Myth 19 TROY

 

 

Real historical event, c 1200 BC ?

That doesn't matter

not poetry about facts, but about human decisions

Internal fight among Greeks

—Achilles and Agamemnon

 

 

HOMER, Iliad

 

The Greeks:

Argives, Achaeans, Danaans

(not the Greeks—a Roman term, or the Hellenes, a post-Homeric term)

 

Trojans: always presented as foreigners

 

(Priam has many wives)

but they have the same gods, and basically act just like the Greeks

Troy, “Ilium”, Dardans, Dardanians

 

 

Pre-Story

(pre-Homer—Iliad, 10th year of battle; though lots of back story and front story)

 

 

House of Atreus (Agamemnon and Menelaus)

descended from Tantalus

—punished by the gods for serving his son Pelops

             Demeter accidentally ate his shoulder

                    Hephaestus makes a new one

 

 

Pelops—Peloponnesus

       many kids—Atreus and Thyestes

             Atreus and Thyestes compete for throne

                   

             Agamemnon and Menelaus driven out

                    get help of Tyndareus, reclaim throne

 

 

 

House of Tyndareus:

 

Helen (wife of Menelaus) Clytemnestra (wife of Agamemnon)

 

Leda—Zeus comes to her as a swan

(one of the few birds with a penis)

                    has sex with husband on same night

             4 kids:   Helen and Polydeuces (immortal)

                           Clytemnestra and Castor (mortal)

                                 the “Dioscuri”--Wonder Twins

 

 

Oath of Tyndareus

 

       Clytemnestra marries Agamemnon, but Helen is too hot

             she's already been stolen once by Theseus

but the Wonder Twins got her back, and stole his mom Aethra as well)

 

 

Suitors everywhere—who to choose?

             Odysseus, Diomedes, Ajax, Patroclus, Menelaus

 

 

       Odysseus—the cleverest of all Greeks, comes up with a plan

             The Oath

 

 

All suitors must accept decision

and must defend the victor in all wrongs

             told in a fragment poem by Hesiod

             (Achilles would have won, but he was too young)

Menelaus wins; have a daughter, Hermione

 

 

 

Peleus and Thetis

 

Parents of Achilles

Thetis—sea nymph

Zeus wanted, but Prometheus warned

             (thanks, you can go now)

       Zeus lets Peleus marry Thetis

 

 

They have a son—Achilles

(obviously better than his dad)

Thetis leaves him by the hearth to burn away his mortality

gets interrupted by Peleus—she stops (cf. Demeter)

 

 

Achilles heel story

from unfinished Achillied, Statius (1st AD)

Thetis: “Soon will I restore the plains and the fields where the Centaurs roam: by this beauty of thine and the coming joys of youth I pray thee, if for thy sake I endured the earth and an inglorious mate, if at thy birth I fortified thee with the stern waters of Styx – ay, would I had wholly! – take these safe robes awhile, they will in no wise harm thy valour.

      

Apollo guides an arrow from Paris (into his heel)

 

In Homer, Achilles is not otherwise invincible

 

       Entrusted to Chiron, centaur, for his upbringing

lives the manly life, outside, with his “friend” Patroclus

 

 

Peleus and Thetis

 

have the fanciest wedding of all time

—Hera's relief?

 

But didn't invite Eris “strife”

an Apple for the fairest

 

Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite compete

don't fight at a wedding; take it to Paris

(Lucian’s version, ACM 288 ff)

 

            

 

            

House of Troy

 

(Helen of Troy, is of course, not from Troy)

 

Priam and Hecabe (=Hecuba)

       sons: Hector (greatest Trojan) and Paris

             —a son who will bring destruction to the city

                    “hey, let’s avoid fate by exposing our son!”

 

             Exposed on Mt. Ida, raised by a shepherd

                    Paris is super shepherd

                    Wakes up one day, and there's Hermes and 3 Goddesses

 

             The Judgment of Paris

                    they each bribe him

                           Hera—world domination

                           Athena—greatest warrior

                           Aphrodite—the world's most beautiful woman

(only briefly mentioned in Homer, Iliad 24.25ff:

 

Though Achilles in his anger tried to disfigure Hector, the blessed immortals felt pity as they watched, and urged the sharp-eyed Hermes to steal the corpse. Though this thought pleased most of them, Hera, Poseidon and bright-eyed Athene were opposed. They still hated sacred Ilium, Priam and his whole race, because of Paris and his foolish error, in humiliating the two goddesses, at the parade by his shepherd’s hut, when he showed his preference for Aphrodite, praising her for furthering his sad lust.

