The Trojan War

Question 1

PERIODIZATION OF ANCIENT HISTORY (Mask of Agamemnon from

Answer 1

Mycenaean/Minoan/Heroic Greece
1600BC – 1100BC
Minoan civilization – Crete (ends c. 1400 BCE)
Mycenaean civilization – mainland Greece (ends c. 1100 BCE)
Trojan War (c. 1200 BCE?) (btwn the minoan/ Mycenaean Heroic Period)
The bulk of the heroes we meet hail from this period
Yay for Heinrich Schliemann & Sir Arthur Evans!!

Linear B tablets (a language)
Many from Pylos (home of Nestor)
Palace destroyed c. 1200 BCE
Fire baked & preserved tablets

Question 2

The Archaeological Layers of Troy

Answer 2

aka Hisarlik

see slides

Troy 6 and 7a show evidence of human destruction and is timed around the fall of troy from the greeks. 2000m^2 and a population of 7000 hastey burials and piles of long range weapons suggest the last struggles of Troy.

Question 3

The Hittites

Answer 3

Known from Bible originally
Bible says “Hittites”
They say:  “people of the land of Hatti”
Rediscovered (physical remains) in 19th century
Hattusa = the capital

Clay tablets showed evidence of the following languages:
Hittite, Akkadian, Luwian
Mention ‘Wilusa’ and ‘Taruisa’ = Troy?
Alaksandu = king of Wilusa – is this Paris/Alexander?
Flourished 1700-1200 BCE
Brought down old-Babylonian Empire (captial city = Hammurabi)

Question 4

Sea Peoples

Answer 4

Connection to Troy?

Attacked Egypt in 1207 & 1177 BCE
Seem to come from nowhere
Cause widespread destruction
Then disappear
(Achilles Raiding Camps?)
=> End of hitites and mecinian civilizations

Egyptian records
Ramses III:
The countries – –, the [Northerners] in their isles were disturbed, taken away in the [fray] – at one time. Not one stood before their hands, from Kheta, Kode, Carchemish, Arvad, Alashia, they were wasted. {The}y {[set up]} a camp in one place in Amor. They desolated his people and his land like that which is not. They came with fire prepared before them, forward to Egypt. Their main support was Peleset, Tjekker, Shekelesh, Denyen, and Weshesh. (These) lands were united, and they laid their hands upon the land as far as the Circle of the Earth. Their hearts were confident, full of their plans.

Question 5

From J Latacz, Troy and Homer, Oxford, 2004

connections to the trojan war

from history to myth

Answer 5

Some Key Points:

Mycenaean Greeks closely involved in military affairs of western Anatolia

Hittite vassal state Wilusa subject to # of attacks in which Mycenaeans may have been involved

Wilusa lay in classical Troad

In philological terms, Wilusa can be equated with Greek (W)ilios, or Ilion

Spread of Ahhijawa in E Mediterranean
This extended to Millawanda/Miletos, probable Hittite ally

Earthquake in Troy c. 1250 BC, fire in Troy c. 1180 BC
Traditional dates – 1194-1184 BC

Question 6

From E. Cline, The Trojan War (a short introduction), Oxford, 2013

connections to the trojan war

from history to myth

Answer 6

Evidence:
Greek
Greek epics, Hittite records, Luwian poetry, archaeological remains
Multiple wars (not 1)
2 or 3 in Greek literature (Herc’s, Agamennon’s 1 or 2)
Hittite
@ least 4
From Assuwa Rebellion late 15th. C. BCE
To overthrow of Walmu, king of Wilusa in late 13th C.
Physical
Hisarlik destroyed 2 or 3 x’s between 1300 & 1000

So:
Wilusa is probably (W)ilios (Troy)
Alaksandu, king of Wilus, may be Alexander/Paris of Troy/(W)ilios
Walmu, king of Wilusa, deposed by enemy forces in late 13th c. BC
Ahhiyawa probably is/are Mycenaeans from mainland Greece
Troy VI destroyed but probably by earthquake rather than humans
Troy VIIa destroyed by humans in warfare

Question 7

Dark Age Greece

Answer 7

1100BC – 750BC
The s&*t hits the fan:
Why?
Natural disaster?
Sea peoples?
Linear B disappears
By end Olympics emerge
Stories that comprise Greek mythology generated at this time

Question 8

Texts about the trojan war (chronologically)

Answer 8

Cypria
= the 9 years of the war, and the judgement of paris

Iliad - Homer
= the 40 days of the last days of troy

Aethiopis
=the arrival of the trojan allies (penthus aliea of the amazon, and Memnon) as well as the death of Achilles and how achillies killed them

Little Iliad
= the building of the trojan horse and the awarding of arms to odyssesus

Iliou persis (“Sack of Troy”)

