey is based on the ethnonym Türk. The first recorded use of the term Türk or Türük as an autonym is contained in the Old Turkic inscriptions of the Göktürks of Central Asia, the English name Turkey first appeared in the late 14th century and is derived from Medieval Latin Turchia. Similarly, the medieval Khazar Empire, a Turkic state on the shores of the Black. The medieval Arabs referred to the Mamluk Sultanate as al-Dawla al-Turkiyya, the Ottoman Empire was sometimes referred to as Turkey or the Turkish Empire among its European contemporaries. The Anatolian peninsula, comprising most of modern Turkey, is one of the oldest permanently settled regions in the world, various ancient Anatolian populations have lived in Anatolia, from at least the Neolithic period until the Hellenistic period. Many of these peoples spoke the Anatolian languages, a branch of the larger Indo-European language family, in fact, given the antiquity of the Indo-European Hittite and Luwian languages, some scholars have proposed Anatolia as the hypothetical centre from which the Indo-European languages radiated. The European part of Turkey, called Eastern Thrace, has also been inhabited since at least forty years ago. It is the largest and best-preserved Neolithic site found to date, the settlement of Troy started in the Neolithic Age and continued into the Iron Age
9.
Bronze Age
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The Bronze Age is a historical period characterized by the use of bronze, proto-writing, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the principal period of the three-age Stone-Bronze-Iron system, as proposed in modern times by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen. An ancient civilization is defined to be in the Bronze Age either by smelting its own copper and alloying with tin, arsenic, or other metals, or by trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere. Copper-tin ores are rare, as reflected in the fact there were no tin bronzes in Western Asia before trading in bronze began in the third millennium BC. Worldwide, the Bronze Age generally followed the Neolithic period, with the Chalcolithic serving as a transition, although the Iron Age generally followed the Bronze Age, in some areas, the Iron Age intruded directly on the Neolithic. Bronze Age cultures differed in their development of the first writing, according to archaeological evidence, cultures in Mesopotamia and Egypt developed the earliest viable writing systems. The overall period is characterized by use of bronze, though the place and time of the introduction. Human-made tin bronze technology requires set production techniques, tin must be mined and smelted separately, then added to molten copper to make bronze alloy. The Bronze Age was a time of use of metals. The dating of the foil has been disputed, the Bronze Age in the ancient Near East began with the rise of Sumer in the 4th millennium BC. Societies in the region laid the foundations for astronomy and mathematics, the usual tripartite division into an Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age is not used. Instead, a division based on art-historical and historical characteristics is more common. The cities of the Ancient Near East housed several tens of thousands of people, ur in the Middle Bronze Age and Babylon in the Late Bronze Age similarly had large populations. The earliest mention of Babylonia appears on a tablet from the reign of Sargon of Akkad in the 23rd century BC, the Amorite dynasty established the city-state of Babylon in the 19th century BC. Over 100 years later, it took over the other city-states. Babylonia adopted the written Semitic Akkadian language for official use, by that time, the Sumerian language was no longer spoken, but was still in religious use. Elam was an ancient civilization located to the east of Mesopotamia, in the Old Elamite period, Elam consisted of kingdoms on the Iranian plateau, centered in Anshan, and from the mid-2nd millennium BC, it was centered in Susa in the Khuzestan lowlands. Its culture played a role in the Gutian Empire and especially during the Achaemenid dynasty that succeeded it
10.
Historicity of Homer
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The extent of the historical basis of the Homeric epics has been a topic of scholarly debate for centuries. In antiquity, educated Greeks accepted the truth of events depicted in the Iliad and Odyssey. In the time of Strabo, topographical disquisitions discussed the identity of sites mentioned by Homer, jeromes Chronicon followed Eusebius, and all the medieval chroniclers began with summaries of the universal history of Jerome. With such authorities accepting it, post-Roman Europeans continued to accept Troy, geoffrey of Monmouths pseudo-genealogy traced a Trojan origin for royal Briton descents in Historia Regum Britanniae. He had no intention to write history, but only to amuse us, during the 19th century the stories of Troy were devalued as fables by George Grote. The discoveries made by Heinrich Schliemann at Hisarlik revived the question during modern times, rutter, archaeological finds thus far, can neither prove nor disprove whether Hisarlik VIIa was sacked by Mycenean Greeks sometime between 1325 and 1200 BC. No text or artifact found on the site itself clearly identifies the Bronze Age site by name and this is due probably to the leveling of the former hillfort during the construction of Hellenistic Ilium, destroying the parts that most likely contained the city archives. A single seal of a Luwian scribe has been found in one of the houses, proving the presence of written correspondence in the city, the bilingual toponymy of Troy/Ilion is well established in the Homeric tradition. The Mycenaean Greeks of the 13th century BC had colonized the Greek mainland and Crete, philologist Joachim Latacz identifies the Achaioi of the Illiad with the inhabitants of Ahhiyawa. No scholars now assume that the events of the tale are historical fact, however. Troy was destroyed by a war,2, the destroyers were a coalition from mainland Greece,3. The leader of the coalition was a king named Agamemnon,4, agamemnons overlordship was recognized by the other chieftains,5. Troy, too, headed a coalition of allies, Finley does not find any evidence for any of these elements. However, in addressing a separate controversy, Oxford Professor of Greek, west indicated that such an approach misconceives the problem, and that Troy probably fell to a much smaller group of attackers in a much shorter time. Some archaeologists and historians, most notably, until his death in 1986, Finley, others accept that there may be a foundation of historical events in the Homeric narrative, but say that in the absence of independent evidence it is not possible to separate fact from myth. Finley was in a minority when his World of Odysseus first appeared in 1954 and his arms bear a resemblance to the armour of his time, quite unlike the Mycenaean, although he persistently casts them in antiquated bronze, not iron. His gods had temples, and the Mycenaeans built none, whereas the latter constructed great vaulted tombs to bury their chieftains in, a neat little touch is provided by the battle chariots. Homer had heard of them, but he did not really visualize what one did with chariots in a war, so his heroes normally drove from their tents a mile or less away, carefully dismounted, and then proceeded to battle on foot
11.
Iliad
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The Iliad is an ancient Greek epic poem in dactylic hexameter, traditionally attributed to Homer. Then the epic narrative takes up events prophesied for the future, such as Achilles imminent death and the fall of Troy, although the narrative ends before these events take place. However, as events are prefigured and alluded to more and more vividly. The Iliad is paired with something of a sequel, the Odyssey, along with the Odyssey, the Iliad is among the oldest extant works of Western literature, and its written version is usually dated to around the 8th century BC. Recent statistical modelling based on language evolution gives a date of 760–710 BC, in the modern vulgate, the Iliad contains 15,693 lines, it is written in Homeric Greek, a literary amalgam of Ionic Greek and other dialects. Note, Book numbers are in parentheses and come before the synopsis of the book, after an invocation to the Muses, the story launches in medias res towards the end of the Trojan War between the Trojans and the besieging Greeks. Chryses, a Trojan priest of Apollo, offers the Greeks wealth for the return of his daughter Chryseis, held captive of Agamemnon, although most of the Greek army is in favour of the offer, Agamemnon refuses. Chryses prays for Apollos help, and Apollo causes a plague to afflict the Greek army, after nine days of plague, Achilles, the leader of the Myrmidon contingent, calls an assembly to deal with the problem. Under pressure, Agamemnon agrees to return Chryseis to her father, angered, Achilles declares that he and his men will no longer fight for Agamemnon but will go home. Odysseus takes a ship and returns Chryseis to her father, whereupon Apollo ends the plague, in the meantime, Agamemnons messengers take Briseis away. Achilles becomes very upset, sits by the seashore, and prays to his mother, Achilles asks his mother to ask Zeus to bring the Greeks to the breaking point by the Trojans, so Agamemnon will realize how much the Greeks need Achilles. Thetis does so, and Zeus agrees, Zeus sends a dream to Agamemnon, urging him to attack Troy. Agamemnon heeds the dream but decides to first test the Greek armys morale, the plan backfires, and only the intervention of Odysseus, inspired by Athena, stops a rout. Odysseus confronts and beats Thersites, a soldier who voices discontent about fighting Agamemnons war. After a meal, the Greeks deploy in companies upon the Trojan plain, the poet takes the opportunity to describe the provenance of each Greek contingent. When news of the Greek deployment reaches King Priam, the Trojans too sortie upon the plain, in a list similar to that for the Greeks, the poet describes the Trojans and their allies. The armies approach each other, but before they meet, Paris offers to end the war by fighting a duel with Menelaus, urged by his brother and head of the Trojan army, Hector. While Helen tells Priam about the Greek commanders from the walls of Troy, Paris is beaten, but Aphrodite rescues him and leads him to bed with Helen before Menelaus can kill him
12.
Aeneid
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The Aeneid is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It comprises 9,896 lines in dactylic hexameter, the hero Aeneas was already known to Greco-Roman legend and myth, having been a character in the Iliad. The Aeneid is widely regarded as Virgils masterpiece and one of the greatest works of Latin literature, the Aeneid can be divided into two halves based on the disparate subject matter of Books 1–6 and Books 7–12. These two halves are commonly regarded as reflecting Virgils ambition to rival Homer by treating both the Odysseys wandering theme and the Iliads warfare themes and this is, however, a rough correspondence, the limitations of which should be borne in mind. Virgil begins his poem with a statement of his theme and an invocation to the Muse and he then explains the reason for the principal conflict in the story, the resentment held by the goddess Juno against the Trojan people. This is consistent with her throughout the Homeric epics. Also in the manner of Homer, the story begins in medias res, with the Trojan fleet in the eastern Mediterranean. The fleet, led by Aeneas, is on a voyage to find a second home and it has been foretold that in Italy, he will give rise to a race both noble and courageous, a race which will become known to all nations. Juno is wrathful, because she had not been chosen in the judgment of Paris, also, Ganymede, a Trojan prince, was chosen to be the cup bearer to her husband, Jupiter—replacing Junos daughter, Hebe. Juno proceeds to Aeolus, King of the Winds, and asks that he release the winds to stir up a storm in exchange for a bribe, Aeolus does not accept the bribe, but agrees to carry out Junos orders, the storm then devastates the fleet. The fleet takes shelter on the coast of Africa, where Aeneas rouses the spirits of his men, There, Aeneass mother, Venus, in the form of a hunting woman very similar to the goddess Diana, encourages him and recounts to him the history of Carthage. At a banquet given in honour of the Trojans, Aeneas sadly recounts the events that occasioned the Trojans arrival. He begins the tale shortly after the war described in the Iliad, Cunning Ulysses devised a way for Greek warriors to gain entry into the walled city of Troy by hiding in a large wooden horse. The Greeks pretended to sail away, leaving a warrior, Sinon, to inform the Trojans that the horse was an offering and that if it were taken into the city, the Trojans would be able to conquer Greece. The Trojan priest Laocoön saw through the Greek plot and urged the horses destruction, then, in what would be seen by the Trojans as punishment from the gods, two serpents emerged from the sea and devoured Laocoön, along with his two sons. The Trojans then took the horse inside the walls, and after nightfall the armed Greeks emerged from it. In a dream, Hector, the fallen Trojan prince, advised Aeneas to flee with his family, Aeneas awoke and saw with horror what was happening to his beloved city. At first he tried to fight the enemy, but soon he lost his comrades and was alone to fend off the Greeks
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Iphigenia in Aulis
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Iphigenia in Aulis or at Aulis is the last of the extant works by the playwright Euripides. The conflict between Agamemnon and Achilles over the fate of the young woman presages a similar conflict between the two at the beginning of the Iliad, in his depiction of the experiences of the main characters, Euripides frequently uses tragic irony for dramatic effect. The Greek fleet is waiting at Aulis, Boeotia, with its ships ready to sail for Troy, calchas informs the general that in order to appease the goddess, he must sacrifice his eldest daughter, Iphigenia. He sends a message to his wife, Clytemnestra, telling her to send Iphigenia to Aulis on the pretext that the girl is to be married to the Greek warrior Achilles before he sets off to fight. At the start of the play, Agamemnon has second thoughts about going through with the sacrifice and sends a message to his wife. Clytemnestra never receives it, however, because it is intercepted by Menelaus, Agamemnons brother, by this time, Clytemnestra is already on her way to Aulis with Iphigenia and her baby brother Orestes, making the decision of how to proceed all the more difficult. Iphigenia is thrilled at the prospect of marrying one of the heroes of the Greek army, but she, her mother. Furious at having been used as a prop in Agamemnons plan, Clytemnestra and Iphigenia try in vain to persuade Agamemnon to change his mind, but the general believes that he has no choice. As Achilles prepares to defend Iphigenia by force, Iphigenia, realizing that she has no hope of escape, begs Achilles not to throw his life away in a lost cause. Leading the chorus in a hymn to Artemis, she goes to her death, with her mother Clytemnestra so distraught as to presage her murder of her husband and Orestess matricide years later. The play as it exists in the ends with a messenger reporting that Iphigenia has been replaced on the altar by a deer. It is, however, generally considered that this is not a part of Euripides original text. The earliest extant libretto is by Christian Heinrich Postel, Die wunderbar errettete Iphigenia, other libretti include Ifigenia by Matteo Verazi, that of Vittorio Amadeo Cigna-Santi, that of Luigi Serio, and that of Ferdinando Moretti. However, the best-known opera today is Christoph Willibald Glucks Iphigénie en Aulide, Iphigenia in Aulis has had a significant influence on modern art. Greek director Mihalis Kakogiannis based his 1977 film Iphigenia on Euripidess script, the play also formed the basis for the 2003 novel The Songs of the Kings by Barry Unsworth, as well as the P. D. Q. Neil LaBute drew heavily on the story of Iphigenia for his short play Iphigenia in Orem, the play re-sets Iphigenias story in and around Ciudad Juárez and the murders of the Women of Juárez. Charles L. Mee, an American playwright, adapted the text for the theatre through his project. The New York World Premiere of this version of Iphigenia 2
14.
