Trojan War myths and reality. Trojan War: Myth and Reality

Trojan War: Myth and Reality

In the Dark Ages (XI-IX centuries BC), which came after the destruction of the disappeared Mycenaean civilization, wandering singers wandered along the roads of Greece. They were invited to houses and palaces, treated to a table next to the owners, and after the meal, the guests gathered to listen to stories about gods and heroes. The singers recited hexameters and played along with themselves on the lyre. The most famous of them was Homer. He is considered to be the author of two epic poems - “The Iliad” (about the siege of Troy) and “The Odyssey” (about the return of the king of the Greek island of Ithaca Odysseus from the campaign), while many literary scholars agree that the poems themselves were created for more than one century and bear on traces of different eras. Even in ancient times, almost nothing was known about Homer. They said that he came from the island of Chios and was blind. The cities of ancient Greece on the coast of Asia Minor argue for the right to be called his homeland. Scientists believe that Homer lived around 850-750. BC e. By this time, the poems had already developed as integral literary works.

Homer told how the city of Troy was destroyed by the Achaeans after many years of siege. The cause of the war was the abduction of the wife of the Spartan king Minelaus Helen by the Trojan prince Paris. It so happened that three goddesses - Hera, Athena and Aphrodite - turned to the young man with the question of which of them was the most beautiful. Aphrodite promised the prince her love beautiful woman in the world if he names it. Paris recognized Aphrodite as the most beautiful, and Hera and Athena harbored a grudge against him.

The most beautiful woman lived in Sparta. She was so beautiful that all the Greek kings wanted to take her as their wife. Helen chose Menelaus, brother of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae. On the advice of Odysseus, all of Helen's previous suitors vowed to help Menelaus if anyone tried to take his wife away from him. After some time, Paris went to Sparta on trade matters. There he met Helen and became passionate, and Aphrodite helped him capture the queen’s heart. The lovers fled to Troy under the protection of Paris's father, King Priam. Remembering the oath, the Mycenaean kings, led by Agamemnon, gathered on a campaign. Among them was the bravest Achilles and the most cunning Odysseus. Troy was a powerful fortress, and it was not easy to storm it. For ten years the Achaean army stood under the walls of the city without achieving victory. The defense was led by Priam's eldest son Hector, a brave warrior who enjoyed the love of his fellow citizens.

Finally, Odysseus came up with a trick. The ancient Greeks built a huge wooden horse with warriors hidden in its belly. They left the horse at the walls of the city, and they themselves defiantly sailed home on ships. The Trojans believed that the enemy had left and dragged the horse into the city, rejoicing at such an unusual trophy. At night, the warriors hiding inside the horse got out, opened the city gates and let their comrades into Troy, who, as it turned out, quietly returned to the city walls. Troy has fallen. The Achaeans destroyed almost all the men, and took the women and children into slavery.

Modern scientists believe that Trojan War occurred in 1240-1230. BC e. Its real reason could have been trade rivalry between Troy and the alliance of Mycenaean kings. In ancient times, the Greeks believed in the truth of the myths about the Trojan War. And indeed, if we remove the deeds of the gods from the Iliad and Odyssey, the poems look like detailed historical chronicles.

Homer even gives a long list of ships that went on a campaign against Troy. Historians of the 18th-19th centuries looked at the matter differently; for them, the Iliad and the Odyssey were literary works, the plot of which was fictional from beginning to end.

This preconceived opinion was only able to be overturned by the excavations of the German amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann. He was convinced that Homer's characters were real historical figures. Since childhood, Schliemann deeply experienced the tragedy of Troy and dreamed of finding this mysterious city. The son of a pastor, he was engaged in business for many years, until one day he saved enough money to start excavations. In 1871, Schliemann went to the north-west of the Asia Minor peninsula, to an area that in ancient times was called Troas, where, according to Homer’s instructions, Troy was located. The Greeks also called it Ilion, which is where the name of the poem came from - “The Iliad”. In the 19th century these lands belonged to the Ottoman Empire. Having agreed with the Turkish government, Schliemann began excavations on the Hissarlik hill, the geographical location of which corresponded to the description of Homer. Luck smiled on him. The hill hid the ruins of not one, but nine cities that succeeded each other over twenty centuries.

Schliemann led several expeditions to Hisarlik. The fourth was decisive. The archaeologist considered Homer's Troy to be a settlement located in the second layer from the bottom. In order to get to it, Schliemann had to “demolish” the remains of at least seven more cities that stored many valuable finds. In the second layer, Schliemann discovered the Scaean Gate, the tower, sitting on which Helen showed Priam the Greek generals, Priam's palace and a treasure with gold and silver jewelry.

