The Iliad by Homer

Achilles fights Hector in champion combat. Painting by Mark Churms of MarkChurms.Com.

The Iliad by Homer (the blind poet), which is probably the greatest epic in the world, tells the story of thew Trojan War. The Iliad is part one of a trilogy: it's sequel is The Odyssey, which tells of the journey of the Greek hero Odysseus back to Ithaca; and part three is The Aeneid (written in Latin by Virgil), which tells of the journey of the Trojan hero Aeneas to Italy.

The Iliad itself covers the seduction of Helen by Paris to the death and cremation of Hector, prince of Troy. The cause of the war--the judgment of Paris--is told in The Trojan Women by Euripedes and the fall of Troy (including the story of the Trojan horse) is told in The Aeneid.

Prologue: The Judgment of Paris

Eris gatecrashing into the wedding of King Peleus and Thetis. (Art courtesy of
www.kunst-fuer-alle.de)

Zeus, the king of the gods and the god of the sky, and his brother, Poseidon, the god of the sea, both wanted Thetis, a sea nymph. But Prometheus--the Titan who created man and Pandora, the first woman--prophesied that the son of Thetis would be greater than his father. Naturally, neither god wants a child to be greater than them. So they had Thetis marry a mortal king, Peleus, so that her son would be a mere mortal.

Eris, the goddess of discord, was not invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis. So she threw a golden apple incribed, To the Fairest. All the goddess want the apple but the choice was eventually narrowed down to three: Hera, the queen of the gods; Pallas Athena, the goddess of wisdom; and Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty.

From left to right: Hera, queen of the gods; Aphrodite, with Cupid; Paris; and Pallas Athena, wearing the helmet of Zeus.

Zeus wisely did not judge among the three goddesses. Instead, he delegated the task to Paris,  a young prince who was then shepherding his father's sheep.He is the son of King Priam of Troy, who banished him because of a prophecy that one day he would be the cause of the destruction of Troy. Each goddess enticed Paris to choose her. Hera promised him power by making him the Lord of Europe and Asia. Athena offered him wisdom. And Aphrodite promised him the most beautiful woman in the world. Paris chose Aphrodite and gave her the golden apple. So he left Mount Ida, abandoning the nymph who he was living with named Oenone, who loved him very much.

This is the reason for the Trojan War.

The Abduction of Helen

The most beautiful woman in the world was Helen, daughter of Leda and Zeus and sister of the Gemini twins, Castor and Pollux. Her beauty was so renown that she had plenty of suitors, coming from powerful families. King Tyndareus, her mother's husband, was afraid to choose among the suitors because it might anger all the others. So he made all the suitors swear that they would support whoever was chosen to be Helen's husband--something that the all the suitors naturally and selfishly wanted. Tyndareus then chose Menelaus to be Helen's husband and made him the king of Sparta.

Aphrodite, who was given the golden apple, led Paris to Sparta where he was received well by Menelaus and Helen. However, when Menelaus went to the island of Crete, Paris abducted Helen and took her to Troy.

The Abduction of Helen; painting by Giovanni Francesco Romanelli.

When Menelaus returned and found that his wife was gone, he called upon the greatest chieftains of Greece to help him rescue his wife. Among the chieftains were: Achilles, son of Peleus and Thetis (his mother dipped her into the River Styx to make him invulnerable--except by his heel, where his mother held him); Patroclus, Achilles' cousin [and lover]; Agamemnon, brother of Menelaus and supreme commander of the Greek forces; Odysseus, king of Ithaca, and others like Diomedes and Ajax. Achilles was warned by his mother Thetis that if he went to Troy, he would die there.

The Greek armada. Helen was "the face that launched a thousand ships". (From the movie "Troy".)

At Aulis, the ships could not proceed because of the strong winds and tides. A seer named Calchas said that Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, was angry because a sacred hare was killed by one of the Greeks. Agamemnon had to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia so that the Greek armada can proceed to Troy.

When the Greek army arrived at Troy, the first person to jump off the ships, Protesilaus, was killed by a Trojan spear. He was greatly honored by the Greek soldiers and by the gods. Hermes allowed him to visit his wife, Laodama. But when he had to return to the underworld, she followed him by killing herself.

The Trojan War

The thousand ships of the Greek army brought with it thousands of mighty warriors. But the city of Troy itself was very strong too. It was ruled by King Priam and Queen Hecuba. Their son was the champion of Troy: Prince Hector, whose wife was Andromache and their son was named Astyanax. For nine years both sides fought without decisive victory.

The gods were also at war because of the Greeks and the Trojans. Poseidon sided with the Greeks because they were seafarers. Hera and Athena also sided with the Greeks. On the side of the Trojans were Aphrodite and her husband Ares, the god of war. Also siding with the Trojans were Apollo, his sister Artemis. Zeus secretly favored the Trojans but could not support them openly because of the wrath of Hera. So have secretly hatched a plan to have Achilles killed to weaken the Greek army.

During a heated battle between the Greek and Trojan armies, King Menelaus of Greece and Prince Paris of Troy faced each other in champion combat. Menelaus wounded Paris but before he was able to kill him, Paris was carried away by Aphrodite back to Troy.

Agamemnon and Achilles had a quarrel between themselves. Before arriving at Troy, the Greeks carried off Chryseis, daughter of a priest of Apollo and was given to Agamemnon as a prize. Phoebus Apollo, the sun god, attacked the Greeks with a rain of arrows of fire. Achilles called a meeting of the chieftains where Calchas the seer revealed that Chryseis must be returned to her father. So they did.

The squires of Agamemnon take away Briseis.

