The Trojan War is one of the most famous conflicts in human history, but it resides somewhere
within the space between fact and fiction.
The myth is just as much a part of the tale as the actual history.
So keep watching as we dive deep into the truth behind the Trojan War.
The story of the Trojan War has been told and retold countless times, most famously
by Homer in The Iliad.
But its historical authenticity wasn't always accepted as fact.
In the 17th century, Blaise Pascal wrote,
"Homer produced a story, which he offered as such and was accepted as such: for no one
doubted that Troy and Agamemnon had existed any more than the golden apple.
He did not think he was making a history of it, merely an entertainment."
But it turns out that there's more truth to Homer's tale than initially thought.
In the 19th century, a Prussian businessman named Heinrich Schliemann went to what is
now Turkey in an attempt to find the location of the Trojan War.
In his excavations, he found numerous archaeological treasures that corresponded to the correct
location, if not necessarily the correct time period, of Troy.
Modern archaeologists later confirmed that these findings correlated with the existence
of a city as well as its destruction.
So despite Homer's embellishments, he knew his history.
In Greek mythology, the Trojan War essentially begins with a botched beauty contest.
All the Greek gods were attending a wedding, except for Eris, who hadn't been invited.
But she still showed up, and when she was turned away, she threw into the crowd of goddesses
a golden apple that was addressed "to the fairest."
Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena all wanted the apple.
But when they asked Zeus to mediate, he instead delegated the task to Paris of Troy and told
the messenger god Hermes to take the goddesses to him.
Hera promised Paris untold wealth and power, Athena promised him untold knowledge, and
Aphrodite promised marriage to the most beautiful mortal woman, Helen of Sparta.
That last bribe sealed it, and Paris chose Aphrodite as the recipient of the golden apple.
Surprisingly enough, the Judgement of Paris is only mentioned explicitly once in the Iliad,
in the final book of the poem.
The first nine years of the Trojan War were a constant siege against Troy, but the city
walls kept the Achaeans at bay.
Few sources talk specifically about the first nine years, preferring instead to focus on
the climactic events of the tenth and final year.
But during this time, the Trojans defended themselves while the Achaeans sacked the neighboring
cities.
Among the cities that were sacked were Thebes — where Agamemnon captured a woman named
Chryseis - and Lyrnessus - where Achilles captured a woman named
Briseis.
Agamemnon wanted to keep Chryseis as a prize, but her father, a priest of Apollo, offered
Agamemnon a ransom for his daughter.
After Agamemnon denied his request, her father prayed to Apollo, who swiftly sent a plague
that decimated the Achaean army.
Agamemnon then begrudgingly gave up Chryseis, though he decided that if he couldn't find
a replacement, he would simply take another woman as his unwilling prize instead.
Greatly irritated by Agamemnon's threat, Achilles accused Agamemnon of being shameless.
Agamemnon responded in turn by taking Briseis to teach him a lesson in authority and power.
This act infuriated Achilles so much that he decided to withdraw himself and his troops
entirely from battle.
"Give me cause, and I'll give you war.
Can you?"
Despite this, Achilles was worried that the Achaeans might actually lose against the Trojans.
So when his friend Patroclus asked if he could borrow his armor, Achilles agreed.
Initially, Patroclus did remarkably well, but then Apollo once again attacked the Achaean
army, shattering Patroclus' spear and breaking the armor off of him.
While exposed like this, he was brought to his end by Hector.
Enraged at the news of his friend's death, Achilles decided to rejoin the war effort.
He immediately sought Hector out for vengeance.
Upon meeting Achilles, Hector tried to get him to agree that no matter who won, they
would not desecrate the defeated man's body, for this is what his mother warned would occur.
But Achilles' rage had given him tunnel vision, and he had no regard for fairness.
He promptly slayed Hector and then tied his body to his chariot and pulled it back to
the Achaean camp.
The Trojans then called upon their allies for support now that their best fighter was
dead.
But they were no match for Achilles.
So the gods decided that enough was enough.
At Aphrodite's behest, Apollo guided an arrow shot by Paris directly into Achilles' heel,
the only vulnerable part of his body.
Aphrodite held a special place for Paris in her heart, and having given him the most beautiful
woman in the world, she now gave him the gift of killing the greatest Greek warrior.
But Aphrodite decided that also she no longer owed anything to him.
So when he went to Helen that night, Aphrodite's spell over her had come to an end, and she
no longer felt any desire for him.
In the final phase of the war, Odysseus came up with the famous plan of the Trojan Horse.
The Achaeans made it seem as though they were leaving and sailing off as they left a giant
wooden horse behind.
But in fact, they hid themselves within the horse and waited for the curious Trojans to
bring it into the city walls.
They made sure that the warrior Sinon also stayed behind to tell the Trojans that the
Achaeans had decided to give up and leave the Trojans a present.
The Trojans fell for the ruse.
That night, as they celebrated their victory, the Achaeans climbed out of the horse and
sacked the city.
"Eat my bronze, you Trojan dogs!"
The Achaeans were cruel in their victory as they pillaged the city and committed sacrilegious
acts.
Out of all the Trojan heroes, only Aeneas was able to escape while everyone else was
killed or enslaved.
In response to the Achaeans' horrendous behavior, the gods sent down storms as punishment to
destroy their ships.
Those who were able to return faced a perilous path ahead, like Odysseus, whose 20-year journey
home is famously narrated in Homer's Odyssey.
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