History UsefulNotes / TheTrojanWar

According to the Achaeans themselves, the Trojan War took place during the 12th or 13th century BC, with Troy itself located somewhere in northwestern Anatolia (today part of UsefulNotes/{{Turkey}}). During classical history, the Greeks accepted the war as fact, although many doubted that it transpired exactly as stated.[[note]] Thucydides for instance doubted that the war could have occured as described, he being a military man was sure that it was logistically impossble, but he accepted that it was a real conflict. [[/note]] This continued through TheMiddleAges. However from the time of UsefulNotes/TheEnlightenment onwards, they began to doubt it. By the time of the nineteenth century historians believed Troy to be just north of Albany. Really.[[note]]For those unfamiliar with American geography, there is a small city called Troy in [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkState Upstate New York]], just north of the state capital, Albany.[[/note]] The historian George Grote devoted only a few pages to it in his massive 11 volume ''History of Greece'', stating (with the smug certainty and confidence that only Victorians could have) that it was a fun but baseless story... at least until archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann unearthed the ruins of a city he identified as Troy in 1870. His claims have not been challenged. Uh oh.\\

It's also worth noting that Helen was the actual Queen of Sparta, and that [[HeirInLaw Menelaus only became king by marrying her]]. When Paris kidnapped/made off with her, he not only jeopardised Menelaus' position as king, but gave the Trojans a claim on a kingdom in mainland Greece. Given that after Paris's death, the Trojans marry Helen off to [[DarkHorseSibling his brother Deiphobus]], it seems likely that they were planning to make something of this claim, which the Greek-city states--and in particular the Myceneans under Agamemnon--would never have allowed.\\

Finally, there's often talk about what kind of relationship, precisely, existed between Achilles and Patroclus. The easiest jump to make is to the Hellenic custom of pederastic patronage; in the ''ErastesEromenos'' relationship, the older man (the ''erastes'') traded advice, networking and business connections to a younger man (the ''eromenos''), who would in return make himself available for various sexual favors. The historical objection to Achilles and Patroclus having this kind of relationship is that it might not have ''existed'' at the time; this was a feature of ''Classical'' Athens, not Heroic Athens, and first developed in the 7th century BC, long after this war was fought. (ExactWords time: this is merely to state that Achilles and Patroclus did not have an ''ErastesEromenos'' relationship. Whether they were ''actually'' lovers is not known to history or fiction; there's nothing in the tale that talks about it one way or the other. Note that Patroclus was probably ''older'' than Achilles, and that Achilles had a canonical son, who fought alongside him in the war. In fact, that's who married Hermione at the end of things, with him being maybe 17 and her at least twice that. But that's another story.)
[[/folder]]

** ''Film/HelenOfTroy'': A German silent film, a Golden/Silver Age Hollywood epic film and a 2003 miniseries.

* ''Film/{{Troy}}'', the Hollywood version of the war.

[[folder: Actual History]]

The LoveTriangle between Helen, Menelaus, and Paris does present issues consistent with an ArrangedMarriage. Because Helen had a nine-year-old daughter by Menelaus, it can be assumed that the two of them had been married for at least that long when Paris arrived. This raises the question of how old Helen was, not to mention how old Paris was, and what sort of relationship they had. Keep in mind that, here in ancient Greece, girl-children were considered TheLoad: you had to pour wealth and food into them, ''and'' send them off with a dowry, and what would you get in return? The gratitude of her husband and his family, sure, but ''that'' might not be worth much. So the smartest thing you can do is get rid of this parasite as fast as possible. Greek girls were married off the instant they hit menstruation. Men, on the other hand, needed some time to build up industry and wealth before they took a wife. The end result was that, on her wedding night, Helen would have been something like 14, and Menelaus more like 30 or 35. It's quite unlikely that the two of them would have bonded in the husband-wife love-between-equals relationship we enlightened 21st-century residents think is natural and/or necessary for marriage, or even the "well, the most important thing in a marriage is the advantage, but the spouses should have complementary qualities and at least ''like'' each other to make it work--if only to avoid scandal" attitude that prevailed among the Victorians and Edwardians (and persisted in at least some circles well past World War II).\\

According to the Achaeans themselves, the Trojan War took place during the 12th or 13th century BC, with Troy itself located somewhere in modern-day Turkey. During classical history, the Greeks accepted the war as fact, although many doubted that it transpired exactly as stated.[[note]] Thucydides for instance doubted that the war could have occured as described, he being a military man was sure that it was logistically impossble, but he accepted that it was a real conflict. [[/note]] This continued through TheMiddleAges. However from the time of UsefulNotes/TheEnlightenment onwards, they began to doubt it. By the time of the nineteenth century historians believed Troy to be just north of Albany. Really.[[note]]For those unfamiliar with American geography, there is a small city called Troy in [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkState Upstate New York]], just north of the state capital, Albany.[[/note]] The historian George Grote devoted only a few pages to it in his massive 11 volume ''History of Greece'', stating (with the smug certainty and confidence that only Victorians could have) that it was a fun but baseless story... at least until archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann unearthed the ruins of a city he identified as Troy in 1870. His claims have not been challenged. Uh oh.\\

