As the historical sources — Herodotus and Eratosthenes — show, it was generally assumed to have been a real event. Determined to get Helen back and punish the Trojans, Agamemnon and his brother marched a mighty army against Troy, and eventually succeeded in bringing its people to their knees. Helen of Troy, portrayed here in a painting by Edward Burne-Jones, has fascinated artists through the centuries Credit: Trustees of the British Museum. In antiquity, even respected historians were willing to believe that this war actually happened.
Modern scholars, however, have tended to be more sceptical. Did the Trojan War happen at all? Greek vases, Roman frescoes, and more contemporary works of art depicting stories inspired by Troy are exhibited alongside archaeological artefacts dating from the Late Bronze Age.
What emerges most palpably from the exhibition is how eager people have been through history to find some truth in the story of the Trojan War. The Romans went so far as to present themselves as the descendants of the surviving Trojans. In his poem, the Aeneid , Virgil described how the hero Aeneas escaped the burning citadel with a group of followers after the Greeks entered in their wooden horse.
Aeneas and his men left to found a new home in Italy. The grim realities of battle are described so unflinchingly in the Iliad that it is hard to believe they were not based on observation. Troy, too, is portrayed in such vivid colour in the epic that a reader cannot help but to be transported to its magnificent walls.
Told of a possible location for the city, at Hisarlik on the west coast of modern Turkey, Schliemann began to dig, and uncovered a large number of ancient treasures, many of which are now on display at the British Museum. He was the swiftest and most handsome of the warriors, invincible in battle and eloquent in council.
His mother had dipped him in the waters of the river Styx to make him invulnerable, so that only his heel by which she held him was vulnerable. His disguise was revealed by Odysseus and Diomedes, and he joined the expedition.
Phoenix and Patroclus. The death of Patroclus in single combat with Hector was the turning point in the events of the Iliad. Agamemnon sacrificed her, favorable winds blew, and the fleet set sail see MLS, Chapter The wound festered, and the Achaeans abandoned him on Lemnos. Philoctetes was son of Poeas, who had inherited the bow of Heracles, which was necessary so the Trojan prisoner, Helenus, told the Greeks for the capture of Troy.
In the last year of the war, Odysseus and Diomedes fetched Philoctetes and his wound was healed by the sons of Asclepius, Podalirius and Machaon. With the bow, Philoctetes shot and killed Paris. The events of the first nine years of the war were narrated in epic poems that are no longer extant. The Iliad is concerned with part of the tenth year. The Anger of Achilles by J. David This is the moment where Agamemnon R shows his true intention to Achilles L , who draws his sword in anger to strike Agamemnon.
The Quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon. The quarrel broke out over division of the spoils from raids on cities in Asia Minor.
Achilles withdrew from the fighting, and his mother, Thetis, persuaded Zeus to honor Achilles by allowing the Trojans to be victorious in his absence. The Role of the Gods. The gods have a prominent role in the Iliad. Apollo the first to appear favors the Trojans; he helps Hector kill Patroclus and later refreshes the corpse of Hector after it has been dragged behind the chariot of Achilles.
Thetis comforts her son Achilles after his humiliation by Agamemnon and again after the death of Patroclus, when she obtains new armor for her son from Hephaestus. Hermes escorts Priam through the Achaean camp. On two occasions the gods fight on the battlefield among themselves, and even are wounded see above, under Diomedes.
The Role of Zeus. Supreme among the gods is Zeus. While he is constantly opposed by Hera who deceives him into making love at one point, so that while he is asleep the Greeks may be successful , his will is supreme.
He honors Achilles in response to the complaint of Thetis, and he resists the importuning of Athena and Hera, who are impatient at the continued success of the Trojans.
Hector and Andromache. His parting from Andromache brings into sharp focus the loss that the survivors in the defeated city must bear, and it foreshadows his death and the mourning of Andromache in the last books of the poem. The Embassy to Achilles.
In despair at the Trojan successes, Agamemnon sends Odysseus, Ajax son of Telamon , and Phoenix to offer gifts and honor to Achilles in restitution for the dishonor done to him, if he will return to the fighting. But Achilles refuses. The Death of Patroclus.
He is victorious at first, killing Sarpedon, son of Zeus, but eventually is killed by Hector, with the help of Apollo. Hector strips the corpse of the armor of Achilles and puts it on. The Return of Achilles to Battle.
The death of Patroclus drives Achilles to relent; Thetis brings him new armor made by Hephaestus, including a splendidly decorated shield. He ends the quarrel with Agamemnon and returns to battle. Achilles kills countless Trojans and even fights the river-god Scamander, whose flooding waters are quenched by Hephaestus.
Eventually the Trojans are penned into the city. Achilles and Hector. The two heroes are left to fight in single combat. Zeus weighs the fate of each in his golden scales, and Hector is doomed. But Achilles knows that he is fated to die young, for his divine mother once foretold that he would have a short life if he stayed to fight at Troy. It is Paris, the Trojan prince whose abduction of Helen started the war, who kills Achilles. The Greeks finally win the war by an ingenious piece of deception dreamed up by the hero and king of Ithaca, Odysseus — famous for his cunning.
They build a huge wooden horse and leave it outside the gates of Troy, as an offering to the gods, while they pretend to give up battle and sail away.
Secretly, though, they have assembled their best warriors inside. The Trojans fall for the trick, bring the horse into the city and celebrate their victory. But when night falls, the hidden Greeks creep out and open the gates to the rest of the army, which has sailed silently back to Troy. Troy has fallen. After the fall of Troy, the surviving heroes and their troops have little chance to enjoy their victory.
The gods are angry because many Greeks committed sacrilegious atrocities during the sacking of Troy. Few Greeks reach their homes easily, or live to enjoy their return.
He is forced to travel to the furthest reaches of the Mediterranean Sea, tormented by the sea god Poseidon. He is waylaid by storms, shipwreck and a colourful crowd of strange beings and treacherous people, from the one-eyed giant Cyclops to the Sirens with their mesmerising song. Odysseus finally reaches his homeland, only to find his house besieged by suitors for the hand of his wife who had thought he would not survive his voyage. Yet after 10 years at sea, Odysseus also overcomes this final challenge.
He kills the suitors and is reunited with his faithful wife, Penelope. With Odysseus home at last, the events of the Trojan War come to a close. Whether Greek or Trojan, victorious or defeated, the heroes and heroines of the story have enthralled audiences from antiquity to today. Buy the book accompanying the exhibition here. Map Data. Terms of Use. Report a map error. Exhibitions and events The myth of the Trojan War You may have heard of the city of Troy, the Trojan War, the wooden horse, and Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world.
But there's much more to the ancient myth of Troy. Get ready for our upcoming exhibition with a run-through of one of the greatest tales ever told.
Filippo Albacini — , The Wounded Achilles. Marble,
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