Read Mythology of the Iliad and the Odyssey Online
Authors: Karen Bornemann Spies
In the Greek army, the armor of a deceased warrior was given to the mightiest surviving warrior. Both Odysseus and Ajax claimed this prize and spoke before the assembled Achaean armies.
“I claim the honor of receiving the gleaming armor of Achilles,” said Odysseus, who was known not only for his strength but also for his powers of persuasion and his craftiness.
Athena, who presided over the assembly, pointed to Ajax to speak next. “No, I am mightier than Odysseus,” claimed gigantic Ajax. “Everyone knows that I am second in bravery to Achilles. I am always the last to leave the battlefield.”
When Trojan prisoners of war testified that Odysseus had harmed them more than Ajax, Odysseus won the armor. Because he did not earn the prize, Ajax felt disgraced. He thought bitterly, “I am certain that Agamemnon and Menelaus turned the vote against me. They deserve to die, along with Odysseus.”
That night, he went to their tents, but Athena caused him to go crazy. He slashed a flock of sheep with his sword, believing the creatures to be the Greek army. He beat to death a huge ram, thinking it was Odysseus. Then, he suddenly came to his senses and realized what he had done. In horror and shame, Ajax fell on his own sword and killed himself.
In a short span of time, the Greeks had lost two great heroes, Achilles and Ajax. It seemed that they would never win the war. A prophet then told the Greeks that they needed Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, to join the fighting. The Palladium, a sacred statue of Athena, had to be captured from within Troy. The Greeks also needed to use the bow and arrow of the long-deceased hero, Heracles, in battle.
Odysseus and Diomedes convinced Neoptolemus to join the Greek forces. Odysseus and Diomedes also climbed over the walls of Troy in the dark of night and stole the Palladium. The archer, Philoctetes, had the bow and arrows of Heracles. The spirit of Heracles convinced Philoctetes to join the Greeks. Neoptolemus and Philoctetes proved to be able warriors. Neoptolemus fought with great bravery and savagery. Philoctetes, whose aim was true, fired the arrow of Heracles’ that killed Paris.
Yet despite the death of Paris, the Achaeans still could not win Troy. In ten years of fighting, the city walls had not been damaged. The Greeks finally realized that they could never conquer Troy unless they could get their armed forces inside the city.
Odysseus proposed a clever idea, which the Greeks decided to try. They built a gigantic wooden horse with a trap door in its belly. Led by Odysseus, fifty of the boldest Greek warriors climbed inside. Among them were Diomedes, Menelaus, and Neoptolemus. The remainder of the Greeks burned their tents and moved back on board ship. The ships pretended to sail for home, but actually they hid just out of sight of the Trojan forces. The giant horse was left outside the city walls.
The Trojans could not believe their eyes when they saw the horse. It was so enormous that it was terrifying. Just as amazing was the sight of the empty Greek camp and the absence of the Greek ships. Surely this meant that the Greeks had given up and gone home.
For many days, the Trojans sat around the horse and debated what to do with it. They were divided among three plans.
“I think we should hack open the belly of the horse with mighty bronze weapons,” said one warrior. Others nodded in agreement.
“No, we should drag it to the edge of the highest ridge and throw it down the cliffs,” said others.
“The safest plan would be to leave it standing as an offering to the gods,” said other warriors. “How can we fail to succeed if we honor the gods?”
This was the choice the Trojans made. Unfortunately, it was fated that the city of Troy would be destroyed once they possessed the wooden horse.
Outside the city walls, the Trojans also discovered a Greek named Sinon, who pretended to be a bitter enemy of Odysseus that the Greeks had left behind at Troy. He told them a story that Odysseus had made up to trick the Trojans.
“The Greeks made Athena very angry when they stole her Palladium from Troy,” said Sinon. “She demanded a blood sacrifice, and I was chosen to be the victim. The Greeks believed that such a sacrifice would bring them a safe journey home.”
“Why are you still alive?” asked a Trojan warrior.
“The night before I was to be sacrificed, I escaped,” Sinon answered. “I hid in a swamp, watching until all the ships had sailed away.”