Schliemann's discoveries shocked the scientific world. There was no doubt that Homer told about the war that actually took place. However, continued excavations by professional researchers yielded an unexpected result: the city that Schliemann mistook for Troy is a thousand years older than the Trojan War. Troy itself, if, of course, it was it, Schliemann “threw away” along with the seven upper layers. The amateur archaeologist’s assertion that he “looked into the face of Agamemnon” also turned out to be erroneous. The graves contained people who lived several centuries before the Trojan War.

But the most important thing is that the finds showed that the ancient civilization with which the archaeologist introduced the world is far from the Greek archaism well known from the Iliad and Odyssey. It is older, much higher in level of development and much richer. Homer wrote his poems five or six centuries after the destruction of the Mycenaean world. He could not even imagine palaces with water pipes and frescoes in which thousands of slaves worked. He shows the life of people as it became in his time, after the invasion of the barbarian Dorians.

Homer's kings live little better than ordinary people. Their wooden houses, surrounded by a palisade, have an earthen floor and a soot-covered ceiling. At the threshold of Odysseus's palace there is a fragrant dung heap on which his beloved dog Argus lies. During feasts, Penelope's suitors themselves slaughter and skin the animals. The king of the fabulously rich people of the Phaeacians, Alcinous, has “fifty involuntary needlewomen” who grind flour, and fifty weavers. His daughter Navsekaya and her friends wash their clothes on the seashore. Penelope spins and weaves with her maids. The life of Homer's heroes is patriarchal and simple. Odysseus's father Laertes himself worked the land with a hoe, and Prince Paris tended his flocks in the mountains, where he met three arguing goddesses...

There is still controversy surrounding the excavations of Troy. Did Schliemann find the right city? Thanks to the discovery and reading of documents from the archives of the Hittite kings, it is known that this people traded with Troy and Ilion. True, the Hittite civilization knew them as two different cities in Asia Minor and were called Truis and Wilus. Be that as it may, as a result of the excavations of a hasty and not very attentive amateur, the world first became acquainted with the Mycenaean culture. This civilization eclipsed with its brilliance and wealth everything that was previously known about the early history of Greece.

Zeus and the god of the sea Poseidon argued about Thetis's love. The goddess of justice, Themis, intervened in the dispute and predicted that Thetis would give birth to a son who would surpass his own father in strength. To save themselves from possible danger, the gods decided to marry Thetis to a mere mortal Peleus. At the wedding of Thetis and Peleus, which took place in the cave of the centaur Chiron, all the Olympian gods gathered and generously presented the newlyweds with gifts. At the same time, the goddess of discord Eris was not invited to the feast. Stung by such neglect, she decided to punish the gods in a very sophisticated way. She threw a golden apple on the banquet table with the inscription: “To the most beautiful.” Since then it has become known as the “apple of discord.” Three goddesses began to argue about who should own it: Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, who were by no means devoid of feminine vanity. Even Zeus refused to speak on this matter. He sent Hermes to the vicinity of Troy, where among the shepherds was the handsome Paris, the son of the Trojan king Priam. According to prophecy, Paris, the son of Priam and Hecuba, was destined to become the culprit of the death of Troy. To avoid this fate, Priam ordered that Paris be taken to the forest thicket and left there. But Priam’s son did not die; he was suckled by a bear. When Hermes turned to Paris to decide the fate of the apple, he was confused. Each of the goddesses convinced the young man to award him to her. At the same time, they promised him enviable gifts: Hera promised power over all of Asia; Athena - military glory and victories; Aphrodite is the most beautiful of mortal women to marry. Without hesitating for long, Paris gave the apple to Aphrodite. From then on he became the favorite of Aphrodite, and Hera and Athena, as we will see, hated Troy and the Trojans.

This beautiful woman was Helen, the wife of the Spartan king Menelaus. Soon Paris came to visit him. Menelaus warmly received him and arranged a feast in his honor. Seeing Elena, Paris fell in love with her. But she was also amazed by the beautiful newcomer, dressed in luxurious oriental clothes. Having left for Crete, Menelaus asked her to take care of the guest. But Paris repaid him with black ingratitude. Taking advantage of her husband's absence, he took Elena away and at the same time seized his treasures.

Menelaus regarded this not only as a personal insult, but also as a blow to all of Greece. After all, Elena was her national treasure. He gathers the leaders of the Greek tribes and goes on a campaign against Ilion ( ancient name Troy, where the title of the poem comes from). The commander-in-chief of the army is Menelaus' brother Agamemnon, the king of Argos, belonging to the Atrid family, over whom, as we will see later, a curse weighs. In the ranks of the Achaean (Greek) warriors there is Odysseus, the king of the island of Ithaca, the courageous warrior Diomedes, the brave Ajax, the owner of the magic arrows Philoctetes.

