Meet
the Heroes of the Trojan War
The Trojan War erupted (in 13th or 12th
Century B.C.) when Prince Paris of Troy eloped with Helen, Queen of Sparta.
Helen’s husband Menelaus turned to his powerful brother Agamemnon for help. The
latter was King of Mycenae and an ambitious man who nursed a desire to unite
and lead all of Greece, which was divided into a number of small kingdoms at
the time. He succeeded in persuading other Greek kings, notably Odysseus of
Ithaca and Achilles of Phthia, to sail across the Aegean in over a thousand
ships to the shores of Troy (believed to be Hissarlik in modern-day Turkey).
Stories about the Trojan War were passed down for
generations by oral tradition until the Greek poet Homer gave them epic form in
Iliad and Odyssey (7th or 6th Century B.C). The Latin
poet Virgil mourned the sack of Troy in his epic Aeneid. Many more poets and dramatists went on to describe events
relating to the Greeks’ decade-long siege of Troy, of the Trojan Prince
Hector’s bravery, of the wrath of Achilles, of Troy’s un-breached walls until
the stratagem of the wooden horse...
Some of the heroes of this war are...
The painting is of Thetis dipping the infant Achilles into the River Styx. By Peter Paul Reubens, 1635
Achilles
The most famous
character in the war. Son of the immortal nymph Thetis and the mortal Peleus,
King of Myrmidions based in Phthia. The Achilleid,
written by Statius in the first century A.D., records the story of his rumoured
immorality. His mother Thetis dipped him in the sacred River Styx to render him
immortal but he was left vulnerable at his heel, the part of his body by which
she’d held him. Hence the term ‘Achilles Heel’, indicating a person’s vulnerability.
Also the term ‘Achilles Tendon’, which describes the muscle just above the
heel.
Achilles is the central
character of Homer’s Iliad and the
epic begins with a reference to him:
‘Sing, Goddess, of the rage of Peleus’ son Achilles,
The
accursed rage that brought great suffering to the Achaeans...’
According to the Iliad Achilles arrived at Troy with
fifty ships each carrying fifty Myrmidons (Book 2). But he left the battle
towards the end of the war when Agamemnon, leader of the Greeks, deprived him
of his favourite slave Briseis. Achilles was married, as well, to Deidamia, who
bore him a son Neoptolemus. Achilles’ battle prowess is alluded to throughout
the Iliad and the Trojans fear him.
When the Trojan Prince Hector kills his cousin Patroclus, Achilles chases
Hector outside the walls of Troy and kills him. It’s a turning point in the
war. However, he is killed soon after by Paris’ arrow through his heel.
The legend of Achilles
continued long after the Iliad. In
Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus visits the
underworld and meets the shades, one of whom is Achilles. The great warrior
expresses curiosity about his son Neoptolemus’ performance in the Trojan War.
Achilles is mentioned in numerous other classical sources and there was a cult
of Achilles worship for some time. Alexander the Great claimed Achilles as his
ancestor and visited the tomb of Achilles at Achilleion near Troy.
Hector
The greatest Trojan
warrior. The eldest son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba. Husband to Andromache
and father to Astyanax. Described as a gallant and brave prince, a tragic
figure propelled into battle because of his younger brother Paris’ selfishness.
In the Iliad he is praised by Greeks
and Trojans alike. He wreaks destruction upon the Greeks but his end comes when
he kills Achilles’ cousin Patroclus, causing the mighty Myrmidon King to chase
and kill him outside the walls of Troy. Achilles ties Hector’s body to his
chariot and drags it through the Grecian camp. He mistreats it until King Priam
comes in person and requests the release of his son’s body. Although Hector
meets a grisly end, he is remembered as a great and noble warrior. Homer calls
him the “breaker of horses” and “godlike Hector”. During the sack of
Troy, however, his wife and child meet a tragic end, too. The infant Astyanax
is thrown from the walls of Troy, while Andromache is taken slave by the
Greeks.
Fresco painting by Franz Matsch of Hector's body being dragged by Achilles. A poignant moment in the Trojan War.