Philoctetes (Sophocles play)
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Philoctetes is a play by Sophocles. The play was written during the Peloponnesian War and it is one of the seven extant tragedies by Sophocles. It was first performed at the City Dionysia in 409 BC, the story takes place during the Trojan War. It describes the attempt by Neoptolemus and Odysseus to bring the disabled Philoctetes, when Heracles was near his death, he wished to be burned on a funeral pyre while still alive. Sophocles references the myth in which no one but Philoctetes would light the fire, Philoctetes left with the Greeks to participate in the Trojan War, but was bitten on the foot by a snake while walking on Chryse, a sacred ground. The bite caused him constant agony, and emitted a horrible smell, for this reason he was left by Odysseus and the Atreidai on the desert island Lemnos. Ten years pass, and the Greeks capture the Trojan seer Helenus and he foretells that they will need the master archer Philoctetes and the bow of Heracles to win the war. Odysseus sails back to Lemnos with Neoptolemus to get Philoctetes, the task is not easy, as Philoctetes bitterly hates Odysseus and the Greeks for leaving him there. Sophocles Philoctetes begins with their arrival on the island, Odysseus explains to Neoptolemus that he must perform a shameful action in order to garner future glory - to take Philoctetes by tricking him with a false story while Odysseus hides. Neoptolemus is portrayed as a boy, and so it takes some persuading to get him to play this part. To gain Philoctetes trust, Neoptolemus tricks Philoctetes into thinking he hates Odysseus as well, Neoptolemus does this by telling Philoctetes that Odysseus has his fathers armor. He tells Philoctetes that this armor was his right by birth, after gaining Philoctetes trust and offering him a ride home, Neoptolemus is allowed to look at the bow of Heracles. Neoptolemus holds the bow while Philoctetes is going into a fit of pain in his foot. Feeling ashamed, Neoptolemus debates giving it back to him, Odysseus appears, and a series of arguments ensue. Eventually Neoptolemus conscience gains the hand, and he returns the bow. After many threats made on both sides, Odysseus flees, Neoptolemus then tries to talk Philoctetes into coming to Troy by his own free will, but Philoctetes does not agree. In the end, Neoptolemus consents to take Philoctetes back to Greece and this appears to be the conclusion of the play—however, as they are leaving, Heracles appears above them and tells Philoctetes that if he goes to Troy, he will be cured and the Greeks will win. When Philoctetes later fights in Troy, his foot is healed, the concept of having a moral high ground is a key aspect in this play
15.
Ajax (play)
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Sophocles Ajax, or Aias, is a Greek tragedy written in the 5th century BCE. Ajax may be the earliest of Sophocles seven tragedies to have survived and it appears to belong to the same period as his Antigone, which was probably performed in 442 or 441 BCE, when he was 55 years old. The play depicts the fate of the warrior Ajax, after the events of the Iliad, the great warrior, Achilles, has been killed in battle. The man who now can be considered the greatest warrior, Ajax, should be given Achilles’ armor, Ajax becomes furious about this and decides to kill them. However, Athena steps in and deludes Ajax into killing instead the spoil of the Greek army, suddenly Ajax comes to his senses and realizes what he has done. Overwhelmed by shame, he decides to commit suicide and his concubine, Tecmessa, pleads for him not to leave her and their child, Eurysakes, unprotected. Ajax then gives his son his shield, and leaves the house saying that he is going out to purify himself, Teucer has learned from the prophet, Kalchas, that Ajax should not be allowed to leave his tent until the end of the day or he will die. Tecmessa and soldiers try to find Ajax, but they are too late. Ajax has impaled himself upon his sword, before his suicide, Ajax calls for vengeance against the sons of Atreus and the whole Greek army. Tecmessa is the first one to discover Ajax’s body, Teucer then arrives and orders that Ajax’s son be brought to him so that he will be safe from foes. Menelaus appears and orders the body not to be moved, the last part of the play is taken up with an angry dispute regarding what to do with Ajax’s body. The two kings, Agamemnon and Menelaos, want to leave the body unburied for scavengers to have, Odysseus arrives and persuades Agamemnon and Menelaos to allow Ajax a proper funeral. Odysseus points out that ones enemies deserve respect in death. The play ends with Teucer making arrangements for the burial, the original title of the play in the ancient Greek is Αἴας. Ajax is the version, and Aias is the English transliteration from the original Greek. Proper nouns in Ancient Greek have conventionally been romanized before entering the English language, the text of the play suggests the original pronunciation of Ajaxs name—in lines 430-432, Ajax, the protagonist, states that it has an onomatopoeic resemblance to a wailing cry of lament, aiai. He was considered a character to the people of ancient Athens. Numerous Homeric myths describe him coming to the rescue of his man in dire moments
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The Trojan Women
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The Trojan Women, also known as Troades, is a tragedy by the Greek playwright Euripides. 415 BC was also the year of the desecration of the hermai. The Trojan Women was the tragedy of a trilogy dealing with the Trojan War. The first tragedy, Alexandros, was about the recognition of the Trojan prince Paris who had abandoned in infancy by his parents. The second tragedy, Palamedes, dealt with Greek mistreatment of their fellow Greek Palamedes and this trilogy was presented at the Dionysia along with the comedic satyr play Sisyphos. The plots of this trilogy were not connected in the way that Aeschylus Oresteia was connected, Euripides did not favor such connected trilogies. Euripides won second prize at the City Dionysia for his effort, the four Trojan women of the play are the same that appear in the final book of the Iliad lamenting over the corpse of Hector. Taking place near the time is Hecuba, another play by Euripides. Euripidess play follows the fates of the women of Troy after their city has been sacked, their husbands killed, what follows shows how much the Trojan women have suffered as their grief is compounded when the Greeks dole out additional deaths and divide their shares of women. The Greek herald Talthybius arrives to tell the dethroned queen Hecuba what will befall her and her children, Hecuba will be taken away with the Greek general Odysseus, and Cassandra is destined to become the conquering general Agamemnons concubine. Cassandra, who can see the future, is delighted by this news, she sees that when they arrive in Argos. However, Cassandra is also cursed so that her visions of the future are never believed, the widowed princess Andromache arrives and Hecuba learns from her that her youngest daughter, Polyxena, has been killed as a sacrifice at the tomb of the Greek warrior Achilles. The Greek leaders are afraid that the boy grow up to avenge his father Hector. Helen, though not one of the Trojan women, is supposed to suffer greatly as well, Helen begs and tries to seduce her husband into sparing her life. Menelaus remains resolved to kill her, but the audience watching the play knows that he let her live. In the end, Talthybius returns, carrying with him the body of little Astyanax on Hectors shield, andromaches wish had been to bury her child herself, performing the proper rituals according to Trojan ways, but her ship had already departed. Talthybius gives the corpse to Hecuba, who prepares the body of her grandson for burial before they are taken off with Odysseus. Throughout the play, many of the Trojan women lament the loss of the land that reared them, the Israeli playwright Hanoch Levin also wrote his own version of the play, adding more disturbing scenes and scatological details
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Trojan War in popular culture
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There is a wide range of ways in which people have represented the Trojan War in popular culture. The pre-war episodes of Leda and the Swan and the Judgement of Paris were frequent subjects in art from the Renaissance onwards, de bello Troiano by Joseph of Exeter Historiae destructionis Troiae by Guido delle Colonne, derived from Benoît. Il filostrato by Boccaccio, derived from Benoît and Colonne, Troilus and Criseyde by Geoffrey Chaucer, a poem in rhyme royal telling a tragic love story set during the war, derived from the above works. The Rawlinson Excidium Troie The Seege of Troye a Middle English poem based on Dares, the Laud Troy Book another Middle English poem written about 1400. Troy Book by John Lydgate Middle English poem composed 1412-20, Troilus and Cressida, William Shakespeares dark interpretation of Chaucers story, derived from Caxtons Recuyell. Christopher Marlowes The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, written circa 1590, penthesilea play by Heinrich von Kleist,1808. Faust, Part 2 by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe published in 1832 features Helen of Troy, the Trojan War Will Not Take Place, play by Jean Giraudoux, written in 1935. Paris of Troy by George Baker, published in 1947 Kassandra by Christa Wolf, the Greek Generals Talk and The Trojan Generals Talk collections of short stories by Phillip Parotti. Cassandra, Princess of Troy by Hilary Bailey published in 1993, women of Destiny, A Story of the Trojan War by Clemence McLaren published in 1996. The Song of Troy by Colleen McCullough published in 1998, Achilles by Elizabeth Cook published in 2002. The Siege of Troy by Greg Tobin published in 2004, the Talisman of Troy, A Novel by Valerio Massimo Manfredi published in 2004. Lindsay Clarkes Troy series, The War at Troy, published in 2004, return from Troy, published in 2005. David Gemmells Troy Series, Troy, Lord of the Silver Bow, Troy, Shield of Thunder, published in 2006. Troy, Fall of Kings, published in 2008, gene by Stel Pavlou, published in 2005, is the story of a soldier from the Trojan War reincarnated seven times through history. The Memoirs of Helen of Troy by Amanda Elyot published in 2005, ilium by Dan Simmons, published in 2003, gives the story of Troy a science fiction twist. Several poems by William Butler Yeats make reference to the Trojan War or Troy in the context of the Trojan War. No Second Troy, published in 1910 A Man Young and Old VI, published in 1928 Leda, the Songs of the Kings by Barry Unsworth, published in 2002. War Music by Christopher Logue, a Modernist retelling of books 1 -8 and 16 -19 of Homers Iliad, tales of Brave Ulysses, by the band Cream, released as a B-side on May 1967, and also included on the album Disraeli Gears
18.