 

 

             She gives him Helen (who's married)

 

he comes down, reveals himself to be Trojan prince, and sets off to his prize

 

             Menelaus receives him well (XENIA)

                    when he steps out, Helen and Paris flee (rape of Helen)

                           she abandons husband and daughter

                    he violates XENIA

 

 

THE WAR

 

       Menelaus gets Agamemnon

             They invoke the Oath of Tyndareus

                    (people are less willing for this than, say, Argonauts)

       Gathering at Aulis

 

 

       Odysseus doesn't want to come

             wife Penelope has just had a son: Telemachus

             Pretends to be crazy to get out of war

Palamedes--2nd cleverest Greek

(credited with dice, numbers, the alphabet in some later stories)

       throws Telemachus in front of the plow

                                 “gotcha!”

Odysseus never forgives him—frames him and gets him killed a traitor's death

 

 

       Calchas declares we can't win without Achilles

             His mom has dressed him like a girl to avoid war

                    pretend to be peddlers-- gotcha!

             A lot of trickery, oath enforcement to get people to go

                    this war is going to suck

 

 

Journey to Troy

       not sure where it is

             incident with Achilles and King Telephus

Contrary wind: Calchas reveals that Artemis is mad at Agamemnon's boasting

             must sacrifice daughter: Iphigenia

                    “Achilles wants to marry you!”

                           told in Aeschylus, Agamemnon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Homer: The Iliad

 

       made up of many close ups

—personal moments, dialogue, speeches :

 

Helen on the wall

       “come watch, you bear no blame in my eyes (160ff)

       Helen: self pitying

       Identifies the Greek Heroes

 

 

Anger of Achilles

       Homer knows how to write a good story

             focused to the point

       You cannot sit down and explain everything

             it certainly would not make good literature

       He begins in medias res—RAGE

       24 books, focused on a single incident in the 10th year of the war

             When the Iliad opens, Greeks are sitting on the beach

                    when it ends, Greeks are sitting on the beach

 

 

Achilles Rage:

       Agamemnon has a captive named Chryseis,

(daughter of Chrysis, priest of Apollo)

             Agamemnon refused to give her up-he's a leader

                    Chrysis prays to Apollo who sends plague

             Calchas: you must give her up

 

             Agamemnon will, but needs a replacement girl:

                    Achilles' Briseis

                           Should he kill him?  Athena comes to prevent it

                                 “you sot!  You don't even fight!”

             Achilles asks his mother Thetis for revenge

                    Zeus lets the Trojans win for a while,

as long as Achilles isn't there

 

 

Hector and Andromache

       son of Priam, greatest of Trojans

             begged to stay by his wife and little baby

                    all of my family is dead (by Achilles)

             440—I worry about you, but more for my fame

                    I see your slavery coming

             470—reaches out for son, cries for helmet

 

 

Greeks go to beg Achilles to relent and join

       Agamemnon offers him everything

             120 ff one of my daughters

                    don't be like Hades, implacable

 

 

Achilles:

311 “As much as I hate the gate of Hades, I hate the man who says one thing, secretly thinking another”

 

NO: look at all I have done, and this is the treatment I get?

 

       340: he must think only he and his brother have feelings for their wives

       409—I'l choose an obscure death over glorious

 

       Patroclus, his best friend begs him

             borrows his armor

                    killed by Hector, who takes the armor

 

       Patrolcus is killed: Now Achilles is mad

 

 

       New Armor—from Haephastus

 

             kills Hector, who begs for an honorable burial

                    “ I would rather eat your flesh”

 

             Drags his body around behind his chariot for days

             Gives Patroclus a huge funeral

 

Priam comes and begs for his son's body

       think about your own father (485)

             All of my sons are dead—nineteen by one woman

                   

       They mourn together (510)

             your heart must be made of iron

       He gives him the body for no ransom

      

“And so the Trojans Buried the body of Hector, breaker of horses”

 

Iliad ends with Achilles alive, Troy untaken

 

 

 

Plot and Character

       focused—just like your writing should be

             you can't tell everything—it'll suck

                    tell something specific, and tell it well

 

       Character—clearly developed, but with no internal insight

             revealed by their actions (and lack of actions) and words

 

       Achilles: warrior intellectual—fiercely individual