Agamemnon
King of Mycenae. The
most interesting and complex character of the Trojan War. A man of extreme
passions, cruel but admired. Helen’s brother-in-law on both sides: her husband
Menelaus’ brother and also husband to her sister Clytemnestra. Helen calls him
a great king in the Iliad. Priam,
King of Troy, describes him as: “So tall,
so aweful, and almost divine.../ None match his grandeur and exalted mien.”
(Alexander Pope’s translation of the Iliad).
He’s the one that leads the united Greek forces against Troy after Paris elopes
with Helen. But Agamemnon is a man of dark deeds. He took Clytemnestra by force
after killing her husband Tantalus, King of Pisa and their infant son. Then,
when the Greek forces gathered at Aulis encounter unfavourable winds, the
priest Calchas tells Agamemnon to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia to goddess
Artemis. Agamemnon convinces his wife to send the young girl to Aulis on the
pretext of getting her married to Achilles. When she arrives, Agamemnon kills
her by slitting her throat, thereby leaving the other Kings amazed at his
resolve. The winds change and the Greek forces sail for Troy.
After the sack of Troy
Agamemnon takes the Trojan Princess Cassandra as his war-prize and returns to
Mycenae. In his absence Clytemnestra had begun an affair with his cousin
Aegisthus. She murders Agamemnon with a double-blade axe and kills Cassandra,
too. Aegisthus replaces Agamemnon on the throne and rules for seven years. Once
they’re of age, Clytemnestra’s children (Agamemnon’s off spring) Orestes and
Electra kill her and Aegisthus to avenge their father’s death, thus ending the
bloody saga of Agamemnon.
Agamemnon’s story has
fascinated dramatists for centuries. Aeschylus’ Oresteia is the most famous rendition of the tragic Mycenae tale.
In Homer’s Odyssey, Agamemnon meets
Odysseus during the latter’s journey to the underworld, reveals the manner of
his death and warns him against trusting women! (Fine one to talk, wasn’t he?)
Paris
Prince of Troy, son of
King Priam and Queen Hecuba. Homer calls him “author of the (Trojan) war.”
His abduction of Helen, Queen of Sparta, was the immediate cause of the war.
Paris is supposed to have been one of the most handsome men of all and his
older brother Hector chides him for this. “Beauty
and youth, in vain to these you trust” (Alexander Pope’s translation of the
Iliad, 1715). He is lily-livered and
avoids doing battle with Helen’s husband Menelaus. But he redeems himself
during the last stage of the war by killing the great Achilles. His end comes
when the gifted archer Philoctetes sends three arrows into him.
His relationship with
Helen is complex. In some versions of the tale he is supposed to have abducted
her, while other stories maintain that she eloped with him. In the Iliad she’s seen as repenting of her
actions. She doesn’t seem to have much love lost for him, either. But movie
versions, particularly the 1997 Brad Pitt starrer in which Orlando Bloom plays
Paris, present them as passionate lovers.
This 18th Century painting depicts the abduction of Helen by Paris.
Odysseus
King of Ithaca, husband
of Penelope and father to Telemachus. He’s also given the Trojan Queen Hecuba
as a war-prize after the sack of Troy (although she was no spring chicken,
having raised Hector, Paris, three sons and Cassandra- all grown up- by then!).
Odysseus, called Ulysses by the Romans, is arguably the greatest hero of the
war since he not only survives it but reaches home safely and also gets an
entire epic for his journey home, namely Homer’s Odyssey. It’s an interesting commentary on the value of brain over
brawn, for Odysseus is revered more for his wisdom than bravery in battle,
throughout the Iliad.
He is called “Great in council, glorious in the field”
and “A chief, in wisdom equal to a god.”
(Alexander Pope’s translation of the Iliad, 1715). Helen calls him “Ithacus the wise” and declares that “His fame for wisdom fills the spacious earth.”
He is also the one who thinks up the stratagem of the wooden horse, which
ultimately destroys the unbreached walls of Troy.