More archeology was done at the site, which confirmed the hypothesis. In the early 20th century, the writings of the Hittites and other contemporary civilizations were deciphered which seemed to affirm the theory/[[note]] and tantalizingly gave names. Wilusa for Troy. An Alexanderus as a King[[/note]] But then a snag, further excavations seemed to show that the site was too small to have been a city of the type and nature stated in the story. But, in the 1990s and the early 2000s more and more discoveries once again led credence to the claims of historicity. They site is now thought to have been a major city[[note]]or at least a major city at the relevant time, see below[[/note]] and descriptions of the geography of the time is now confirmed to be in consonance [[http://www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2003/troy030303.html with what we know]]. Looking deeper into the source you can see many clues in Greek records which seem to bear the story out.[[note]]summarized well [[http://gatesofnineveh.wordpress.com/2011/09/06/the-trojan-war-in-greek-historical-sources/ here]][[/note]] Even within the story, there are clues that it's not an invention. The catalogue of ships in ''The Iliad'' -- basically a list of all the troops from all the Greek cities involved -- mentions cities that no longer existed at the time of its writing and whose existence could not have been known to Homer through any other means. So while there is no consensus, there is a great weight of evidence that ''something'' happened that was remembered, be it a series of wars or one rather memorable Trojan war (summary [[http://archive.archaeology.org/0405/etc/troy.html here]]). So why can't we put this to rest?\\

The problem is, however, that there have been ''nine'' cities on the site, built in layers one atop the other. The oldest (Troy I) was founded somewhere around 3000 BC; the last (Troy IX) was founded by UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire somewhere around 100 BC. It is generally accepted that Troy VII is the city which the Achaeans burned to the ground. Part of the problem is that Schliemann is perhaps the world's luckiest decidedly amateur archaeologist; the deep gash he cut in the site makes it easy to date layers but hard to identify artifacts. As to the dates, the Achaeans weren't far off; scholars estimate the war took place around the 12th or 11th century BC, and (at least partially out of affection) often let stand the dates provided by the Greek historian Eratosthenes, 1194-1184 BC.\\

Troy was so very rich because they were on main trade route for bronze, and was destroyed so very often because everyone wanted a piece of the action. To make things worse, they were also on the border when the cold war between the Achaeans and their Anatolian neighbours, the Hittites, turned hot. There are actual letters from the Hittite royal archive thought to discuss this war as what it was--a trade conflict--which takes away a lot of the romance.\\

However, a lot of this is still more speculative than you would think; for instance, the German archaeologist Dieter Hertel makes a not unconvincing case that the archaeological evidence is consistent with the city being destroyed by an earthquake, not war, and considers it more likely that migrating Aeolians eventually moved into the destroyed place and that the myths about Troy reflect either this or a previous unsuccessful Greek attack on Troy. He also casts doubt on the wealth and wider importance of Troy, pointing out that it was by no means the only town on the coast of that part of the Hellespontos. Finally, the identity of the town called "Wilusa" in Hittite sources with Ilium or Troy is still unproven. And in 2008 the Austrian writer and philologist Raoul Schrott after translating the Iliad from scratch and comparing it to Assyrian literature advanced the highly contentious hypothesis that Homer's work is set not in north-western Asia Minor, but in Cilicia, in the southeast.\\

Because Helen had a nine-year-old daughter by Menelaus, it can be assumed that the two of them had been married for at least that long when Paris arrived. This raises the question of how old Helen was, not to mention how old Paris was, and what sort of relationship they had. Keep in mind that, here in ancient Greece, girl-children were considered TheLoad: you had to pour wealth and food into them, ''and'' send them off with a dowry, and what would you get in return? The gratitude of her husband and his family, sure, but ''that'' might not be worth much. So the smartest thing you can do is get rid of this parasite as fast as possible. Greek girls were married off the instant they hit menstruation. Men, on the other hand, needed some time to build up industry and wealth before they took a wife. The end result was that, on her wedding night, Helen would have been something like 14, and Menelaus more like 30 or 35. It's quite unlikely that the two of them would have bonded in the husband-wife love-between-equals relationship we enlightened 21st-century residents think is natural and/or necessary for marriage, or even the "well, the most important thing in a marriage is the advantage, but the spouses should have complementary qualities and at least ''like'' each other to make it work--if only to avoid scandal" attitude that prevailed among the Victorians and Edwardians (and persisted in at least some circles well past World War II). ArrangedMarriage, played straight.\\

Now enter Paris, who was probably much closer to Helen's age, with whom she ''could'' have bonded with as an emotional equal, and who was almost certainly more attractive to her than Menelaus for these reasons. This is one of the reasons it's so easy to provide an AlternateCharacterInterpretation for Helen: either way is perfectly in-character for an Achaean wife. Helen would have been dutiful, of course, and gotten on with her life as Menelaus' woman; but she was a normal human being too, who longed for love and probably didn't get to spend much time with anyone of equal status, male female or otherwise. Both forces were undoubtedly present in her heart. The fun part is deciding which one won. ([[ForegoneConclusion Aphrodite's meddling notwithstanding, of course.]])\\

