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Lauren Murphy, Horses, Ships and Earthquakes: the Trojan Horse Horses, Ships, and Earthquakes: The Trojan Horse in Myth and Art Horses, Ships, and Earthquakes: The Trojan War in Myth and Art LAUREN MURPHY before the composition of the Odyssey in the late eighth century BC. This assertion can be deduced from the relatively brief references ...in days to come men shall tell of the to it in the text of the Odyssey, implying that Wooden Horse, it was so well known that it did not need with its hidden load of warriors. to be retold. Similarly, if the story of the (Eur. Tro. 1.13-14) horse and the sack of Troy was relatively unknown, then it could not be requested that Demodocus ‘come to another part of the story, sing us the wooden horse’ (Hom. Od. he Trojan Epic Cycle has been used as a 8.492-493). Odysseus, the man considered source of inspiration for the creation by many to be responsible for the plot of the Tof art and literature for at least three wooden horse, lauds himself for his role in millennia. Despite this long cultural history, the sacking of Troy: ‘the stratagem great there are few surviving ancient visual Odysseus filled once with men...it was these depictions of the Trojan Horse, the supposed 1 men who sacked Ilion’ (Hom. Od. 8.494-495). brainchild of the hero Odysseus. The horse Despite the great achievement by the Greek of myth is used to penetrate the walls of Troy army in overcoming the Trojan defences, the and seize the city by trickery as described ploy that led to the fall of Troy is not given by the epic poet, Homer (Od. 4.271-4.289, a great deal of scrutiny or space in the Iliad 8.492-520). It is difficult to ascertain why the or the Odyssey. Rather, the Iliad ends well motif of the wooden horse was neglected by before the sacking of Troy, and the episodic ancient artists, as it is a symbol that continues travels during the ten-year homecoming to capture the imagination and resonate of Odysseus after the city has fallen are the with audiences from classical to modern focus of the Odyssey. times. However, a few ancient images of the Trojan Horse do survive, and here I suggest The narrative of the wooden horse, woven that the majority of these derive from non- into the third song performed by Demodocus Homeric sources. In fact, it appears that links together the events of the Iliad and that there was an independent convention the Odyssey. This is achieved by providing of iconography associated with the wooden a bridging story to fill the temporal horse that is not entirely consistent with the space between the two poems, while also tale contained within the Homeric Odyssey. redefining Odysseus as the ‘sacker of cities’ I have used literary and artistic evidence to and highlighting his preeminent role in the decipher the details of the wooden horse and fall of Troy.3 The contradiction to be found to investigate how and why it appears in our in this song is that it locates Odysseus in ancient sources. two places simultaneously in relation to the wooden horse: as the man outside the horse The ancient Greeks accepted that the Trojan who ‘brought it to the upper city ‘as well as the War was a historical reality. However, even man who is ‘sitting hidden in the horse’ (Hom. in antiquity there was some doubt about Od. 8.495-496, 8.502-503). This doubling whether the events related by Homer were in the narrative ensures that Odysseus is an entirely accurate record of events as they 2 presented as both a man of trickery, and as had happened. It can be assumed from the a warrior ready for battle. Julian Ward Jones surviving textual evidence that the story of Jr. sees this as a slip in the narrative, which the wooden horse was known to audiences may reveal an earlier iteration of the tale, one where Odysseus is cast in the role later 1 Sparkes lists only five extant images from the Archaic given to Sinon, the character responsible for period. Sparkes (1971), 59. 2 Bryce (2002), 183. 3 Andersen (1977), 6-7. 