The most courageous was the already mentioned young Achilles, king of the Myrmidon tribe. At birth he was assigned a long and happy life, if he does not take part in the war, and a short, brilliant one, if he begins to fight. Hoping to outwit fate, Thetis bathed Achilles in the waters of the underground river Styx, making his body invulnerable. Only his heel, by which she held the baby, was unprotected; hence the expression "Achilles' heel". The mother tried to hide Achilles and not give him the opportunity to take part in the campaign. She hid him by dressing him in women's clothing, but Achilles gave himself away. He became part of the Greek army, which, according to legend, numbered more than 100 thousand people and more than a thousand ships. The army sailed from the harbor of Avdida and landed near Troy. The demand for the extradition of Helen in exchange for lifting the siege was rejected. The war dragged on. The most important events took place in the last, tenth year.

Fantasy Greek people widely developed the cycle of tales about the Trojan War. Their subsequent popularity was explained by their close connection with the centuries-old enmity between the Hellenes and Asians.

The arena of the Trojan War - a region on the northwestern coast of Asia Minor, stretching across the plain to the Hellespont (Dardanelles), then from the sea rising in ridges of hills to Mount Ida, irrigated by Scamander, Simois and other rivers - is already mentioned in ancient myths about the gods. The Greeks called its population Trojans, Dardanians, Teucrians. The mythical son of Zeus, Dardanus, founded Dardania on the slope of Mount Ida. His son, the rich Erichthonius, owned vast fields and countless herds of cattle and horses. After Erichthonius, the king of Dardan was Tros, the ancestor of the Trojans, whose youngest son, the handsome Ganymede, was taken to Olympus to serve the king of the gods at feasts, and the eldest son, Ilos, founded Troy (Ilion). Another descendant of Erichthonius, the handsome Anchises, fell in love with the goddess Aphrodite, who gave birth to his son, Aeneas, who, according to myth, fled to the west, to Italy, after the Trojan War. The offspring of Aeneas was the only branch of the Trojan royal family, who survived the capture of Troy.

Excavations of ancient Troy

Under the son of Ilus, Laomedon, the gods Poseidon and Apollo built the fortress of Troy, Pergamum. The son and successor of Laomedon was Priam, who was famous for his wealth throughout the world. He had fifty sons, of whom the brave Hector and the handsome Paris are especially famous. Of the fifty, nineteen of his sons were born to his second wife Hecuba, daughter of the Phrygian king.

Cause of the Trojan War - the abduction of Helen by Paris

The cause of the Trojan War was the abduction of Helen, the wife of the Spartan king Menelaus, by Paris. When Hecuba was pregnant with Paris, she saw in a dream that she gave birth to a flaming brand and that all of Troy was burned from this brand. Therefore, after his birth, Paris was abandoned in the forest on Mount Ida. He was found by a shepherd and grew up to be a strong and dexterous handsome man, a skilled musician and singer. He tended flocks on Ida and was the favorite of her nymphs. When three goddesses, arguing over a bone of contention about which of them was more beautiful, presented him with a decision, and each promised him a reward for a decision in her favor, he chose not the victories and glory that Athena promised him, not dominion over Asia, promised by Hero, and the love of the most beautiful of all women, promised by Aphrodite.

Judgment of Paris. Painting by E. Simonet, 1904

Paris was strong and brave, but the predominant traits of his character were sensuality and Asian effeminacy. Aphrodite soon directed his path to Sparta, whose king Menelaus was married to the beautiful Helen. The patroness of Paris, Aphrodite, aroused love for him in the beautiful Helen. Paris took her away at night, taking with him many of Menelaus' treasures. This was a great crime against hospitality and marriage law. The lawless man and his relatives, who received him and Helen into Troy, incurred the punishment of the gods. Hera, the avenger of adultery, roused the heroes of Greece to stand up for Menelaus, starting the Trojan War. When Elena became an adult girl, and many young heroes gathered to woo her, Elena’s father Tyndareus took an oath from them that they would all defend the marital rights of the one who would be chosen. They now had to fulfill this promise. Others joined them for the love of military adventure, or for the desire to avenge an insult inflicted on all of Greece.

Elena's kidnapping. Red-figured Attic amphora from the late 6th century. BC

The beginning of the Trojan War. Greeks in Aulis

Death of Achilles

Poets of later times continued the story of the Trojan War. Arctinus of Miletus wrote a poem about the exploits performed by Achilles after his victory over Hector. The most important of them was the battle with Memnon, the luminous son of distant Ethiopia; That’s why Arktin’s poem was called “Ethiopida”.