The military setup was rather medieval as well. In TheMiddleAges, you had knights: professional soldiers, who spent all their time either fighting one war or training for the next one. In Mycenaean Greece, you had ''hippeis'' (or ''equeta'', if you're reading in Latin), chariot warriors who filled much the same role. So, if these boys spent all their time sword-slinging, how did they eat and have a home to sleep in and clothes to put on their backs? They had a bunch of civilians[[labelnote:*]]re: slaves; euphemistic language aside, Archaic Greece was heavily dependent on slaves, treated anywhere from 'as one of the family' to absolutely terribly.[[/labelnote]] who worked for them to provide all these things, which in Medieval Europe were called "peasants" or "serfs" and in Ancient Hellas were called... Umm, something.[[labelnote:*]]The "freedom-loving" Spartans of the Classical era called them "helots," but that's just Sparta; every city had its own terminology.[[/labelnote]] But in any case: when you read Creator/{{Homer}}, you see this RedShirtArmy of [[TheDeadHaveNames names that are mentioned once]]—[[HeHadAName when they die]]—[[LongList and it seems kind of pointless]]. But [[TheMoreYouKnow now you know]] that each one represents years of training and the collective effort of many people; the effect on Hellenic audiences would have been similar to your reaction to all those Jedi dropping like flies in ''Film/AttackOfTheClones''. This gives you a sense of just how wasteful the war was. Finally, this also creates a rather amusing RealLife ContinuitySnarl: since a semi-feudal society is presented in this war, feudalism is now officially OlderThanFeudalism. Oops. [[labelnote:snark]]Achaeans! There is feudalism under your feet! [[Film/TheLastAirbender Why don't you fight?]][[/labelnote]] But yes, older than the post-Roman, European feudalism that everybody knows better, anyway.\\

Also, we should talk about SacredHospitality. This value doesn't show up much in Western culture today (except in scattered places like the DeepSouth and certain areas around the Mediterranean, including the Balkans and modern Greece),[[note]]The Mediterranean is generally the most hospitality-mad region of the world (probably because of its history as a multiethnic crossroads of trade and cultural exchange). The modern peoples who hold hospitality in highest regard are probably the Arabs, the Turks, the Greeks, and the Albanians (all emphatically Mediterranean) plus the Persians (not Mediterranean but basically in Mediterranean orbit for as long as they've been around) and the Slavic peoples (some of whom are Mediterranean, some of whom aren't, but all of whom had strong influence from Greek and to a lesser extent Turkish culture).[[/note]] but the ancient Greeks were absolutely ''mad'' for it; in fact, the god who took domain over SacredHospitality was none other than Zeus himself. 'Xenia'', sometimes translated as "guest-friendship" or "ritualized friendship," is the act of being really, really nice to passing strangers—they get the best food, the best wine, the seat of honor, gifts aplenty. Maybe he's a stranger, but you treat him like your favorite uncle. This had three major impacts on Hellenic life.

The reason this applies to the Trojan War is that when Paris made off with Helen, he was in ''gross'' violation of SacredHospitality. Even worse, the god of ''xenia'' is ''ZEUS''—big badass father Zeus with his [[BoltOfDivineRetribution lightning bolts]] and his beard. Paris didn't just offend Menelaus, he offended ''the gods'', and the Greeks were ''obligated'' to avenge this insult with blood.

It's also worth noting that Helen was the actual Queen of Sparta, and that [[AluminumChristmasTrees Menelaus only became King by marrying her]]. When Paris kidnapped/made off with her, he not only jeopardised Menelaus' position as King, but gave the Trojans a claim on a kingdom in mainland Greece. Given that after Paris' death the Trojans marry Helen off to his brother Deiphobus it seems likely that they were planning to make something of this claim, which the Greek-city states--and in particular the Myceneans under Agamemnon--would never have allowed.\\

* ''Theatre/TheTrojanWarWillNotTakePlace'' by French Author Jean Giraudoux, written in 1935. The play takes Place during the last few days of Peace, before the war breaks out, and tells the story of Hector and his futile and increasingly desperate attempts to thwart fate, by sending Helena home before war erupts.

According to the Achaeans themselves, the Trojan War took place during the 12th or 13th century BC, with Troy itself located somewhere in modern-day Turkey. During classical history, the Greeks accepted the war as fact, although many doubted that it transpired exactly as stated.[[note]] Thucydides for instance doubted that the war could have occured as described, he being a military man was sure that it was logistically impossble, but he accepted that it was a real conflict. [[/note]] This continued through the middle ages. However from the time of the Enlightenment onwards, they began to doubt it. By the time of the nineteenth century historians believed Troy to be just north of Albany. Really.[[note]]For those unfamiliar with American geography, there is a small city called Troy in [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkState Upstate New York]], just north of the state capital, Albany.[[/note]] The historian George Grote devoted only a few pages to it in his massive 11 volume ''History of Greece'', stating (with the smug certainty and confidence that only Victorians could have) that it was a fun but baseless story... at least until archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann unearthed the ruins of a city he identified as Troy in 1870. His claims have not been challenged. Uh oh.\\

Eventually the argument got narrowed down to three final contestants: Hera, the [[TheHighQueen queen goddess]] of the Achaeans[[labelnote:*]]which is what Creator/{{Homer}} called the Greeks; since we are primarily concerned with his telling of the story, we will do the same[[/labelnote]]; Athena, goddess of wisdom, cunning and craft; and Aphrodite, [[LoveGoddess goddess of love]], sex and pleasure. Since none of them could come to a decision (and Zeus, for once, wasn't stupid enough to get involved), they decided to pick an impartial judge, a young man who had recently shown fairness and dignified defeat in a contest against Ares. His name was Paris and he was, at the time, herding sheep on the outskirts of Troy, the city where his father Priam ruled. There was this prophecy, you see, that he would cause Troy's destruction, which was why he stayed away from there as much as possible; plus he was shacking up with a nymph at the time. Anyhow, the three goddesses appeared to him on Mount Ida and asked him to decide who ought to own that stupid MacGuffin apple.\\