In retaliation, Agamemnon sent two of his squires to get Briseis, a maiden who was kept by Achilles as his prize. This greatly depressed Achilles. He refused to go out and fight with the army. As a result, the Greeks suffered great loses from the Trojans.

Achilles (left) fighting Hector (right). Detail from a Greek vase.

What woke up Achilles was the death of his friend/lover Patroclus, who was killed by Hector. Patroclus was wearing Achilles' armor so the Trojan prince thought it was Achilles. Thetis brought a new armor for her son, made by the god Hephaestus himself. Achilles faced Hector in champion combat and succeeds in killing Hector.

Achilles dragging the dead body of Hector on his chariot around Troy.

Not  contented with killing Hector, Achilles stripped him of his armor, hitched his dead body on his chariot, and dragged the body of Hector around Troy.

The abuse of Hector's body caused displeasure to the gods (except for Hera, Athena, and Poseidon). Zeus ordered Iris, the messenger of the gods, to go to King Priam to tell him to ask Achilles for the body of his son. Priam loaded a chariot with treasures and was led by Hermes into the Greek camp and into the tent of Achilles himself.

King Priam begging Achilles for the body of his son, Hector. (Detail from a Greek vase.)

Achilles was touched by the plea of the old man and ordered his servants to wash the body of Hector and to return it to his father. Priam took his son home and cremated him on a great pyre. The Trojans mourned for Hector for nine days.

Thus ends the Iliad.

The Fall of Troy

Achilles fought his last battle against Prince Memnon of Ethiopia, son of the goddess of the dawn, who came with a huge army to aid the Trojans. Achilles was able to kill Memnon and drive the Trojan army back up until the walls of Troy. Paris shot an arrow at Achilles and Apollo guided the arrow so that it struck Achilles at the only place where he was vulnerable--his heel. 

Paris (lefts) at Achilles (right) while Apollo (center) guides the arrow to Achilles' heel.

The Greek hero Ajax took away his body and cremated it while Odysseus held back the Trojans. Ajax and Odysseus quarrelled over the armor of Achilles. The Greek chieftains  had a voted and awarded Achilles' armor to Odysseus. Depressed, Ajax went mad and killed his cattle, thinking they were Greek commanders who voted against him. Realizing his error, Ajax committed suicide by falling on his sword.

Odysseus took a Trojan prophet, Helenus prisoner. Helenus revealed that Troy can only be defeated if the Greek possessed the bow and arrow of Hercules. Before his death, Hercules gave his bow and arrow to a Greek hero named Philoctetes. But on the way to Troy, the Greeks abandoned Philoctetes on the island of Lemnos because he was bitten by a serpent and would not get healed. Odysseus, together with the Greek hero Diomedes (in other versions, with Neoptolemus, the young son of Achilles) and rescued Philoctetes. A wise Greek physician healed him and Philoctetes was able to join the fight. During a battle, he was able to strike Paris with an arrow. Paris was taken back to Mount Ida. Because he abandoned her, the nymph Oenone refused to give a magic herb to heal him. Oenone watched Paris die; afterwards she committed suicide.

The Trojans possessed a sacred image of Pallas Athena called the Palladium. The Greeks knew that as long as the Trojans had it, Troy would not be taken. Diomedes was able to steal the precious Palladium.

Now possessing the Palladium, Odysseus devised a plan to defeat the Trojans. He had his men built a huge wooden horse and had the Greek fleet retreat. They left behind a single Greek named Sinon who told of the story of the Greek army's retreat and that the horse was an offering to Poseidon for a safe voyage. The Trojans thought that the Greeks have retreated and took the wooden horse into the city. They thought it was a sign that Athena restored her favor on them after the loss of the sacred Palladium. However, the priest Laocoön and King Priam's daughter Cassandra urged the Trojans to destroy the horse: "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts." But no one believed them. (According to the Odyssey, Cassandra was given the gift of prophecy by Apollo. But when she refused his love, Apollo cursed her so that no one would believe her.)

The Greek Trojan Horse. (From the movie "Troy".)

The Trojans feasted and celebrated that the war was over. That night, Odysseus and twenty of his men crept out of the wooden horse. They opened the gates of the city for the waiting Greeks, who sailed back secretly in the night. The Trojans fought desperately: many of those killed were not even able to put their armor or get a chance to make a blow. Some of the Trojans hurled burning timber and tiles on the Greeks. Some even removed their armor and wore the armor of the dead Greeks and attacked the Greeks by surprise. But it was too late--too may Trojans have already been killed. 

Menelaus found his wife Helen and brought her back to Troy. Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, kills King Priam. Neoptolemus also kills Astyanax, son of Hector, by throwing him down the wall. By death of Astyanax, the victory of the Greeks over Troy is complete. (According to one version, the city of Troy was left burning for seven years.) 

Neoptolemus kills King Priam. (Detail from a Greek vase)

Many of the women were either killed or abused or both. The Trojan women were left languishing in the once-great city, watching as the Greeks sailed away.

On their journey home, Odysseus and his men were blown off-course. Thus  begins his ten-year journey home to his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus in Ithaca. This story is told in the Odyssey. On the other hand, one of the Trojan heroes, Aeneas, son of Aphrodite, escapes from Troy and undergoes a similar journey to Italy, where he eventually founds the city of Rome, which is told in the Aenid.

R E F E R E N C E S

Hamilton, E. (1942). Mythology: Timeless tales of gods and goddesses. NY: Grand Central Publishing.

Lahanas, M. HellenicaWorld.Com (URL: http://www.hellenicaworld.com/Greece/Literature/en/Iliad.html.

Wikipedia.