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Influences of greek and roman warfare
The trojan war
War in homer's iliad
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While there isn’t enough evidence to fully prove that the Trojan War described in Homer’s Iliad actually happened, there is evidence that wars may have happened during the time specified in the Iliad. Archaeologists and artefacts show that there was a war between Greece and Rome. Hittite records show that there was a military and political tensions around Troy around the 13th century which was around the time of the Trojan War written about in Homers Iliad. Stories tell that the Trojan War begun after Paris who was a Trojan Prince stole Helen who was the Queen of Sparta. The husband of Queen Helen, Menelaus had convinced his brother Agamemnon who was the king of Mycenae to lead an expedition to Troy to get her back. Achilles, Ajax, Nestor, and Odysseus along with a fleet of more than a thousand ships accompanied Agamemnon to retrieve her. This is why Helen is described as “the face that launched a thousand ships”. They sailed across the Aegean Sea to invade Troy and to return Helen to Menelaus. Stories: Homer was the writer of the Iliad and some call him the greatest Greek poet. The ...
The Trojan War is one of the most known battle or war in history, if not the most known. It was a very, very long war, but there was one main source or reason of conflict that drove it to last so long, it seemed endless. Paris, a Trojan prince, was promised a wife as fair as the goddess of beauty by Aphrodite herself. The particular woman she promised was already married to a Greek King by the name of Menelaus. This started not only tension between the Greeks and Trojans but also anger because they were recently married.Helen should have returned to the Greeks for a few reasons that could have led to a shorter war, or even no war.First off, Greek King Menelaus is her rightfully wedded husband. The war would have been totally prevented if a couple of decisions were better made. Finally, she never really was in love with Paris. It was all manipulated by Aphrodite.
The Poet Homer wrote The Odyssey and The Iliad. Poet Homer was known as one of the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. Most of the poem Poet Homer wrote about was early Trojan War.
Many have speculated about the Trojan War. It’s been written about in books like the Iliad and The Odyssey. A person could read in a book about this massive war between King Priam and Agamemnon, but did this massive war ever really happen? We have all heard of the mighty wooden horse in which the Greek forces broke into the mighty walls of Troy. The Trojan War did occur and can proven by skeletons, artifacts, and other findings from excavation sites. Historians speculate that the Trojan War could have been fought anywhere along the seaboard of the Mediterranean Sea.
First, the Greek myth that most people have given credit for the history of how the Trojan War started:
The Iliad is a reliable source of information about the city of Troy in the late Bronze Age. This is because it presents the evidence from two very different fields: archaeology and linguistics/philology. Though there is the idea that details in the Iliad reflect society, as it was long before the eighth century B.C. Then on the other hand the Iliad isn’t entirely a reliable source. Homer wasn’t writing to accurately recount history, but instead his objective was to entertain the people with epic poetry. Homer was so far disconnected from the events that took, so where did he get his information? Homer most likely collected his information from generations before him, stories told from generation to generation. The pr...
The Iliad was the first of these poems and it deals with the tenth and final year of the Trojan war. The war started when the son of the king of Troy, Paris, kidnapped the wife of the king of Sparta, Helen. The Iliad is divided into 24 books which This story is supposedly the oldest surviving piece of ancient Greek literature. It is mainly based on the hero Achilles, who is the best soldier for the Greek army, held under the control of Agamemnon. Another very famous character from both the Iliad and the odyssey is Odysseus, king of Ithaca. He, with the help of Athena, comes up with a plan to leave a giant wooden horse filled with 100 soldiers as ‘a gift.’ This plan worked as when the horse was taken inside, the soldiers came out and won the battle.
Trojan war because it was not in their wishes to conceive defeat and fall back, they had to
Although the beginning of the war was not spoken of in The Iliad, the origin of the war is traced back to jealous goddesses. The gods and goddesses were feasting together to celebrate the marriage of Peleus and Thetis. Eris, the goddess of discord, had not been invited. She came, however, and threw among the guests a golden apple, on which was inscribed "For the fairest." Three goddesses claimed the apple. They were Hera, wif...
The Trojan War was incited by Paris’ theft of Menelaus’ wife. This is the first, and only, breach of xenia in all of the Iliad, with good cause. Paris was Menelaus’ guest but chose to steal Menelaus’ wife and much of his riches instead of honoring xenia as he should have. Paris’ transgression against xenia is what initially agitated Menelaus’. Although this act is not explicitly pictured in the Iliad, the Trojan War is essentially the fallout of Paris’ breach of xenia and without his infraction, many lives
Lattimore, R. (trans.) (1961) The Iliad of Homer, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, reproduced in Readings book 1 (2006) A219 Exploring the Classical World, readings 1.1-6, pp. 7-62, Milton Keynes: The Open University.
