The Trojan War

***Legends Summarized: The Trojan War*** is the seventy-eighth episode of the *Miscellaneous Myths* series and the fourteenth episode of the *Legends Summarized* series by Red, narrating the complete story of the Trojan War from almost a dozen sources and put together to try and summarize the entire conflict.

## Preamble

Red begins by reciting the first three lines of the *Iliad* in English, while its Greek counterpart appears on-screen. The lines read of the wrath of Achilles, and how his fate was met with the loss of many soldiers and the death of many. Red cites the *Iliad* as a story of wrath, whether that be of Achilles, the Gods, or herself, as the *Iliad* was the first hand-drawn episode that Red had made, and she admits that, while it was a great experience, she considers it to be her worst video in terms of quality.

Regardless, Red praises its overall storytelling, but pointing out how the *Iliad* is only a small fraction of the entire Trojan War. In order to tell the story of the entire war, Red compiled a list of various sources that told the war from its beginning to its end, even extending until after the war in the cases of Odysseus and Aeneas.

## Summary

### Childhood of Helen

The myth begins with the various different accounts of the heritage and childhood of Helen of Troy, as her backstory seemed to not matter beyond the fact that she existed as an integral character in the plot of the Trojan War. In the *Iliad* and *Odyssey*, Helen is the daughter of Zeus and Leda, who was impregnated by Zeus after sleeping with both him and Tyndareus in one night. Notably, she slept with Zeus when he was in the form of a swan, which became a popular art subject for Renaissance painters.

As a result of this night, Leda had four children. Pollux and Helen with Zeus, and Castor and Clytemnestra with Tyndareus. However, according to the *Cypria*, Helen was the adopted daughter of Leda and was instead the biological child of Nemesis, the Greek goddess of hubris. Another account suggested that Helen hatched from an egg, since Zeus was a swan at the time. Additionally, Pausanias's *Descriptions of Greece* describes a temple containing bits of the eggshell that Helen supposedly hatched from after being laid by Leda.

### Tyndareus and the Suitors

Decades later, Helen is desired by many suitors throughout Greece, whom believe her to be the most beautiful woman in the world. Due to this, Tyndareus becomes slowly more uneasy about the amount of suitors that are trying to marry his daughter. Most of all, he fears what the others will do when he makes his choice, wanting to avoid a potential war. At this point, one of the suitors, Odysseus, arrives at the palace, offering to help Tyndareus sort out the marriage situation if he can help Odysseus woo Penelope and win the favor of the king of Sparta, Icarius.

Tyndareus agrees, and makes all the suitors swear an oath that the marriage will occur without interference, in order to prevent any of the other suitors from stealing Helen since all other suitors would simply declare war if he did so. The suitors agree, and Tyndareus ends up picking Menelaus for Helen, though he was represented  *in absentia* by Agamemnon. The suitors all go home, but, not without keeping up his end of the deal, Tyndareus helps Odysseus and Penelope get together. In Euripides's *Hecuba*, Helen herself makes the choice to marry Menelaus rather than Tyndareus choosing for her.

### Paris and the Golden Apple

Meanwhile, the goddess Eris decides to crash the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, throwing a golden apple at Athena, Hera and Aphrodite, stating that it's for the most beautiful. Since the wedding was of Achilles's parents, Eris was angered that she didn't receive an invite. Zeus, seeing how bad the situation could be, asks Hermes to move the goddesses far away to Mount Ida, where they encounter Paris, the son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba.

In Hyginus' *Fabulae*, Paris' mother Hecuba had a dream that she gave birth to a flaming torch which exploded into snakes. Becoming concerned about the omen, Priam and Hecuba hand the infant Paris to their servants and instruct them to kill Paris. They instead leave him on a hill to die, where he's found by a shepherd who raises him. Years later, Cassandra finds Paris, proclaiming him as her long-lost brother, wherein he is quickly reunited with his family and raised as royalty once more.

Back in the present, Hermes tells Paris to decide which goddess is the most beautiful and thus should receive the apple. To entice Paris, each goddess offered Paris something in return to sway Paris to pick her. Hera offered to make Paris King of the world; Athena offered him glory and victory in battle, and Aphrodite offered him Helen's hand in marriage. Paris chose Aphrodite, and so he set sail for Sparta to be wed to the already-married Helen.

### Paris and Helen

Continuing the story in Stasinus' *Cypria*, the Dioscuri host Paris and company when they arrive in Sparta, later being hosted by Helen and Menelaus, the latter of which leaves for Crete soon after. This allowed Aphrodite to sneak in and get Paris and Helen together. The two then leave Sparta, not before filling Paris' boat with stolen treasures. On the way there, they encounter a large storm sent by the infuriated Hera, since she was the goddess of marriage. When they reach Troy, the two are married. However, this is not the only version, as in Euripides' play *Helen*, the Helen that Paris brings back to Troy is an illusion created by Hera. Meanwhile, the real Helen is brought to Egypt to be kept safe from the war. This fact is also mentioned in Pseudo-Apollodorus's *Bibliotheca*.