The Trojans, who had lost heart after the death of Hector - it was told in the "Ethiopides" - were inspired by new hopes when the queen of the Amazons, Penthesilea, with regiments of her warriors, came from Thrace to their aid. The Achaeans were again driven back to their camp. But Achilles rushed into battle and killed Penthesilea. When he removed the helmet from his opponent who had fallen to the ground, he was deeply moved to see what a beauty he had killed. Thersites sarcastically reproached him for this; Achilles killed the offender with a blow of his fist.

Then, from the distant east, the king of the Ethiopians, the son of Aurora, the most beautiful of men, came with an army to help the Trojans. Achilles avoided fighting him, knowing from Thetis that soon after Memnon’s death he himself would die. But Antilochus, the son of Nestor, the friend of Achilles, covering with himself his father, who was being persecuted by Memnon, died as a victim of his filial love; the desire to avenge him drowned out Achilles’ concern for himself. The fight between the sons of the goddesses, Achilles and Memnon, was terrible; Themis and Aurora looked at him. Memnon fell, and the mournful mother, Aurora, weeping, took his body to his homeland. According to Eastern legend, every morning she waters her dear son again and again with tears falling in the form of dew.

Eos carries away the body of his son Memnon. Greek vase from the early 5th century BC.

Achilles furiously chased the fleeing Trojans to the Scaean gates of Troy and was already breaking into them, but at that moment an arrow fired by Paris and directed by the god Apollo himself killed him. She struck him in the heel, which was the only vulnerable place of his body (Achilles’ mother, Thetis, made her son invulnerable by plunging him as a baby into the waters of the underground river Styx, but the heel by which she held him remained vulnerable). The Achaeans and Trojans fought all day to take possession of the body and weapons of Achilles. Finally, the Greeks managed to carry the body of the greatest hero of the Trojan War and his weapons into the camp. Ajax Telamonides, a mighty giant, carried the body, and Odysseus held back the onslaught of the Trojans.

Ajax carries Achilles' body out of the battle. Attic vase, ca. 510 BC

For seventeen days and nights, Thetis, with the muses and Nereids, mourned her son with such touching songs of sorrow that both gods and people shed tears. On the eighteenth day the Greeks lit a magnificent pyre on which the body was laid; Achilles' mother, Thetis, carried the body out of the flames and transferred it to the island of Levka (Snake Island, lying in front of the mouth of the Danube). There, renewed, he lives, forever young, and has fun with war games. According to other legends, Thetis carried her son to underground kingdom or to the Isles of the Blessed. There are also legends that say that Thetis and her sisters collected the bones of their son from the ashes and placed them in a golden urn near the ashes of Patroclus under those artificial hills near the Hellespont, which are still considered the tombs of Achilles and Patroclus remaining after the Trojan War.

Philoctetes and Neoptolemus

After the brilliant funeral games in honor of Achilles, it was necessary to decide who was worthy to receive his weapon: it was to be given to the bravest of the Greeks. Ajax Telamonides and Odysseus laid claim to this honor. Captured Trojans were chosen as judges. They decided in favor of Odysseus. Ajax found this unfair and was so annoyed that he wanted to kill Odysseus and Menelaus, whom he also considered his enemy. IN dark night he secretly went out of his tent to kill them. But Athena struck him with a cloud of reason. Ajax killed the herds of cattle that were with the army, and the shepherds of these cattle, imagining that he was killing his enemies. When the gloom passed, and Ajax saw how wrong he had been, he was overcome by such shame that he threw himself on his sword. The entire army was saddened by the death of Ajax, who was stronger than all the Greek heroes after Achilles.

Meanwhile, the Trojan soothsayer Helen, who was captured by the Achaeans, told them that Troy could not be taken without the arrows of Hercules. The owner of these arrows was the wounded Philoctetes, abandoned by the Achaeans on Lemnos. He was brought from Lesbos to the camp near Troy. The son of the god of healing, Asclepius, Machaon healed Philoctetes' wound, and he killed Paris. Menelaus desecrated the body of his offender. The second condition necessary for the Greek victory in the Trojan War was the participation in the siege of Neoptolemus (Pyrrhus), the son of Achilles and one of the daughters of Lycomedes. He lived with his mother, on Skyros. Odysseus brought Neoptolemus, gave him his father's weapons, and he killed the beautiful-faced Mysian hero Eurypylus, who was the son of Heraclides Telephus and the sister of Priam, and was sent to help the Trojans by his mother. The Achaeans now defeated the Trojans on the battlefield. But Troy could not be taken while the shrine given to the former Trojan king Dardan by Zeus remained in its acropolis, Pergamum - palladium (an image of Pallas Athena). To scout out the location of the palladium, Odysseus went to the city, disguised as a beggar, and was not recognized in Troy by anyone except Helen, who did not betray him because she wanted to return to her homeland. Then, Odysseus and Diomedes snuck into the Trojan temple and stole the palladium.