Judgement of Paris
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The Judgement of Paris is a story from Greek mythology, which was one of the events that led up to the Trojan War and to the foundation of Rome. As with many tales, details vary depending on the source. The later writers Ovid, Lucian, The Bibliotheca and Hyginus, retell the story with skeptical and it appeared wordlessly on the ivory and gold votive chest of the 7th-century BC tyrant Cypselus at Olympia, which was described by Pausanias as showing. It is recounted that Zeus held a banquet in celebration of the marriage of Peleus, however, Eris, goddess of discord was not invited, for it was believed she would have made the party unpleasant for everyone. Angered by this snub, Eris arrived at the celebration with an apple from the Garden of the Hesperides. According to some versions, upon the apple was the inscription καλλίστῃ. Three goddesses claimed the apple, Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, thus it happened that, with Hermes as their guide, the three candidates bathed in the spring of Ida, then confronted Paris on Mount Ida in the climactic moment that is the crux of the tale. After failing to judge their beauty with their clothing on, the three goddesses stripped nude to convince Paris of their worthiness and this was Helen of Sparta, wife of the Greek king Menelaus. Paris accepted Aphrodites gift and awarded the apple to her, receiving Helen as well as the enmity of the Greeks, the Greeks expedition to retrieve Helen from Paris in Troy is the mythological basis of the Trojan War. The bribery involved is ironic and a late ingredient, according to a tradition suggested by Alfred J. Van Windekens, objectively, cow-eyed Hera was indeed the most beautiful, not Aphrodite. However, Hera was the goddess of the order and of cuckolded wives. She was often portrayed as the shrewish, jealous wife of Zeus and she had fidelity and chastity in mind and was careful to be modest when Paris was inspecting her. Aphrodite, though not as beautiful as Hera, was the goddess of sexuality. Thus, she was able to sway Paris into judging her the fairest, athenas beauty is rarely commented in the myths, perhaps because Greeks held her up as an asexual being, being able to overcome her womanly weaknesses to become both wise and talented in war. Her rage at losing makes her join the Greeks in the battle against Paris Trojans, the subject became popular in art from the late Middle Ages onwards. All three goddesses were usually shown nude, though in ancient art only Aphrodite is ever unclothed, the opportunity for three female nudes was a large part of the attraction of the subject. It appeared in illuminated manuscripts and was popular in art, including 15th-century Italian inkstands and other works in maiolica. As a subject for paintings, it was more common in Northern Europe
19.
Helen of Troy
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In Greek mythology, Helen of Troy, also known as Helen of Sparta, or simply Helen, was the daughter of Zeus and Leda, and was a sister of Castor, Pollux, and Clytemnestra. In Greek myths, she was considered the most beautiful woman in the world, by marriage she was Queen of Laconia, a province within Homeric Greece, the wife of King Menelaus. Her abduction by Prince Paris of Troy brought about the Trojan War, elements of her putative biography come from classical authors such as Aristophanes, Cicero, Euripides and Homer. In her youth, she was abducted by Theseus, a competition between her suitors for her hand in marriage sees Menelaus emerge victorious. An oath sworn beforehand by all the suitors requires them to military assistance in the case of her abduction. When she marries Menelaus she is very young, whether her subsequent involvement with Paris is an abduction or a seduction is ambiguous. The legends recounting Helens fate in Troy are contradictory, Homer depicts her as a wistful figure, even a sorrowful one, who comes to regret her choice and wishes to be reunited with Menelaus. Other accounts have a treacherous Helen who simulates Bacchic rites and rejoices in the carnage, ultimately, Paris was killed in action, and in Homers account Helen was reunited with Menelaus, though other versions of the legend recount her ascending to Olympus instead. A cult associated with her developed in Hellenistic Laconia, both at Sparta and elsewhere, at Therapne she shared a shrine with Menelaus and she was also worshiped in Attica and on Rhodes. Her beauty inspired artists of all time to represent her, frequently as the personification of ideal beauty, Christopher Marlowes lines from his tragedy Doctor Faustus are frequently cited, Was this the face that launchd a thousand ships/And burnt the topless towers of Ilium. However, in the play this meeting and the ensuing temptation are not unambiguously positive, closely preceding death, images of her start appearing in the 7th century BC. In classical Greece, her abduction by—or elopement with—Paris was a popular motif, in medieval illustrations, this event was frequently portrayed as a seduction, whereas in Renaissance painting it is usually depicted as a rape by Paris. The fact that rape and kidnapping were interchangeable terms lends additional ambiguity to the story, the etymology of Helens name continues to be a problem for scholars. Georg Curtius related Helen to the moon, Émile Boisacq considered Ἑλένη to derive from the noun ἑλένη meaning torch. It has also suggested that the λ of Ἑλένη arose from an original ν. Linda Lee Clader, however, says none of the above suggestions offers much satisfaction. Inversely, others have connected this etymology to a hypothetical proto-indo-european sun goddess, in particular, her marriage myth may be connected to a broader indo-european marriage drama of the sun goddess, and she is related to the divine twins, just as many of these goddesses are. The origins of Helens myth date back to the Mycenaean age, the first record of her name appears in the poems of Homer, but scholars assume that such myths invented or received by the Mycenaean Greeks made their way to Homer
20.
Trojan Horse
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The Trojan Horse is a tale from the Trojan War about the subterfuge that the Greeks used to enter the city of Troy and win the war. In the canonical version, after a fruitless 10-year siege, the Greeks constructed a wooden horse. The Greeks pretended to sail away, and the Trojans pulled the horse into their city as a victory trophy and that night the Greek force crept out of the horse and opened the gates for the rest of the Greek army, which had sailed back under cover of night. The Greeks entered and destroyed the city of Troy, ending the war, metaphorically a Trojan Horse has come to mean any trick or stratagem that causes a target to invite a foe into a securely protected bastion or place. A malicious computer program which tricks users into willingly running it is called a Trojan horse or simply a Trojan. The main ancient source for the story is the Aeneid of Virgil, the event is also referred to in Homers Odyssey. In the Greek tradition, the horse is called the Wooden Horse, according to Quintus Smyrnaeus, Odysseus thought of building a great wooden horse, hiding an elite force inside, and fooling the Trojans into wheeling the horse into the city as a trophy. Under the leadership of Epeius, the Greeks built the wooden horse in three days, odysseuss plan called for one man to remain outside the horse, he would act as though the Greeks had abandoned him, leaving the horse as a gift for the Trojans. An inscription was engraved on the reading, For their return home. Then they burned their tents and left to Tenedos by night, Greek soldier Sinon was abandoned, and was to signal to the Greeks by lighting a beacon. In Virgils poem, Sinon, the only volunteer for the role, successfully convinces the Trojans that he has left behind. Sinon tells the Trojans that the Horse was built to be too large for them to take it into their city, however, the god Poseidon sends two sea serpents to strangle him and his sons Antiphantes and Thymbraeus before any Trojan heeds his warning. According to Apollodorus the two serpents were sent by Apollo, whom Laocoon had insulted by sleeping with his wife in front of the divine image. King Priams daughter Cassandra, the soothsayer of Troy, insists that the horse will be the downfall of the city and she too is ignored, hence their doom and loss of the war. 8.487 ff The most detailed and most familiar version is in Virgils Aeneid and they secretly hide a picked body of men, chosen by lot, there, in the dark body, filling the belly and the huge cavernous insides with armed warriors. Then Laocoön rushes down eagerly from the heights of the citadel, to confront them all, a crowd with him. Do you think the enemys sailed away, or do you think any Greek gifts free of treachery. Whatever it is, Im afraid of Greeks even those bearing gifts, Book II includes Laocoön saying, Equo ne credite, Teucri
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Iliupersis
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The Iliupersis, also known as The Sack of Troy, is a lost epic of ancient Greek literature. It was one of the Epic Cycle, that is, the Trojan cycle, the story of the Iliou persis comes chronologically after that of the Little Iliad, and is followed by the Nostoi. The Iliou persis was sometimes attributed by ancient writers to Arctinus of Miletus, the poem comprised two books of verse in dactylic hexameter. The Iliou persis was probably composed in the seventh century BCE, ancient sources date Arctinus to the eighth century, but evidence concerning another of his poems, the Aethiopis, suggests that he lived considerably later than that. Only ten lines of the text of the Iliou persis survive. For its storyline we are almost entirely dependent on a summary of the Cyclic epics contained in the Chrestomathy written by an unknown Proclus, a few other references give indications of the poems storyline. A further impression of the content may be gained from book 2 of Virgils Aeneid. Note that different sources record some details differently, for example the manner of Aeneas departure from Troy, the version told here specifically follows what is known of the early epic poem, rather than any other source. The poem opens with the Trojans discussing what to do with the horse which the Greeks have left behind. Cassandra and Laocoön proclaim that there is a force of Greeks inside. The latter opinion prevails, and the Trojans celebrate their apparent victory, the god Poseidon, meanwhile, sends an ill omen of two snakes which kill Laocoön and his sons, seeing this, Aeneas and his men leave Troy in anticipation of what is to come. When night comes, the Greek warriors inside the horse emerge, and open the city gates to let in the Greek army, the Trojans are massacred, and the Greeks set fire to the city. The gods consider whether they should stone Ajax in retribution, later, when the Greeks are sailing home, Athena kills him at sea. Odysseus kills Hectors baby son Astyanax and Neoptolemus takes Hectors wife Andromache captive, the Greeks make a human sacrifice of Priams daughter Polyxena at Achilless tomb, to placate his angry spirit
22.