Nostoi (“returns”)
= return of agememnon and menilleus

Odyssey - Homer
= odysesus’ run home

Telegony
= odysessus travel and death to ithica by his son telogenus

Question 9

Characteristics to look out for while reading the Iliad and the Odyssey

Answer 9

Invocation to the Muses.
Ring-composition in construction of speeches
Dactylic hexameter
Oral poetry theory
Repetition of formal phrases (epithets) and use of similes

see web comcis

Question 10

Iliad –- important things to remember/think about as you read this text specifically

Answer 10

Lots of combat
Iliad centred on glory of a hero
Heroic code
single combat
reputation, skill, family
fight to enhance reputation
Homeric society is shame culture. Key concepts include:
Timê – honour/respect
Geras – prize
Aristeia – moment of excellence
Arete – excellence itself

Question 11

Which sides did the gods choose during the Iliad?

Answer 11

Trojan – Aphrodite, Ares, Apollo, Artemis

Greek – Athena, Hera, Poseidon, Hephaestus, Hermes

Zeus –neutral, generally

Question 12

The cause of the trojan war

Answer 12

Judgement of Paris

Wedding of Peleus & Thetis
Eris, goddess of discord
Golden apple – for the most beautiful
Hera, Athena, & Aphrodite vie for honour
Paris chosen by Zeus to settle dispute
Hermes leads goddesses to Paris for judgement
Aphrodite wins with offer of Helen
Lucian, Dialogue of the Gods 20 – “the Judgement of Paris”

Question 13

Helen of Troy

Answer 13

Daughter of Zeus and Leda
Leda impregnated twice?! Zeus AND Tyndareus – Castor & Pollux, Helen & Clytemnestra.
Helen and her suitors – the oath of Tyndareus (in response to abduction by Theseus)
Menelaus + Helen = Hermione
Seduction of Helen & start of Trojan War

Question 14

The sacrifice of iphigenia

Answer 14

Gathering of expedition at Aulis
Roughly 1200 ships
Sacrifice of Iphigenia
Anger of Artemis
Calchas as seer

The Journey to Troy
Philoctetes’ wound
Abandonment of Philoctetes– smelly wound – he’ll be back!
Bow & arrow of Heracles

Question 15

Arrival at Troy

Answer 15

Neighbouring towns taken
Achilles takes 12 by sea, 11 by land
Home of Andromache’s father & brothers included

First nine years = pretty uneventful (thanks walls of Troy!).

Question 16

The Achaeans/ Danaans/ Argives/ Greeks:

Answer 16

Agamemnon – King of Mycenae, leader of the Greeks.

Achilles – son of Peleus and divine Thetis, foremost warrior, leader of the Myrmidons and King of Pythia.

Odysseus – King of Ithaca, Greek commander.

Ajax the Greater – son of Telamon and king of Salamis.

Menelaus – King of Sparta, husband of Helen and brother of Agamemnon.

Diomedes – son of Tydeus, King of Argos.

Ajax the Lesser – son of Oileus, commander of the Locrians.

Patroclus – Achilles’ closest companion.

Nestor – King of Pylos, and trusted advisor to Agamemnon.

Question 17

The Trojan men:

Answer 17

Hector – Prince of Troy, son of King Priam, and the foremost Trojan warrior.

Aeneas – son of Anchises and Aphrodite.

Deiphobus – brother of Hector and Paris.

Paris – Prince of Troy, son of King Priam, and Helen’s lover/abductor.

Priam – the aged King of Troy.

Polydamas – a prudent commander whose advice is ignored; he is Hector’s foil.

Agenor – son of Antenor, a Trojan warrior who attempts to fight Achilles (Book XXI).

Sarpedon, son of Zeus – killed by Patroclus. Was friend of Glaucus and co-leader of the Lycians (fought for the Trojans).

Glaucus, son of Hippolochus – friend of Sarpedon and co-leader of the Lycians (fought for the Trojans).

Euphorbus – first Trojan warrior to wound Patroclus.

Dolon – a spy upon the Greek camp (Book X).

Antenor – King Priam’s advisor, who argues for returning Helen to end the war.

Polydorus – son of Priam and Laothoe.

Pandarus – famous archer and son of Lycaon.

Question 18

The Trojan women:

Answer 18

Hecuba – Priam’s wife, mother of Hector, Cassandra, Paris, and others.

Helen – daughter of Zeus; Menelaus’s wife; espoused first to Paris, then to Deiphobus; her abduction by Paris precipitated the war.

Andromache – Princess of Troy, Hector’s wife, mother of Astyanax.

Cassandra – Priam’s daughter.

Briseis – a Trojan w`oman captured by Achilles from a previous siege, over whom Achilles’s quarrel with Agamemnon began.