Trojan horse

The hour of the final victory of the Greeks in the Trojan War was already close. According to the legend, already known to Homer and told in detail by later epic poets, the master Epeus, with the help of the goddess Athena, made a large wooden horse. The bravest of the Achaean heroes: Diomedes, Odysseus, Menelaus, Neoptolemus and others hid in it. The Greek army burned its camp and sailed to Tenedos, as if deciding to end the Trojan War. The Trojans who left the city looked in surprise at the huge wooden horse. The heroes hidden in it heard their conferences on how to deal with it. Helen walked around the horse and loudly called out to the Greek leaders, imitating the voice of each one's wife. Some wanted to answer her, but Odysseus held them back. Some Trojans said that the enemies should not be trusted, and that the horse should be drowned in the sea or burned. The priest Laocoon, uncle of Aeneas, said this most insistently of all. But in front of all the people, two large snakes crawled out of the sea, wrapped rings around Laocoon and his two sons and strangled them. The Trojans considered this a punishment for Laocoon from the gods and agreed with those who said that the horse should be placed in the acropolis and dedicated to Pallas as a gift. Particularly instrumental in making this decision was the traitor Sinon, whom the Greeks left here to deceive the Trojans with the assurance that the horse was intended by the Greeks as a reward for the stolen palladium, and that when it was placed in the acropolis, Troy would be invincible. The horse was so big that it could not be dragged through the gate; The Trojans made a breach in the wall and dragged the horse into the city with ropes. Thinking that the Trojan War was over, they began to feast joyfully.

Capture of Troy by the Greeks

But at midnight, Sinon lit a fire - a signal to the Greeks waiting at Tenedos. They swam to Troy, and Sinon unlocked the door made in d Eos carries away the body of Memnon's wooden horse. By the will of the gods, the hour of the death of Troy, the end of the Trojan War, had come. The Greeks rushed at the carefree Trojans feasting, slaughtered, plundered and, having plundered, set the city on fire. Priam sought salvation at the altar of Zeus, but Achilles' son Neoptolemus killed him at the altar itself. Priam's son Deiphobus, who married Helen after the death of his brother Paris, bravely defended himself in his house against Odysseus and Menelaus, but was killed. Menelaus took Helen to the ships, whose beauty disarmed his hand, raised to strike the traitor. Hector's widow, the sufferer Andromache, was given to Neoptolemus by the Greeks and found in a foreign land the slave fate predicted to her by her husband at his last farewell. Her son Astyanax was, on the advice of Odysseus, thrown from the wall by Neoptolemus. The soothsayer Cassandra, daughter of Priam, who sought salvation at the altar, was torn from it by the sacrilegious hand of Ajax the Lesser (son of Oileus), who with a violent impulse overturned the statue of the goddess. Cassandra was given as a spoil to Agamemnon. Her sister Polyxena was sacrificed over the tomb of Achilles, whose shadow demanded her as prey. The wife of the Trojan king Priam, Hecuba, who survived the fall of the royal family and kingdom. She was brought to the Thracian coast and learned there that her son (Polydorus), whom Priam had sent with many treasures before the start of the war under the protection of the Thracian king Polymestor, had also died. Legends spoke differently about the further fate of Hecuba after the Trojan War; there was a legend that she was turned into a dog; according to another legend, she was buried on the northern shore of the Hellespont, where her tomb was shown.

The fate of Greek heroes after the Trojan War

The adventures of the Greek heroes did not end with the capture of Troy: on the way back from the captured city they had to experience many troubles. The gods and goddesses, whose altars they desecrated with violence, subjected them to grave fates. On the very day of the destruction of Troy, in a meeting of heroes, inflamed with wine, a great quarrel occurred, according to Homer’s Odyssey. Menelaus demanded to immediately sail home, and Agamemnon wanted to soften Athena’s anger with hecatombs (by making several sacrifices, each of a hundred oxen) before sailing. Some supported Menelaus, others supported Agamemnon. The Greeks completely quarreled, and the next morning the army was divided. Menelaus, Diomedes, Nestor, Neoptolemus and some others boarded the ships. At Tenedos, Odysseus, who sailed with these leaders, quarreled with them and returned to Agamemnon. Menelaus' companions went to Euboea. From there Diomedes returned favorably to Argos, Nestor to Pylos, and Neoptolemus, Philoctetes and Idomeneo sailed safely to their cities. But Menelaus was caught by a storm at the rocky Malean Cape and brought to the coast of Crete, on the rocks of which almost all of his ships crashed. He himself was carried away by a storm to Egypt. King Polybus warmly received him in the hundred-gate Egyptian Thebes and gave him and Helen rich gifts. Menelaus' wanderings after the Trojan War lasted eight years; he was in Cyprus, Phenicia, saw the countries of the Ethiopians and Libyans. Then the gods gave him a joyful return and a happy old age with the eternally young Helen. According to the stories of later poets, Helen was not in Troy at all. Stesichorus said that Paris was kidnapped only by the ghost of Helen; according to the story of Euripides (tragedy “Helen”), he took away a woman similar to Helen, created by the gods to deceive him, and Hermes transferred the real Helen to Egypt, to King Proteus, who guarded her until the end of the Trojan War. Herodotus also believed that Helen was not in Troy. The Greeks thought that the Phoenician Aphrodite (Astarte) was Helen. They saw the temple of Astarte in that part of Memphis where the Tyrian Phoenicians lived; This is probably where the legend about Helen's life in Egypt arose.