Returns from Troy
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The Returns from Troy are the stories of how the Greek leaders returned after their victory in the Trojan War. Many Achaean heroes did not return to their homes, but died or founded colonies outside the Greek mainland. The most famous returns are those of Odysseus, whose wanderings are narrated in the Odyssey, the Achaeans entered the city using the Trojan Horse and slew the slumbering population. Aeneas took his father on his back and fled and he was left alone because of his piety. The city was razed and the temples were destroyed, of the women of the royal family, Locrian Ajax violated Cassandra on Athenas altar while she was clinging to her statue, which since looks upward. Neoptolemus got Andromache, wife of Hector and Odysseus took Priams widow Hecuba, news of Troys fall quickly reached the Achaean kingdoms through a system of fire relays. But though the message was brought fast and with ease, the heroes were not to return this way, the Gods were very angry over the destruction of their temples and other sacrilegious acts by the Achaeans and decided that most would not return. A storm fell on the fleet off Tenos island. Also Nauplius, in revenge for the murder of his son Palamedes by Odysseus, set up false lights in Cape Caphereus, Agamemnon had made it back to his kingdom safely with Cassandra in his possession after some stormy weather. He and Cassandra were slain by Aegisthus or by Clytemnestra or by both of them, Electra and Orestes later avenged their father, but Orestes was the one who was chased by the Furies. Nestor, who had the best conduct in Troy and did not take part in the looting, was the hero who had a good, fast. Those of his army survived the war also reached home with him safely. Locrian Ajax, who had endured more than the others the wrath of the Gods and 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 smote it and he was buried by Thetis on Myconos or Delos. The archer Teucer stood trial by his father for his brothers death and he was acquitted of responsibility but found guilty of negligence because he did not return his dead body or his arms. He was disowned and wasnt allowed back on Salamis Island and he left with his army and was at sea near Phreattys in the Peiraeus where he later founded Salamis on Cyprus. The Athenians later created a myth that his son left his kingdom to Theseus sons. Neoptolemus, following Helenus advice traveled over land, always accompanied by Andromache and he met Odysseus and they buried Achilles teacher Phoenix on the land of the Ciconians
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Odyssey
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The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the Odyssey is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second-oldest extant work of Western literature, the Iliad is the oldest. Scholars believe the Odyssey was composed near the end of the 8th century BC, somewhere in Ionia, the poem mainly focuses on the Greek hero Odysseus, king of Ithaca, and his journey home after the fall of Troy. It takes Odysseus ten years to reach Ithaca after the ten-year Trojan War. In his absence, it is assumed Odysseus has died, and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus must deal with a group of suitors, the Mnesteres or Proci. The Odyssey continues to be read in the Homeric Greek and translated into languages around the world. Many scholars believe the poem was composed in an oral tradition by an aoidos, perhaps a rhapsode. The details of the ancient oral performance and the conversion to a written work inspire continual debate among scholars. The Odyssey was written in a dialect of Greek—a literary amalgam of Aeolic Greek, Ionic Greek. Among the most noteworthy elements of the text are its non-linear plot, in the English language as well as many others, the word odyssey has come to refer to an epic voyage. The Odyssey has a lost sequel, the Telegony, which was not written by Homer and it was usually attributed in antiquity to Cinaethon of Sparta. In one source, the Telegony was said to have stolen from Musaeus by either Eugamon or Eugammon of Cyrene. The Odyssey begins ten years after the end of the ten-year Trojan War, and Odysseus has still not returned home from the war. Odysseus protectress, the goddess Athena, requests to Zeus, king of the gods, to finally allow Odysseus to return home when Odysseus enemy, then, disguised as a Taphian chieftain named Mentes, she visits Telemachus to urge him to search for news of his father. He offers her hospitality, they observe the suitors dining rowdily while the bard Phemius performs a poem for them. Penelope objects to Phemius theme, the Return from Troy, because it reminds her of her missing husband and that night Athena, disguised as Telemachus, finds a ship and crew for the true prince. The next morning, Telemachus calls an assembly of citizens of Ithaca to discuss what should be done with the suitors. Accompanied by Athena, he departs for the Greek mainland and the household of Nestor, most venerable of the Greek warriors at Troy, now at home in Pylos
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Agamemnon
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Mythical legends make him the king of Mycenae or Argos, thought to be different names for the same area. When Helen, the wife of Menelaus, was taken to Troy by Paris, upon Agamemnons return from Troy, he was murdered by Aegisthus, the lover of his wife, Clytemnestra. In some later versions Clytemnestra herself does the killing, or they act together as accomplices, Atreus, Agamemnons father, murdered the children of his twin brother Thyestes and fed them to Thyestes after discovering Thyestes adultery with his wife Aerope. Thyestes fathered Aegisthus with his own daughter, Pelopia, and this son vowed gruesome revenge on Atreus children, Aegisthus successfully murdered Atreus and restored his father to the throne. Aegisthus took possession of the throne of Mycenae and jointly ruled with Thyestes, during this period Agamemnon and his brother, Menelaus, took refuge with Tyndareus, King of Sparta. There they respectively married Tyndareus daughters Clytemnestra and Helen, Agamemnon and Clytemnestra had four children, one son, Orestes, and three daughters, Iphigenia, Electra and Chrysothemis. Menelaus succeeded Tyndareus in Sparta, while Agamemnon, with his brothers assistance, drove out Aegisthus and he extended his dominion by conquest and became the most powerful prince in Greece. Thus misfortune hounded successive generations of the House of Atreus, until atoned by Orestes in a court of justice held jointly by humans, Agamemnon gathered the reluctant Greek forces to sail for Troy. Preparing to depart from Aulis, which was a port in Boeotia, misfortunes, including a plague and a lack of wind, prevented the army from sailing. Finally, the prophet Calchas announced that the wrath of the goddess could only be propitiated by the sacrifice of Agamemnons daughter Iphigenia and her death appeased Artemis, and the Greek army set out for Troy. Several alternatives to the human sacrifice have been presented in Greek mythology, hesiod said she became the goddess Hecate. Agamemnon was the commander-in-chief of the Greeks during the Trojan War, during the fighting, Agamemnon killed Antiphus and fifteen other Trojan soldiers. The Iliad tells the story about the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles in the year of the war. Following one of the Achaean Armys raids, Chryseis, daughter of Chryses, Chryses pleaded with Agamemnon to free his daughter but was met with little success. Chryses then prayed to Apollo for the return of his daughter. After learning from the Prophet Calchas that the plague could be dispelled by returning Chryseis to her father, Agamemnon reluctantly agreed, however, as compensation for his lost prize, Agamemnon demanded a new prize. As a result, Agamemnon stole an attractive slave called Briseis, one of the spoils of war, Achilles, the greatest warrior of the age, withdrew from battle in response to Agamemnons supposedly evil deed and allegedly put the Greek armies at risk of losing the war. Although not the equal of Achilles in bravery, Agamemnon was a representative of kingly authority, as commander-in-chief, he summoned the princes to the council and led the army in battle
25.
Menelaus
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In Greek mythology, Menelaus was a king of Mycenaean Sparta, the husband of Helen of Troy, and a central figure in the Trojan War. He was the son of Atreus and Aerope, brother of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae and, according to the Iliad, although early authors such as Aeschylus refer in passing to Menelaus’ early life, detailed sources are quite late, post-dating 5th-century BC Greek tragedy. According to these sources, Menelaus father, Atreus, had been feuding with his brother Thyestes over the throne of Mycenae, after a back-and-forth struggle that featured adultery, incest and cannibalism, Thyestes gained the throne after his son Aegisthus murdered Atreus. As a result, Atreus’ sons, Menelaus and Agamemnon, went into exile and they first stayed with King Polyphides of Sicyon, and later with King Oeneus of Calydon. But when they thought the time was ripe to dethrone Mycenae’s hostile ruler, assisted by King Tyndareus of Sparta, they drove Thyestes away, and Agamemnon took the throne for himself. When it was time for Tyndareus’ step-daughter Helen to marry, many kings, among the contenders were Odysseus, Menestheus, Ajax the Great, Patroclus, and Idomeneus. Tyndareus would accept none of the gifts, nor would he send any of the suitors away for fear of offending them, Odysseus promised to solve the problem in a satisfactory manner if Tyndareus would support him in his courting of Tyndareus’s niece Penelope, the daughter of Icarius. Tyndareus readily agreed, and Odysseus proposed that, before the decision was made, then it was decreed that straws were to be drawn for Helen’s hand. The suitor who won was Menelaus, the rest of the suitors swore their oaths, and Helen and Menelaus were married, Menelaus becoming a ruler of Sparta with Helen after Tyndareus and Leda abdicated the thrones. Menelaus and Helen had a daughter Hermione as supported, for example, by Sappho and their palace has been discovered in Pellana, Laconia, to the north-west of modern Sparta. Other archaeologists consider that Pellana is too far away from other Mycenaean centres to have been the capital of Menelaus, in a return for awarding her a golden apple inscribed to the fairest, Aphrodite promised Paris the most beautiful woman in all the world. Homers Iliad is the most expansive source for Menelaus’s exploits during the Trojan War, in Book 3, Menelaus challenges Paris to a duel for Helen’s return. Menelaus soundly beats Paris, but before he can kill him and claim victory, in Book 4, while the Greeks and Trojans squabble over the duel’s winner, Athena inspires the Trojan Pandarus to shoot Menelaus with his bow and arrow. However, Athena never intended for Menelaus to die and she protects him from the arrow of Pandarus, Menelaus is wounded in the abdomen, and the fighting resumes. Later, in Book 17, Homer gives Menelaus an extended aristeia as the hero retrieves the corpse of Patroclus from the battlefield, according to Hyginus, Menelaus killed eight men in the war, and was one of the Greeks hidden inside the Trojan Horse. During the sack of Troy, Menelaus killed Deiphobus, who had married Helen after the death of Paris, there are four versions of Menelaus’ and Helen’s reunion on the night of the sack of Troy, Angry at Helen, Menelaus looked for and found her. In a fit of rage, he decided to kill her for leaving him for Paris, in a split second, Menelaus wrath went away instantly. He took pity on her, and decided to take her back as wife, Menelaus resolved to kill Helen but her striking beauty prompted him to drop his sword and take her back to his ship “to punish her at Sparta”, as he claimed
26.
Nestor (mythology)
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In Greek mythology, Nestor of Gerenia was the son of Neleus and Chloris. He became the King of Pylos after Heracles killed Neleus and all of Nestors siblings and his wife was either Eurydice or Anaxibia, their children included Peisistratus, Thrasymedes, Pisidice, Polycaste, Perseus, Stratichus, Aretus, Echephron, and Antilochus. Nestor was an Argonaut, helped fight the centaurs, and participated in the hunt for the Calydonian Boar and he and his sons, Antilochus and Thrasymedes, fought on the side of the Achaeans in the Trojan War. Though Nestor was already old when the war began, he was noted for his bravery. In the Iliad, he gives advice to the younger warriors and advises Agamemnon. He is too old to engage in combat himself, but he leads the Pylian troops, riding his chariot and he also had a solid gold shield. Homer frequently calls him by the epithet the Gerenian horseman, at the funeral games of Patroclus, Nestor advises Antilochus on how to win the chariot race. Antilochus was later killed in battle by Memnon, in the Odyssey, Nestor and those who were part of his army had safely returned to Pylos since they did not take part in the looting of Troy upon the Greeks victory in the Trojan War. Odysseuss son Telemachus travels to Pylos to inquire about the fate of his father, Nestor receives Telemachus kindly and entertains him lavishly but is unable to furnish any information on his fathers fate. Also appearing in the Odyssey are Nestors wife Eurydice and their remaining living sons, Echephron, Stratius, Aretus, Thrasymedes, Nestor also had two daughters named Pisidice and Polycaste. Peisistratus readily agrees, although stating that his father is bound to be furious when he learns of Telemachuss departure. Nestors advice in the Iliad has also interpreted to have sinister undertones. For example, when Patroclus comes to Nestor for advice in Book 11, karl Reinhardt argues that this is contrary to what Patroclus really originally wanted – in fact, he is only there to receive information on behalf of Achilles about the wounded Machaon. Reinhardt notes that an unimportant errand left behind by an all-important one, Patroclus role as messenger is crucial and an ironic purpose permeates the encounter. Homer offers contradictory portrayals of Nestor as a source of advice, yet at the same time Nestors advice is frequently ineffective. Yet Nestor is never questioned and instead is frequently praised, heroes are not necessarily viewed as responsible when things go awry. In the Iliad, people are judged not necessarily in the view of results. These are elements that make up Nestor, and they parallel the elements that Homer describes as part of a counselor at Iliad 3. 150–152
27.
Odysseus
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Odysseus, also known by the Latin name Ulysses, was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homers epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homers Iliad and other works in that same epic cycle. Husband of Penelope, father of Telemachus, and son of Laërtes and Anticlea, Odysseus is renowned for his brilliance, guile, and versatility and he is most famous for the Odyssey, ten eventful years he took to return home after the decade-long Trojan War. The name has several variants, in Greek the character was called Olysseus, Oulixeus, Oulixes, hence, there may originally have been two separate figures, one called something like Odysseus, the other something like Ulixes, who were combined into one complex personality. The etymology of the name is unknown, ancient authors linked the name to the Greek verbs odussomai to be wroth against, to hate, or to oduromai to lament, bewail. Homer in references and puns, relates it to various forms of this verb and it has also been suggested that the name is of non-Greek origin, probably not even Indo-European, with an unknown etymology, R. S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin. In Book 19 of the Odyssey, where Odysseuss early childhood is recounted, Euryclea tries to guide him to naming the boy Polyaretos, for he has much been prayed for. Autolycus apparently in a sardonic mood, decided to give the child a name that would commemorate his own experience in life. Because I got odium upon myself before coming here, let the childs name be Odysseus to signify this. The pun was prophetic as well as commemorative, Odysseus often receives the patronymic epithet Laertiades, son of Laërtes. In the Iliad and Odyssey there are several epithets used to describe Odysseus and his name and stories were adopted into Etruscan religion under the name Uthuze. Hence, Odysseus was the great-grandson of the Olympian god Hermes, according to the Iliad and Odyssey, his father is Laertes and his mother Anticlea, although there was a non-Homeric tradition that Sisyphus was his true father. The rumor went that Laertes bought Odysseus from the conniving king, Odysseus is said to have a younger sister, Ctimene, who went to Same to be married and is mentioned by the swineherd Eumaeus, whom she grew up alongside, in Book 15 of the Odyssey. Homers Iliad and Odyssey portray Odysseus as a hero, but the Romans. In Virgils Aeneid, written between 29 and 19 BC, he is referred to as cruel Odysseus or deceitful Odysseus. Turnus, in Aeneid ix, reproaches the Trojan Ascanius with images of rugged, forthright Latin virtues, declaring, You shall not find the sons of Atreus here, nor need the frauds of sly Ulysses fear. While the Greeks admired his cunning and deceit, these qualities did not recommend themselves to the Romans, who possessed a rigid sense of honour. His attempts to avoid his sacred oath to defend Menelaus and Helen offended Roman notions of duty, the majority of sources for Odysseus pre-war exploits—principally the mythographers Pseudo-Apollodorus and Hyginus—postdate Homer by many centuries
28.
