5/14/2014 Trojan War - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Trojan War From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia For the 1997 film, see Trojan War (film). In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen Trojan War from her husband Menelaus king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and has been narrated through many works of Greek literature, most notably through Homer's Iliad. The Iliad relates a part of the last year of the siege of Troy; its sequel, the Odyssey describes Odysseus's journey home. Other parts of the war are described in a cycle of epic poems, which have survived through fragments. Episodes from the war provided material for Greek tragedy and other works of Greek literature, and for Roman poets including Virgil and Ovid. The war originated from a quarrel between the goddesses Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite, after Eris, the goddess of strife and discord, gave them a golden apple, sometimes known as the Apple of Discord, marked "for the fairest". Zeus sent the goddesses to Paris, who judged that Aphrodite, as the "fairest", should receive the apple. In exchange, Aphrodite made Helen, the most beautiful Achilles tending the wounded Patroclus of all women and wife of Menelaus, fall in love with Paris, who (Attic red-figure kylix, c. 500 BC) took her to Troy. Agamemnon, king of Mycenae and the brother of Helen's husband Menelaus, led an expedition of Achaean The war troops to Troy and besieged the city for ten years because of Paris' Setting: Troy (modern Hisarlik, Turkey) insult. After the deaths of many heroes, including the Achaeans Period: Bronze Age Achilles and Ajax, and the Trojans Hector and Paris, the city fell Traditional dating: c. 1194–1184 BC to the ruse of the Trojan Horse. The Achaeans slaughtered the Modern dating: between 1260 and 1240 BC Trojans (except for some of the women and children whom they Outcome: Greek victory, destruction of kept or sold as slaves) and desecrated the temples, thus earning Troy See also: Historicity of the Iliad the gods' wrath. Few of the Achaeans returned safely to their homes and many founded colonies in distant shores. The Romans Literary sources later traced their origin to Aeneas, one of the Trojans, who was said to have led the surviving Trojans to modern-day Italy. Iliad · Epic Cycle · Aeneid, Book 2 · Iphigenia in Aulis · Philoctetes · The ancient Greeks thought that the Trojan War was a historical Ajax · The Trojan Women · Posthomerica event that had taken place in the 13th or 12th century BC, and See also: Trojan War in popular culture believed that Troy was located in modern-day Turkey near the Dardanelles. As of the mid-19th century, both the war and the city Episodes were widely believed to be non-historical. In 1868, however, the Judgement of Paris · Seduction of Helen · German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann met Frank Calvert, Trojan Horse · Sack of Troy · The Returns · who convinced Schliemann that Troy was at Hissarlik and Wanderings of Odysseus · Schliemann took over Calvert's excavations on property Aeneas and the Founding of Rome belonging to Calvert;[1] this claim is now accepted by most [2][3] scholars. Whether there is any historical reality behind the Greeks and allies Trojan War is an open question. Many scholars believe that there http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_War 1/31 5/14/2014 Trojan War - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia is a historical core to the tale, though this may simply mean that Agamemnon · Achilles · Helen · Menelaus · the Homeric stories are a fusion of various tales of sieges and Nestor · Odysseus · Ajax · Diomedes · expeditions by Mycenaean Greeks during the Bronze Age. Those Patroclus · Thersites · Achaeans · Myrmidons who believe that the stories of the Trojan War are derived from a See also: Catalogue of Ships specific historical conflict usually date it to the 12th or 11th centuries BC, often preferring the dates given by Eratosthenes, Trojans and allies 1194–1184 BC, which roughly corresponds with archaeological evidence of a catastrophic burning of Troy VII.