Agamemnon, upon returning from the Trojan War, was killed by his wife, Clytemnestra, and her lover, Aegisthus. A few years later, Agamemnon's children, Orestes and Electra, brutally took revenge on their mother and Aegisthus for their father. These events served as the basis for a whole cycle of myths. Ajax the Lesser, on his way back from Troy, was killed by Poseidon for his unheard-of pride and sacrilegious insult to the altar during the capture of Cassandra.

Odysseus endured the most adventures and hardships when returning from the Trojan War. His fate provided the theme and plot for the second great

Most famous war filled with various myths and legends, is the Trojan War. This event has two retold stories, the first is perhaps more plausible historical information, and the second is more like a myth, filled with romanticism and heroism.

And so, the first story says that the Trojan War took place between 1240 and 1230 BC. The reason for the outbreak of such a long conflict was that Troy prevented the passage of merchant ships and levied significant taxes. This situation did not suit the Greeks, and they decided to join forces and resist Troy. However, the Trojans put up very good resistance and firmly held their borders.

The Greeks suffered defeats both in the number of soldiers and in the number of ships planted by the Trojans. The Greeks also lost their main character Achilles in battles. These events exhausted them greatly and then, resorting to sophisticated cunning, the Greeks came up with the idea of ​​​​building a wooden horse. This horse was supposed to act as a gift from the gods to the Trojans.

And when the horse was inside the city, the best Greek warriors got out of it under the cover of darkness. They opened the gates and let in the army, which defeated the Trojans who had lost their vigilance. The city was burned, people were killed, and some were taken prisoner.

According to another legend, the cause of the conflict was the wife of the king of Sparta, Helen, who was stolen by Paris. Myths also say that Paris not only took the beautiful queen, but also grabbed some of the king's valuable things. This was the reason for the outbreak of war. All the Greeks joined forces, since there was a contract that stated that all applicants for Helen's hand had to protect her and her husband.

Message Trojan War (version 2 report)

The Trojan War is one of the most legendary events that occurred in the 13-12 centuries BC.

The battles of the opposing sides took place on the Troas peninsula (now Biga). All of them are reflected in two famous poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, and thanks to this, the current generation has the opportunity to learn about the Trojan War. The epics were passed down in verbal form from generation to generation until Homer wrote them down.

It is not possible to say unambiguously whether the events described in the source are reliable. According to philologists who studied the message that passed through the centuries, they interpreted the events as a long sea voyage across the sea, the leaders of which were the Peloponnesian kings. At the same time, historians claim that the Trojan War happened. They also say that the confrontation lasted at least ten years. During this time, many commanders-in-chief were replaced and countless valiant warriors were killed.

The result of the Trojan War was the fall of Troy, which was one of the most interesting ways, which later received a common noun.

Reasons for the start of the confrontation

The main reasons that prompted the start of the confrontation between the parties were the abduction of the most beautiful woman by Paris (the son of the Trojan king Priam). Ancient Greece- Elena the Beautiful. At that time, the culprit of the battles was the wife of the king of Sparta, but this did not stop the thief. The reason for this was the love that the thief had for Elena.

But scientists do not accept this mythical beginning, and they say that the beginning of the war was the exorbitant taxes collected from merchants whose ships passed by Troy.

Events of the Trojan War

The first stage of the war was marked by a shameful defeat, as the warriors were in the wrong place and destroyed the possessions of the friendly ruler of Telef. Realizing their mistake, the Greeks, 100 thousand people in 1186 ships, set off for the shores of Troy.

There were many defeats and victories. The commanders conflicted with each other over primacy and regalia, and the troops under their leadership plundered cities. The most famous and merciless commander was Achilles.