Question 19

Sing, goddess, the anger of Peleus’ son Achilles,
and its devastation, which put pains thousandfold upon the Achaeans,
hurled in their multitudes to the house of Hades strong souls
of heroes, but gave their bodies to be the delicate feasting of dogs, of all birds, and the will of Zeus was accomplished
since that time when first there stood in division of conflict
Atreus’ son the lord of men and brilliant Achilles”

Answer 19

Opening lines of the Iliad

Question 20

Achilles vs. Agamemnon: books 1-2

Answer 20

Fight over Chryseis (daughter of Chryses – a priest of Apollo) and Briseis (a ‘war prize’ from one one of Achilles’ plundering raids)
Achilles nearly kills Agamemnon (intervention of Athena)
Achilles petitions his mother Thetis for help
The PLAGUE!
False dream of Agamemnon
Catalogue of ships

Question 21

Menelaus and Paris in Single Combat:

Answer 21

Books 3-6 = MOSTLY FIGHTING!
Menelaus & Paris fight in single combat (3.340-382, 428-447)
Diomedes kicks ass (ARISTEIA!)
Trojans gain some advantage with gods’ help
BUT then the Greeks press forward!

Question 22

Books 7-8: Hector at war

Answer 22

Books 7 and 8 = mostly fighting! Hector’s engagements with other warriors tend to be representative of the Homeric depiction of war, especially duals.
Pre-fight trash talk: Hector vs. Ajax Iliad 7.245-54.
Initial sparring followed by more intense battle – wounds described graphically and thoroughly: Iliad 7.273-76.
If a death occurs, it is always recorded why/how: Iliad 8.325-34.
After death, you SHOULD remove the armour and claim it as victor – then, either desecrate the body, or return to the enemy.

Question 23

Books 9-13: The Plea to Achilles

Answer 23

Books 9-13 = bad times for the Greeks! 
Agamemnon repents (9.10-17) and sends Ajax 
Odysseus and Phoenix to Achilles to try to persuade him to come back
Achilles not having any of it!! He rejects their gifts and petition.

Question 24

Uses of weapons in the Trojan War

Answer 24

Uses of weapons (named instances):
Rocks = 10
Arrows = 15
Swords = 19
Spears = 100

Question 25

Some particularly grim deaths!

Lycon

Answer 25

Lycon (16.353-60) = “Peneleos and Lycon both cast, both missed, both drew their swords and charged each other. Lycon’s sword landed hard on Peneleos’ helmet but the heavy arrest shattered the blade to the hilt. Penelos’ sword caught Lycon under the ear and sliced through the neck, leaving only a ribbon of skin from which the head dangled. Lycon collapsed in a heap.”

Question 26

Some particularly grim deaths!

Cebriones

Answer 26

Cebriones (16.770-77) = “The throw was not wasted. He hit Hector’s charioteer Cebriones, Priam’s bastard son, as he stood there holding the reins. The sharp stone caught him right in the forehead, smashing his brows together, and shattering the skull so that his eyeballs spurted out and dropped into the dirt before his feet”.

Question 27

Some particularly grim deaths!

Erymas

Answer 27

Erymas (16.366-72) = “Idomenus plugged Erymas’ mouth with cruel bronze, the spear point passing beneath the brainpan, shattering all the bones. His teeth rattled out, his eyes filled with blood, and he spurted blood out through his nostrils and gaping mouth until death’s black nimbus enveloped him

Question 28

Stand-out performances of the trojan war

Answer 28

Concept of aristeia: Hector (Bk 8), Diomedes (Bk 5), Agamemnon (Bk 9), Achilles (Bk 21), Patroclus (Bk 16).
Most bad-ass (most kills in one book) = Patroclus in Bk 16 = 27 kills in total, including Sarpedon, a son of Zeus (“three times he attacked, and three times he killed nine men”).
Achilles in Bk 20-21 = 24 kills, all with the spear (his weapon of choice).
Most over-looked? Diomedes = 35 kills in total AND he wounds Aeneas, Apollo, and Aphrodite…. BUT 13 of his victims were asleep! Hector = 30 kills in total (8 with the help of Ares).
Most blood-thirsty = Agamemnon in Bk 2 = 1 x spear in the chest, 1 x spear in the arm, 2 x sword in the head/neck, 1 x sword to cut off head and arms, 1 x spear in the side and then cuts off the head!

Question 29

Patroclus and Achilles

Answer 29

Patroclus = son of Menoetius.
Under the care of King Peleus (Achilles’ father) since childhood.
Relationship with Achilles not explicit - friends, companions, or lovers? Homer vs. other sources.
Later interpretations – Shakespeare vs. Madeline Miller vs. Troy (2004).
Relationship is a driving force in the outcome of the Iliad narrative.