Diomedes
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Diomedes or Diomede is a hero in Greek mythology, known for his participation in the Trojan War. He was born to Tydeus and Deipyle and later became King of Argos, succeeding his maternal grandfather, in Homers Iliad Diomedes is regarded alongside Ajax as one of the best warriors of all the Achaeans. Later, he founded ten or more Italian cities, after his death, Diomedes was worshipped as a divine being under various names in Italy and also in Greece. Diomedes was, on his father’s side, an Aetolian, and this is because his father Tydeus left Calydon and fled to Argos in order to avoid being persecuted by his uncle Agrius. He married King Adrastuss daughter Deipyle, Tydeus was one of the Seven Against Thebes. This expedition failed and all leaders, including Tydeus were killed, Tydeus was Athena’s favourite warrior at the time, and when he was dying she wanted to offer him a magic elixir that would make him immortal. However, she withdrew the privilege in apparent disgust when Tydeus gobbled down the brains of the hated enemy who had wounded him. According to some, Diomedes was four years old when his father was killed, at the funeral of their fathers, the sons of Seven Against Thebes met and vowed to vanquish Thebes one day. They called themselves Epigoni because they were born after everything has happened, ten years later, the Epigoni appointed Alcmaeon as their commander in chief and gathered an army. They added to their forces from Argos contingents from Messenia, Arcadia, Corinth and this army, however, was a small one compared to the forces of Thebes. The Epigoni war is remembered as the most important expedition in Greek Mythology before the Trojan War and it was a favorite topic for epics, but, unfortunately, all of these epics are now lost. The main battle took place at Glisas where the warrior Aegialeus was slain by King Laodamas, Diomedes was fifteen years old by then and was considered the mightiest of all. Vanquished by the Epigoni, the Thebans followed the counsel of Tiresias, Epigoni took the city, and most Argive commanders returned rich to their countries after having sacked Thebes, but the city they handed over to Thersander. Adrastus died of grief when he learned that his son Aegialeus had perished in the battle at Glisas, Aegialeus was married to Comaetho, daughter of Tydeus. Diomedes, in turn, married Aegialeuss daughter Aegialia when he returned from battle and he was then appointed as the King of Argos and thus became one of the most powerful rulers of Hellas at such a young age. According to some, Diomedes ruled Argos for more than five years and brought much wealth and he was a skilled politician and was greatly respected by other rulers. He still kept an eye on Calydonian politics, and when the sons of Agrius put Oeneus in jail and their own father on the throne, Diomedes attacked and ceded the kingdom, slaying all the traitors except Thersites, Onchestus and Agrius restoring his grandfather to the throne. Later, Oeneus passed the Kingdom to his son-in-law Andraemon and headed for Argos to meet Diomedes and he was assassinated on the way by Thersites and Onchestus
29.
Thersites
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In Greek mythology, Thersites was a soldier of the Greek army during the Trojan War. In the Iliad, he not have a fathers name. However, a quotation from another lost epic in the Trojan cycle, Homer described him in detail in the Iliad, Book II, even though he plays only a minor role in the story. He is said to be bow-legged and lame, to have shoulders that cave inward, vulgar, obscene, and somewhat dull-witted, Thersites disrupts the rallying of the Greek army, He got up in the assembly and attacked Agamemnon in the words of Achilles. There must be a figuration of wickedness as self-evident as Thersites-- the ugliest man who came to Troy-- who says what everyone else is thinking and this was a way of letting these remarks, along with Odysseus brutal act of suppression, remain in the record. Thersites is also mentioned in Platos Gorgias as an example of a soul that can be cured in the afterlife, according to E. R. Dodds, There he is not so much the typical petty criminal as the typical buffoon, and so Lucian describes him. He begins as Ajaxs slave, telling Ajax, I would thou didst itch from head to foot and I had the scratching of thee, Thersites soon leaves Ajax and puts himself into the service of Achilles, who appreciates his bitter, caustic humor. Shakespeare mentions Thersites again in his later play Cymbeline, when Guiderius says, laurence Sterne writes of Thersites in the last volume of his Tristram Shandy chapter 14, declaring him to be the exemplar of abusive satire, as black as the ink it is written with. In Part Two of Goethes Faust, Act One, during the Masquerade, Thersites appears briefly and he says, When some lofty thing is done / I gird at once my harness on. The role of Thersites as a social critic has been advanced by several philosophers and literary critics, including Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Friedrich Nietzsche, Edward Said, but the objection should be voiced in a way that the same breath disposes of it. A perfect example of this stratagem is the role of Thersites in the Iliad, for any Greeks who were likely to resent the stupidity of the Trojan War, the text itself provided a spokesman who voiced their resistance. And he was other than the abominable Thersites, for whom no right-minded member of the Greek audience was likely to feel sympathy. As early as Hegel, however, his role was beginning to be questioned. Consider, for instance, these remarks in the introduction to Hegels Lectures on the Philosophy of History and he does not get in every age. The blows that he gets in Homer, but his envy, his egotism, is the thorn which he has to carry in his flesh. And the undying worm that gnaws him is the consideration that his excellent views. But our satisfaction at the fate of Thersitism may also have its sinister side, Thersites also appears in the writings of Karl Marx and those of later Marxist literature in Soviet times much in the spirit of Hegels construal. Heiner Müller casts Thersites in the role of Shepherd who also shears his sheep reflecting the contradictions broached by Hegel, then asked the pupils, What is it with this Thersites, Master
30.
Achaeans (Homer)
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The Achaeans constitute one of the collective names for the Greeks in Homers Iliad and Odyssey. In the historical period, the Achaeans were the inhabitants of the region of Achaea, the city-states of this region later formed a confederation known as the Achaean League, which was influential during the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC. The Homeric long-haired Achaeans would have been a part of the Mycenaean civilization that dominated Greece from circa 1600 BC until 1100 BC, later, by the Archaic and Classical periods, the term Achaeans referred to inhabitants of the much smaller region of Achaea. Herodotus identified the Achaeans of the northern Peloponnese as descendants of the earlier, according to Pausanias, writing in the 2nd century CE, the term Achaean was originally given to those Greeks inhabiting the Argolis and Laconia. Pausanias and Herodotus both recount the legend that the Achaeans were forced from their homelands by the Dorians, during the legendary Dorian invasion of the Peloponnese and they then moved into the region later called Achaea. A scholarly consensus has not yet been reached on the origin of the historic Achaeans relative to the Homeric Achaeans and is hotly debated. Karl Beloch suggested there was no Dorian invasion, but rather that the Peloponnesian Dorians were the Achaeans, eduard Meyer, disagreeing with Beloch, instead put forth the suggestion that the real-life Achaeans were mainland pre-Dorian Greeks. His conclusion is based on his research on the similarity between the languages of the Achaeans and pre-historic Arcadians and his conclusions at the time were challenged by other Hittitologists, as well as by Ferdinand Sommer, who published his Die Ahhijava-Urkunden in 1932. Some Hittite texts mention a nation lying to the west called Ahhiyawa, in the earliest reference to this land, a letter outlining the treaty violations of the Hittite vassal Madduwatta, it is called Ahhiya. It also refers to an earlier Wilusa episode involving hostility on the part of Ahhiyawa, Ahhiya has been identified with the Achaeans of the Trojan War and the city of Wilusa with the legendary city of Troy. It has been proposed that Ekwesh of the Egyptian records may relate to Achaea, whereas Denyen, Tanaju is also listed in an inscription at the Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III. The latter ruled Egypt in circa 1382–1344 BC, moreover, a list of the cities and regions of the Tanaju is also mentioned in this inscription, among the cities listed are Mycenae, Nauplion, Kythera, Messenia and the Thebaid. During the 5th year of Pharaoh Merneptah, a confederation of Libyan, included amongst the ethnic names of the repulsed invaders is the Ekwesh or Eqwesh, whom some have seen as Achaeans, although Egyptian texts specifically mention these Ekwesh to be circumcised. Homer mentions an Achaean attack upon the delta, and Menelaus speaks of the same in Book IV of the Odyssey to Telemachus when he recounts his own home from the Trojan War. Later Greek myths also say Helen had spent the time of the Trojan War in Egypt, and not at Troy, cadmus from Phoenicia, Danaus from Egypt, and Pelops from Anatolia each gained a foothold in mainland Greece and were assimilated and Hellenized. Sons of Hellen and the nymph Orseis were Dorus, Xuthos, sons of Xuthos and Kreousa, daughter of Erechthea, were Ion and Achaeus. According to Hyginus,22 Achaeans killed 362 Trojans during their ten years at Troy, according to Margalit Finkelberg, the name Ἀχαιοί/Ἀχαιϝοί is derived from Hittite Aḫḫiyawā. However, Robert S. P. Beekes doubted the validity of this derivation, the etymology of Danaoi is uncertain, according to Beekes the name is certainly Pre-Greek
31.
Catalogue of Ships
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The Catalogue of Ships is an epic catalogue in Book 2 of Homers Iliad, which lists the contingents of the Achaean army that sailed to Troy. A similar, though shorter, Catalogue of the Trojans and their allies follows, if taken to be an accurate account, the Catalogue provides a rare summary of the geopolitical situation in early Greece at some time between the Late Bronze Age and the eighth century BCE. Following Milman Parrys theory of Homeric oral poetry, some scholars, such as Denys Page, argue that it represents a pre-Homeric recitation incorporated into the epic by Homer. A few argue that parts of the recitation, such as the formulae describing places, date as early as the time of the Trojan War in the mid-13th century BCE, visser argues that this knowledge was transmitted by the heroic myth, elements of which introduce each geographical section. W. W. Minton places the catalogue within similar enumerations in Homer and Hesiod, the most striking feature of the catalogues geography is that it does not portray Greece in the Iron Age, the time of Homer. The whole northwestern part of Greece is not mentioned and it is these peoples thought to be of Dorian descent, instead the catalogue portrays a loose union of city-states, mostly in mainland Greece, ruled by hereditary families under the overlordship of the High King of Mycenae. Hardly any of them are Dorian, the Ionian Greeks are mainly missing. This political snapshot is undeniably one intended to be of Late Bronze Age Greece, in the Iliad, the Greek Catalogue lists twenty-nine contingents under 46 captains, accounting for a total of 1,186 ships. Using the Boeotian figure of 120 men per ship results in a total of 142,320 men transported to the Troad and they are named by various ethnonyms and had lived in 164 places described by toponyms. The majority of places have been identified and were occupied in the Late Bronze Age. The terms Danaans, Argives and Achaeans or the sons of the Achaeans are used for the army as a whole. In his Library, Apollodorus lists thirty contingents under 43 leaders with a total of 1013 ships, Hyginus lists 1154 ships, tabular Catalog Trojan Battle Order The Hesiodic Catalogue of Women J. K. The Geometric Catalogue of Ships, pp. 181–191 in Carter and Morris, catalogues and the Catalogue of Ships in the Iliad. Detailed map of Achaeans and Trojans
32.
