The Greeks knew that they could never capture Troy without the help of Achilles, who was the greatest warrior in the world. He was practically invulnerable as a fighter, because at birth his mother dipped him in the River Styx, rendering him immortal everywhere except in the heel, where she held him. Later, Paris discovers this vulnerability and shoots a poisoned arrow into Achilles' heel — thus, we have the term "Achilles' heel," meaning one's vulnerability.
Achilles was warned that if he went to war he would gain great glory, but he would die young. His mother then disguised him in women's clothing, but the sly Odysseus discovered the trick and Achilles finally consented to go. After a few months, the Greek army gathers at Aulis in Euboea.
According to some accounts, they immediately launch an attack on Teuthrania, an ally of Troy, are defeated, and are driven back. Much of the army disperses. During this same period, the prophet Kalchas predicts that ten years will pass before the walls of Troy will fall. The Greeks, or Achaians as they called themselves, do not try a mass attack on Troy again for about eight years.
They have not, as many imagine, spent nine years beneath the walls of Troy, as when the Iliad opens. Some scholars consider this first expedition story to be a variant account of the more common story, but many others think that the expedition against Troy was actually made up of two widely separated expeditions. The story of the second or possibly first assembly at Aulis is the more famous account. At this assembly of the Achaian forces, they are unable to sail because of onshore winds.
This time Kalchas reports that Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt, is offended because Agamemnon killed a deer sacred to her. The only way the Achaians can leave is by Agamemnon's sacrifice of his daughter, Iphigeneia, to Artemis. Agamemnon tricks Iphigeneia by telling her that she is to wed Achilles. When she arrives for her wedding, she is gagged so that she cannot pronounce a dying curse, and sacrificed to Artemis.
The winds shift, and the Achaians Greeks sail for Troy. The Achaians land at a protected shore near Troy. They build a wall of earth, stone, and timber to protect their ships. After the construction of the wall, the Achaians begin their siege of Troy. Some of their forces raid nearby states. Achilles attacks cities to the south while Telamonian Aias Ajax takes Teuthrania. A year later, the tenth year since the original prediction by Kalchas, all of the Achaians assemble near Troy to begin what they hope will be the final assault.
Here is where the Iliad begins as a feud develops between Achilles and Agamemnon. The poem recounts the events of this feud as they take place over several days. The epic ends with the death and burial of the Trojan warrior, Hektor. The events after the Iliad that lead to the fall of Troy are not a part of the poem. The pyre burns through the night Day ends at I hope that this shows it is difficult to come up with an exact chronology. For example, did the plague start on day 1 or 2?
Did the gods depart on the same day that Odysseus returned to the camp or the day after? This is, of course, confounded by the line at roughly A definitive count of the number of days that the Iliad covers is not possible, given the inconsistencies in the text. However, all commentators including Taplin are agreed that the length of time between the start of book 1 and the end of book 24 is at least fifty days.
However, the Iliad — the original epic — is completely different. Rather than starting with something significant someone finds a ring and then getting bigger and bigger it does the opposite: it starts with something big the Trojan War and then cuts this ten year thing down to fifty-odd days. I am moving on to consider how parataxis, often considered to be an inferior mode of expression but very prevalent in Homer, can be used more widely in descriptive and analytical qualitative research.
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. Calchas, a powerful seer, stands up and offers his services.
Though he fears retribution from Agamemnon, Calchas reveals the plague as a vengeful and strategic move by Chryses and Apollo. Agamemnon flies into a rage and says that he will return Chryseis only if Achilles gives him Briseis as compensation.
The men argue, and Achilles threatens to withdraw from battle and take his people, the Myrmidons, back home to Phthia. Achilles stands poised to draw his sword and kill the Achaean commander when the goddess Athena, sent by Hera, the queen of the gods, appears to him and checks his anger. Achilles prays to his mother, the sea-nymph Thetis, to ask Zeus , king of the gods, to punish the Achaeans.
He relates to her the tale of his quarrel with Agamemnon, and she promises to take the matter up with Zeus—who owes her a favor—as soon as he returns from a thirteen-day period of feasting with the Aethiopians.
Meanwhile, the Achaean commander Odysseus is navigating the ship that Chryseis has boarded. When he lands, he returns the maiden and makes sacrifices to Apollo. Chryses, overjoyed to see his daughter, prays to the god to lift the plague from the Achaean camp. Apollo acknowledges his prayer, and Odysseus returns to his comrades. But the end of the plague on the Achaeans only marks the beginning of worse suffering. Ever since his quarrel with Agamemnon, Achilles has refused to participate in battle, and, after twelve days, Thetis makes her appeal to Zeus, as promised.
Zeus is reluctant to help the Trojans, for his wife, Hera , favors the Greeks, but he finally agrees.
0コメント