Question 30

The death of patroclus

Answer 30

Patroclus begs Achilles to use his armour in battle to inspire the Greeks (who are totally on the back foot!) – Achilles agrees (Book 16 Lines 1-107)
Aristeia of Patroclus throughout Book 16.
Note some divine intervention (Book 16 Lines 678-692).
Killed by Hector (Book 16 Lines 822-end).
Grief and rage of Achilles (Book 18 Lines 18-38, 82-135)

Question 31

Death of Hector

Answer 31

Books 18-24:  Death of Hector
Direct result of death of Patroclus
Shield of Achilles!
Slaughter is now great with the gods participating freely 
Achilles kills Hector in single-combat 
Defiles the body – Iliad 22.438-455

Question 32

The Defilement of Hectors Body

Answer 32

But it was shame and defilement Achilles had in mind for Hector. He pierced the tendons above the heels and cinched them with leather thongs to his chariot, letting Hector’s head drag.
He mounted, hoisted up to the prize armour, and whipped his team to a willing gallop across the plain. A cloud of dust rose where Hector was hauled, and the long black hair fanned out from his dead, so beautiful once, as it trailed in the dust.
In this way, Zeus delivered Hector in to his enemies’ hands to be defiled in his own native land.
Watching this from the wall, Hector’s mother tore off her shining veil and screamed, and his father groaned pitifully, and all through town the people were convulsed with lamentation, as if Troy itself, the whole towering city, were in flames.

Question 33

Priam, Achilles, and the body of Hector

Answer 33

Priam visits Achilles
Iliad 24.500-510, 535-551.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MPBMOl5i-Y
Iliad ends with line about burial of Hector – “That was the funeral of Hector, breaker of horses.”
Symbolic end of Achilles’s anger which started the epic
A satisfying ending?

Question 34

Priam Visits Achilles – Iliad 24.500-510, 535-551

Answer 34

The old man went straight to the house where Achilles, dear to Zeus, sat and waited. He found him inside. His companions sat apart from him, and a solitary pair, Automedon and Alcimus, warriors both, were busy at his side. He had just finished his evening meal. The table was set up.
Great Priam entered unnoticed. He stood close to Achilles, and touching his knees, he kissed the dread and murderous hands that had killed so many of his sons.
…
[Priam speaks] “And the only one who could save the city you’ve just killed as he fought for his country, my Hector. It is for him I have come to the Greek ships, to get him back from you. I’ve bought a fortune in ransom. Respect the gods, Achilles, think of your father, and pity me. I am more pitiable. I have borne what no man who has walked this earth has ever yet borne. I have kissed the hand of the man who killed my son.”

He spoke, and sorrow for his own father welled up in Achilles. He took Priam’s hand and gently pushed the old man away. The two of them remembered. Priam, huddled in grief at Achilles’ feet, cried and moaned softly for his man-slaying Hector. And Achilles cried for his father and for Patroclus.
The sound filled the room.

Question 35

Paris

Answer 35

Also sometimes referred to as Alexander – in other ancient sources.
Always has the support of Aphrodite (because of the Golden Apple contest!).
Key scene = one on one combat with Menelaus in Book 3 i.e. direct ‘fight’ over Helen’.

Question 36

Paris, a Homeric Hero?

According to Hector LOL no

Answer 36

It was Paris all right, who could have passed for a god, and Menelaus grinned as he hefted his gear and stepped down from his chariot. He would have his revenge at last. Paris’ blood turned milky when he saw him coming on, and he faded back into the Trojan troops with cheeks as pale as if he had seen – or almost stepped on – a poisonous snake in a mountain pass. He could barely stand as disdainful Trojans made room for him in the ranks, and Hector, seeing his brother tremble at Atreus’ son, started on him with these abusive epithets:

“Paris, you desperate, womanizing pretty boy! I wish you had never been born, or had died unmarried. Better that than this disgrace before the troops. Can’t you just hear it, the long-haired Greek chuckling and saying that our champion was for good looks but comes up short in offense and defence? Is this how you were when you got a crew and sailed overseas, hobnobbed with the warrior caste in a foreign country and sailed off with a beautiful woman with marriage ties to half of them? You’re nothing but trouble for your father and your city, a joke to your enemies, and an embarrassment to yourself.”

Question 37

Hector

Answer 37

Eldest son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy.
Husband of Andromache.
Son = Astyanax.
Favoured by Apollo.
Chief warrior of the Trojans – 30 kills.
Contrast to both Paris AND Achilles.

Question 38

Hector and Andromache

Answer 38

Questions to consider when reading the passage:
How is their relationship depicted?
Is this surprising to you? How does Hector feel about the war?
Which elements of the scene stood out as ‘heroic’ to you, if any?