### Gathering of Armies

Upon hearing of Helen's loss from the rainbow goddess, Iris, Menelaus is infuriated, and summons Agamemnon to begin assembling his army. Reminding the suitors of the honor-bound oath they took, they all agreed to take up arms against Troy in order to get Helen back. Although not required or honor-bound to do so, Achilles eagerly volunteers to fight in the coming conflict.

Achilles' reasons for doing so were mentioned in the *Iliad*, wherein his mother Thetis prophecized that Achilles will either die young and in a painful manner in Troy, but that his name would be remembered forever. Or, if he chose not to fight, he would live a long life but die unknown. Achilles chose the glory route and to fight alongside the Greeks for the immortality and glory involved.

Conversely, Odysseus, who was honor-bound and thus required to fight, was almost the exact opposite of Achilles, not wanting to fight in the war. This was because he and Penelope had gotten married, Odysseus not wanting to lose his wife and infant son. In an attempt to get out of fighting, Odysseus attempted to feign madness, though immediately stopped the act when Agamemnon threatened Odysseus' son.

### Sailing for Troy

The gang mustered at Aulis, but are stopped after Agamemnon angers the goddess Artemis, who redirects the winds against the boats, preventing them from leaving port. In Euripides' *Iphigenis in Aulis*, the only way to appease Artemis is to sacrifice Agamemnon's daughter, Iphigenia, to her. He feels bad about doing it before immediately killing her. However, in the *Cypria*, Artemis saves Iphigenia from being sacrificed. Later spiriting her away and making her immortal. Artemis then replaces Iphigenia with a deer on the atlar.

Sufficiently appeased, Artemis corrects the winds and allows the Greek army to begin sailing to Troy. The *Cypria* vaguely describes what occurs when they arrive, citing a few skirmishes. A notable example was the demand of the Greeks for Troy to return Helen and the treasure Paris stole, which the Trojans quickly denied. This, among other things, was the beginning of the Trojan War. The siege of Troy evidently took over nine years, in which any part of Troy not safely within its walls was almost certainly destroyed by the Greeks and Trojans' years of warring.

### The Achaeans' Countless Losses

Around the beginning of the *Iliad* is it said that the Greek soldiers would take bride-prizes for their victories in battle wherever they went. In particular, Achilles's bride-prize was Briseis, who seemed to get along well with him and Patroclus. When Patroclus died, Briseis was devastated, mentioning that Patroclus would make Achilles marry her when they got back home from Troy.

Agamemnon's bride-prize is Chryseis, the daughter of Chryses, a priest of Apollo. Chryses attempted to pay Agamemnon a ransom for his daughter's freedom, but Agamemnon denied it, stating that he'll make sure that Chryseis is too busied by Agamemnon to ever see her homeland again.

In desperation, Chryses prays to Apollo, who finds Agamemnon worthy tp be punished along with the rest of the Achaean army. He does this by raining divine arrows upon Agamemnon and the Achaean army, killing several of them. The Achaeans find out that Agamemnon angered Apollo by dishonoring his priest, and decide that the only way for Apollo to no longer be mad at Agamemnon is for him to return Chryseis to Chryses, which Agamemnon is immediately opposed to. Only agreeing to it if he gets a replacement wife-slave, seeing that as more important than actually winning the war they were there to fight.

Agamemnon solves this issue by taking Briseis as his bride, instead. This angered Achilles so much that he secluded himself in his tent for long durations of the war. Without Achilles on the field, the Trojan hero Hector has nobody to counterbalance him, as well as nobody to prevent the large amount of Achaean losses *en masse*. Additionally, the Trojans begin winning the war, Hector especially becoming unstoppable. This leads to Hector accidentally killing Patroclus, which sends Achilles' rage out onto the field where he promptly kills Hector in retribution. The tide of the war was therein changed in the Greeks' favor.

### Arrival of Penthesilia

As recounted in Quintus of Smyrna's *Posthomerica*, the Amazon princess and daughter of Ares, Penthesilia, arrives at the battle being chased by Furies for killing her sister. In sublimation, Penthesilia decides to kill any Achaean soldier she finds. A result of this was the beginning of a minor feminists' movement in the city of Troy, due to her sheer effectiveness when it came to killing Achaeans.

Achilles soon hears word of the carnage, but was reoccupied mourning over the gravestone of Patroclus and was unable to stop Penthesilia for the time being. After realizing how much of a threat Penthesilia posed, Achilles gears up, and eventually does make his way to the battlefield to face her head-on. Upon reaching the battle, Achilles kills Penthesilia in one shot with his spear.

However, once he removed her helmet, Achilles found Penthesilia stunningly beautiful. He then pondered out loud about the life the two could have had if they met under any other circumstance. This prompted the Achaean warrior Thersites to make fun of Achilles for being a "girl-liking weenie-pants," wherein Achilles punches Thersites so hard that he dies.

### The Heroes' Deaths

The way Achilles dies is very inconsistent throughout the narratives. The *Posthomerica* citing Apollo as the one who struck Achilles on the heel, also violating Zeus's rule of no interference. *Bibliotheca* recounts his death as being at the hands of Paris, though guided by Apollo. In Ovid's *Metamorphoses*, it remains similar to the *Bibliotheca*, but motivated by Poseidon; himself being mad about Achilles killing one of his sons in the war.