Priam
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In Greek mythology, Priam was the king of Troy during the Trojan War and youngest son of Laomedon. Modern scholars derive his name from the Luwian name Pariya-muwas, which meant “exceptionally courageous” and was attested as the name of a man from Zazlippa, a similar form is attested transcribed in Greek as Paramoas near Kaisareia in Cappadocia. Notable is also Piyama-Radu, a man whose name figures prominently in the Hittite archives. Priam was originally called Podarces and he kept himself from being killed by Heracles by giving him a golden veil embroidered by his sister, after this, Podarces changed his name to Priam. This is a folk etymology based on πριατός priatos, ransomed from πρίασθαι priasthai, in Iliad Book 3, Priam tells Helen of Troy that he once helped King Mygdon of Phrygia defend against the Amazons. When Hector is killed by Achilles, the Greek warrior treats the body with disrespect, Zeus sends the god Hermes to escort King Priam, Hector’s father and the ruler of Troy, into the Greek camp. Priam tearfully pleads with Achilles to take pity on a father bereft of his son and he invokes the memory of Achilles’ own father, Peleus. Priam begs Achilles to pity him, saying I have endured what no one on earth has ever done before — I put my lips to the hands of the man who killed my son, deeply moved, Achilles relents and returns Hector’s corpse to the Trojans. Both sides agree to a truce, and Achilles gives Priam leave to hold a proper funeral for Hector. He promises that no Greek will engage in combat for nine days, but on the day of peace. Priam is killed during the Sack of Troy by Achilles son Neoptolemus and his death is graphically related in Book II of Virgils Aeneid. In Virgils description, Neoptolemus first kills Priams son Polites in front of his father as he seeks sanctuary on the altar of Zeus, Priam rebukes Neoptolemus, throwing a spear at him, harmlessly hitting his shield. Neoptolemus then drags Priam to the altar and there kills him too and it has been suggested by Hittite sources, specifically the Manapa-Tarhunta letter, that there is historical basis for the archetype of King Priam. The letter describes one Piyama-Radu as a rebel who overthrew a Hittite client king. There is also mention of an Alaksandu, suggested to be Paris Alexander, in Apollodorus Library, Telamon was almost killed during the siege of Troy. Telamon was the first one to break through the Trojan wall, Hercules was about to cut him down with his sword when Telamon began to quickly assemble an altar out of nearby stones in honor of Hercules. Hercules was so pleased, after the sack of Troy he gave Telamon Hesione as a wife, Hesione requested that she be able to bring her brother Podarces with her. Hercules would not allow it unless Hesione bought Podarces as a slave, Hesione paid for her brother with a veil
33.
Hecuba
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Hecuba was a queen in Greek mythology, the wife of King Priam of Troy during the Trojan War, with whom she had 19 children. These children included several characters of Homers Iliad such as the warriors Hector and Paris. Ancient sources vary as to the parentage of Hecuba, according to Homer, Hecuba was the daughter of King Dymas of Phrygia, but Euripides and Virgil write of her as the daughter of the Thracian king Cisseus. According to Suetonius in The Twelve Caesars, the emperor Tiberius pestered scholars with obscure questions about ancient mythology, Hecuba appears six times in the Iliad. In Book 6. 326–96, she meets Hector upon his return to the polis and offers him the cup, instructing him to offer it to Zeus. Taking Hectors advice, she chooses a gown taken from Alexanders treasure to give as an offering to the goddess, in Book 22, she pleads with Hector not to fight Achilles, for fear of never get to mourn you laid out on a bier. In Book 24. 201–16, she is stricken with anxiety upon hearing of Priams plan to retrieve Hectors body from Achilles hut. Further along in the episode, at 24. 287–98, she offers Priam the libation cup. Unlike in the first episode in which Hector refuses her offer of the cup, finally, she laments Hectors death in a well-known speech at 24. 748–59. The Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus states that Hecuba had a son named Troilus with the god Apollo, an oracle prophesied that Troy would not be defeated if Troilus reached the age of twenty alive. Hecuba is a character in two plays by Euripides, The Trojan Women and Hecuba. The Trojan Women describes the aftermath of the fall of Troy, Hecuba also takes place just after the fall of Troy. Polydorus, the youngest son of Priam and Hecuba, is sent to King Polymestor for safekeeping, Hecuba learns of this, and when Polymestor comes to the fallen city, Hecuba, by trickery, blinds him and kills his two sons. A third story says that when she was given to Odysseus as a slave, she snarled and cursed at him, so the gods turned her into a dog, in another tradition, Hecuba went mad upon seeing the corpses of her children Polydorus and Polyxena
34.
Hector
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In Greek mythology and Roman Mythology, Hector was a Trojan prince and the greatest fighter for Troy in the Trojan War. As the first-born son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba, who was a descendant of Dardanus and Tros, the founder of Troy, he was a prince of the royal house and he was married to Andromache, with whom he had an infant son, Scamandrius. He acted as leader of the Trojans and their allies in the defense of Troy, during the European Middle Ages, Hector figures as one of the Nine Worthies noted by Jacques de Longuyon, known not only for his courage but also for his noble and courtly nature. Indeed, Homer places Hector as peace-loving, thoughtful as well as bold, a son, husband and father. James Redfield writes of Hector as a martyr to loyalties, a witness to the things of this world, in Greek, Héktōr is a derivative of the verb ἔχειν ékhein, archaic form *ἕχειν hékhein, to have or to hold from Proto-Indo-European *seǵh- to hold. Héktōr, or Éktōr as found in Aeolic poetry, is also an epithet of Zeus in his capacity as he who holds, Hectors name could thus be taken to mean holding fast. According to the Iliad, Hector does not approve of war between the Greeks and the Trojans, for ten years, the Achaeans besieged Troy and their allies in the east. Hector commanded the Trojan army, with a number of subordinates including Polydamas, and his brothers Deiphobus, Helenus, and Paris. By all accounts, Hector was the best warrior the Trojans and all their allies could field, diomedes and Odysseus, when faced with his attack, described him as what Robert Fagles translated as an incredible dynamite, and a maniac. In the Iliad, Hectors exploits in the war prior to the events of the book are recapitulated and he had fought the Greek champion Protesilaus in single combat at the start of the war and killed him. A prophecy had stated that the first Greek to land on Trojan soil would die, thus, Protesilaus, Ajax, and Odysseus would not land. Finally, Odysseus threw his shield out and landed on that, in the ensuing fight, Hector killed him, fulfilling the prophecy. The Argives were initially reluctant to accept the challenge, however, after Nestors chiding, nine Greek heroes stepped up to the challenge and drew by lot to see who was to face Hector. Ajax wins and fights Hector to a stalemate for the entire day, with neither able to achieve victory, they express admiration for each others courage, skill, and strength. Hector gave Ajax his sword, which Ajax later uses to kill himself, Ajax gives Hector his girdle, which later was used to attach Hectors corpse to Achilles chariot by which he is dragged around the walls of Troy. The Greek and the Trojans make a truce to bury the dead, in the early dawn the next day the Greeks take advantage of it to build a wall and ditch around the ships. Zeus is watching in a distance, another mention of Hectors exploits in the early years of war was given in the Iliad book 9. During the embassy to Achilles, Odysseus, Phoenix and Ajax all try to persuade Achilles to rejoin the fight and he then claims, There he stood up to me alone one day, and he barely escaped my onslaught
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Paris (mythology)
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Paris, also known as Alexander, the son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy, appears in a number of Greek legends. Probably the best-known was his elopement with Helen, queen of Sparta, later in the war, he fatally wounds Achilles in the heel with an arrow as foretold by Achilles’s mother Thetis. The name Paris is probably Luwian and comparable to Pari-zitis attested as a Hittite scribes name, Paris was a child of Priam and Hecuba. Just before his birth, his mother dreamed that she gave birth to a flaming torch and this dream was interpreted by the seer Aesacus as a foretelling of the downfall of Troy, and he declared that the child would be the ruin of his homeland. Though Paris was indeed born before nightfall, he was spared by Priam, Hecuba, too, was unable to kill the child, despite the urging of the priestess of Apollo, one Herophile. Instead, Pariss father prevailed upon his chief herdsman, Agelaus, to remove the child, the herdsman, unable to use a weapon against the infant, left him exposed on Mount Ida, hoping he would perish there, he was, however, suckled by a she-bear. Returning after nine days, Agelaus was astonished to find the still alive. He returned to Priam bearing a dogs tongue as evidence of the deeds completion and it was at this time that Oenone became Pariss first lover. She was a nymph from Mount Ida in Phrygia and her father was Cebren, a river-god. She was skilled in the arts of prophecy and medicine, which she had been taught by Rhea and Apollo respectively. When Paris later left her for Helen she told him if he ever was wounded, he should come to her for she could heal any injury. Pariss chief distraction at this time was to pit Agelauss bulls against one another, one bull began to win these bouts consistently, and Paris began to set it against rival herdsmens own prize bulls, it defeated them all. Finally Paris offered a crown to any bull that could defeat his champion. Ares responded to this challenge by transforming himself into a bull, in celebration of the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, Lord Zeus, father of the Greek pantheon, hosted a banquet on Mount Olympus. Every deity and demi-god had been invited, except Eris, the goddess of strife, the goddesses thought to be the most beautiful were Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, and each one claimed the apple. They started a quarrel so they asked Zeus to choose one of them, knowing that choosing any of them would bring him the hatred of the other two, Zeus did not want to take part in the decision. He thus appointed Paris to select the most beautiful, escorted by Hermes, the three goddesses bathed in the spring of Mount Ida and approached Paris as he herded his cattle. Having been given permission by Zeus to set any conditions he saw fit, Paris chose Aphrodite— and, therefore, Helen
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Cassandra
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Cassandra, also known as Alexandra or Kassandra, was a daughter of King Priam and of Queen Hecuba of Troy in Greek mythology. In modern usage her name is employed as a device to indicate someone whose accurate prophecies are not believed by those around them. In an alternative version, she fell asleep in a temple, Cassandra became a figure of epic tradition and of tragedy. Hjalmar Frisk notes unexplained etymology, citing various hypotheses found in Wilhelm Schulze, Edgar Howard Sturtevant, J. Davreux, R. S. P. Beekes cites García Ramóns derivation of the name from the Proto-Indo-European root *kend- raise. Cassandra was the daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba and the twin sister of Helenus. According to legend, Cassandra had dark curly hair and dark brown eyes and was both beautiful and clever, but considered insane. However, her perceived insanity is the result of being cursed by the god Apollo, many versions of the myth relate that she incurred the gods wrath by refusing him sex, sometimes after first promising herself in exchange for the power of prophecy. Hyginus says, In another version, Cassandra consented to have sex with Apollo in exchange for the gift of prophecy and her punishment was the curse of never being believed. In some versions of the myth, Apollo curses her by spitting into her mouth during a kiss, in Aeschylus Agamemnon, she foretells the betrayal of Clytemnestra. She also bemoans her relationship with Apollo, Cassandra had served as a priestess of Apollo and her cursed gift from Apollo became a source of endless pain and frustration to Cassandra. Cassandra was seen as a liar and a madwoman by her family, in some versions of the story, she was often locked up in a pyramidal building on the citadel on her father King Priam’s orders. She was accompanied there by the wardress who cared for her under orders to inform the King of all of his daughters prophetic utterances. She was driven insane by this in the versions where she was incarcerated, though in the versions where she was not. According to legend, Cassandra had instructed her twin brother Helenus in the power of prophecy so he could be a prophet, like her, Helenus was always correct whenever he had made his predictions, but unlike his sister, people believed him. Cassandra made many predictions, with all of her prophecies being disbelieved except for one and she was believed when she foresaw who Paris was and proclaimed that he was her abandoned brother. This took place after he had sought refuge in the altar of Zeus from their brothers’ wrath, Cassandra foresaw that Paris’ abduction of Helen for his wife would bring about the Trojan War and cause the destruction of Troy. She did warn Paris not to go to Sparta along with Helenus who echoed her prophecy, Cassandra saw Helen coming into Troy at Paris return home from Sparta. She furiously snatched away Helens golden veil and tore at her hair, for she had foreseen that Helens arrival would bring the calamities of the Trojan War, the Trojan people, however, welcomed Helen into their city
