The Trojan War and its main Greco -Roman heroic figures
The Trojan War has served, for centuries, how reference point for the study and analysis of ancient Greek and Roman cultures. Dated between around 1300 to. C. – 1100 a. C. For several historians (Wood, P. 116), the Trojan War was a coalition between the Achaean armies against The Troy City, also known as Ilion, and exists documented in literary works such as Iliad and Odyssey, as of several other Greek poems known as the epic cycle. He had been debated for a long time about his historical truthfulness, but, as said by archaeologist Carl Blegen in 1963, “it cannot be doubted that there really was a historical Trojan war, in which the Achaeans fought against the people of Troy and their Allies … the internal evidence of the Iliad only … is enough, even without archaeological testimony, to demonstrate that … the tradition of the expedition against Troy must have a real historical basis."
Even so, assuming that stories were completely mythical, you cannot doubt that the writings about war have played a crucial role in the etendimiento we have today about Greco -Roman cultures. He gave birth to the outstanding heroes that represent many of the cultural ideals of these ancient civilizations. It is also important to analyze the heroic figures of the war, since in them much of the fundamental values of both Greek and Roman culture were projected in ancient times. From the introduction of Achilles and Odysseus as opposite poles of the ideals of Greek warriors, to eneas such as the incarnation of Roman virtue and its role in the eventual foundation of Italy, all part of the events that occurred in the Trojan War.
Troy, also known as Ilion, is located next to the Strait of the Dardanelos where it is now Turkey, between the river rivers and Simois and in front of the Black Sea. According to the myth written by Homer in the Iliad and a slightly more detailed description in the metal songs of Hesiod, everything begins with the wedding of Achilles’ parents – King Pelero and the Nymph Tetis, to which all were invited The gods, except Eris, goddess of discord. As revenge for not being invited, Eris appeared at the wedding and left a gold apple on the table "For the most beautiful goddess", and this was claimed by Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, causing a huge conflict. To end the discussion without getting involved, Zeus gave Paris, prince of Troy, the responsibility of choosing the most beautiful. The three goddesses tried to bribe him for him to choose them, but in the end he granted the victory to Aphrodite, who had promised the love of the most beautiful human woman in the world. In this case, that woman was Helena, Queen of Sparta.
Helena had too many suitors, so her father’s father was in front of a lot of indecision, given that she feared that by choosing one of them the rest would react violently. Odysseus, King of Itaca, proposed a solution – that everyone swear to protect Helena’s marriage with whom she chose as her husband. Paris fell in love with Helena, and with the help of her promised of Aphrodite and Eros, she takes her to Troy as a wife. As a consequence, every Greece took weapons against Paris and Troy, with the intention of recovering Helena and returning her to her husband in Sparta as they had sworn.
By looting several cities close to Troy, Agamemnon kidnapped Criseida, daughter of a priest of Apollo named Crises, and took her as a slave. Apollo punished the Achaeans, whipping the armies with a plague until they returned her to her father. Angry with the hero Achilles for having guaranteed the return of Criseid. Naturally, this costs the Greeks, and the Trojans manage to progress in the war after the absence of Achilles.
The war lasted ten years, full of divine conflicts and interventions, oracles, prophecies, deaths, follies, pests and inexplicable events by the gods, who had divided to attend both armies. It was the those who eventually were victorious thanks to Odysseus and their perfect plan to build a huge wooden horse, within which Greek soldiers hid. Convinced that the horse was an offering to Athena, the Trojans gave way to the horse inside the city and made a great celebration. The Greek warriors opened the doors of the city to allow the entrance to the rest of the troops and was looted without mercy.
In the Iliad, Homer presents us as the main hero to Achilles, son of Peleo and the Nymph Tetis. Achilles differs from other half -heroes to be of divine lineage, but not the son of a god or goddess directly – however, his strength and invincibility come from his mother at birth immersed him in the waters of the Estigia river, forgetting to wet the heel the heel for which he held him. Although his heel is generally recognized as his mortal weakness, the ease and intensity of his wrath is even more deadly and weakening, that is why Homero begins the illiterate as follows:
Sing, oh goddess, the anger of Pelida Achilles; Funesta anger that caused infinite evils to the Achaeans … (singing I. 1-2)
Homero devia the original narrative of the heroic figure through the Iliad by presenting Achilles as a man of bad temper, whose tantrums and anger achaches almost cost the victory over Trojan to the Achaean armies. It is even his anger that leads him to death – by cruelly killing Prince Héctor, and binding him to his carriage to turn around the walls of Troy several times, eventually it is his brother Paris, who avengeively triggers the arrow guided by Apollo that takes his life to the hero Aqueo. It is possible to ask, then, why is Achilles presented as the main hero of the Iliad, an almost perfect personification of Greek military excellence being Odyssey. The answer to this is simple, Achilles represented not an example of heroic values, he polarized them completely despite being an outstanding warrior, because he was based on destruction, invincibility and brute strength. Achilles is not an exemplary hero – it is a moral lesson and the Greek manual of how not acting.