In the *Iliad*, Hector prophesizes that Achilles will be killed by Paris with Apollo's help, suggesting that to be the most consistent version of Achilles' death. Although Red states that it doesn't really matter about the "how" Achilles died, rather than the fact that Achilles died in Troy like his mother predicted. Red also points out that none of the sources say that Achilles' only weakness is his heel and that all other parts of his body are indestructible; that element seemed to appear after Homer and has no other place in the Trojan Cycle.

According to the Sophocles play *Ajax*, Ajax dies around this time as well. His death occurs after losing at the funeral games for Achilles' armor to Odysseus, where he killed himself in shame. The death of Paris occurs as well, albeit embarrassingly, when he is shot with two poison arrows, one in the groin, by Philoctetes. As he lay dying, he attempted to get his wife, the nymph Oenoe, to help him. She refused, citing the fact that Paris left her for Helen, which she was still upset about, so she let Paris die. When this occurred, king Priam was too busy mourning Hector to notice.

### The Trojan Horse

As most of the major characters and players in the war were dead, the war began to die down, culminating in the final domino: The Trojan Horse. This portion of the story is mainly explained in the *Odyssey* and the *Aeneid*, though the *Aeneid* goes into more detail. With Athena's help, the Greeks construct a large wooden horse in which several soldiers hide inside; the rest burning their camps and leaving on ships to make it look like they're retreating.

Overjoyed to find the siege over, the Trojans swarm out of the city and into the camp. When they found it empty, except for the giant Horse near the ruins. There was debate on what to do with the horse, but a seer and priest of Apollo, Laocoon, seems worried about the abrupt retreat of the Greeks, stating the Trojans should know Odysseus' tricks by now, chucking a spear into the Horse to make a point. The Trojans do capture a young Greek soldier named Sinon, who tells a story similar to that of Iphigenia, that he was left as a sacrifice. He also explains that the Horse was built to win back the favor of Athena, who had previously been disappointed by Odysseus and Diomedes for stealing the Palladium from Troy, it being her sacred statue.

Sinon warns the Trojans that, since the Horse is sacred to Athena, that it should not be damaged or destroyed. But, if they take it into the city, they could possibly be granted the same fortunes bestowed upon them that the Palladium used to give. To further convince the Trojans, the gods send a bunch of snakes to kill Laocoon's sons. The Trojans, seeing that destroying the Horse is possibly a bad idea, invite it into the city as a gift, though not without ignoring the prophecies and ramblings of Cassandra. That night, Sinon opens the Horse, allowing the Greeks to swarm the city, eventually burning it to the ground.

In the *Odyssey*, which is told from Menelaus' perspective inside the Horse, Helen is suspicious of the Horse, and so she walked around the outside of the Horse and knocked on it. On occasion, calling out some of the Achaean soldiers by name and even impersonated their wives' voices at times. Odysseus was barely able to keep the Achaeans inside from blowing their cover, mostly using basic logic and brute willpower.

### Aftermath of the War

In-between the *Iliad* and the *Odyssey* is the lost epic known as the *Nostoi*, which is so fragmentary that only five-and-a-half lines remain from it. Although from these lines, it seems to tell the story of the rest of the Greek heroes returning from Troy, save for Odysseus and Aeneas, who each have their own elaborate epilogues later. The *Nostoi* does have importance, in that it takes place during the intermediate period between the Trojan War and the Returns from Troy, the latter of which acts as a subsequent sequel to.

This is further exemplified in Aeschylus' *Oresteia* following Agamemnon's return home; the *Odyssey* has Telemachus visit Menelaus after he returns home with Helen, which is partially recounted in Euripides' play, *Helen*. With this, the Trojan War is almost definitely wrapped up, with thousands of losses on both sides, the city of Troy is absolute ruins, and the impending doom of Agamemnon. Meanwhile during his ten years at sea, Odysseus contemplates on the fact that the entire war is, in a way, his own fault.

## Credits

In the credits, Red sings *Team* by Lorde.

## Characters appearing

* Achilles
* Aeneas (mentioned)
* Agamemnon
* Ajax (mentioned)
* Aphrodite
* Apollo
* Ares (mentioned)
* Artemis
* Athena
* Briseis
* Cassandra
* Castor
* Chryseis
* Chryses
* Clytemnestra
* Eris
* Hector
* Hecuba
* Helen of Troy
* Hera
* Hermes
* Icarius (mentioned)
* Iphigenia
* Iris
* Laocoon
* Leda
* Menelaus
* Nemesis
* Odysseus
* Oenoe
* Paris
* Patroclus
* Peleus
* Penelope
* Penthesilia
* Philoctetes
* Pollux
* Poseidon
* Priam
* Sinon
* Telemachus
* Thersites
* Thetis
* Tyndareus
* Zeus

## Trivia

* This episode has 44 characters, the most amount of characters to appear in a video, beating *The Theogony* by one.
	+ However, *The Theogony* still holds the title for most Greek gods featured in one video at 41 (Metis and Thetis are both nymphs.)