Turkey, is one of the most beautiful countries, especially because of its unique geographical location. A part of it lies in Asia and another part lies in Europe. Turkey’s beauty attract tourists all around the world making tourism it’s the main source of income. But this beautiful country hides a terrible occurrence, which is a war, that took place earning the wrath of gods upon the land. The war was believed to have taken place in Troy which is now known as Hisarlik. For many centuries, Troy existed as a myth, until the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann found the ruins of the city. Frank Calvert, who was an English archaeologist, took a main role in helping Heinrich Schliemann in his discovery. With the discovery of Troy, many scholars inclined to believe in the War, which is known as the Trojan War.
The events of the Trojan War are found in many works of Greek literature and depicted in numerous works of Greek art. There is no single text which tells the entire events of the war. Instead, the story is assembled from a variety of sources. Since different sources recorded the occurrences differently, there’s a lot of contradictory versions of the events. What made this war special is that even gods got involved in it. Gods such as Athena, Hephaestus, Hera, Hermes, Thetis and Poseidon sided with Greeks, while gods such as Aphrodite, Apollo, Aeris, Artemis, Leto, Scamander and Zeus sided with Trojans. In this war many were killed and that included many demi gods as well.
The legend has it, that Helen, a daughter of “Tyndareus”, the King of Sparta, was the most beautiful woman on earth at that time. She possessed great beauty, that some believed that such beauty cannot be created from the union of mortals, so she was fathered by one of the gods, being it Zues himself. On seeing her beauty, many wanted to have her, but her father feared to choose one, for fear the others would act violently for not having his daughter. So Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, proposed a plan to Tyndareus. He suggested to make all of Helen's suitors to take an oath to defend Helen’s marriage, regardless of whom he chose. So the suitors swore the oath on the severed pieces of a horse.
Menelaus, the king of Mycenaean, sort Aphrodite’s help, promising a sacrifice of 100 oxen, if he won Helen. He sent Agamemnon, his brother, to take the oath instead. Tyndareus chose Menelaus for his daughter, considering his wealth and power. Overjoyed, Menelaus forgot the promise he made for Aphrodite, which earned him the goddess’s grudge. Menelaus inherited Tyndareus' throne of Sparta, with Helen as his queen.
Meanwhile in the god’s realm, the goddess Thetis was betrothed to an elderly human king, named Peleus. Every god was invited to the wedding, except for Eris, the goddess of discord, who was stopped at the door by Hermes, on Zeus' order. Insulted, she threw from the door a gift of her own: a golden apple on which was written, "To the fairest". The apple was claimed by Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite and they quarreled over it. Eventually, Zeus ordered Hermes to lead the three goddesses to Paris, a prince of Troy. After bathing in the spring of Ida, the goddesses appeared to him, but Paris was unable to make a decision.
So the goddesses began to bribe him with many gifts. Athena offered Paris wisdom, skill in battle, and the abilities of the greatest warriors. Hera offered him political power and control of all of Asia. And Aphrodite offered him the love of the most beautiful woman in the world, The Queen Helen of Sparta.
Paris gave the apple to Aphrodite. Aphrodite already had a grudge against Helen’s husband, so she took this as an opportunity to act on it as well.On a time, Menelaus was out of Sparta, Using a diplomatic mission as an excuse, Paris went to Sparta to get Helen and bring her back to Troy. Before Helen could look up to see him enter the palace, she was shot with an arrow from Eros, and fell in love with Paris when she saw him.
On knowing what has happened, Menelaus and his ally, Odysseus, traveled to Troy, where they unsuccessfully sought to recover Helen by diplomatic means. Menelaus then asked all Achaean kings and princes, who presented themselves as Helen’s suitors, to uphold their oath, and to help him in retrieving his queen.
The Achaean forces first gathered at Aulis. All the suitors sent their forces except King Cinyras of Cyprus. Though he sent breastplates to Agamemnon and promised to send 50 ships, he sent only one real ship, led by the son of Mygdalion, and 49 ships made of clay.
After all the troops were gathered, they made a sacrifice to Apollo, with hopes of blessing. During the offering, a snake slithered from the altar to a sparrow's nest in a tree nearby. It ate the mother and her nine chicks, then was turned to stone. It was interpreted as a sign that Troy would fall in the tenth year of the war. The Achaean fleet then set sail and was scattered by a storm. Different troops landed in different regions, in these regions they managed to find new allies to fight against Troy. Eight years after the storm had scattered them, the fleet of more than a thousand ships was gathered again.
In this war, Achilles, who was the son of Peleus and Thetis, played a prominent role. Even though Thetis was immortal, Achilles inherited mortality from his father. He joined the war as a 15 year old boy and managed to kill many skilled worriers and demi-gods. The gods, seeing that he had killed too many of their children, decided that it was his time to die. Achilles was killed after Paris shot a poisoned arrow that was guided by Apollo. After the death of Achilles, the war raged on pretty violently. Using Heracles' bow, which was with Philoctetes, Paris was shot and killed.
The end of the war came with one final plan. Odysseus crafted a giant hollow wooden horse, because Trojans considered horses to be sacred. It was built by Epeius, who was a Greek soldier, and guided by goddess Athena. It was made from the wood of a cornel tree grove sacred to Apollo, with the inscription: “The Greeks dedicate this thank-offering to Athena for their return home.” But the hollow horse was filled with soldiers and was led by Odysseus himself. The rest of the army burned the camp and sailed for Tenedos. When the Trojans discovered that the Greeks were gone, believing the war was over, they "joyfully dragged the horse inside the city." The Trojans decided to keep the horse and celebrated their victory the entire night.
At midnight, the soldiers from inside the horse emerged and killed the sleeping population. It is stated that the massacre continued until the day. Many were killed and abused in temples infront of god’s statues. The gods were very angry over the destruction of their temples and other sinful acts by the Achaeans, and decided that most would not return home.
A storm fell on the returning fleet off Tenos Island. Nauplius, the son of Poseidon, in revenge for the murder of his son Palamedes in the war, set up false lights in Cape Caphereus and many were shipwrecked. The storm was very violent and only five of the ships survived.
Even Menelaus's fleet was blown by storms to Crete and Egypt. Menelaus then consulted Proteus, a shape-shifting sea god, to find out what sacrifices to which gods he would have to make to guarantee safe passage for the remaining fleets. After 8 years of being stranded, Menelaus finally managed to return to Sparta with Helen.
Even though the Achaean’s managed to get Helen back, which was their original objective, I wouldn’t call it a clean victory. Just as Trojans, Achaeans as well suffered severer losses. Of the thousands of ships that went into the war, only 5 were managed to return back home. Whether it actually happened or not, the Trojan war is one of the most bloodied wars.
Comments
Post a Comment