Of course, things weren't quite that simple. For one, by the time Paris got his hands on her, Helen was already married to a man named Menelaus. He was likely one rough-and-tumble son of a bitch, seeing as how he was king of Sparta at the time. When Helen came of weddable age, he was one of many suitors (anywhere from 25 to 36, depending on whom you're reading) who begged her father Tyndareus for her hand, which was a risky process at the time because Helen was the most desirable woman in the world. Everyone—Ajax, Agamemnon, Menelaus, Odysseus, just to name a few[[labelnote:*]]Achilles is generally left out because he was too young at the time; his parents are Peleus and Thetis, the very people whose ill-fated wedding this whole mess started at[[/labelnote]]—wanted her to his wife, but at the same time no one wanted Tyndareus to choose him, because the others might immediately gang up on him for a bit of the classic "MurderTheHypotenuse." Eventually it was Odysseus who came up with the solution: "Since we're all men who put HonorBeforeReason, let's swear a vow that, whoever Tyndareus chooses for Helen, we will support him and protect their marriage." Thus immunized from fatal cases of sword-through-face, the suitors carried on with their courting, and eventually Helen was given to Menelaus.\\

Creator/{{Homer}}'s ''Literature/TheIliad'' taking place late during the last year of this ten-year conflict[[labelnote:*]]It's not known if the eight years lost at sea are counted in that tally or form an unrelated ActionPrologue[[/labelnote]]. ''The Iliad'' focuses mostly on Achilles, that legendary almost-immortal figure. Scuttlebutt is that Thetis dipped him in the [[ToHellAndBack River Styx]] when he was an infant, thus [[AppliedPhlebotinum coating him]] with [[NighInvulnerable unkillable]] somehow. The only bit of him [[AttackItsWeakpoint left vulnerable]] was his AchillesHeel, which is where she held onto him[[note]]As a double precaution, she then dressed Achilles as one of King Lycomedes' ''daughters''. With probably a little bit of magical aid, the [[WholesomeCrossDresser cross-dressing masquerade]] held until Odysseus (who got a memo from the seer Calchas that the war would only succeed if Achilles was involved in it) managed to trick him out--he was the only girl at the palace who wanted a sword for a gift.[[/note]]. Anyhow, the story starts with AchillesInHisTent, irritated by politics. Agamemnon had taken a girl, Chryseis, captive, and her father, a major priest of Apollo, begged for her return -- offering to pay the proper ransom and all that. Agamemnon was not inclined to do so, but Apollo threw a plague at the Achaeans in retribution, after which Agamemnon changed his mind. However, to compensate himself for the loss, he took Briseis, ''Achilles''[='s=] war prize, for himself. Achilles, who seriously believed "ItsAllAboutMe," was rather {{emo}} about this and decided to not fight anymore. With Achilles out of the picture, the Trojans start winning in his absence.\\

The war kept going after that, of course. (For that matter, a lot of stuff happened ''before'' all this, but the we only have fragments and summaries of the other six epics of the Literature/TrojanCycle so, umm, we'll leave that off for now.) Achilles eventually died when the gods decided he had too high of a kill score, but it's interesting that every interpretation of the event portrays his killer (generally Paris) as a DirtyCoward who needed underhanded tactics to take him down; Achilles died undefeated. And, of course, by most accounts, he died of a poisoned arrow[[labelnote:*]]or possibly [[RuleOfDrama simple infection]][[/labelnote]], having been struck in his AchillesHeel, thus providing a [[RetCon later]] [[HandWave explanation]] for the whole invulnerability thing. Paris himself was later felled by a well-placed arrow, allegedly [[SortingAlgorithmOfWeaponEffectiveness from the bow of Philoctetes]]. \\

According to the Achaeans themselves, the Trojan War took place during the 12th or 13th century BC, with Troy itself located somewhere in modern-day Turkey. During classical history, the Greeks accepted the war as fact, although many doubted that it transpired exactly as stated [[note]] Thucydides for instance doubted that the war could have occured as described, he being a military man was sure that it was logistically impossble, but he accepted that it was a real conflict. [[/note]]. This continued through the middle ages. However from the time of the enlightenment onwards, they began to doubt it. By the time of the nineteenth century historians believed Troy to be just north of Albany. Really. [[note]]For those unfamiliar with American geography, there is a small city called Troy in [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkState Upstate New York]], just north of the state capital, Albany.[[/note]] The historian George Grote devoted only a few pages to it in his massive 11 volume ''History of Greece'', stating (with the smug certainty and confidence that only Victorians could have) that it was a fun but baseless story... at least until archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann unearthed the ruins of a city he identified as Troy in 1870. His claims have not been challenged. Uh oh.\\