“What, then, is the purpose of this massive horse?” asked another warrior.
“The Greeks believed that Athena turned against them,” Sinon said. “They created the horse as a sacrifice to win her favor.”
“But why is it so large?” asked another Trojan.
“The wily Greeks do not wish you to take it within your walls,” Sinon explained. “If you do, the city will never be captured. But if it is left outside, the Greeks will one day return and totally destroy Troy.”
Crafty Odysseus had truly created a good tale, for few of the Trojans doubted Sinon’s story. Still, the prophetess Cassandra, Priam’s daughter, warned against bringing the horse within the walls. “Beware, Trojans, for this mighty horse will bring disaster to our city. Your wives will become slaves to the Greeks. Your children will perish. Your riches will be taken by the Greeks, who will show you no mercy at all.”
Unfortunately, no one ever believed Cassandra. She had once agreed to make love with Apollo, but then changed her mind. Apollo punished her by making it so that Cassandra’s predictions would never be believed.
Laocoön, a Trojan priest, threw his spear against the horse’s flanks. Laocoön insisted, “Do not bring the horse inside the city walls. Danger lurks inside its belly. The horse should be destroyed.” Soon after Laocoön said this, two huge serpents came up from the sea and strangled the priest and his two young sons, who screamed in terror.
“Surely this is a sign sent by the gods,” said the Trojans, who watched in horror. “Anyone who opposes bringing the horse inside the city walls will be punished.”
With ropes made of flax, the Trojans dragged the horse through the city gates to the temple of Athena and offered it to the goddess with thanks. That night, the Trojans celebrated what they thought was their victory over the Greeks. Young women danced to the music of flutes. But in reality, they had brought death into their city.
The hiding place of the Greeks might even then have been uncovered. Helen walked around the horse, calling various Greek warriors by name. She imitated the voice of each man’s wife. But Odysseus kept any of the Greeks from answering.
Meanwhile, that night as the Trojans slept, Sinon signaled to the fleet of Greek ships, which sailed silently back to Troy. He also opened the horse to release the warriors hidden inside. Soon the reunited Greek forces had set the city of Troy ablaze.
The Trojans awoke in confusion to blood-curdling war cries. Chariots thundered down the dusty streets. When the Trojans rushed out into the streets, they were struck down by waiting bands of Greek warriors, clad in fearsome armor and spiked helmets. The Achaeans slashed at the Trojans with sharp spears. They slaughtered their women and children or took them prisoner. Rivers of blood flowed in the streets.
Even Priam, the king, was not safe. After Greek warriors broke down the doors of the palace, Neoptolemus stabbed Priam at the altar of Zeus, just as Neoptolemus’ father, Achilles, had killed Hector, Priam’s son.
Menelaus found Helen in the home of her new husband, Deiphobus, a son of Priam whom Helen had married soon after the death of Paris. Menelaus slaughtered Deiphobus and was about to kill Helen when she pleaded with him to save her life. When the Greek fleet sailed, Menelaus took Helen with him, and they lived together happily for many years.
But the lives of the other Trojan women were fated to be unhappy. The Greeks grouped them together outside the ruins of the city. Each warrior received at least one of the women as a slave. Hector’s wife, Andromache, became the slave of Neoptolemus. Astyanax, the son of Hector, was torn from his mother’s arms and thrown from the city walls. Hector’s mother, Hecuba, became a slave to Odysseus. Polyxena, Priam’s youngest daughter, was sacrificed over the tomb of Achilles. As their city perished, the surviving women of Troy, victims of war, waited for the Greek ships to take them away to slavery.
Q:
How did Achilles die?
A:
Paris shot an arrow at Achilles. Apollo guided the arrow so that it hit Achilles in his heel, the only spot on his body that was vulnerable.
Q:
Describe Achilles’ funeral.
A:
First, his body was placed atop a funeral pyre and set on fire. His ashes were mixed with those of his friend Patroclus. They were placed in a golden urn and buried in a giant tomb. Then, Thetis held funeral games in honor of her dead son.
Q:
What happened to Achilles’ armor? Why?
