The History of the Trojan War

   Today, we'll be covering a fascinating topic.  But before we do that, how would you like to get a deeper understanding of history, impress your friends, and predict the future more accurately based on past events? If this sounds like something you might be into, then check out the brand new Captivating History knowledge open my website knowledgedialyperno.blogspot.com so let's start now. Let's get into the blog I write for your knowledge. Do you want to have a war that goes down in history? If so, you should definitely look to the Trojan War for the blueprint. Romance? Check.  Intrigue? Check. Gods and heroes? Double-check.   Plus a whole load of slaughtering to boot. But how much of this is true?   In this video, we will look at the fact vs. fiction of the legendary Trojan War. Throughout history, the Trojan War has been the subject of storytelling. We know of it from the works of Homer, in the Iliad and the Odyssey, as well as Roman literature like Virgil's Aeneid.   Such was the allure of the tale that Alexander the  Great visited Troy during his invasion of Asia.   But Homer was writing of a conflict that happened hundreds of years before he was born,   so how much artistic license did Homer take when it comes to the heroes and horrors of this tale?  According to the legend, the instigator of the  Trojan War was Paris. Also called Alexandros,   Paris was the son of King Priam of Troy and his wife, Hecuba. Abandoned at birth due to an   evil premonition, he was raised by shepherds (or  bears, depending on the story.) Eventually, he won his way back into his family home by beating his brothers in a boxing contest at a Trojan festival.   Paris's fortunes took a turn for the worse when Zeus chose him to decide which goddess he found most attractive, whereupon three major goddesses tried to bribe his favor.   In the end, he chose Aphrodite because of her promise that she would help him win the most beautiful woman in the world. Helen was the legendary beauty of Greece. As the daughter of Zeus, many men tried to carry her off throughout her life. Amongst her famous suitors were Theseus (who kidnapped her at a young age) and Odysseus, but she decided to marry Menelaus, the younger brother of her sister's husband – and the king of the Spartans. Paris was sent on a diplomatic mission to  Sparta, where he stayed in the house of Menelaus.  Here Aphrodite made good on her promise, and  Helen fell in love with Paris and eloped with him,  leaving behind her children and husband.  According to the legend, this event was what started the Trojan War. Alternative myths still have Paris as the cause of the war but state that Athena and Hera plotted against Troy after Paris chose Aphrodite as the fairest. Finding his wife missing, Menelaus called on his brother Agamemnon, who happened to be the king of the Mycenaeans, to help him get her back.  The brothers then enlisted Greek heroes Ajax,  Odysseus, Nestor, and Achilles to join them and their thousand ships to lay siege to Troy and demand Helen's return. Soothsayers predicted that the siege would last ten years, and this turned out to be largely true – although the Greeks did not lay siege to Troy for ten years straight!  At first, the Greek fleet landed in the wrong place and was beaten back.  The Greeks then assembled another fleet,  but Agamemnon had to sacrifice his daughter,  Iphigenia, to appease the goddess Artemis (who he had insulted) and receive favorable winds to sail Troy. The Mycenean king made the sacrifice,  and the Greeks landed on the beaches near Troy,  but instead of attacking Troy immediately,  they raided up and down the coast.  Homer's Iliad only covers a part of the tenth year of fighting. The only facts that historians agree on are that the places in the story all existed.  The narrative of the Trojan War is that it was a Bronze Age conflict between Mycenaean  Greece and the Kingdom of Troy that took place around the 12th or 13th century BCE.  Historians concur that Troy was in modern-day  Turkey, the site of which was discovered in  1870 by a German businessman and self-taught archeologist Heinrich Schliemann. Although this site has been confirmed as being an ancient city,  the details of the Trojan War are still disputed. Many of the key players, including Paris, Helen,  and Menelaus, fall into the category of Greek mythology rather than historical fact. The names used by Homer have not been found in any records of Spartan kings and queens, and no historical account of the story has been discovered.  The only character that some historians claim to be a real figure is Agamemnon, the king of the Myceneans. A Mycenean palace and a tomb have been found that many people link to Agamemnon,  but no one has yet conclusively established that the Agamemnon in the stories actually existed.  Heinrich Schliemann, determined to prove there was truth in Homer's epics, discovered two gold death masks and proclaimed one to be the face of  Agamemnon. However, actual evidence is lacking,  and it is possible that Schliemann's passion for Homer's stories caused bias. Since the myth was so firmly established in the ancient Greek world, many paintings and artifacts depict episodes from the story. None, however,  have been found that date from the time the war supposedly took place. It is important to note that oral traditions were common at the time,  and it is likely that the story was passed down through the generations and was not entirely of  Homer's own imagination. That being said, as with all myths and legends, embellishments inevitably happen over time to make the tale more titillating and, therefore, more likely to be retold. But now, back to the story. The Iliad begins in the tenth year of the campaign and is more concerned with the role of Achilles than the events of the actual war.  At its start, Agamemnon is forced to give up his concubine, Chryseis, due to a plague wrought on the Greeks by Apollo at the bidding of Chryseis's father, who wants his daughter's freedom.  