More archeology was done at the site, which confirmed the hypothesis. In the early 20th century, the writings of the Hittites and other contemporary civilizations were deciphered which seemed to affirm the theory[[note]] and tantalizingly gave names. Wilusa for Troy. An Alexanderus as a King[[/note]]. But then a snag, further excavations seemed to show that the site was too small to have been a city of the type and nature stated in the story. But, in the 1990s and the early 2000s more and more discoveries once again led credence to the claims of historicity. They site is now thought to have been a major city [[note]] or at least a major city at the relevant time, see below[[/note]] and descriptions of the geography of the time is now confirmed to be in consonance [[http://www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2003/troy030303.html with what we know]]. Looking deeper into the source you can see many clues in Greek records which seem to bear the story out [[note]] summarized well [[http://gatesofnineveh.wordpress.com/2011/09/06/the-trojan-war-in-greek-historical-sources/ here]][[/note]]. Even within the story, there are clues that it's not an invention, the catalogue of ships [[note]] basically a list of all the troops from all the Greek cities involved[[/note]] in the Iliad mentions cities that no longer existed at the time of writing of the Iliad and indeed whose existence could not have been known to Homer through any other means. So while there is no consensus, there is a great weight of evidence that ''something'' happened that was remembered, be it a series of wars or one rather memorable Trojan war (summary [[http://archive.archaeology.org/0405/etc/troy.html here]]). So why can't we put this to rest?\\

The military setup was rather medieval as well. In TheMiddleAges, you had knights: professional soldiers, who spent all their time either fighting one war or training for the next one. In Mycenaean Greece, you had ''hippeis'' (or ''equeta'', if you're reading in Latin), chariot warriors who filled much the same role. So, if these boys spent all their time sword-slinging, how did they eat and have a home to sleep in and clothes to put on their backs? They had a bunch of civilians[[labelnote:*]]slaves. Euphemistic language aside, Archaic Greece was heavily dependent on slaves, treated anywhere from 'as one of the family' to absolutely terribly[[/labelnote]] who worked for them to provide all these things, which in Medieval Europe were called "peasants" or "serfs" and in Ancient Hellas were called... Umm, something.[[labelnote:*]]The "freedom-loving" Spartans of the Classical era called them Helots, but that's just Sparta; every city had its own terminology.[[/labelnote]] But in any case: when you read Creator/{{Homer}}, you see this RedShirtArmy of [[TheDeadHaveNames names that are mentioned once]]—[[HeHadAName when they die]]—[[LongList and it seems kind of pointless]]. But [[TheMoreYouKnow now you know]] that each one represents years of training and the collective effort of many people; the effect on Hellenic audiences would have been similar to your reaction to all those Jedi dropping like flies in ''Film/AttackOfTheClones''. This gives you a sense of just how wasteful the war was. Finally, this also creates a rather amusing RealLife ContinuitySnarl: since a semi-feudal society is presented in this war, feudalism is now officially OlderThanFeudalism. Oops. [[labelnote:snark]]Achaeans! There is feudalism under your feet! [[Film/TheLastAirbender Why don't you fight?]][[/labelnote]] But yes, older than the post-Roman, European feudalism that everybody knows better, anyway.\\

And that journey was [[RiverOfInsanity its own piece of insanity]]. Because the Achaeans had gone a little overboard in the rape of Troy and desecrated a lot of Olympian temples, the gods decided that a lot of them [[ShootTheShaggyDog wouldn't make it home]], and those that did would [[SideQuest suffer on the journey]]. It took Menelaus and Helen eight years to get back. (It's on record that Helen and Menelaus had a daughter, Hermione, who was nine years old when Paris came to visit. When re-united, Hermione was ''37''. If not for the fact that she wasn't married yet, having been promised to somebody who was fighting the war, she would've had children and maybe ''grandchildren'' to show her mother by this time.) Odysseus took ten, as chronicled in his SpinOff ''Literature/TheOdyssey''. A lot of other major heroes either died during the return or were eventually forced out of the city-states they ruled; one, Agamemnon, made it home relatively quickly but was flat-out murdered by his cheating wife (as was his new sex toy, Cassandra—talk about Woobiedom), with order only restored when his son Orestes offed his mom and her lover and assumed his father's throne (after sorting out The Furies, who do not take kindly to matricide, in a process which involves quite a bit more than paperwork and community service; as Creator/{{Aeschylus}} would have it, it [[JustSoStory ended up with a significant reform of the Athenian judicial system]]). [[OnlySaneMan Nestor, because he wasn't involved in these war crimes, was the only one allowed to return quickly and safely to his kingdom]]. Suffice to say that the Trojan War was a huge mess for everyone involved.

* AchillesHeel: Does ''[[DeadUnicornTrope not]]'' show up in ''Literature/TheIliad''.

* NighInvulnerability: Although Achilles has acquired this reputation, in the ''Iliad'', he's no more invulnerable than any other soldier; just a little stronger.

* Eric Shanower's ''ComicBook/AgeOfBronze'' tells the story in detail (including the lesser-known parts like how diffiult it was for Agamemmnon to get his vassals together), removing the mythological elements: the children of gods are actually their priests, Helen is beautiful because she spends a lot of time on cosmetics, Cassandra being spurned by Apollo was her being raped by a pedophile in a temple, etc.