Andromache stood close to him, shedding tears, clinging to his arms as she spoke these words:
“Possessed is what you are, Hector. Your courage is going to kill you, and you have no feeling left for your little boy or for me, the luckless woman who will soon be your widow. It won’t be long before the whole Greek army swarms and kills you. And when they do, it will be better for me to sink into the earth. When I lose you Hector, there will be nothing left, no one to turn to, only pain. My father and mother are dead. Achilles killed my father when he destroyed our city, Thebes, with its high gates, but had too much respect to despoil his body. He burned it instead with all his armour and heaped up a barrow. And the spirit women came down from the mountain, daughters of the storm god, and planted elm trees around it. I had seven brothers once in the great house. All seven brothers once in that great house. All seven went down to Hades on a single day. Cut down by Achilles in on blinding spirit through their shambling cattle and silver sheep. Mother, who was queen in the forests of Plakos, he took back as prisoner, with all her possessions, then released her for a fortune in ransom. She died in our house, shot by Artemis’ arrows.
Hector, you are my father, you are my mother, you are my brother, and my blossoming husband. But show some pity and stay here by the tower, don’t make your child an orphan, your wife a widow. Station your men here by the fig tree, where the city is weakest because the wall can be scaled. Three times their elite have tried an attack here rallying around Ajax or glorious Idomeneus, or Atreus’ sons, or mighty Diomedes, whether someone in on the prophecy told them or they are driven here by something in their heart.”

What does the passage reveal about the lives and role of women in relation to war? Compare the role of Andromache with Chryseis and Briseis.

And great Hector, helmet shining, answered her:
“Yes, Andromache, I worry about all this myself, but my shame before the Trojans and their wives, with the long robes trailing, would be too terrible if I hung back from battle like a coward. And my heart won’t let me. I have learned to be one of the best, to fight in Troy’s first ranks, defending my father’s honour and my own. Deep in my heart I know too well there will come a day when holy Ilion will perish. And Priam and the people under Priam’s ash spear. But the pain I will feel for the Trojans then, for Hecuba herself and for Priam king, for my many fine brothers who will have by then fallen in the dust behind enemy lines – all that pain is nothing to what I will feel for you, when some bronze-armoured Greek leads you away in tears, on your first day of slavery. And you will work some other woman’s loom in Argos or carry water from a Spartan spring, all against your will, under great duress. And someone, seeing you crying, will say ‘That is the wife of Hector, the best of all the Trojans when they fought around Ilion’. Someday someone will say that, renewing your pain at having lost such a man to fight off the day of your enslavement. But may I be dead and the earth heaped above me before I hear your cry as you are dragged away”.

Question 39

Characterisation of Achilles

Answer 39

Consider these passages

Iliad Book 1.130-1.142, 1.158-1.164, 1.177-181 = Achilles and Agamemnon
Iliad Book 1.362-377 = Achilles and Thetis
Iliad 9.311-441, 623-37, 666-78 = Rejection of Agamemnon’s offer
Iliad Book 18.18-38 = Rage and grief after death of Patroclus.

How is Achilles characterized in each of these passages?
Are they similar or different? How so?
Does he appear ‘heroic’?

Question 40

Achilles and Agamemnon - Iliad 1.130-142, 1.156-1.164, 1.177-1.181

Answer 40

And Achilles, strong, swift, and godlike:
“And where do you think, son of Atreus, you greedy glory-hound, the magnanimous Greeks are going to get another prize for you? Do you think we have some sort of stockpile in reserve? Every town in the area has been sacked and the stuff is divided. You want the men to count it all back and redistribute it? All right, you give the girl back to the god. The army will repay you three or four times over – if and when Zeus allows us to rip Troy down to its foundation.”
The war-lord Agamemnon responded:
“You may be a good man in a fight, Achilles, and look like a god, but don’t try to put one over on me – it won’t work…”
…
Achilles looked him up and down and said:
“You sorry, profiteering excuse for a commander! How are you going to get any Greek warrior to follow you in battle again? You know I don’t have any quarrel with the Trojans, they didn’t do anything to me to make me come over here and fight…
… so worn out from fighting, I don’t have the strength left even to complain! Well, I’m going back to Phthia now. For better to head home with my curved ships than stay here, unhonoured myself, and piling fortune on you.”

Question 41

Achilles and Thetis - Iliad 1.362-77

Answer 41

Then Achilles, in tears, withdrew from his friends, and sat down far away on the foaming white seashore, staring out at the endless sea. Stretching out his hands, he prayed over and over to his beloved mother:
“Mother, since you bore me for a short life only, Olympian Zeus was supposed to give me great honour. Well, he hasn’t given me any at all! Agamemnon has taken away my prize and dishonoured me.”
His voice, choked with tears, was heard by his mother as she sat on the sea-depths beside her old father. She rose up from the white-capped sea like a mist, and settling herself besides her weeping child she stroked him with her hand and spoke to him:
“Why are you crying, my son? What’s wrong? Don’t keep it inside. Tell me so we’ll both know”.

