The face that launched a thousand ships... Helen, as depicted on an ancient Greek vase now in the Louvre, Paris.
Part 1 of 3
WHEN Priam, King of Troy, sent his son Paris to Sparta on a diplomatic mission, the boy’s sister Cassandra warned him not to get involved with any of the Greek girls. Far from taking her advice, however, Paris came home with the beautiful Queen of Sparta, Helen, on his arm.*
Helen’s husband, King Menelaus, collected a tremendous force of Greek heroes, including his brother Agamemnon, Odysseus, and a young Achilles. It took years to assemble, but once all peaceful overtures had been rebuffed, the Greeks went up against Troy. In Pedasus, a neighbouring town, Agamemnon captured the daughter of a priest of Apollo, and was forced by the god to return her. In her place, Agamemnon awarded himself the girl won by Achilles.
Wrathful Achilles now refused to fight alongside Agamemnon, and his mother, the goddess Thetis, called on Zeus to ensure Agamemnon’s defeat. When news of this rift reached the Trojans, they were sure that victory was theirs.
* A little revenge was also part of it: Priam’s father Laomedon had been killed by Greek hero Heracles, and his sister had been abducted and given in marriage to Telamon. On the gods’ side, Paris’s failure to deal tactfully with the Apple of Discord still rankled. If the story is rooted in history, then the Trojan War may have taken place in about 1200-1180 BC, a generation or so after another truly epic event, the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. See The Story of Moses.
Précis
Paris, the Trojan prince, stole Helen from Menelaus of Sparta, and the outraged King laid siege to Troy for ten years with a band of Greek heroes. One of them, Achilles, was offended when the King’s brother, Agamemnon, appropriated a girl he had taken captive, and it seemed as if Achilles might change sides. (54 / 60 words)
Part Two
Achilles tends the wounds of Patroclus. It was Hector’s assault on Patroclus that persuaded Achilles to return to the Greek side and fight alongside Agamemnon.
BUT Achilles was no Trojan yet. After his friend Patroclus was slain by the Trojan hero Hector, loyal Achilles vowed vengeance on him and all Troy.
His vengeance on Hector came swiftly. None could withstand the wrath of Achilles, not even Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons. Yet Achilles fell at last, pierced through his vulnerable heel by a dart shot by Paris from the walls of Troy.
Odysseus took his place as the Greeks’ heroic leader, and at once showed his worthiness. He disguised himself as a beggar, and stole an image of Athene from her Temple within the besieged city itself, so fulfilling a prophecy of Troy’s fall. On his return, the Greeks packed up their encampment, as if the ten years of siege were over, and left at the gates of Troy what seemed a fitting apology to Athene: a vast wooden sculpture of a warhorse.*
Priam was touched, and brought it within the walls of Troy. He paid dearly for that mistake.
* In Virgil’s Aeneid, Trojan hero Aeneas recalled the bitter arguments over what to do with the wooden horse, and Laocoön famously warned them to beware Greeks bearing gifts. Unfortunately, they credited the Greeks with being much less crafty than they were. See ‘Beware Greeks Bearing Gifts’.
Précis
Achilles put aside his rift with Agamemnon when the Trojan hero Hector slew his friend Patroclus, and the Trojans were left reeling by his wrath. After Achilles was mortally wounded in the heel, Odysseus took command of the siege, carefully fulfilling a prophecy of Troy’s fall, feigning a Greek withdrawal, and leaving the Trojans a gift of a wooden horse. (60 / 60 words)
Part Three
The earliest known depiction of the Trojan Horse, on the Mykonos Vase dating from 640 BC. The story does not occur Homer’s Iliad, but it is referred to in his sequel The Odyssey and features more fully in the Aeneid by Roman poet Virgil. See ‘Beware Greeks Bearing Gifts’.
IT now seemed as if Troy might find peace. The Greek camp was empty; and with Paris, nicked by a poisoned arrow, lying in state upon his funeral pyre, the cause of the strife was gone.
But in the quiet of the night, a panel in the wooden horse grated aside, and Greek soldiers began to emerge. Softly they opened the city gates, and signalled to the Greek fleet that had been hiding behind the island of Tenedos. Outnumbered and taken by surprise, the Trojans were quickly routed. Priam died on the steps of the altar of Zeus, and the wealth of his city was poured into the laps of the Greek victors.
Helen was restored to King Menelaus; Agamemnon took Cassandra for his own; Odysseus set off back to Ithaca, a journey that became a legend in itself. Alone of all its people, Aeneas and his father Anchises escaped the sack of Troy. But that too is another tale: the Tale of Rome.*
* By the ingenuity of Geoffrey of Monmouth in the twelfth century, it was also woven into the Tale of Britain. See Brutus of Britain.
Précis
Deceived by the Greek withdrawal, the Trojans did not guess the purpose of the wooden horse. That night, Greek soldiers quietly emerged from it and let the Greek host into the city. Troy was sacked, and her King was killed. The Greek heroes dispersed; but one Trojan escaped, Aeneas, for his fate was wound up with the founding of Rome. (60 / 60 words)