This war lasted for nine long years. The turning point was the battle between Paris and Menelaus, in which the latter won. The result of the war was supposed to be the release of Helen the Beautiful and the payment of tribute for robbery. Only the plans of the Greeks did not include such a turn of events. They longed to continue the war and sought to defeat Troy.

That is why they came up with a way to penetrate the city: the strongest warriors hid inside a wooden structure in the shape of a horse. Curious residents took him for a gift from the gods and personally led him into the city through the main gate. After waiting until nightfall, the Greek troops burned Troy to the ground.

Option 3

The Trojan War is undoubtedly one of the largest events Ancient world, but at the same time the most mysterious, shrouded in many myths and legends, glorified by the great Homer in the immortal poems “Iliad” and “Odyssey”.

According to rough estimates by historians, this event lasted 10 years from 1240 to 1230 BC.

The cause of the military conflict was the intervention of Troy in trade relations between the Greeks and other states. Troy imposed heavy taxes on merchant ships, detained them, and those who showed dissatisfaction or resistance were sent to the bottom of the sea. In those days, Troy was a strong and firmly standing state, its impregnable walls withstood all the attacks of the dissatisfied and remained impregnable as always.

According to ancient Greek myths, the reason for the war was the kidnapping of the Spartan queen, the delightful beauty Helen. Her kidnapper was the son of the Trojan king Priam, the handsome young Paris.

The Spartans and the rest of the Greeks, bound by an oath to protect the Queen of Sparta, united into a 100 thousand army with more than 1000 ships and went to war to the walls of Troy.

The siege of the impenetrable and unyielding Trojan walls lasted for many years. Troy stood firmly in its position, while the Greeks suffered colossal human losses, their fleet sank like paper boats.

Exhausted by long years of small victories and countless defeats, the Greeks understood that Troy could only be broken from within. But since there was no way to take the city by force, you can only get into the city using cunning.

The famous Trojan horse became such a trick - wooden structure in the form of an animal, inside which the bravest, strongest and most powerful Greek warriors hid.

The Trojans, who one morning discovered a huge horse at their gates, took it as a gift to the gods and, imagining themselves to be great victors, carried it as a trophy beyond the impenetrable walls.

Having given free rein to their pride, the Trojans threw a great feast, and when their vigilance was completely drowned in glasses of wine, the Greeks struck a deadly blow, as a result of which Troy fell forever.

This war claimed many lives, destroyed an entire state, but at the same time glorified great and powerful warriors for millennia, making them immortal heroes.

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In ancient Greek the Trojan cycle occupy a special place. Modern world knows about these stories mainly thanks to Homer's epic "Iliad". However, even before him, in the folklore of this ancient culture there were stories telling about the Trojan War. As befits a myth, this story received big number characters associated with religion and gods.

Sources

Archaeologists and historians attribute the events to XII century BC. Before ancient city was discovered by the German expedition of Heinrich Schliemann, it was also considered a legend. In their searches, researchers relied not only on the Iliad, but also on the Cyprians. This collection told not only about Troy, but also about the immediate cause of the war.

Apple of discord

The inhabitants of Olympus gathered for the wedding of Peleus and Thetis. Everyone was invited except Eris. She was the goddess of chaos and discord. She could not bear such insult and threw it on festive table which grew in the forest of the Hesperides nymphs.

On the fruit there was a clear inscription “To the most beautiful.” The myths of the Trojan cycle claim that because of him, a dispute began between three goddesses - Aphrodite, Hera and Athena. It is because of this plot that the phraseological unit “apple of discord” has become entrenched in many languages ​​of the world.

The goddesses asked Zeus to resolve their dispute and name the most beautiful one. However, he did not dare to name the name, because he wanted to say that this was Aphrodite, while Athena was his daughter, and Hera was his wife. Therefore, Zeus suggested that Paris make a choice. This was the son of the ruler of Troy, Priam. He chose Aphrodite because she promised him the love of the woman he desired.

The Treachery of Paris

Endowed with enchantment, Paris arrived in Sparta, where he stayed in royal palace. He conquered Helen, the wife of King Menelaus, who at that moment left for Crete. Paris fled with the girl to his home, simultaneously taking gold from the local treasury. The myths of the Trojan cycle tell that such treachery united the Greeks, who decided to declare war on Troy.

There were many legendary warriors in the Hellenic army. Agamemnon was recognized as the head of the army. There was also Menelaus himself, Achilles, Odysseus, Philoctetes, Nestor, Palamedes, etc. Many of them were heroes - that is, children of gods and mortals. For example, Achilles was like this. He was a perfect warrior with no flaws. His only weak point was his heel. The reason for this was that his mother - Thetis - held the baby by the leg when she lowered him into the oven in order to endow the child with superhuman strength. This is where the expression “Achilles' heel” comes from, meaning the only vulnerable spot.