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Andromache
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In Greek mythology, Andromache was the wife of Hector, daughter of Eetion, and sister to Podes. She was born and raised in the city of Cilician Thebe, the name means man battler or fighter of men or mans battle, from the Greek stem ἀνδρ- man and μάχη battle. This act was carried out by Neoptolemus who then took Andromache as a concubine and Hectors brother, Helenus, by Neoptolemus, she was the mother of Molossus, and according to Pausanias, of Pielus and Pergamus. When Neoptolemus died, Andromache married Helenus and became Queen of Epirus, Pausanias also implies that Helenus son, Cestrinus, was by Andromache. Andromache eventually went to live with Pergamus in Pergamum, where she died of old age, Iliad VI, 390–470, XXII 437–515 Bibliotheca III, xii,6, Epitome V,23, VI,12. Sapphos Fragment 44 Andromache was born in Thebes, a city that Achilles later sacked, killing her father Eetion, after this, her mother died of illness. She was taken from her father’s household by Hector, who had brought countless wedding-gifts, thus Priam’s household alone provides Andromache with her only familial support. In contrast to the relationship of Paris and Helen, Hector and Andromache fit the Greek ideal of a happy and productive marriage. Once Achilles kills Hector, Andromache is utterly alone, Andromache is therefore completely alone when Troy falls and her son is killed. Notably, Andromache remains unnamed in Iliad 22, referred to only as the wife of Hector, indicating the centrality of her status as Hectors wife, the Greeks divide the Trojan women as spoils of war and permanently separate them from the ruins of Troy and from one another. Hector’s fears of her life as a woman are realized as her family is entirely stripped from her by the violence of war. Without her familial structure, Andromache is a woman who must live outside familiar. Andromache’s gradual discovery of her husband’s death and her immediate lamentation culminate the shorter lamentations of Priam, in accordance with traditional customs of mourning, Andromache responds with an immediate and impulsive outburst of grief that begins the ritual lamentation. She casts away her various pieces of headdress and leads the Trojan women in ritual mourning, the final stage of the mourning process occurs in Iliad 24 in the formal, communal grieving upon the return of Hector’s body. In Iliad 22, Andromache is portrayed as the wife, weaving a cloak for her husband in the innermost chambers of the house. Here she is carrying out an action Hector had ordered her to perform during their conversation in Iliad 6, however, Andromache is seen in Iliad 6 in an unusual place for the traditional housewife, standing before the ramparts of Troy. Traditional gender roles are breached as well, as Andromache gives Hector military advice, although her behavior may seem nontraditional, hard times disrupts the separate spheres of men and women, requiring a shared civic response to the defense of the city as a whole. Andromache’s sudden tactical lecture is a way to keep Hector close, Andromache’s role as a mother, a fundamental element of her position in marriage, is emphasized within this same conversation
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Aeneas
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In Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas was a Trojan hero, the son of the prince Anchises and the goddess Venus. His father was a first cousin of King Priam of Troy and he is a character in Greek mythology and is mentioned in Homers Iliad. Aeneas receives full treatment in Roman mythology, most extensively in Virgils Aeneid and he became the first true hero of Rome. Snorri Sturluson identifies him with the Norse Æsir Vidarr, Aeneas is the Latin spelling of Greek Αἰνείας. In the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, Aeneas is first introduced with Aphrodite naming him Αἰνείας for the αὶνóν ἄχος he caused her and it is a popular etymology for the name, apparently exploited by Homer in the Iliad. Later in the Medieval period there were writers who held that, as such, in the natural order, the meaning of Aeneas name combines Greek ennos and demas, which becomes ennaios, meaning in-dweller. However, there is no certainty regarding the origin of his name, in imitation of the Iliad, Virgil borrows epithets of Homer, including, Anchisiades, magnanimum, magnus, heros, and bonus. Though he borrows many, Virgil gives Aeneas two epithets of his own in the Aeneid, pater and pius. The epithets applied by Virgil are an example of a different from that of Homer, for whilst Odysseus is poikilios, Aeneas is described as pius. Likewise, Aeneas is called pater when acting in the interest of his men, the story of the birth of Aeneas is told in the Hymn to Aphrodite, one of the major Homeric Hymns. Aphrodite has caused the other gods Zeus, to fall in love with mortal women, in retaliation, Zeus puts desire in her heart for Anchises, who is tending his cattle among the hills near Mount Ida. When Aphrodite sees him she is smitten and she adorns herself as if for a wedding among the gods and appears before him. He is overcome by her beauty, believing that she is a goddess, after they make love, Aphrodite reveals her true identity to him and Anchises fears what might happen to him as a result of their liaison. Aphrodite assures him that he will be protected, and tells him that she bear him a son to be called Aeneas. However, she warns him that he must never tell anyone that he has lain with a goddess, when Aeneas is born, Aphrodite takes him to the nymphs of Mount Ida. She directs them to raise the child to age five, then take him to Anchises, according to other sources, Anchises later brags about his encounter with Aphrodite, and as a result is struck in the foot with a thunderbolt by Zeus. Thereafter he is lame in that foot, so that Aeneas has to carry him from the flames of Troy. Aeneas is a character in the Iliad, where he is twice saved from death by the gods as if for an as-yet-unknown destiny
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Memnon (mythology)
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In Greek mythology, Memnon was an Ethiopian king and son of Tithonus and Eos. As a warrior he was considered to be almost Achilles equal in skill, during the Trojan War, he brought an army to Troys defense and had killed Antilochus during a fierce battle. The death of Memnon echoes that of Hector, another defender of Troy whom Achilles also killed out of revenge for a fallen comrade, after Memnons death, Zeus was moved by Eos tears and granted him immortality. Memnons death is related at length in the lost epic Aethiopis, Quintus of Smyrna records Memnons death in Posthomerica. His death is described in Philostratus Imagines. Memnons army is described as being too big to be counted, as per usual the two leaders end the dinner by exchanging glorious war stories, and Memnons tales lead Priam to declare that the Aethiopian King will be Troys saviour. Despite this, Memnon is very humble and warns that his strength will, he hopes, be seen in battle, before the next days battle, so great is the divine love towards Memnon that Zeus makes all the other Olympians promise not to interfere in the fighting. In battle, Memnon kills Nestors son, Antilochos, after Antilochos has killed Memnons dear comrade, in this way, Memnon is seen as very similar to Achilles – both of them have strong sets of values that are looked upon favourably by the warrior culture of the time. Zeus favours both of them and makes each man tireless and huge so that the battlefield can watch them clash as demigods. Eventually, Achilles stabs Memnon through the heart, causing his army to flee in terror. In honour of Memnon, the Gods collect all the drops of blood that fall from him, the Aethiopians that stayed close to Memnon in order to bury their leader are turned into birds and they stay by his tomb so as to remove dust that gathers on it. Roman writers and later classical Greek writers such as Diodorus Siculus believed Memnon hailed from Aethiopia, because the original historical work by Arctinus of Miletus only survives in fragments, most of what is known about Memnon comes from post-Homeric Greek and Roman writers. Homer only makes passing mention to Memnon in the Odyssey, one of the statues was on the road from Smyrna to Sardis. Herodotus described a carved figure matching this description near the old road from Smyrna to Sardis, the many call it Memnon, who they say from Aethiopia overran Egypt and as far as Susa. The Thebans, however, say that it is a statue, not of Memnon, but of a native named Phamenoph, according to Manetho Memnon and the 8th Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty Amenophis was one and the same king. According to ancient Greek poets, Memnons father Tithonus was snatched away from Troy by the goddess of dawn Eos and was taken to the ends of the earth on the coast of Oceanus. This literally means he was carried by the east wind and was driven to the ends of the earth beyond the Ocean or Pillars of Hercules. According to Hesiod Eos bore to Tithonus bronzed armed Memnon, the King of the Ethiopians, zephyrus, god of the west wind, like Memnon was also the first-born son of Eos by another father Astraeus, making him the brother of Memnon
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Troilus
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Troilus is a legendary character associated with the story of the Trojan War. The first surviving reference to him is in Homers Iliad, which scholars believe was composed by bards, in Greek mythology, Troilus is a young Trojan prince, one of the sons of King Priam and Hecuba. Prophecies link Troilus fate to that of Troy and so he is ambushed and murdered by Achilles, Sophocles was one of the writers to tell this tale. It was also a theme among artists of the time. Ancient writers treated Troilus as the epitome of a dead child mourned by his parents and he was also regarded as a paragon of youthful male beauty. In Western European medieval and Renaissance versions of the legend, Troilus is the youngest of Priams five legitimate sons by Hecuba, despite his youth he is one of the main Trojan war leaders. He dies in battle at Achilles hands, in a popular addition to the story, originating in the 12th century, Troilus falls in love with Cressida, whose father has defected to the Greeks. Cressida pledges her love to Troilus but she switches her affections to the Greek hero Diomedes when sent to her father in a hostage exchange. Chaucer and Shakespeare are among the authors who wrote works telling the story of Troilus, within the medieval tradition, Troilus was regarded as a paragon of the faithful courtly lover and also of the virtuous pagan knight. Once the custom of courtly love had faded, his fate was regarded less sympathetically, little attention was paid to the character during the 18th and 19th centuries. However, Troilus has reappeared in 20th and 21st century retellings of the Trojan War by authors who have elements from both the classical and medieval versions of his story. For the ancient Greeks, the tale of the Trojan War, the characters death early in the war and the prophecies surrounding him demonstrated that all Trojan efforts to defend their home would be in vain. His symbolic significance is evidenced by linguistic analysis of his Greek name Troilos and it can be interpreted as an elision of the names of Tros and Ilos, the legendary founders of Troy, as a diminutive or pet name little Tros or as an elision of Troië and lyo. These multiple possibilities emphasise the link between the fates of Troilus and of the city where he lived, given this, it is unfortunate that the Cypria—the part of the Epic Cycle that covers the period of the Trojan War of Troilus death—does not survive. Indeed, no complete narrative of his remains from archaic times or the subsequent classical period. Most of the sources from before the Hellenistic age that even referred to the character are lost or survive only in fragments or summary. Partially compensating for the texts are the physical artifacts that remain from the archaic. The story of the circumstances around Troilus death was a theme among pottery painters
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Penthesilea
