Important Moments of the Trojan War

The most important moment of glory for the Trojans was when they thought they had won the war and were feasting for many days.   On the other hand they actually wouldn’t end up winning the war, and their city would be burned to the ground.  The Spartans most glorious moment was as they watched the city of Troy burn to the ground.

Aeneas

Aeneas was the son of a goddess and a mortal. His father thought that he would be killed by the gods because he slept with a goddess, so he tried to keep quiet about it. One day he was boasting about this to his friends and he was struck by lightning by Zues. Aeneas was injured in the Trojan war by Diomedes. He passed out because of his injury and thankfully his mother found him. Apollo protected him and brought him to two men named Leto and Artemis that healed him. Aeneas was now stronger than before. They believed that they had won the war against Sparta and began feasting. When the city was being burned down, they let him leave Troy with his father on his back out of their own piety. After his father had died, he began recieving messages from ghosts telling him to go to sail to different islands. Aeneas was drawn to Carthage and later had trouble leaving becuase of the queen. The queen killed herself and blamed her death on Aeneas becasue of the problems he gave her. Aeneas soon decended into the underworld where he met his father and the queen again. There are many different ways Aeneas might have died, and also he was said to have possibly become immortal and turned into a god named Indiges.

Odysseus and the Trojan Horse

Odysseus was the son of Laertes and was also the ruler of Ithaca. Odysseus had wished to marry Helen of Troy, but Menelaus won her instead. Though Odysseus lost Helen to Menelaus he still ended up joining an expedition with Menelaus included to fight against the Trojans in the Trojan War. Odysseus fought heroically and refused to leave the field when the Greek troops were being routed by the Trojans. Odysseus was also the originator of the Trojan horse, a strategy formed by the Greeks with Odysseus at the head of the idea.

Odysseus ordered a large wooden horse to be built. The insides were to be hollow so that Greek soldiers could hide inside. Once the statue had been built by the artist Epeius, many of the Greek soldiers, along with Odysseus, climbed inside. The rest of the Greek fleet sailed away to make the Trojans think they were giving up. One man, Sinon, was left behind. When the Trojans came to marvel at the huge creation, Sinon pretended to be angry with the Greeks, claiming that they had deserted him. He assured the Trojans that the wooden horse was safe and would bring luck to the Trojans. Only two people, Laocoon and Cassandra, spoke out against the horse, but they were ignored. The Trojans celebrated what they thought was their victory, and dragged the wooden horse into Troy. That night, after most of Troy was asleep or drunk from the parties, Sinon let the Greek warriors out from the horse, and they slaughtered the Trojans. Priam was killed as he huddled by Zeus’ altar and Cassandra was pulled from the statue of Athena and raped. Troy had been defeated by the Greeks.

“The Trojan War.” Stanford.edu. Stanford. Web. 1 Oct. 2009. .

Posted by: Nicole Carlson

The Aeneid

In Virgil’s Aeneid, the story of how Aeneas came to Rome is told. When the Trojan War ends, Aeneas flees with his elderly father on his back and other Trojans and head out to sea in search of a new home. At first, they try to build a city on the island of Crete but are forced to leave because of a plague and try to found another city. On another island, they try to build a city but are once again driven out by Harpies and are supposedly cursed by their leader. Next, they try to found a city on another island only to find that a Cyclops already occupies the island, so they set out for Carthage instead where they meet Dido, the founder of Carthage. After meeting with Aeneas, she proclaims her love for him, but once Aeneas decides Carthage isn’t the right city for them and decides to leave, Dido kills herself and sets Carthage aflame.

The group travels for a while and finally lands in Laurentum and are greeted by King Latinus who had recently heard a prophecy that his daughter, Lavinia, should be wed to a foreigner named, Juno. Latinus sends one of his men to stop this but actually starts a war between the Trojans and the Latins by telling Lavinia’s other suitor, Turnus, about the prophecy. Eventually, the Latins realize that a Trojan victory is inevitable and call Aeneas in to fight Turnus one-on-one. Aeneas kills Turnus and decides that he should start his new city where he was with the Latins as his followers. His descendants would eventually become the rulers of Rome.

Ajax

Ajax was the son of Telamon, king of Salamis. After Achilles, he was the mightiest of the Greek heroes in the Trojan War.

Ajax was a huge man, head and shoulders larger than the other Greeks, enormously strong but somewhat slow of speech. In the Iliad, he is often called the “wall” or “bulwark” (herkos) of the Greeks. When Achilles had withdrawn from the fighting at Troy, it was Ajax who went forth to meet Hector in single combat; by the time darkness fell the fight was still a stalemate, but Ajax had wounded Hector without sustaining injury himself
After Achilles’ death, Ajax competed with Odysseus for the ownership of Achilles’ armor. Both men delivered speeches explaining their own merits, but Odysseus was by far the more eloquent and won the prize. Ajax was driven mad by his disappointment. According to one account, he vowed vengeance on the Greeks and began slaughtering cattle, mistaking them for his former comrades-in-arms. He finally committed suicide.
Ajax is often called “Telemonian Ajax” or “the greater Ajax,” to distinguish him from Ajax the Lesser the son of Oileus, who also fought for the Greeks at Troy.