Achilles discovers the reason for Apollo's curse,  and as reprisal for the loss of his concubine,  Agamemnon takes Briseis – a woman who was given as a prize to Achilles. Angered, Achilles leaves the  Greek ranks, vowing that his absence will cause them to realize how important he is. Achilles then goes to his mother, a sea nymph called Thetis, who convinces Zeus to let the Trojans win for a while. Meanwhile, Paris and Menelaus agree to fight mano a mano, with the winner claiming Helen as their own. Menelaus looks set to win until Aphrodite wraps Paris in a cloud and whisks him back to his palace. The war continues with the mortals trying to use the gods to win and the gods trying to use the mortals likewise. After Zeus orders all the gods to stay out of it (which, of course,  they don't), the Trojan army comes pouring out of  Troy, and it looks like they will be victorious.  While many of the Greek heroes beg Achilles to come back and help, he refuses. But he lets his close friend (and possible lover) Patroclus lead the Greeks wearing his armor to inspire the troops. Paris's brother Hector kills Patroclus,  which enrages Achilles, prompting him to join the fight again. After a lot more killing,  Achilles and Hector fight, and Hector die.  The book ends with Achilles allowing Hector's father to take his body for a proper burial and agreeing to restrain the Greek forces for twelve days for the funeral to take place. The Odyssey and other myths give us more information about how the war ended. These details include the death of Achilles, who is shot in the heel by Paris. In some accounts, Achilles is scaling the walls of Troy when he is shot;  in others, he is negotiating the end of the war.  In most versions, Paris's arrow is guided by  Apollo, ensuring that it hits the right spot. Probably the most famous story about the Trojan  War is how it ends. The tale is detailed in the  Aeneid and mentioned in the Odyssey. According to these legends, it was Odysseus's grand plan that beat the Trojans once and for all. His idea was to construct a large wooden horse and pass it off as an offering to Athena for a safe journey home. The horse was built in just three days,  and inside hid the bravest and most skillful Greek soldiers. Some accounts say that twenty-three men hid inside the horse, while others claim the number was between thirty and fifty. The rest of the Greeks sailed off to a nearby island to wait for the signal to return.  On seeing the Greek camp empty,  the Trojans inspected further.  While one Trojan, Capys, was sensible enough to want to burn the horse, throw it in the sea, or at least poke at it with spears, the others thought it would be a great centerpiece for the city.  Priam – the king of Troy – thought that perhaps desecrating an offering to a goddess, even one that had sided with the Greeks, was not a great idea . . . and allowed it to be pulled into Troy.  Many Trojans suspected that this giant hollow horse was a trap, but they were persuaded by  Sinon – Odysseus's cousin – that it was indeed just a gift to the goddess. Sinon added some clever touches to his story to make it more believable. He first justifies his presence and tells the Trojans that the Greeks were going to sacrifice him to get a favorable wind to return home and that he had escaped as winds sprung up before the ceremony took place. Then Sinon cleverly explains away the size of the horse by saying that the Greeks didn't want the Trojans to wheel it into their city and had made it so big that they wouldn't possibly be able to move it.  While most Trojans believed this story,  one priest was not so easily fooled. But, as luck would have it, Apollo sent two sea snakes to strangle the priest for an earlier indiscretion.  It just happened to be when he was denouncing Sinon, and his death was therefore taken as a sign that Sinon was telling the truth. The rest, as they say, is history. Or is it? While archeological evidence shows that  Troy was burned down, as in the story, the tale of the wooden horse is thought to be pure fiction.  However, it is speculated that the legend may have been inspired by true events,  as ancient siege engines were often made of wood and covered in damp horsehides to stop them from being set alight. Stories of the Trojan War were just as numerous in ancient Greece as films about the subject are today. The ancient Greek historian,  Herodotus, disagreed with many aspects of Homer’s recounting of the myth. Herodotus tells a version of the story in which Helen ends up detained in  Egypt instead of journeying to Troy with Paris.  In this version, the Trojans could not hand over Helen, as she was never in Troy in the first place. The Greek forces did not believe she wasn't there and proceeded to sack the city. While it is impossible to sort fact from fiction in the retelling of the legend,  compelling evidence for the Trojan War comes from  Hittite records. The Hittites were a civilization that prospered in modern-day Turkey and was the major empire in the supposed region at the time of the Trojan War. The Hittite records name a  small vassal state of Wilusa, which historians believe refers to Troy due to its location and the fact that the name is related to the Greek word for lion – llios – which was Homer's other name for Troy. Although Wilusa was a small backwater city to the Hittites, its position and wealth may have made it an attractive target to the Mycenean  Greeks. Hittite tablets also mention fighting the  “Ahhiyawa” people over Wilusa. As Ahhiyawa was the  Hittite name for Greece, this conflict could conceivably be the Trojan War.  But as for Helen, Paris, Achilles, and the rest of the characters central to the plot of the Trojan  War, we can only speculate about their existence. To learn more about The Trojan War, check out the book The Trojan War: An Enthralling Overview of a  Legendary Conflict of Ancient Greece and Its Role in History and Greek Mythology. It's available as an e-book, paperback, and audiobook. Also,  grab your free mythology bundle e-book for more knowledge visit my website as I write in the first blog lines and follow me for knowledge thanks for watching see you in my new blog                                                                                                                                   written by......syed Hasnain Ahmad sherazi