Question 42

Achilles – still justified? Iliad 9.311-441, 623-37, 666-78.

Answer 42

A few lines from the above passages….
“My honour comes from Zeus, and I will have it among these beaked ships as long as my breath still remains and my knees still move. Now listen to this. You’re listening? Good. Don’t try and confuse me with your pleasing on Agamemnon’s behalf. If you’re his friend, you’re no longer mine, although I love you. Hate him because I hate him. It’s a simple as that.”

“But I swell with rage when I think of how the son of Atreus treated me like dirt in public, as if I was some worthless tramp. Now go, and take back this message: I won’t lift a finger in this bloody war until Priam’s illustrious son Hector comes to the Myrmidons’ ships and huts killing Greeks as he goes and torching the fleet. But when he comes to my hut and my black ship I think Hector will stop, for all his battle lust.”

Question 43

The Grief and Rage of Achilles – Iliad 18.18-38

Answer 43

Antilochus was in tears when he reached him and delivered his unendurable message:
“Son of wise Peleus, this is painful news for you to hear, and I wish it were not true. Patroclus is down, and they are fighting for his naked corpse. Hector has the armour.”

A mist of black grief enveloped Achilles. He scooped up fistfuls of sunburnt dust and poured it on his head, fouling his beautiful face. Black ash grimed his fine-spun clock as he stretched his huge body out in the dust and lay there tearing out his hair with his hands. The women, whom Achilles and Patroclus had taken in raids, ran shrieking out of the tent to be with Achilles, and they beat their breasts until their knees gave out beneath them. Antilochus, sobbing himself, stayed with Achilles and held his hands – he was groaning from the depths of his soul – for fear he would lay open his own throat with steel.

Question 44

What makes a homeric hero

Answer 44

???

see infograph

Question 45

Achilles and Penthesilea

Answer 45

What happens after the Iliad?! The fighting continues….
The race of warrior women arrive to help the Trojans. (Amazonian warriors)
Achilles kills their leader, Penthesilea - the very moment he falls in love with her!
Thersites mocks Achilles and is killed. (THesites is a simple soldier and the ugliest Achaeans= greek)

Question 46

Why did Penthesilea side with the Trojans

Answer 46

She accidentally killed her sister, and King priam helped to purify herself from her actions

Question 47

The death of Achillies

Answer 47

Achilles hit in heel by arrow from Paris – with Apollo’s help?
Ends up killing him.
Corpse recovered by Ajax

Question 48

Suicide of Ajax

Answer 48

Odysseus & Ajax compete for armour of Achilles.
Armour awarded to Odysseus - not Ajax!
Disgrace of Ajax – then madness.
Ajax, humiliated, commits suicide.

Question 49

The wooden horse

Answer 49

Sources = Homer’s Odyssey and Virgil’s Aeneid.

Odysseus’ clever plan! But built by Epeius. (The horse was sacred to the Trojans)

Built from the wood of a Cornell tree from the grove of Apollo

“The Greeks dedicate this thank-offering to Athena for their return home.”
Sinon as spy – rest of the Greeks go hide at Tenedos.

Cassandra tries to warn the Trojans but nobody believes her (curse of Apollo, gift of prophecy, but the curse was to neve be believed)

Laocoon tried to warn the Trojans but omen of the serpents is misinterpreted = death along with his 2 sons

Greek spy Sinon, defect to the city of Troy.

Question 50

Laocoon tries to warn the Trojans (In the words of Aeneas) – Aeneid Book 2.40-55

Answer 50

“Then suddenly at the head of a great throng Laocoon came running down in a blaze of fury from the heights of the citadel, shouting from a distance as he came: ‘O you poor fools! Are you out of your minds, you Trojans? Do you seriously believe that your enemies have sailed away? Do you imagine Greeks ever give gifts without some devious purposes? Is this all you know about Ulysses (Odysseus)? I tell you, there are Greeks hiding in here, shut up in all of this wood or else it is a siege engine designed for use against our walls, to spy on our homes and come down on the city from above, or else there is some other trick we cannot see. Do not trust the horse, Trojans. Whatever it is, I am afraid of the Greeks, particularly when they bring gifts.’
With these words he threw a spear with all his strength into the beast’s sides, into the curved timbers of its belly. It stuck there vibrating, the creature’s womb quivered and the hollow caverns boomed and groaned. If divine Fate, if the minds of the gods had not been set against us, Laocoon would surely have forced us to tear open the hiding places of the Greeks with our swords, Troy would still be standing and the high citadel of Priam would still be in its place.”

Question 51

The sacking of the city of Troy

Answer 51

Wooden horse brought inside Troy.
Greeks return from Tenedos.
Slaughter of Trojans.
Violation of Cassandra – doubly sacrilegious (temple location and acting as a suppliant).