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Penthesilea or Penthesileia was an Amazonian queen in Greek mythology, the daughter of Ares and Otrera and the sister of Hippolyta, Antiope and Melanippe. She therefore was convinced to join in the Trojan War. Penthesilea arrives in Troy at the start of Posthomerica, the night before the fighting is due to recommence following Hectors death and she arrived with twelve companions and promised the Trojans that she would kill Achilles. According to Quintus, Penthesilea was such an effective warrior because, unlike most Amazons who were missing a single breast, prior to Achilles entrance, Penthesilea had tried to fight Telamonian Ajax but he had merely laughed off her attempts, thinking her an unfit opponent. With only one blow Achilles pierces her breastplate then proceeds to impale both her and her horse, at first he mocks her corpse until he removes her helmet and feels strong remorse. Proclus, who summarized the lost epic poem, the Aethiopis of Arctinos of Miletus, of only five lines survive in a quotation. The story of Penthesilea segues so smoothly from the Iliad in the Epic Cycle that one manuscript tradition of the Iliad ends Such were the games of Hector. And now there came an Amazon, the daughter of man-slaying Ares. Alongside Penthesilea were twelve other Amazons, including Antibrote, Ainia, the rest were Alcibie, Antandre, Bremusa, Derimacheia, Derinoe, Harmothoe, Hippothoe, Polemusa, and Thermodosa. In the Pseudo-Apollodorus Epitome of the Bibliotheke she is said to have killed by Achilles. The Greek Thersites jeered at Achilless treatment of Penthesileas body, whereupon Achilles killed him, when the roughneck was at last killed by Achilles, for mocking the heros lament over the death of the Amazon queen Penthesilea, a sacred feud was fought for Thersites sake. Thersites cousin Diomedes, enraged at Achilles action, harnessed Penthesileas corpse behind his chariot, dragged it, either Achilles or the Trojans—the fragmentary sources are unclear—retrieved the body and gave it a decent burial. In Robert Graves short poem Penthesileia, Achilles for love of that fierce white naked corpse / Necrophily on her commits, a different tradition, attested in a lost poem of Stesichorus makes Penthesilea the slayer of Hector, who in turn is seen as a son of Apollo. A considerable corpus for this innovative and prolific painter, who must have had a workshop of his own, was assembled in part by J. D. Beazley. The Swiss composer Othmar Schoeck wrote a 90 one-act opera, Penthesilea based on Kleists drama, the French composer Pascal Dusapins opera based on Kleists work is scheduled to premiere in 2015 at La Monnaie in Brussels under the baton of Ludovic Morlot. The asteroid 271 Penthesilea, discovered in 1887, was named in her honor, in Shakespeares comedy Twelfth Night, Sir Toby Belch affectionately refers to Maria as Penthesilea. The story of Penthesilea, in Kleists reinterpretation, is referred to in Episode 5 of the 1960s German SF TV series Raumpatrouille – Die phantastischen Abenteuer des Raumschiffes Orion and this episode figures a planet governed entirely by women. Penthiselea is the name of a character in the BBC radio series ElvenQuest, Penthiselea is a warrior princess, and a member of a band of adventurers sworn to put an end to the reign of the evil Lord Darkness
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Amazons
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In Greek mythology, the Amazons were a tribe of women warriors. The Scythian women may have inspired the myth, apollonius Rhodius, at Argonautica, mention that Amazons were the daughters of Ares and Harmonia. They were brutal and aggressive, and their concern in life was war. Later, he says, they established Mitylene a little way beyond the Caïcus, Aeschylus, at Prometheus Bound, places the original home of the Amazons in the country about Lake Maeotis and they later moved to Themiscyra on the Thermodon. Homer tells that the Amazons were sought and found somewhere near Lycia, Diodorus mention that the Amazons traveled from the Libya under Queen Myrina. Amazon warriors were often depicted in battle with Greek warriors in amazonomachies in classical art, the Amazons have become associated with many historical people throughout the Roman Empire period and Late Antiquity. In Roman historiography, there are accounts of Amazon raids in Anatolia. From the early period, their name has become a term for female warriors in general. Greeks also used epithets for them. Herodotus used the Androktones and Androleteirai, in Iliad they also called Antianeirai and Aeschylus in his work, Prometheus Bound, the origin of the word is uncertain. Πέρσαι», where it appears together with the Indo-Iranian root *kar- make, alternatively, a Greek derivation from *ṇ-mṇ-gw-jon-es manless, without husbands has been proposed, an explanation deemed unlikely by Hjalmar Frisk. 19th century scholarship also connected the term to the ethnonym Amazigh, a further explanation proposes Iranian *ama-janah virility-killing as source. The Hittite researcher Friedrich Cornelius assumes that there had been the land Azzi with the capital Chajasa in the area of the Thermodon-Iris Delta on the coast of the Black Sea and he brings its residents in direct relation to the Amazons, namely based on its name and its customs. The location of land as well as his conclusions are controversial. There is no indication of such a practice in ancient works of art, adrienne Mayor suggests the origin of this myth was due to the words etymology. Herodotus and Strabo placed them on the banks of the Thermodon, later, he says, they established Mitylene a little way beyond the Caïcus. Aeschylus, at Prometheus Bound, places the home of the Amazons in the country about Lake Maeotis. According to Pseudo-Plutarch, the Amazons lived in and about the Tanais river, formerly called the Amazonian or Amazon river, the Amazons later moved to Themiscyra on the River Thermodon
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Sarpedon
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Sarpedon was a common name in ancient Greece and in the Roman Empire. In Greek mythology, the name Sarpedon referred to at least three different people, the first Sarpedon was a son of Zeus and Europa, and brother to Minos and Rhadamanthys. He was raised by the king Asterion and then, banished by Minos, his rival in love for the young Miletus or Atymnius, he sought refuge with his uncle, Cilix. Sarpedon conquered the Milyans, and ruled them, his kingdom was named Lycia, after his successor, Lycus. Zeus granted him the privilege of living three generations, the second Sarpedon, king of Lycia, a descendant of the preceding, was a son of Zeus and Laodamia, daughter of Bellerophon. Sarpedon became king when his uncles withdrew their claim to Lycia and he fought on the side of the Trojans, with his cousin Glaucus, during the Trojan War, becoming one of Troys greatest allies and heroes. He personally held up the battlements and was the first to enter the Greek encampment and this attack allowed Hector to break through the Greek wall. When Patroclus entered the battle in the armour of Achilles, Sarpedon met him in combat, Zeus debated with himself whether to spare his sons life even though he was fated to die by the hand of Patroclus. He would have done so had Hera not reminded him that other gods sons were fighting and dying and other gods sons were fated to die as well. If Zeus should spare his son from his fate, another god might do the same, therefore Zeus let Sarpedon die while fighting Patroclus, during their fight, Zeus sent a shower of bloody raindrops over the Trojans heads expressing the grief for the impending death of his son. When Sarpedon fell, mortally wounded, he called on Glaucus to rescue his body, Patroclus withdrew the spear he had embedded in Sarpedon, and as it left Sarpedons body his spirit went with it. A violent struggle ensued over the body of the fallen king, the Greeks succeeded in gaining his armour, but Zeus had Phoebus Apollo rescue the corpse. Apollo took the corpse and cleaned it, then delivered it to Sleep and Death, one account holds that the first and second Sarpedon are both the same man, and that Zeus granted Sarpedon an extraordinarily long life that had to end at the Trojan War. However, the account is that Sarpedon, brother of Minos, and Sarpedon. A genealogical link is provided between the two Sarpedons, through Laodamia, Laodamia is said to have married Evander, son of the first Sarpedon, and to have presented Evander with a son named Sarpedon. See, Iliad books, II, IV, XII, XVI, an asteroid is named after the Trojan hero,2223 Sarpedon. A third Sarpedon was a Thracian son of Poseidon, eponym of Cape Sarpedon near the outlet of the River Hebrus, and brother to Poltys, King of Aenus. Unlike the other two Sarpedons, this Thracian Sarpedon was not a hero, but an insolent individual who was shot to death by Heracles as the latter was sailing away from Aenus, Sarpedon was also the name of Cato the Youngers childhood teacher
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Trojan Battle Order
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The Trojan Battle Order or Trojan Catalogue is an epic catalogue in the second book of the Iliad listing the allied contingents that fought for Troy in the Trojan War. Structurally the Trojan Battle Order is evidently inserted to balance the preceding Catalogue of Ships, Denys Page summarizes the prevailing explanation that the Catalogues are substantially Mycenaean compositions rather expanded than altered by the Ionians. Some examples of Mycenaean knowledge are, Alybe in the catalog is the birthplace of silver, yet Hecataeus, the catalog mentions Mount Phthires near Miletus and the Maeander. Hecataeus supposes it was the name of Latmus. The major Trojan leaders, Priam, Paris, Helenus and a few others do not appear in the catalog at all, at Il.2.858 the Mysians are commanded by Chromis and Ennomos, at 14.511 ff. by Gyrtios. At 2.858 the Mysians live in Asia Minor, at 13.5,2.827 Apollo gives Pandaros his bow, at 4.105 ff it is made by a craftsman. Page cites several more instances of the disconnectedness of the Trojan catalog from the Iliad. Another like it appears in the Cypria, the catalogue lists sixteen contingents from twelve different ethnonyms under 26 leaders. They lived in 33 places identified by toponyms, the list includes the Trojans themselves, led by Hector, and various allies. The allied contingents are said to have multiple languages, requiring orders to be translated by their individual commanders. The classical Greek historian Demetrius of Scepsis, native of Scepsis in the hills above Troy, the work is lost, brief extracts from it are quoted by Athenaeus and Pausanias, while Strabo cites it frequently in his own discussion of the geography of northwestern Anatolia. Vol.1, books 1-4, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-28171-7 Luce, J. V. Homer and the Homeric Age, New York, Harper & Row, ISBN 0-06-012722-8 Page, Denys, History and the Homeric Iliad, Berkeley, Los Angeles, University of California Press Rieu, E. V. tr. Homer, The Iliad, Harmondsworth, Baltimore, Penguin Watkins, Calvert, The language of the Trojans in Troy and the Trojan War, a symposium held at Bryn Mawr College, October 1984 ed. M. J. Mellink
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Eris (mythology)
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Eris is the Greek goddess of strife and discord. Her name is the equivalent of Latin Discordia, which means discord, Eris Greek opposite is Harmonia, whose Latin counterpart is Concordia. Homer equated her with the war-goddess Enyo, whose Roman counterpart is Bellona, the dwarf planet Eris is named after the goddess, as is the religion Discordianism. She then hurled down bitterness equally between both sides as she walked through the onslaught making mens pain heavier and she also has a son whom she named Strife. Enyo is mentioned in Book 5, and Zeus sends Strife to rouse the Achaeans in Book 11, the most famous tale of Eris recounts her initiating the Trojan War by causing the Judgement of Paris. The hapless Paris, Prince of Troy, was appointed to select the fairest by Zeus, the goddesses stripped naked to try to win Paris decision, and also attempted to bribe him. Hera offered political power, Athena promised infinite wisdom, and Aphrodite tempted him with the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen, wife of Menelaus of Sparta. While Greek culture placed an emphasis on prowess and power, Paris chose to award the apple to Aphrodite, thereby dooming his city. In Nonnus Dionysiaca,2.356, when Typhon prepares to battle with Zeus, Eris was Typhons escort in the melée, another story of Eris includes Hera, and the love of Polytekhnos and Aedon. They claimed to each other more than Hera and Zeus were in love. This angered Hera, so she sent Eris to rack discord upon them, Polytekhnos was finishing off a chariot board, and Aedon a web she had been weaving. Eris said to them, Whosoever finishes thine task last shall have to present the other with a female servant, but Polytekhnos was not happy by his defeat, so he came to Khelidon, Aedons sister, and raped her. He then disguised her as a slave, presenting her to Aedon, when Aedon discovered this was indeed her sister, she chopped up Polytekhnos son and fed him to Polytekhnos. The gods were not pleased, so turned them all into birds. The Discordian version of Eris is considerably lighter in comparison to the rather malevolent Graeco-Roman original and she told him that She had always liked the Old Greeks, but that they cannot be trusted with historic matters. They were, She added, victims of indigestion, you know, the story of Eris being snubbed and indirectly starting the Trojan War is recorded in the Principia, and is referred to as the Original Snub. The Principia Discordia states that her parents may be as described in Greek legend and she is the Goddess of Disorder and Being, whereas her sister Aneris is the goddess of Order and Non-Being. The concept of Eris as developed by the Principia Discordia is used and expanded upon in the fiction work The Illuminatus
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One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Ajax". Encyclopædia Britannica. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 452.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the 