As we all know, Hollywood isn’t exactly accurate when it comes to the historical accuracy of movies. Although the Iliad is a myth, the movie Troy doesn’t follow the story quite as accurately as it could have. One major difference is the concept of time. In the Iliad, the battle spanned over a ten year period while in the movie, the battle only lasted about 17 days. However, it does have many similarities to the poem. Both the movie and the poem have similar plots as well as the feud of Achilles and Agamemnon, fall of Troy, the death of Patroclus, Achilles avenging the death of Patroclus and the supplication of Priam to Achilles. Other similarities include Thetis telling Achilles that if he is to stay home and refrain from fighting he will be forgotten. However, if he is to fight in the battle of Troy, he will be remembered forever. Another similarity can be found when Agamemnon confiscates Briseis from Achilles. There are many details in the movie that deviate from the epic poem as well. Some differences between the movie and the poem include the deaths of Agamemnon and Menelaus, the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus, the portrayal of some of the characters and the role of the Gods in the plot. Also, according to the film, the capture of Troy seems to be the subject of the entire movie whereas in the epic poem, the subject is the wrath of Achilles. Also, the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus is a little different. In the movie, Achilles and Patroclus are cousins and Patroclus is younger than Achilles. In the Iliad, Achilles and Patroclus are best friends. Patroclus is older than Achilles and acts as the advisor for Achilles. According to the epic poem, Achilles much more angry and violent than how he is portray...
The Trojan War is a conflict shrouded in mists of myth, fragmented historical evidence and often-inconclusive archaeological clues. The Trojan War was considered as one of the greatest conflicts in Greek Mythology. It was a war that influenced many people in literature and in arts for centuries. This war lasted for about ten years and it was fought between the Trojans and the Achaeans. Troy was a renowned city since it was known for its great defensive walls and its highly aimed and trained archers. It was also known for its great reign by their king, Priam. Priam was the king of Troy during the Trojan War. Hecuba was the wife of Priam. He said that the gods were always by their side, the reason why they could never lose battles against other nations. Troy was a powerful nation, mostly because of the great leadership by one of their prince, Hector.
In the end, war must be won by one of the parties fighting. Wars are usually very difficult to end. After all the casualties have occurred throughout various battles, it frequently happens that the parties do not have a strategy strong enough to claim victory. The Trojan War, fought between the Greeks and Trojans, did have an eventual winner, but this winner would not have claimed victory without the significant “Trojan Horse”. As Lin Donn states about the war, “The Greek Warriors had been trying to breech the walls around Troy for ten years, and they couldn’t have done it without the ‘Trojan Horse’” (Donn). The Trojan horse was significant in the Trojan War because it allowed the Greek army an easy way into Troy, led the Greeks to destroy the city of Troy, and helped the Greeks end the war.
The Iliad is not a story about the Trojan War at all, the war is just to set the stage for Homer to bring together the swift footed Achilles and Hector, the Prince of Troy, so they can be compared. The Iliad starts with how Achilles is dishonored by Agamemnon and withdraws from the war and ends with his return to the fight and eventually falling at the end. Hector is brought into the story and displays through his character what a real hero should be like.
Homer’s The Iliad: Book XX features a battle between the Trojans and Achaians, shortly after Patroklus’ death (Lattimore Book XVI), where the gods must intervene in order to restrain Achilleus’ destructive nature that becomes amplified due to the grief and wrath as a result of the loss of his cousin/lover. The divine foresaw an early fall of Troy caused by the intensified destructive nature of Achilleus, therefore they interfered in the battle to protect a bigger ideal of fate, a fate of a nation, by manipulating smaller ideals of fate, the fates of people’s lives(Lattimore 405). At the beginning of the battle, after the gods descended from Olympus, they decide to sit and just watch how their mortal teams will fend for themselves until Apollo takes form as Lykoan and coerce Aeneias to challenge Achilleus, thus establishing the first act of divine intervention (Lattimore 406-407). When Achilleus is inches away from killing Aeneias, Poseidon takes sympathy upon him and whisks him off to safety (Lattimore 407-411). The last interference occurs during the confrontation between Hektor and Achilleus, where Achilleus is about to murder him and Apollo saves Hektor (Lattimore 416). Hektor’s rescue in this battle is an important event in the Iliad because Achilleus’ and Hektor’s fates are interrelated, further meaning that if Hektor die...