Multi-year siege

In total, the Greek army had about one hundred thousand warriors and thousands of ships. They set out by sea from Boeotia. After a successful landing, the Hellenes offered peace negotiations to the Trojans. Their condition was the extradition of Helen the Beautiful. However, the residents of Troy refused such an offer.

Their commander-in-chief was Hector, the son of Priam and brother of Paris. He led an army half as large as that of the Achaeans. But on his side there were powerful fortress walls that no one had ever managed to take or destroy. Therefore, the Greeks had no choice but to begin a long siege. At the same time, Achilles and part of his army plundered neighboring Asian cities. However, Troy did not surrender, and exactly nine years passed in an unsuccessful siege and blockade. The daughters of Ania Enotropha helped the Greeks obtain food in a foreign land. They turned the earth into grains, oil and wine, according to what the myths of Ancient Greece tell. The Trojan cycle tells little about the long-term siege. For example, Homer devotes his Iliad to the last, 41st day of the war.

Curse of Apollo

The Greek army often took prisoners who ended up outside of Troy. Thus, the daughter of Chris, one of the priests of Apollo, fell into captivity. He arrived at the enemy camp, begging for the girl to be returned to him. In response, he received rude ridicule and refusal. Then the priest, in a fit of hatred, asked Apollo for fair revenge on the fanatics. God sent a pestilence to the army, which began to kill one soldier after another.

The Trojans, having learned about this misfortune of the enemy, left the city and prepared to give battle to the weakened army. At the last moment, diplomats from both sides agree that the conflict should be resolved by a head-to-head duel between Menelaus and Paris, whose action became the cause of the war. The Trojan prince was defeated, after which the agreement had to finally be fulfilled.

However, at the most decisive moment, one of the besieged soldiers fired an arrow into the Greek camp. The first open battle ensued under the city walls. The legends and myths of Ancient Greece tell about this event in detail. The Trojan cycle includes the death of many heroes. For example, Agenor (son of the elder of Troy) killed Elephenor (king of Eubia).

The first day of the battle saw the Greeks being driven back to their camp. At night they surrounded it with a ditch and prepared for defense. Both sides buried their dead. The battle continued in next days, which is what the Trojan cycle of myths tells about. Summary This is: the besieged under the leadership of Hector manage to destroy the gates of the Greek camp, while some of the Greeks, along with Odysseus, go on reconnaissance. The attackers were soon driven out of the camp, but the losses of the Achaeans were great.

Death of Patroclus

All this time, Achilles did not participate in battles because he had a fight with Agamemnon. He remained on the ship with his favorite Patroclus. When the Trojans began to burn ships, the young man persuaded Achilles to let him fight the enemy. Patroclus even received the weapons and armor of the legendary warrior. The Trojans, mistaking him for Achilles, began to flee back to the city in horror. Many of them fell by the sword in the hands of the Greek hero's companion. But Hector did not lose heart. Calling for help, he defeated Patroclus and took the sword of Achilles from him. The heroes of the Trojan cycle of myths often turned the development of the plot in the opposite direction.

Return of Achilles

The death of Patroclus came as a shock to Achilles. He repented of being away from the battle all this time and made peace with Agamemnon. The hero decided to take revenge on the Trojans for their death best friend. In the next battle, he found Hector and killed him. Achilles tied the enemy's corpse to his chariot and drove it around Troy three times. Heartbroken, Priam begged for the remains of his son for a huge ransom. Achilles gave his body in exchange for gold equal to his weight. The Trojan cycle of myths tells about this price. The main plots are always narrated in ancient works with the help of metaphors.

The news of Hector's death quickly spread throughout the ancient world. The Amazon warriors and the Ethiopian army came to the aid of the Trojans. Paris, avenging his brother, shot Achilles in the heel, which is why he soon died. The Trojan heir himself also died after being mortally wounded by Philoctetes. Helen became the wife of his brother Deiphobus. The myths of the Trojan cycle tell in detail about these dramatic events.

Trojan horse

Both sides suffered heavy losses. Then the Greeks, seeing the futility of their attempts to take possession of the city, decided to use cunning. They built a huge wooden horse. This figure was hollow inside. The bravest warriors of Greece took refuge there, now led by Odysseus. At the same time, the bulk of the Greek army left the camp and sailed from the shores on ships.

The surprised Trojans went outside the city. They were met by Sinon, who announced that in order to appease the gods, it was necessary to install a horse figure in the central square. And so it was done. At night, Sinon released the hidden Greeks, who killed the guards and opened the gates. The city was destroyed to its very foundations, after which it was never able to recover. The Greeks returned home. Odysseus's return journey became the basis for the plot of Homer's poem "The Odyssey".