18 Horses, Ships, and Earthquakes: The Trojan War in Myth and Art tricking the Trojans into believing that the A proliferation of Attic vases that depict the Greeks have departed in Virgil’s Aeneid.4 The death of Priam, the king of Troy, indicate that existence of an earlier, pre-Homeric version the wooden horse was not the most popular of events is highly plausible as Odysseus is motif for vase painters representing the generally credited for the ruse of the wooden fate of Troy. The historian Susan Woodford horse, but the extant literary evidence describes these painted scenes depicting the linking him to its creation is slim. There is death of Priam (and often Astyanax) as part however evidence in ancient literary texts of the vase painters’ formula to depict ‘the of a superficial similarity between Odysseus true horror of the sack of Troy’.7 The scenes and Sinon, who overcame the misgivings on these vases are full of pathos, with Priam of the Trojans with his ‘cunning and false often shown being battered to death with the tears ‘and ‘Greek arts and stratagems’ in the corpse of Astyanax while he seeks refuge at Aeneid (Verg. Aen. 2.153, 2.195-197). an altar. The death of Priam does not appear in either the Odyssey or the Iliad, and the The twenty lines devoted to Demodocus’ use of the dead child Astyanax as a weapon description of the sack of Troy in the Odyssey of battery has no complement in any of our are too brief to do justice to the sacking of Homeric or Archaic fragmentary sources. Troy, or to offer sufficient inspiration to the It seems that this image of heightened painters and sculptors of antiquity to create horror forms part of a non-literary tradition artistic renditions of the topic that were associated with the Epic Cycle. Similarly, it is both textually accurate and consistent. The conceivable that other events and moments Trojan horse appears three times within the which have appeared in ancient artwork text of the Odyssey, with each appearance were selected by artists and patrons because serving to inflate the heroic reputation of of their appearance in other, no longer the protagonist, Odysseus. These passages extant, books of the Trojan Cycle. We know highlight his unique form of cleverness, one that the sack of Troy appeared in numerous which is ‘able to overcome the monumental works of literature from an early date: those size and strength of the walls which stand whose existence has been verified by modern in the way of the Greeks.’5 However, it is philologists are the Iliupersis by Arctinus of important to remember that the Odyssey and Miletus, the Little Iliad by Lesches of Mytilene the Iliad form a part of a larger Trojan Cycle, and a lyric poem also called the Iliupersis which include other epic poems that have not by Stesichorus.8 None of these works has survived, including the Nostoi and Aethiopis. survived as much more than scattered By relying on the epics which have survived, fragments and short descriptions within we have a potentially distorted conception of works by other writers such as Proclus, for their importance in the Greek world to the example: detriment of other epic poems contained within the Cycle. This emphasis on the Homeric The Trojans are suspicious in the matter of epics has led to some scholars concluding that the horse, and stand round it debating what there is a ‘tendency to misinterpret “Cyclic” to do: some want to push it over a cliff, and scenes as Homeric.’6 This means that images some to set fire to it, but others say it is a which contain the characters named in the sacred object to be dedicated to Athena, and Homeric Epics are assumed to be depictions in the end their opinion prevails. They turn using Homer as their source, rather than one to festivity and celebrate their deliverance of the other poems. from the war. (Procl. Chrest. ii) 4 Ward Jones Jr. (1970), 243. 5 Mackie (2008), 87. 7 Woodford (1993), 108. 6 Burgess (2003), 39. 8 Wiencke (1954), 286. 19 Iris | Journal of the Classical Association of Victoria | New Series | Volume 30 | 2017 Horses, Ships, and Earthquakes: The Trojan War in Myth and Art This fragment is a description of the Iliupersis or abroad, would have heard in traditional of Arctinus, as recorded by Proclus, which stories and songs.’12 provides key information about the wooden horse. It is a sacred object that is associated Neils describes a tendency for early works of with Athena, it is flammable (wooden), and it art to depict scenes that present the action is an object of suspicion to the Trojans. The at its highest point, often the middle of a surviving fragments and epitomes of the battle, while disregarding the events before other lost epics give little more than a brief and after.13 In this variety of visual schema, overview of the events of the Cycle outside the setting takes a minor role in relation to the Homeric texts, but they are invaluable the action taking place. The landscape of the for piecing together the lost narratives when East is often represented by a palm tree or combined with artwork and later works. For the interior of a home shown by items hung this reason, the images that appear in Greek on the wall or a chair or table.
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