THE TROJAN WAR

Timmy, Alex, Matt

Origins and History

The Trojan War was a war between the Greeks and Trojans which began in 1193BC and lasted for 9-10 years.

The Trojan War began when Paris, Prince of Troy, ran away with Helen, wife of King Menelaus of Sparta. The Greeks sent a fleet of ships, with an army, to get her back.

The first nine years of the war consisted of both war in Troy and war against the neighbouring regions. The Greeks realized that Troy was being supplied by its neighbouring kingdoms, so Greeks were sent to defeat these areas.

As well as destroying the Trojan economy, these battles let the Greeks gather a large amount of resources and other spoils of war, including women (e.g., Briseis and Chryseis).

The Greeks won many important battles and the Trojan hero Hector fell. However, the Greeks could not break down the walls of Troy.

Patroclus was killed and, soon after, Achilles was felled by Paris

Main event – the takeover of Troy There was an ancient city named Troy, which is now Turkey,

where the Trojans lived (shock horror) which was protected by a 20ft high wall built around the city.

The wall provided protection for the people of Troy as the wall allowed Trojan warriors to protect Trojan citizens and keep out/kill enemies trying to break in.

The Greeks were trying to breach the wall for around 10 years but couldn't find a way in.

This led to the idea of the Trojan horse when Greek soldiers hid inside a wooden horse which was a gift to trick the Trojans into thinking the Greeks had surrendered.

Once the Trojans brought the horse inside, the Greek soldiers broke out at night and allowed the hiding Greek army to storm the city. Troy was destroyed and the war was over

The location of the war

Troy is generally believed to have been located somewhere in Asia Minor/Anatolia (which we would call Turkey).

Location of the war continued... The Greeks would have come from…

Greece. Most of them would have probably

been from this area: • Agamemnon is often referred to as either King of Mycenae or King of Argos. It is likely that these are two different names for the same area.

• Mycenaean Greece was the last period of the Bronze Age where the Trojan war is believed to have taken place.

The Trojan war within the Iliad Homer in his Iliad describes all the events of

the ninth year of the war and refers to past events in a retrospective way with flash backs. The Iliad ends with the death of Hector from Achilles and all the other events are described in Odyssey, the epic of the return of Odysseus home.

Albert B. Lord believes that Homer writes about the war as he was a part of a proud family of poets. He added the war in to glorify his ancestors as war was seen as heroic and brave.

Historical or mythical?

There have many debates on whether the Trojan war was a myth or an actual historical event.

Up until modern times, most scholars believed the Trojan War to be fantasy, but recent evidence has brought doubt upon this idea.

It is still agreed that Homer based the Iliad in the wrong time period though, by over 400 years.

There is no historical evidence from the time period that Ilium ever existed; no documents, no artefacts, no mention.

Others believe that the Trojan War was actually a way of describing a massive natural disaster that occurred at the time, causing such a massive loss in life.

The weapons and armour of the soldiers is not typically Greek, and the chariot warfare is incorrect, so it is thought that the war scenes were imagined by Homer.

PICTURES!!!!