Trojan War

The reason for the Trojan War is known, it seems, even to a schoolboy, however, it is still necessary to say a few words about it. And start with the wedding of Thetis, the sea goddess and hero Peleus. This wedding was called almost all the gods, with one small exception: Eridu, the goddess of discord, decided not to invite. And, quite naturally, she took offense at such a turn of events. Eris was famous for her evil jokes, and this time she did not retreat from her habits. At the festive table, she threw a golden apple on which was written "The Most Beautiful."

This title claimed three goddesses: Athena, Aphrodite and Hera. And the dispute was not resolved at the feast. Then Zeus ordered the decision to Paris, the Trojan prince, the son of Priam. The goddesses approached him when he grazed the sheep outside the city walls and was asked to help, while each of the goddesses promised Paris some reward for the "right" choice. Hera promised Paris power over Asia, Athena - military glory, and Aphrodite - the love of the most beautiful woman, Elena.

It is quite predictable that Paris chose the most beautiful Aphrodite. Elena was the wife of Menelaus, the king of Sparta. Paris arrived in Sparta and, disregarding the laws of hospitality, took with him Elena, along with the slaves and treasures that were stored in the palace. Learning of this, Menelaus turned for help to his brother, Agamemnon, King Mycenae. Together they assembled an army, to which all the kings and princes joined, who at one time were wedded to Elena and vowed to protect her and her honor.

Thus began the Trojan War. It was not possible to take the city quickly to the invaders, since it was very well protected. The siege dragged on for a long 9 years, but the events of the last, 10 years, are most known to us in the most detail. The changes start from the moment Agamemnon takes Achilles his captive, Briseid. She was a priestess in the temple of Apollo, and she had to be returned to avoid the wrath of God. Achilles was offended and refused to take part in further hostilities.

From that moment, military success turned from the Greeks. No persuasion helped, Achilles was staunch in his decision. Only the field of how the Trojans rushed into the camp and set fire to one of the ships, Achilles allowed his friend, Patroclus, to change into his armor and lead a detachment of his soldiers. They drove away the Trojans, but their leader, the eldest son of Priam, Hectar, killed Patroclus.

This event led Achilles into a frenzy, and he, reconciled with Agamemnon, went to avenge the offender. He was so furious that he killed Hector, tied his corpse to a chariot and drove several times around the city. And soon after that the hero himself found his death.

Kill Achilles was almost impossible, the fact is that the mother immediately after birth dipped him in the source, which made him invulnerable. But dipping, she held him by the heel. Apollo suggested to Paris that Achilles should be struck in the heel.

After his death, the Greeks began to share his armor, claimed by two heroes: Odysseus and Ajax. As a result, the armor went to the first, and then Ajax killed himself. Thus, the Greek army lost two heroes at once. The Trojan War came to a new turning point. To again swing the scales in their direction, the Greeks called to the aid of two other heroes: Philoctet and Neoptolemus. They killed the two remaining leaders of the Trojan army, after which the latter ceased to go out to fight in the field. Keep the city under siege for a very long time, and therefore Odysseus, famous for his cunning, offered to deceive the inhabitants of Troy. He proposed to build a huge horse from a tree and bring it as a gift to the besieged city, and to pretend that they are sailing away. The Greeks burnt a tent camp, boarded their ships and sailed for the nearest cape.

The Trojans decided to drag the horse into the city, not suspecting that the best wars of the Greeks had hidden in his belly. Priest Laocoon warned residents, foreseeing the disaster, but no one listened to him. The horse did not pass through the gates and the Trojans dismantled part of the wall. During the night of the war, a horse escaped from the belly, and the Greeks returned to the city. They killed all men, and women and children were taken prisoner. So ended the Trojan War.

Most of the information about this event we learned from the poem "Iliad", the authorship of which is attributed to Homer. However, now it is reliably established that, in fact, it is the Greek folk epic, which was told to the inhabitants of the cities by local singers, Aed, and Homer was either the most famous of the Aedov, or simply collected into different fragments into one whole.

For a long time, the Trojan War was considered a myth, a beautiful fairy tale, but nothing more. In particular, the reason for this was that it was not known where Troy was located, which suggested that there was no such city at all.

But then the archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann found the ruins of Troy. Then it became clear that the Trojan War, the story of which is told in the Iliad, was in fact.