So here we have Peleus and Thetis, happily chilling out at wedding feast, maybe smooching a bit, when Eris crashes the party. Onto the table she throws a [[AppleOfDiscord golden apple]], inscribed with the word "kallisti"—"to the fairest." And, Eris's domain being what it is, immediately every woman at the party began squabbling over who ought to be the owner of that apple, who was fairest of them all.\\

Of course, things weren't quite that simple. For one, by the time Paris got his hands on her, Helen was already married to a man named Menelaus. He was likely one rough-and-tumble son of a bitch, seeing as how he was king of Sparta at the time. When Helen came of weddable age, he was one of many suitors (anywhere from 25 to 36, depending on whom you're reading) who begged her father Tyndareus for her hand, which was a risky process at the time because Helen was the most desirable woman in the world. Everyone—Ajax, Agamemnon, Menelaus, Odysseus, just to name a few[[labelnote:*]]Achilles is generally left out because he was too young at the time; his parents are Peleus and Thetis, they of the ill-fated wedding which started this whole mess[[/labelnote]]—wanted her to his wife, but at the same time no one wanted Tyndareus to choose him, because the others might immediately gang up on him for a bit of the classic "MurderTheHypotenuse." Eventually it was Odysseus who came up with the solution: "Since we're all men who put HonorBeforeReason, let's swear a vow that, whoever Tyndareus chooses for Helen, we will support him and protect their marriage." Thus immunized from fatal cases of sword-through-face, the suitors carried on with their courting, and eventually Helen was given to Menelaus.\\

[[TrojanHorse The Trojan Horse]], meanwhile, was Odysseus's great stroke of [[EurekaMoment genius]]; the horse was sacred to the Trojans, which is why they saw it as a meaningful tribute to Poseidon (the god of the sea, [[ComboPlatterPowers earthquakes, and horses]]). As a result, [[WildMassGuessing it's been claimed]] that the [[{{Demythification}} "actual event"]] which got ShroudedInMyth was an earthquake toppling the gates, which [[IdiotBall the Trojans had to dismantle]] [[CuriosityKilledTheCast to get the horse inside]]. Only a couple of people suggested it might be a trap; one of them was Cassandra (''[[TheCassandra The]]'' [[TheCassandra Cassandra]]), telling the original CassandraTruth. But it was all for naught. [[KillEmAll Every man of Troy was killed, the babies thrown off the wall]]. Every woman (who wasn't accidentally offed in the slaughter) was MadeASlave. Troy itself was burned to the ground. There may have been some free survivors, depending on who you read; two of the other epics, the ''[[Literature/TheTrojanCycle Little Iliad]]'' and the ''[[Literature/TheTrojanCycle Sack of Ilion]]'', claim a fellow named Aeneas (apparently Priam's cousin) got away --a tradition which Creator/{{Virgil}} ran with in ''Literature/TheAeneid''-- but if you don't believe them, then it was a TotalPartyKill as far as its citizens were concerned. Victorious, the Achaeans began their journey home.\\

* The backstory of the Myth/ArthurianLegend as depicted in ''Literature/HistoriaBrittonum'' (various authors) and the ''Literature/HistoryOfTheKingsOfBritain'' by Geoffrey of Monmouth traces the ancestry of the pre-Saxon Celtic Britons to (you guessed it) Trojan refugees that were led to Britain by Brutus, a survivor of Trojan nobility.

* The ''Literature/HistoriaBrittonum'' (various authors) and the ''Literature/HistoryOfTheKingsOfBritain'' by Geoffrey of Monmouth are two British "chronicles" that trace the ancestry of the pre-Saxon Celtic Britons to (you guessed it) Trojan refugees that were led to Britain by Brutus, a survivor of Trojan nobility.

Also, we should talk about SacredHospitality. American culture doesn't embrace this value as much (except maybe in the DeepSouth), but the Greeks were absolutely ''mad'' for it; in fact, the god who took domain over SacredHospitality was none other than Zeus himself. 'Xenia'', sometimes translated as "guest-friendship" or "ritualized friendship," is the act of being really, really nice to passing strangers—they get the best food, the best wine, the seat of honor, gifts aplenty. Maybe he's a stranger, but you treat him like your favorite uncle. This had three major impacts on Hellenic life.

The military setup was rather medieval as well. In TheMiddleAges, you had knights: professional soldiers, who spent all their time either fighting one war or training for the next one. In Mycenaean Greece, you had ''equeta'', chariot warriors who filled much the same role. So, if these boys spent all their time sword-slinging, how did they eat and have a home to sleep in and clothes to put on their backs? They had a bunch of civilians[[labelnote:*]]slaves. Euphemistic language aside, Archaic Greece was heavily dependent on slaves, treated anywhere from 'as one of the family' to absolutely terribly[[/labelnote]] who worked for them to provide all these things, which in Medieval Europe were called "peasants" or "serfs" and in Ancient Hellas were called... Umm, something.[[labelnote:*]]The "freedom-loving" Spartans of the Classical era called them Helots, but that's just Sparta; every city had its own terminology.[[/labelnote]] But in any case: when you read Creator/{{Homer}}, you see this RedShirtArmy of [[TheDeadHaveNames names that are mentioned once]]—[[HeHadAName when they die]]—[[LongList and it seems kind of pointless]]. But [[TheMoreYouKnow now you know]] that each one represents years of training and the collective effort of many people; the effect on Hellenic audiences would have been similar to your reaction to all those Jedi dropping like flies in ''Film/AttackOfTheClones''. This gives you a sense of just how wasteful the war was. Finally, this also creates a rather amusing RealLife ContinuitySnarl: since a semi-feudal society is presented in this war, feudalism is now officially OlderThanFeudalism. Oops. [[labelnote:snark]]Achaeans! There is feudalism under your feet! [[Film/TheLastAirbender Why don't you fight?]][[/labelnote]] But yes, older than the post-Roman, European feudalism that everybody knows better, anyway.\\