“Ajax.” Encyclopedia Mythica. 2009. Encyclopedia Mythica Online.
01 Oct. 2009 .

Diomedes

A legendary Greek hero, son of Tydeus and Deipyle (Tydides). He was the favorite of Athena and was under her protection. Diomedes participated in the expedition of the Epigone (“the After-born”) against Thebes. Later he succeeded his grandfather Adrastus as the king of Argos and joined the Greeks against Troy. On the Greek side, the two greatest champions were Ajax and Diomedes. They fought gloriously and many a Trojan fell before their weapons. Diomedes nearly slew Prince Aeneas. Aeneas was of royal blood, and the goddess Aphrodite (his mother) hastened to the battlefield to save him. She lifted him in her arms, but Diomedes leaped towards her and wounded her hand. Crying out she let Aeneas fall, and weeping for pain she made her way to the Olympus. Although Aphrodite failed to save her son, Aeneas did not die that day. Apollo enveloped him in a cloud and carried him to sacred Pergamos, the holy place of Troy, where Artemis healed him of his wound.
The battle went on, and Diomedes, wreaking havoc in the Trojan ranks, came face to face with Hector. There to his dismay, he saw the war-god Ares too, fighting for Hector. At the sight of the bloodstained murderous god, Diomedes cried to the Greeks to fall back, slowly, and with their faces toward the Trojans. When Hera saw what was happening, she became very angry and urged her horses to Olympus. She asked Zeus if she might drive Ares from the battlefield, and Zeus, who loved him no more than she did although he was their son, willingly gave her leave. She hastened down to stand besides Diomedes and urged him to smite the terrible god and have no fear. At her words, joy filled his heart and Diomedes rushed at Ares and hurled his spear at him. Athena drove it home, and it entered Ares’ body. The god bellowed as loud as ten thousand cry in battle, and at the awful sound trembling seized the whole host, Greeks and Trojans alike. Ares fled from the battlefield and with the war-god gone, the Trojans were forced to fall back.
Diomedes also accompanied Odysseus in the nocturnal raid on Troy, to steal the Palladium; the ancient figure of the goddess and venerated by the Trojans more than anything else. They managed to secretly carry it away, and Diomedes took it with him to Argos (but in other stories, it was Aeneas who took the Palladium with him).
When he returned home he discovered that his wife Aegiale had been unfaithful to him. He left Argos and arrived after some journeys in southern Italy where he supposedly founded several cities, among which Brindisium (Brindisi) and Arpus Hippium (Arpi).

“Diomedes.” Encyclopedia Mythica. 2009. Encyclopedia Mythica Online.
01 Oct. 2009 .

Helenus

Helenus was a Trojan seer and warrior who was also the son of Priam and Hecuba (siblings were Paris, Hector, and Cassandra) and is looked upon as one the best seerers in history. In the Trojan War, he was captured by the Greeks and supposedly forced to reveal the prophecy of the Trojans falling to them in the city of Troy that he had made a while back. After the war, he was given to Neoptolemus who enslaved him and took him to Epirus. After Neoptolemus died, he married Andromache and inherited part of Neoptolemus’ realm and founded in Epirus a new version of Troy.

Paris

Paris was the second son of Priam and Hecuba, but was abandoned by them when they were told he would cause the downfall of Troy. Because of this, he was raised in the wilderness by a she-bear and grew up to be strong and confident. When he was older, he married the nymph Oenone but was with her shortly because of the incident with the Apple of Discord. Hermes brought Helena, Aphrodite, and Athena before Paris to choose which one was the most beautiful. They all offered him gifts, but Aphrodite offered him Helen of Troy and chose her in the end.

When Paris took Helen, the Trojan War began which was basically to retrieve Helen back from Paris and lasted over ten years. Finally, it ended with the destruction of Troy, but Paris and Helen ran off together. Soon after, he was shot with a poisonous arrow and tried to return to Oenone because she had the power to heal him, but she refused. He died in Troy and left Helen to return to her original husband, Menelaus.

Memnon

Memnon was the King of Ethiopia and the son of Tithonus (past King of Troy) and Eos (the sun goddess). His uncle Priam was the current King of Troy whom he helped during the Trojan war.

The legend of Memnon was that two statues in Egypt sang musical sounds when the sun rose. This was said to have been Memnon greeting his mother in the morning. The statues were damaged during an earthquake, so the king repaired them to their original state. Ever since this was done the statues stopped greeting the sun every morning.

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Posted by: Nicole Carlson