Taken as a war prize by Agememnon

Question 52

Fall of Troy (in the words of Aeneas) – Aeneid Book 2.245-270

Answer 52

“Even then Cassandra, who, by the god’s decree, is never to be believed by Trojans, reveals our future fate with her lips. We unfortunate ones, for whom that day is our last, clothe the gods’ temples, throughout the city, with festive branches. Meanwhile the heavens turn, and night rushes from the Ocean, wrapping the earth, and sky, and the Myrmidons’ tricks, in its vast shadow: through the city the Trojans fall silent: sleep enfolds their weary limbs.
And now the Greek phalanx of battle-ready ships sailed from Tenedos, in the benign stillness of the silent moon, seeking the known shore, when the royal galley raised a torch, and Sinon, protected by the gods’ unjust doom, sets free the Greeks imprisoned by planks of pine, in the horses’ belly. Opened, it releases them to the air, and sliding down a lowered rope, Thessandrus, and Sthenelus, the leaders, and fatal Ulysses, emerge joyfully from their wooden cave, with Acamas, Thoas, Peleus’s son Neoptolemus, the noble Machaon, Menelaus, and Epeus who himself devised this trick. They invade the city that’s drowned in sleep and wine, kill the watchmen, welcome their comrades at the open gates, and link their clandestine ranks. It was the hour when first sleep begins for weary mortals, and steals over them as the sweetest gift of the gods.”

Question 53

Virgil’s Aeneid:

Aeneas as the Proto-Founder of Rome

Answer 53

Note that Aeneas’ mother is the goddess VENUS (Aphrodite).

Venus (immortal) and Anchises (mortal).
Descendants of Iulus = The Julii? = Julius Caesar.

Rome (and thus the emperor Augustus) has a double divine connection – Venus AND Mars. => Rome had a double divine connection = mythical trojan trojans and link to the first emperor Julius ceasar

Aeneas survives the fall of Troy, escape to Italy. His son Latinus also Ascanius

see the family tree on slides ?????????????

Founder of the city of Rome, and the Roman race// population

Question 54

Aeneid Book 2. 705-725

Answer 54

The noise of the fires was growing louder and louder through the city and the tide of flame was rolling nearer.
“Come then, dear father, up on my back. I shall take you on my shoulders. Your weight will be nothing to me. Whatever may come, danger or safety, it will be the same for both of us. Young Iulus can walk by my side and my wife can follow in my footsteps at a distance. And you, slaves of our house, must pay attention to what I am saying. As you leave the city there is a mound with a lonely temple of Ceres. Near it is an ancient cypress preserved and revered for many long years by our ancestors. We shall go to that one place by different routes. You father, take in your arms the sacraments and the ancestral gods of our home. I am fresh from all the fighting and killing and it is not right for me to touch them till I have washed in a running stream.
When I had finished speaking, I put on a tawny lion’s skin as a covering for my neck and the breadth of my shoulders and then I bowed down and took up my burden. Little Iulus wined his fingers in my right hand and kept up with me with his short steps. Creusa walked behind us….

Question 55

Aeneas forgets his wife Creusa

Answer 55

Aeneas FORGETS HIS WIFE!!!
Necessary for DESTINY!!! Aeneas needs to be a free agent when he gets to Italy, so that he can marry Lavinia and start the Roman race!
Aeneid 2.729-745

Appears as a ghost to Aeneas.
Everything is ok because…. DESTINY!!!!
Significance of saving his son = crucial for continuing the family line and, therefore, establishing the ‘Roman race’.
Aeneid 2.772-790.

I was now coming near the gates and it seemed that our journey was nearly over and we had escaped, when I suddenly thought I heard the sound of many marching feet and my father looking out through the darkness cried:
“Run, my son, run. They are coming this way. I can see the flames reflected on their shields and the bronze glinting.”
At that moment some hostile power confused me and robbed me of my wits. I ran where there was no road, leaving the familiar area of the streets. Then it was that my wife Creusa was torn from me by the cruelty of Fate – whether she stopped or lost her way or sat down exhausted, no one can tell. I never saw her again. Nor did I look behind me or think of her or realize that she was lost till we arrived at the mound and the ancient sanctuary of Ceres. But when at last everyone had gathered there, she was the only one not with us…

I would not give up the search but was still rushing around the houses of the city when her likeness appeared in sorrow before my eyes, her very ghost, but larger than she was in life. I was paralysed. My hair stood on end. My voice stuck in my throat. Then she spoke to me and comforted my sorrow with these words:
“Oh husband that I love, why do you choose to give yourself to such wild grief? These things do not happen without the approval of the gods. It is not their will that Creusa should go with you when you leave this place. The King of High Olympus does not allow it. Before you lies a long exile and a vast expanse of sea to plough before you come to the land of Hesperia where the Lydian river Thybris flows with smooth advance through a rich land of brave warriors. There prosperity is waiting for you, and a kingdom and a royal bride. Wipe away the tears you are shedding for Creusa whom you loved. I shall not have to see the proud palaces of the Myrmidons and Dolopians. I am a daughter of Dardanus and my husband was the son of Venus, and I shall never go to be a slave to any matron of Greece. The Great Mother of the Gods keeps me here in this land of Troy. Now fare you well. Do not fail in your love for our son.”