And that journey was [[RiverOfInsanity its own piece of insanity]]. Because the Achaeans had gone a little overboard in the rape of Troy and desecrated a lot of Olympian temples, the gods decided that a lot of them [[ShootTheShaggyDog wouldn't make it home]], and those that did would [[SideQuest suffer on the journey]]. It took Menelaus and Helen eight years to get back. (It's on record that Helen and Menelaus had a daughter, Hermione, who was nine years old when Paris came to visit. When re-united, Hermione was ''37''. If not for the fact that she wasn't married yet, having been promised to somebody who was fighting the war, she would've had children and maybe ''grandchildren'' to show her mother by this time.) Odysseus took ten, as chronicled in his SpinOff ''Literature/TheOdyssey''. A lot of other major heroes either died during the return or were eventually forced out of the city-states they ruled; one, Agamemnon, was flat-out murdered by his cheating wife (as was his new sex toy, Cassandra—talk about Woobiedom), with order only restored when his son Orestes offed his mom and her lover and assumed his father's throne (after sorting out The Furies, who do not take kindly to matricide, in a process which involves quite a bit more than paperwork and community service; as Creator/{{Aeschylus}} would have it, it [[JustSoStory ended up with a significant reform of the Athenian judicial system]]). [[OnlySaneMan Nestor, because he wasn't involved in these war crimes, was the only one allowed to return quickly and safely to his kingdom]]. Suffice to say that the Trojan War was a huge mess for everyone involved.

[[TrojanHorse The Trojan Horse]], meanwhile, was Odysseus's great stroke of [[EurekaMoment genius]]; the horse was sacred to the Trojans, which is why they saw it as a meaningful tribute to Poseidon (the god of the sea, [[ComboPlatterPowers earthquakes, and horses]]). As a result, [[WildMassGuessing it's been claimed]] that the [[{{Demythification}} "actual event"]] which got ShroudedInMyth was an earthquake toppling the gates, which [[IdiotBall the Trojans had to dismantle]] [[CuriosityKilledTheCast to get the horse inside]]. Only a couple of people suggested it might be a trap; one of them was Cassandra (''[[TheCassandra The]]'' [[TheCassandra Cassandra]]), telling the original CassandraTruth. But it was all for naught. [[KillEmAll Every man of Troy was killed, the babies thrown off the wall]]. Every woman (who wasn't accidentally offed in the slaughter) was MadeASlave. Troy itself was burned to the ground. There may have been some free survivors, depending on who you read; two of the other epics, the ''[[Literature/TheTrojanCycle Little Iliad]]'' and the ''[[Literature/TheTrojanCycle Sack of Ilion]]'', claim a fellow named Aeneas got away --a tradition which Creator/{{Virgil}} ran with in ''Literature/TheAeneid''-- but if you don't believe them, then it was a TotalPartyKill as far as its citizens were concerned. Victorious, the Achaeans began their journey home.\\

Eventually the argument got narrowed down to three final contestants: Hera, the queen goddess of the Achaeans[[labelnote:*]]which is what Creator/{{Homer}} called the Greeks; since we are primarily concerned with his telling of the story, we will do the same[[/labelnote]]; Athena, goddess of wisdom, cunning and craft; and Aphrodite, goddess of love, sex and pleasure. Since none of them could come to a decision (and Zeus, for once, wasn't stupid enough to get involved), they decided to pick an impartial judge, a young man who had recently shown fairness and dignified defeat in a contest against Ares. His name was Paris and he was, at the time, herding sheep on the outskirts of Troy, the city where his father Priam ruled. There was this prophecy, you see, that he would cause Troy's destruction, which was why he stayed away from there as much as possible; plus he was shacking up with a nymph at the time. Anyhow, the three goddesses appeared to him on Mount Ida and asked him to decide who ought to own that stupid MacGuffin apple.\\

Of course, Greek gods aren't into playing fair, so all three of them offered bribes. "Pick me," Hera told him, "and you will be king of all of Europe and Asia." "Pick me," Athena offered, "and I'll give you [[TookALevelInBadass A Level in Badass]]." "Pick ''me''," Aphrodite retorted, "and I'll get you ''laid''. And not just with any girl, either: with Helen, the WorldsMostBeautifulWoman. She's supermodel hot and freakin' great in the sack. Pick me, and that's what you get."\\

Again, the level of consent has been left ambiguous. Did Helen take some "convincing" (from Paris or Aphrodite), or did she love him enough to go voluntarily? Whatever the case, Menelaus was understandably pissed. He initiated diplomacy, to his credit, but it failed, and so he invoked the oath he and all the others had sworn. "You said you'd protect my marriage. So come, protect it. Help me get my wife back." The fabled thousand ships saddled up and set course for Troy, where (despite aforementioned prophecy) the Trojans had offered Paris and Helen sanctuary.\\

