THE TRUE STORY OF THE TROJAN WAR

The Trojan War has been the subject of substantial scrutiny over the many centuries since it took place during the Bronze Age.  Scholars have generally dismissed the accounts provided by Homer in the Iliad and the Odyssey as largely fiction, but some support for the existence of the event has arisen since the 1870’s when the ruins of the ancient city were discovered.  Looking at it from an historical standpoint, what actually happened?

Legend:  From Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged by the Greek armies of Menelaus and Agamemnon sacking and burning the city of Troy in Asia Minor.  It began as a result of Paris, a prince of Troy, stealing away with Helen, the wife of Menelaus who was King of Sparta.  The siege of Troy allegedly took place over a ten year period and involved as many as 70 – 130 thousand Greek soldiers.  The end came when the Greeks deceived the Trojans into believing that they were quitting by leaving a wooden horse as a tribute.  The horse contained Greek soldiers inside who opened the gates quietly at night and let the Greek army return to sack the city.

Sources:  The event is further narrated by other writings especially two long poems by Homer, The Iliad, and the Odyssey. Neither of these poems covered the entire event as the Iliad describes the last year of the siege and features the dual between the Greek warrior Achilles and the Trojan prince Hector.  The Odyssey covers the story of the Greek hero Odysseus and his long journey back home after the fall of Troy.  The Iliad and the Odyssey were written sometime between the sixth and ninth centuries BC. It is not clear exactly when the war took place, but thanks to the excavation of the city by the archeologist Heinrich Schliemann in the 1870’s many scholars put the war between 1700-1250 BC, which would coincide with the archeological findings.  However, some scholars put the event as late as 1135 BC, and others as early as 1334 BC. In any case it would mean that Homer would have written his poems at least four hundred years after the fact or as many as six or seven hundred years later. His sources, were mainly oral traditions about the event handed down through the generations, only some of which were ever transcribed. 

Greek mythology:  Greek mythology also weighs in as the legends point to complicity and conspiracy on the part of Greek gods towards the war’s origins and conduct.  The story remains one of the most significant events in Greek mythology, and is found in many instances of Greek literature and art.  It is earmarked by complicity of the Greek gods or goddesses intervening at certain points of the war in favor of their own interests or champions.  Indeed, the war allegedly began with a quarrel between the goddesses Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite over who was the “fairest” goddess of all.  Zeus sent the dispute to Paris, prince of Troy, for resolution, and Paris judged that Aphrodite was the fairest.  In return, Aphrodite made Helen fall in love with Paris and accompany him to Troy.  Menelaus called in commitments to honor his marriage to Helen from Agamemnon, Odysseus, and other Greek heroes. 

Conduct of the war:  Not much is known about the actual conduct of the war for the first eight or nine years.  One story has the Greek fleet setting sail for Troy without knowing the way and landing in the wrong spot. They were later scattered by a storm and returned to Greece in fragments.  Several years later, they fleet formed up again and this time made it to the Troas region of Asia Minor.  Combat began with the Trojans attempting to hold off the Greeks at the sea strand, but needing to fall back to the safety of their walled city.  The full force of the Greek army apparently reached its zenith in the ninth or tenth year of the siege.  There are numerous stories of individual combat and heroism not the least of which involved the Greek warrior Achilles and the Trojan prince Hector.  In the tenth year, the visiting Greek troops became restless and mutinous wanting to return home.  This apparently prompted the usage of the wooden horse.

The Trojan Horse:  The Trojan Horse does not appear in either the Iliad or the Odyssey, nor any other surviving document until Virgil’s Aeneid which was written another 600 years after Homer or between 29 – 19 B.C.  Although an armistice on the plains of Troy may have been reached, the story of the Trojan Horse and its famous subterfuge provided an action packed ending to the saga. 

Conclusions:  Did the war actually exist?  Did Troy exist?  Was the war fought over a woman?  Did it last ten years and involve up to 130,000 Greek invaders?  Was it settled by a wooden horse subterfuge?  These are some of the many questions that remain open for scholars to debate.  The only facts that are commonly agreed upon arise from the discovery of Troy’s ruins.  The city was burned and/or destroyed several times and rebuilt on the same spot up to eight times.  

It is highly likely that Greeks fought Trojans on different occasions for different reasons, often trading rights versus piracy.  It is conceivable they would have fought a war over the honor of a woman or the sanctity of a king’s marriage.  The great weight of interest in Greek literature, art, and mythology points to a major military event that took place where the ruins of the city of Troy were discovered.  Most scholars can accept that the war occurred, but few will stand by the Iliad and Odyssey as being factual descriptions of the accounts of such a war.  As for the horse?  It turns up in Roman literature perhaps 1,200 years after the fact.

Sources:  Wikipedia, Trojan War. 

National Geographic History, Armed and Dangerous in The Iliad, Caroline Alexander, January/February 2021.

History.com/topics/ancient-history/trojan-war.