On the other side of the same currency is Odysseus, the hero par excellence of the Trojan War before the Greeks. Odysseus represents the Achilles antithesis, and is on several occasions the diplomatic figure and of greater consciousness. Despite being only great -grandson of the God Hermes, and mostly human, Odysseus becomes a hero through his intellect and excellence in war strategies. It was his idea The infamous Trojan horse, which eventually granted the victory to the Achaeans and ended the war. In this way, during the Iliad, Odysseus represents the Greek virtue of Areté in the war, and in the Odyssey, he represents the theme of the nosto, the return home.
According to Bauzá, the heroes in mythology have also been used “either to glorify a group or an individual, either to justify a certain state of affairs.”(P. 4)
There is no better example of this than the Roman figure of Aeneas, the protagonist of the Virgilio Eneída. Aeneas is the son of the goddess Venus, known for the Greeks as Aphrodite, and the history and importance of it start from the destruction of Troy describing Homer in his epic poems, putting war as a key point in the history of the Roman Empire. Aeneas heroism is purely based on Roman virtue of Pietas; which is defined as the virtue that urges to fulfill our duty and to do good completely before the eyes of the gods and other human beings (Wagenvoort, 1963). Aeneas demonstrated pietas by saving his father from the ruins of Troy before his wife, fulfilling the duty of him filial. He also demonstrates it by taking the prophecy given to him by Aphrodite to flee and take the people of Troy to what would eventually become a new empire, fulfilling duty towards his homeland and the gods; and having carried it up despite the long and tedious years that it cost to do it. By essentially the perfect hero representative of the Roman Empire, the mythology surrounding the heroic figure of eneas glorifies and puts the people of the Roman Empire on a pedestal of beauty and perfection in all aspects.
We must emphasize and emphasize the fact that all these figures start from the Achaean and Troy War, their importance is essential. The heroic mythical stories and figures to which it gave birth, although mostly fictitious, represent some of the ideals and values that subsequently become the founding base of today’s society. From religious characters to superheroes in films and popular culture, the heroes and events of the Greco -Roman stories have served as inspiration and example for centuries and generations, transcending the years and will continue to influence us, either directly or indirectly, by the rest of Our existence on Earth.
References
- Bauzá Hugo Francisco. The myth of the hero: morphology and semantics of the heroic figure. Fonso de Cultura de Argentina, 2007.
- Blegen, Carl W. Troy and the trojans. London: Thames & Hudson, 1963.
- Hesiod. La Cipria (Fragments). Trad. H.G Evelyn-White. The Medieval and Classical Literature Library. http: // mclibrary.Org/Hesiod/Cypria.HTML. 12 Feb. 2020.
- Homer. The Iliad. Trad. Segalá and Estalella, Luis. Project Gutenberg. Web. 12 Feb. 2020.
- Nagy, Gregory. The Ancient Greek Hero In 24 Hours. Cambridge, Ma: Harvard University Press, 2013. Harvard University Center for Hellenic Studies. http: // nrs.Harvard.EDU/URN-3: Hul.ebook: chs_nagyg.The_cient_greek_hero_in_24_hours. 16 Feb. 2020.
- Proclo. Cipria Summary. Ed. Gregory Nagy. The Stoa Consortium. https: // web.Archive.org/web/20160410004426/http: // www.Stoa.org/hopper/text.JSP?Doc = Stoa: Text: 2003.01.0004. 3 sea. 2020.
- Wagenvoort, Hendrik. Pietas: Selection Studies in Roman Religion. AND.J. Brill, 1980.
- Wood, Michael. In Search of The Trojan War. UNIV. Of California Press, 1998.
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