A:
Greek custom awarded the armor of a deceased warrior to the leading surviving warrior. Both Ajax and Odysseus claimed this honor. The Greeks voted to give the armor to Odysseus, because Trojan war prisoners testified that Odysseus was the better warrior.
Q:
What did a prophet tell the Greeks that they needed to do to win the war?
A:
They needed to get Neoptolemus to join the fighting, use the bow and arrows of the hero Heracles, and capture the Palladium.
Q:
What idea did Odysseus propose to win the war?
A:
He suggested that the Greeks build a gigantic wooden horse and hide some of the Greek army inside. Then, they should burn their tents and have their ships sail just out of sight of Troy. This would look like they had left the battlefield.
Q:
How were the Trojans convinced to take the horse inside their city walls?
A:
The Greeks left behind a warrior named Sinon, who told a clever story that Odysseus had invented. Sinon said that the Greeks had angered Athena by stealing her Palladium. He was chosen to be the sacrifice which would appease Athena, but he hid before the Greeks could put him to death. Sinon said that if the horse was left outside the city walls, the Greeks would return to destroy Troy someday.
Q:
Did all the Trojans believe Sinon?
A:
No, the prophetess Cassandra and the priest Laocoön warned against bringing the horse inside the walls.
Q:
What happened to Laocoön? What did the Trojans think this meant?
A:
After he gave his warning, two serpents came out of the sea and strangled Laocoön and his two sons. The Trojans took this as a sign that anyone who opposed bringing the horse inside the walls would die.
Q:
What happened during the night after the Trojans brought the horse inside the walls?
A:
Sinon signaled to the Greek ships to return to Troy. He also let the warriors out of the horse’s belly. The Greeks then attacked the sleeping Trojans and destroyed their city.
Robert Graves, a historical novelist, noted that the horse was the sacred animal of Troy. Yet classical writers on Homer felt that a device other than an actual wooden horse might have been used to break down the walls of Troy. The Greeks might have entered:
... into Troy by a postern (gate) which had a horse painted on it; or that the sign of a horse was used to distinguish the Greeks from their enemies in the darkness and confusion; or that when Troy had been betrayed, the oracles forbade the plundering of any house marked with the sign of a horse... ; or that Troy fell as a result of a cavalry action; or that the Greeks, after burning their camp, concealed themselves behind Mount Hippius (“of the horse.”)
1
The myths about the Trojan horse provided inspiration to ancient Greek art. Professor Barry B. Powell described a large jar or vase from about 670
B.C.
as:
... one of the earliest surviving unequivocal references to myth in Greek art. The horse is on wheels and has openings through which we can see the heads of the heroes. From the portholes swords and shields are passed out. Some heroes have already come down and are striding off in full armor to the battle. Other scenes on the jar portray scenes of mayhem, the death of children and the rape of women.
2
A modern expression has its roots in the story of the Trojan Horse, according to Powell:
A priest of Poseidon, Laocoön, also suspected that the horse held warriors. He came forward and declared Sinon, like all Greeks, to be a liar (hence the saying, “beware Greeks bearing gifts”).
3
After their victory in the Trojan War, Odysseus and the rest of the Greek army set out for their homes. The journey of Odysseus is depicted in Homer’s epic, the
Odyssey
. The word
odyssey
has come to mean a journey or quest, specifically “a long wandering or voyage usually marked by many changes of fortune.”
1
The Greek word
odusseia
means “the story of Odysseus.”
2
Odysseus’ wandering voyage home took ten years and was filled with adventures and changes of fortune.
The journeys of the Greek leaders other than Odysseus were described in an epic entitled
Nostoi
(meaning “Returns” or “Homecoming”), which is now lost. Only a brief summary of this poem exists and does not mention Odysseus. Nostoi is the root of our word nostalgia, or homesickness.
The
Odyssey
, like the
Iliad
, was written in the late eighth century
B.C.
Historians feel that it was composed after the
Iliad
, because Homer assumed that the reader of the
Odyssey
had knowledge of the Trojan War. Also, he did not duplicate events described in the
Iliad
.