With Patroclus now StuffedInTheFridge, Achilles is... [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge a little upset]]. Given an [[SwordOfPlotAdvancement armor upgrade]] by the Gods, he dons his gear and returns to the fight, singlehandedly routing the Trojans (not to mention the patron demigod of a river who was [[WackyWaysideTribe complaining about being]] [[AtopAMountainOfCorpses stuffed with corpses]]). The only one brave enough to face him is the family man in this war story, Hector.[[labelnote:*]]After some convincing by Athena dressed as Hector's brother, since Homer claims Achilles chased Hector around Troy three times before he took a stand.[[/labelnote]] This turns out about as well as you might expect when a normal human being faces an unkillable death machine. Achilles then ties Hector's body to the back of his chariot and, in revenge for Hector planning to feed Patroclus' body to the dogs, proceeds to ride around Patroclus' burial mound every day, showing off his victory. Eventually, King Priam visits Achilles in his tent and [[KirkSummation begs for the body]]. This is enough of a HeelRealization for Achilles, and he concedes with good grace. And that's where ''The Iliad'' ends.\\

The war kept going after that, of course. (For that matter, a lot of stuff happened ''before'' all this, but the we only have fragments and summaries of the other six epics of the Literature/TrojanCycle so, umm, we'll leave that off for now.) Achilles eventually died when the gods decided he had too high of a kill score, but it's interesting that every interpretation of the event portrays his killer (generally Paris) as a DirtyCoward who needed underhanded tactics to take him down; Achilles died undefeated. And, of course, by most accounts, he died of a poisoned arrow[[labelnote:*]]or possibly [[RuleOfDrama simple infection]][[/labelnote]], having been struck in his AchillesHeel, thus providing a [[RetCon later]] [[HandWave explanation]] for the whole invulnerablility thing. Paris himself was later felled by a well-placed arrow, allegedly [[SortingAlgorithmOfWeaponEffectiveness from the bow of Philoctetes]]. \\

The Trojan War is one of the most famous armed conflicts in all of history, but it is also ShroudedInMyth. It's OlderThanFeudalism, and so is the subject of more stories and songs than you can shake a stick at and became TropeNamer for a whole lot of stuff. It was fought between the Achaeans (or Greeks from a modern perspective) and the Trojans, who eventually lost. But that's not all there is to the story. And [[ContinuitySnarl the legends are by no means consistent]]. Not to be confused with the TrojanGauntlet.

* The French comic book series "Le Dernier Troyen" (The Last Trojan) is the whole story RecycledInSpace and in the future (beginning with a poet named Virgil telling the story to a SpaceRoman emperor). Strangely enough, most of the supernatural elements are still present but dealt with through science (the Amazons are a OneGenderRace who used genetics to remove one of their breasts, the Medusa is defeated when it catches sight of itself in a surveillance room). Oh, and the Trojan Horse is a hollow asteroid that looks like a horse's head.

The Trojan War is one of the most famous armed conflicts in all of history. It's OlderThanFeudalism, and so is the subject of more stories and songs than you can shake a stick at and became TropeNamer for a whole lot of stuff. It was fought between the Achaeans (or Greeks from a modern perspective) and the Trojans, who eventually lost. But that's not all there is to the story. And [[ContinuitySnarl the legends are by no means consistent]]. Not to be confused with the TrojanGauntlet.

** ''Dictys of Crete's Chronicle of the Trojan War'': Supposedly the journal of Dictys, a companion of King Idomeneus of Crete in ''The Iliad'', which was buried together with its author and later recovered from his tomb; but more realistically a slightly tongue-in-cheek 4th century work using a LiteraryAgentHypothesis.

However, a lot of this is still more speculative than you would think; for instance, the German archaeologist Dieter Hertel makes a not unconvincing case that the archaeological evidence is consistent with the city being destroyed by an earthquake, not war, and considers it more likely that migrating Aeolians eventually moved into the destroyed place and that the myths about Troy reflect either this or a previous unsuccessful Greek attack on Troy. He also casts doubt on the wealth and wider importance of Troy, pointing out that it was by no means the only town on the coast of that part of the Hellespontos. Finally, the identity of the town called "Wilusa" in Hittite sources with Ilium or Troy is still unproven. And in 2008 the Austrian writer and philologist Raoul Schrott after translating the Iliad from scratch and comparing it to Assyrian literature advanced the highly contentious hypothesis that Homer's work is set not in north-western Asia Minor, but in Cilicia, in the south.\\

[[TrojanHorse The Trojan Horse]], meanwhile, was Odysseus's great stroke of [[EurekaMoment genius]]; the horse was sacred to the Trojans, which is why they saw it as a meaningful tribute to Poseidon (the god of the sea, [[OddJobGods earthquakes, and horses]]). As a result, [[WildMassGuessing it's been claimed]] that the [[{{Demythification}} "actual event"]] which got ShroudedInMyth was an earthquake toppling the gates, which [[IdiotBall the Trojans had to dismantle]] [[CuriosityKilledTheCast to get the horse inside]]. Only a couple of people suggested it might be a trap; one of them was Cassandra (''[[TheCassandra The]]'' [[TheCassandra Cassandra]]), telling the original CassandraTruth. But it was all for naught. [[KillEmAll Every man of Troy was killed, the babies thrown off the wall]]. Every woman (who wasn't accidentally offed in the slaughter) was MadeASlave. Troy itself was burned to the ground. There may have been some free survivors, depending on who you read; two of the other epics, the ''[[Literature/TheTrojanCycle Little Iliad]]'' and the ''[[Literature/TheTrojanCycle Sack of Ilion]]'', claim a fellow named Aeneas got away --a tradition which Creator/{{Virgil}} ran with in ''Literature/TheAeneid''-- but if you don't believe them, then it was a TotalPartyKill as far as its citizens were concerned. Victorious, the Achaeans began their journey home.\\