Question 56

Agamemnon goes Home

the Nostoi

Answer 56

means home-coming

Question 57

The Curse on the House of Atreus

Answer 57

Tantalus tries to feed Pelops to the gods.

Thyestes goes off with Atreus’ wife.

Atreus kills two of Thyestes’ sons AND feeds them to him.

Thyestes has one surviving son = Aegisthus.

Agamemnon sacrifices his own daughter, Iphigenia.

Question 58

The revenge of Clytemnestra

Answer 58

Background context = sacrifice of Iphigenia at Aulis.

Clytemnestra and Aegisthus as lovers.

Agamemnon returns to Mycenae with Cassandra!

Clytemnestra offers Agamemnon a bath….

Murder of Agamemnon and Cassandra – just Clytemnestra (Aeschylus) OR
Clytemnestra and Aegisthus acting together (Homer)?

Aeschylus’ Oresteia trilogy = Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides.

Question 59

Clytemnestra Declares her ‘Triumph’ (from Aeschylus’ Agamemnon)

Answer 59

[The palace doors open, revealing the bodies of Agamemnon and Cassandra. Clytemnestra stands over them. She is covered in blood]
CLYTEMNESTRABefore this moment I said many thingsto suit my purposes. I’m not ashamedto contradict them now. How else could Iact on my hate for such a hateful man, who feigned his love, how else prepare my nets of agony so high no one could jump them?I’ve brooded on this struggle many years,the old blood feud. My moment’s come at last, though long delayed. I stand now where I struck,where I achieved what I set out to do.I did all this. I won’t deny the fact. Round this man I cast my all-embracing net, rich robes of evil, as if catching fish—he had no way out, no eluding fate.I stabbed him twice. He gave out two groans.Then as his limbs went limp, I hit again,a third blow, my prayerful dedication to Zeus,undergroundprotector of the dead.He collapsed, snorting his life away,spitting great gobs of blood all over me,drenching me in showers of his dark blood.And I rejoiced—just as the fecund earthrejoices when the heavens send spring rains, and new-born flower buds burst into bloom.That’s how things stand, old men of Argos. Be joyful, if that’s how you feel. For me,this is my triumph. If it were fittingto pour libations on this corpse,I’d pour my curses out—that would be just. He filled the mixing bowls in his own housewith such destructive misery, and now he drinks it to the dregs. He’s home at last.

Question 60

The revenge of Orestes and Electra!

Answer 60

Orestes & Electra:

Clytemnestra & Aegisthus usurp throne of Mycenae.

Orestes grows to adulthood in exile & court of king of Phocis.

Orestes’ duty to avenge his father’s murder (on the orders of Apollo).

Orestes teams up with Electra to enact this revenge – matricide (killing your own mother) is very bad!

Curse continues!

The Libation Bearers (Aeschylus)
Electra (Sophocles)
Electra (Euripdes)

Question 61

Orestes avenges his father (From Aeschylus’ The Libation Bearers)

Answer 61

[The palace doors are thrown open, revealing Orestes standing above the bodies ofAegisthusand Clytemnestra.Pyladesstands beside Orestes.With them areattendants holding the bloodstained robes of Agamemnon]
ORESTES Here you see them—this pair of tyrants. They killed my father,thenrobbed my home. Once they sat enthroned in regal splendour. They’re lovers still, as you can witness here by how they died, true to the oaths they swore. They made a pact to murder my poor father, then die together.Well, they’ve kept their word.
[Orestes starts unfurling the robes in which Agamemnon was killed]
Look at this again, all those of you who pay attention to this house’s troubles. This robe they used to trap my helpless father. With it they tied his hands and lashed his feet. Spread it out. Stand round here in a group—put it on display, my father’s death shroud, so that the Father (not mine—the one who sees everything, the Sun) can see my mother’s sacrilege. Then he will comeon the day when I am judged, to testify that I pursued and even killed my mother in a just cause.AboutAegisthus’ death there’s nothing I need say. As an adulterer, he dies—our law’s just punishment. But as for her who planned this evil act against her husband, a man whose children she carried in her womb—I loved her once, but she became my bitter enemy, as you can see.What do you make of her? If she’d been born a viper or sea snake, she wouldn’t need to bite—her very touchwould make men rot, so evil is her heart, so reckless.