Trojan War

Trojan War, in Greek mythology, the war waged by the Greeks against the city of Troy. The legend is believed to have some basis in fact; it is thought to refer to a war that took place between the Greeks of the late Mycenaean period and the inhabitants of the Troad, or Troas, an area in Anatolia, part of present-day Turkey. Modern archaeological excavations have shown that Troy was destroyed by fire c. 1260 bc, the traditional date of the war, and that the war may actually have resulted from the desire either to plunder the wealthy city or to put an end to Troy's commercial control of the Dardanelles.

Legendary accounts of the war trace its origin to a golden apple, inscribed “for the fairest” and thrown by Eris, goddess of discord, among the heavenly guests at the wedding of Peleus, the ruler of the Myrmidons, and Thetis, one of the Nereids. The award of the apple to Aphrodite, goddess of love, by Paris, son of King Priam of Troy, secured for Paris the favour of the goddess and the love of the beautiful Helen of Troy, wife of Menelaus, the king of Sparta. Paris took Helen to Troy. To seek revenge, and to bring her back, the Greeks launched an expedition against Troy, which was led by Agamemnon, King of Mycenae and brother of Menelaus. Agamemnon's force included many famous Greek heroes, the most noted of whom were Achilles, Patroclus, Ajax the Greater and Ajax the Lesser, Teucer, Nestor, Odysseus, and Diomedes.

After the Trojans refused to restore Helen to Menelaus, the Greek warriors assembled at the Bay of Aulis and proceeded to Troy in 1,000 ships. The siege lasted ten years, the first nine of which were uneventful. In the tenth year, Achilles withdrew from battle because of his anger with Agamemnon. Agamemnon had taken Chryseis as a mistress but had been forced to give her up to avoid the wrath of her father, Apollo. Peevishly, he then removed Briseis, whom Achilles claimed to love more than anyone in the world, and this caused Achilles to withdraw from the war. Achilles' action furnished Homer with the theme of the Iliad. To avenge the death of his friend Patroclus, Achilles returned to battle and killed Hector, the principal Trojan warrior. Subsequent events, described in later epic poems, include Achilles' victories over Penthesilea, Queen of the Amazons, and Memnon, King of Ethiopia, and the death of Achilles at the hands of Paris.

The city of Troy was finally captured by trickery. A force of Greek warriors gained entry to the city by hiding in the interior of a large wooden horse (the Trojan Horse), which the Trojans were tricked into allowing into their city. The Greeks then sacked and burned Troy. Only a few Trojans escaped, the most famous being Aeneas, who led the other survivors to what is present-day Italy; this story is told by Virgil in the Aeneid.

The return of the Greek warriors to Greece inspired epic poems, the most celebrated being that of Odysseus, whose ten-year wanderings and arrival in Ithaca are told in Homer's Odyssey.