[4] Priam · Hecuba · Hector · Paris · Cassandra · Andromache · Aeneas · Memnon · Troilus · Penthesilea and the Amazons · Sarpedon Contents See also: Trojan Battle Order Related topics 1 Sources Homeric question · Archaeology of Troy · 2 Legend Mycenae · Bronze Age warfare 2.1 Origins of the war 2.1.1 The plan of Zeus 2.1.2 The Judgement of Paris 2.1.3 Elopement of Paris and Helen 2.2 The gathering of Achaean forces and the first expedition 2.2.1 Odysseus and Achilles 2.2.2 First gathering at Aulis 2.2.3 Telephus 2.3 The second gathering 2.4 Nine years of war 2.4.1 Philoctetes 2.4.2 Arrival 2.4.3 Achilles' campaigns 2.4.4 Ajax and a game of petteia 2.4.5 The death of Palamedes 2.4.6 Mutiny 2.5 The Iliad 2.6 After the Iliad 2.6.1 Penthesilea and the death of Achilles 2.6.2 The Judgment of Arms 2.6.3 The prophecies 2.6.4 Trojan Horse 2.7 The Sack of Troy http://en.wikipedia.org2/w.8ik i/Trhojean _rWetaurrns 2/31 5/14/2014 Trojan War - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 2.8 The returns 2.8.1 House of Atreus 2.9 The Odyssey 2.10 The Telegony 2.11 The Aeneid 3 Dates of the Trojan War 4 Historical basis 5 Popular culture 6 References 7 Further reading 7.1 Ancient authors 7.2 Modern authors 8 External links Sources The events of the Trojan War are found in many works of Greek literature and depicted in numerous works of Greek art. There is no single, authoritative text which tells the entire events of the war. Instead, the story is assembled from a variety of sources, some of which report contradictory versions of the events. The most important literary sources are the two epic poems traditionally credited to Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey, composed sometime between the 9th and 6th centuries BC.[5] Each poem narrates only a part of the war. The Iliad covers a short period in the last year of the siege of Troy, while the Odyssey concerns Odysseus's return to his home island of Ithaca, following the sack of Troy. The Burning of Troy (1759/62), oil painting by Johann Georg Trautmann Other parts of the Trojan War were told in the poems of the Epic Cycle, also known as the Cyclic Epics: the Cypria, Aethiopis, Little Iliad, Iliou Persis, Nostoi, and Telegony. Though these poems survive only in fragments, their content is known from a summary included in Proclus' Chrestomathy.[6] The authorship of the Cyclic Epics is uncertain. It is generally thought that the poems were written down in the 7th and 6th century BC, after the composition of the Homeric poems, though it is widely believed that they were based on earlier traditions.[7] Both the Homeric epics and the Epic Cycle take origin from oral tradition. Even after the composition of the Iliad, Odyssey, and the Cyclic Epics, the myths of the Trojan War were passed on orally, in many genres of poetry and through non-poetic storytelling. Events and details of the story that are only found in later authors may have been passed on through oral tradition and could be as old as the Homeric poems. Visual art, such as vase-painting, was another medium in which myths of the Trojan War circulated.[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_War 3/31 5/14/2014 Trojan War - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia In later ages playwrights, historians, and other intellectuals would create works inspired by the Trojan War. The three great tragedians of Athens, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, wrote many dramas that portray episodes from the Trojan War. Among Roman writers the most important is the 1st century BC poet Virgil. In Book 2 of the Aeneid, Aeneas narrates the sack of Troy; this section of the poem is thought to rely on material from the Cyclic Epic Iliou Persis. Legend The following summary of the Trojan War follows the order of events as given in Proclus' summary, along with the Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid, supplemented with details drawn from other authors. Origins of the war The plan of Zeus According to Greek mythology, Zeus had become king of the gods by overthrowing his father Cronus; Cronus in turn had overthrown his father Uranus. Zeus was not faithful to his wife and sister Hera, and had many relationships from which many children were born. Since Zeus believed that there were too many people populating the earth, he envisioned Momus[9] or Themis,[10] who was to use the Trojan War as a means to depopulate the Earth, especially of his demigod descendants.[11] The Judgement of Paris Main article: Judgement of Paris Zeus came to learn from either Themis[12] or Prometheus, after Heracles had released him from Caucasus,[13] that, like his father Cronus, one of his sons would overthrow him. Another prophecy stated that a son of the sea-nymph Thetis, with whom Zeus fell in love after gazing upon her in the oceans off the Greek coast, would become greater than his father.[14] Possibly for one or both of these reasons,[15] Thetis was betrothed to an elderly human king, Peleus The Judgment of Paris (1904) by Enrique Simonet son of Aiakos, either upon Zeus' orders,[16] or because she wished to please Hera, who had raised her.[17] All of the gods were invited to Peleus and Thetis' wedding and brought many gifts,[18] except Eris (the goddess of discord), who was stopped at the door by Hermes, on Zeus' order.[19] Insulted, she threw from the door a gift of her own:[20] a golden apple (το μήλον της έριδος) on which was inscribed the word καλλίστῃ Kallistēi ("To the fairest").[21] The apple was claimed by Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite.