Troy, a city whose existence was doubted for many centuries, considering it a figment of the imagination of myth-makers, was located on the banks of the Helespont, now called the Dardanelles. A wonderful legend, which is devoted to a lot of conjectures, conjectures, disputes, scientific research, archaeological sites, was a few kilometers from the coast, and in its place is now an unremarkable Turkish town of Hisarlik. The common and ingrained opinion that the Trojan War broke out because of a woman, of course, has some basis, but historians suggest that there were quite a few reasons for such a war, and they had serious economic and political reasons.
The presence of a beautiful and imaginative legend, which was based on love and betrayal, is not the most plausible explanation of why the famous war broke out, and why so many actors was drawn into it. And the divine providence, by which it is explained in myths, is nothing more than a fantasy of those who sincerely believed in their Pantheon of gods similar to people. Homer also contributed a lot to this point of view, whose immortal work became the basis for the view of the Trojan events. But, do not be an atmosphere of mystery, and a romantic haze around these events, World culture would have been left without the outstanding works of great authors inspired by the Trojan War.
Cause and effect, more real
Troy was located at the junction of busy trade routes that passed through the Helespont, connecting the Black and Mediterranean Seas. Located on the coast of the peninsula Asia Minor, in the immediate vicinity of the strait, Troy controlled all the routes leading past it, receiving considerable income from this. The Trojans interfered with the trade of the Greeks, among whom were the Achaeans, Danaans and Argives, who unleashed a war against it, uniting in a military alliance. Troy had its own, rather powerful allies, for example, Lycians, Anatolians from nearby territories and Thracians, some of whom also fought on the opposite side.
The Achaeans and the Trojans were in fact supporters of various great empires that were constantly at war with each other - the Egyptians and the Hittites, and the fortified Troy, which controlled the trade routes, prevented the Achaeans, who saw that the city was turning from a peripheral Mycenaean territory into a powerful citadel, and a dangerous enemy. One of the good reasons for the war was military mobilization in Mycenae, whose lord, Agamemnon, was alarmed by the accumulation of armed people in his state, and found a use for them, unleashing a war with Troy. Agamemnon's brother, Menelaus, who inherited the throne in Sparta after marriage, and was the husband of that very Elena the Beautiful, whose bright face is considered the main reason for the ten-year strife. In fact, the abduction of Elena the Beautiful was just the impetus that led to the development further developments involving such a large number of participants.
Mythological coverage of the Trojan War
Divine intervention in the course of events was also far from ambiguous. The mortal Argonaut Peleus, who married the goddess of the sea Thetis (the result of this marriage was the birth famous hero Achilles Trojan War), did not invite the goddess of discord to the wedding, and she, furious with this fact, threw an apple with the inscription "to the most beautiful". Athena, Aphrodite and Hera took part in the dispute over the possession of this apple, and Paris resolved this dispute, whom Hermes, at the suggestion of Zeus, appointed as a judge. He gave the apple to Aphrodite, who promised him the love of the most beautiful of women, and neglected dominion and glory.
The mother of Paris, Hecuba, during her pregnancy, had a prophetic dream that her son would become a flaming firebrand, from which Troy would burn. Therefore, he was thrown into the forest, where he was raised by shepherds. Aphrodite brought Paris to Sparta, where, in obedience to her promise, she awakened love for the handsome man in Elena. But he was not satisfied with adultery, but kidnapped someone else's wife, and the treasures of Menelaus, along with her. Hera intervened in the course of events, whom her wounded pride forced to incite the Greeks to stand up for Menelaus, and Athena, no less furious with the decision of Paris not in her favor. According to a deeper version, it was Zeus who threw the apple of discord on Eris, because he was tired of humanity, from which he decided to get rid of by unleashing this war. There is evidence that the King of Ithaca, Odysseus and Menelaus, came to Troy to pick up an unfaithful wife peacefully, but they simply did not open the gates, and Elena flatly refused to return to her husband.
Troy at that time was ruled by King Priam, the army was led by Hector, his son, brother of Paris. On the side of the Achaeans were numerous fiances of Helen, bound by an oath of revenge, and allied treaties, which obliged them to respond if necessary. Neither Agamemnon nor Menelaus had the strength with which to go to conquer Troy, since it was in a favorable location and was well fortified. The support of the other kings made it possible to assemble a 100,000-strong army and a fleet of 2,000 ships. The Achaean army included the greatest heroes of Greece, many of whom are mentioned in ancient Greek myths: Odysseus, Philoctetes, Ajax, Diomedes, Protesilaus, Sthenelus. Agamemnon was chosen as the leader, as the most powerful of the Achaean kings.
Siege of Troy and significant events
The siege of Troy lasted 9 years, and was completely unsuccessful. An interesting interpretation of the reasons for the siege of Troy by Helen's former suitors is that she terminated her marriage with Menelaus, having left Sparta, and retained her rights to the royal throne, while her abandoned husband lost them. But she chose her new husband without proper ceremony, and they considered themselves offended by this fact. In the union, Agamemnon alone was not a former fiancé, but he was interested in keeping the throne for his brother Menelaus. As paradoxical as it sounds, the goal of the siege of Troy was the Spartan throne. And if we consider that in mythology there is no indication that Helen returned to Sparta, then the main goal of the siege was never achieved.
Most studies tend to date the Trojan War to 12-13 centuries BC. e. The first voyage was unsuccessful, the Greeks landed in Mysia, which was ruled by the son of Hercules, Teleph, and mistakenly entered into battle with the soldiers of their friendly king. On the way from Mysia to Troy, a terrible storm dispersed the ships, and the participants had to gather in Aulis. And only after Artemis, who was angry with them, almost sacrificed Iphigenia, the daughter of Agamemnon, whom Artemis saved and made her priestess, the Greek ships managed to achieve their goal. The Greek army was very numerous, but the Trojans were courageous and courageous, and defended their native lands, and allies from many countries came to their aid.
Since Troy was surrounded by a high jagged stone wall, the Achaeans did not dare to storm it, and camped nearby, placing the city in a state of siege. fighting passed mainly between the camp and the fortress, the Trojans periodically made combat sorties, trying to set fire to the warships of the Greeks. The long-term siege did not bring any fruit, except for numerous skirmishes, during which the most worthy heroes on both sides were killed. The Greek Patroclus died at the hands of Hector, Hector himself was killed by Achilles,
who also killed the leader of the Amazons who came to the aid of the Trojans, Penthesilea, but he himself died from the arrow of Paris, which struck him in the heel, the only weak spot on the body. Apollo, who knew where to point the arrow, helped Paris in this, who was killed by Philoctetes, who arrived at the Achaean camp. A ten-year unsuccessful siege, which exhausted the Greeks, caused them to grumble, and almost went home when Agamemnon, to test their fighting spirit, suggested that they sail back. Only cunning helped the Greeks take Troy. They made a huge wooden horse, which they left on the shore, with a dedication to Athena, and they themselves pretended to lift the siege. Despite the warnings of the priest Laocoön, the Trojans dragged the wooden monster to their place outside the city gates. At night, the Greeks who hid inside the statue opened the gates, into which Greek soldiers who had returned secretly burst in. All the Trojans died, with the exception of Aeneas, the son of Anchises and Aphrodite, on whom the gods entrusted the mission of founding a city in another place. The inhabitants of Troy became captives or slaves, the city itself burned to the ground. The wooden horse, which to this day bears the name of the Trojan horse, has become a symbol of betrayal and betrayal, a dangerous and harmful traitorous gift.
The capture of Troy did not bring the Greeks anything good. Many of them died on the way home, internecine strife began in the camp of the recent winners, Menelaus and Odysseus were taken to long wanderings to distant lands, and the leader of the besiegers of Troy, Agamemnon, was killed by his wife Clytemnestra, who did not forgive him for the alleged death of Iphigenia. The ancient Greeks did not doubt the reality of the Trojan War, which was an absolutely real event for them, even though the gods participated in it on an equal footing with people. Today, thanks to Schliemann's excavations, no one has any reason to doubt that Troy really existed.
Karpathos Island
The island belongs to Greece and belongs to the group of islands of the Southern Sporades. Karpathos is located 47 kilometers southwest of the island of Rhodes. It is noteworthy that the island has relatively recently become a tourist attraction, and, therefore, has retained its originality and naturalness as much as possible.
Monastery of John the Baptist
In the book of the Acts of the Holy Apostles there is evidence that in Veria, in the region of Imathia, the Apostle Paul preached the holy Gospel. After the apostle's first visit to the pagans, Saints Silas and Timothy remained in Veria, who continued to preach the holy Gospel. Judging by the accuracy of the descriptions, the disciple of the Apostle Paul, the Apostle Luke, also visited here.
Greek actors
Monasteries of Mount Athos. Iveron, Iversky Monastery.
The Iberian Monastery (Iviron) is a Greek Orthodox male monastery, which occupies the third most important place among the Athos monasteries. Iviron is located in the northeastern part of the peninsula, and was founded at the end of the 10th century by Georgian monks (in 980-983).
The fantasy of the Greek people has widely developed the cycle of legends about the Trojan War. Their subsequent popularity was explained by a close connection with the centuries-old enmity of the Hellenes and Asians.
The arena of the Trojan War - an area on the northwestern coast of Asia Minor, stretching as a plain to the Hellespont (Dardanelles), further from the sea rising in ridges of hills to Mount Ida, irrigated by Scamander, Simois and other rivers - is already mentioned in ancient myths about the gods. The Greeks called its population Trojans, Dardanians, Tevkras. The mythical son of Zeus, Dardanus, founded Dardania on the slope of Mount Ida. His son, rich Erichthonius, owned vast fields, countless herds of cattle and horses. After Erichthonius, the Dardanian king was Tros, the ancestor of the Trojans, whose youngest son, the handsome Ganymede, was taken to Olympus to serve the king of the gods at feasts, and his eldest son, Il (Ilos), founded Troy (Ilion). Another descendant of Erichthonius, the handsome Anchises, fell in love with the goddess Aphrodite, who gave birth to a son from him, Aeneas, who, according to myths, fled west to Italy after the Trojan War. The offspring of Aeneas was the only branch of the Trojan royal family that survived after the capture of Troy.
Excavations of ancient Troy
Under the son of Il, Laomedont, the gods Poseidon and Apollo built the fortress of Troy, Pergamon. The son and successor of Laomedont was Priam, who was famous for wealth throughout the world. He had fifty sons, of whom the brave Hector and the handsome Paris are especially famous. Of the fifty, nineteen of his sons were born by his second wife Hecuba, the daughter of the Phrygian king.
Cause of the Trojan War - the abduction of Helen by Paris
The cause of the Trojan War was the abduction by Paris of Helen, the wife of the Spartan king Menelaus. When Hecuba was pregnant with Paris, she saw in a dream that she gave birth to a flaming brand and that all of Troy burned down from this brand. Therefore, after his birth, Paris was thrown into the forest on Mount Ida. He was found as a shepherd, grew up strong and dexterous, handsome, a skilled musician and singer. He pastured the herds on Ida, and was the favorite of her nymphs. When three goddesses, who were arguing over which of them was the fairest, over a bone of contention, gave him a decision, and each promised him a reward for the decision in her favor, he chose not the victories and glory that Athena promised him, not dominion over Asia, promised by the Hero, but the love of the most beautiful of all women, promised by Aphrodite.
Judgment of Paris. Painting by E. Simone, 1904
Paris was strong and brave, but the predominant traits of his character were sensuality and Asian effeminacy. Aphrodite soon directed his path to Sparta, whose king Menelaus was married to the beautiful Helen. The patroness of Paris, Aphrodite, aroused love for him in the beautiful Elena. Paris took her away at night, taking with him many treasures of Menelaus. It was a great crime against hospitality and marriage law. The wicked man and his relatives, who received him and Helen in Troy, incurred the punishment of the gods. Hera, an avenger for adultery, aroused the heroes of Greece to stand up for Menelaus, starting the Trojan War. When Elena became an adult girl, and many young heroes gathered to woo her, Elena's father, Tyndareus, took an oath from them that they would all protect the marital rights of the one who would be elected. They were now to fulfill that promise. Others joined them out of love for military adventure, or out of a desire to avenge an offense done to all of Greece.
Elena's kidnapping. Red-figure Attic amphora, late 6th c. BC
Beginning of the Trojan War. Greeks in Aulis
The death of Achilles
Later poets continued the story of the Trojan War. Arktin of Miletus wrote a poem about the exploits accomplished by Achilles after the victory over Hector. The most important of them was the battle with Memnon, the radiant son of distant Ethiopia; therefore Arktin's poem was called "Ethiopida".
The Trojans, discouraged after the death of Hector - it was told in the "Ethiopian" - were animated with new hopes when the queen of the Amazons, Penthesilea, came from Thrace to help them, with regiments of her warriors. The Achaeans were again driven back to their camp. But Achilles rushed into battle and killed Penthesilea. When he removed the helmet from the opponent who fell to the ground, he was deeply moved to see what a beauty he had killed. Thersites scathingly reproached him for this; Achilles killed the offender with a blow of his fist.
Then, from the far east, the king of the Ethiopians, the son of Aurora, the most beautiful of men, came with an army to help the Trojans. Achilles evaded the fight with him, knowing from Thetis that soon after the death of Memnon, he himself would die. But Antilochus, the son of Nestor, the friend of Achilles, covering his father persecuted by Memnon, died a victim of his filial love; the desire to avenge him drowned out in Achilles concern for himself. The fight between the sons of the goddesses, Achilles and Memnon, was terrible; Themis and Aurora looked at him. Memnon fell, and his mournful mother, Aurora, wept, carried his body home. According to an Eastern legend, every morning she waters her dear son again and again with tears falling in the form of dew.
Eos carries off the body of his son Memnon. Greek vase, early 5th century BC
Achilles furiously chased the fleeing Trojans to the Skean gates of Troy and was already breaking into them, but at that moment an arrow fired by Paris and directed by the god Apollo himself killed him. She hit him in the heel, which was the only vulnerable spot his body (the mother of Achilles, Thetis, made her son invulnerable by immersing him as a baby in the waters of the underground river Styx, but the heel, for which she held him at the same time, remained vulnerable). All day long the Achaeans and the Trojans fought in order to take possession of the body and weapons of Achilles. Finally, the Greeks managed to take the body to the camp greatest hero The Trojan War and its weapons. Ajax Telamonides, a mighty giant, carried the body, and Odysseus held back the onslaught of the Trojans.
Ajax takes out the body of Achilles from the battle. Attic vase, ca. 510 BC
For seventeen days and nights, Thetis, with the Muses and Nereids, mourned her son with such touching songs of sorrow that both gods and people shed tears. On the eighteenth day, the Greeks lit a magnificent fire on which the body was laid; Achilles' mother, Thetis, carried the body out of the flames, and transferred it to the island of Levka (Snake Island, lying in front of the mouths of the Danube). There, rejuvenated, he lives, forever young, and enjoys war games. According to other legends, Thetis transferred her son to the underworld or to the islands of the Blessed. There are also legends saying that Thetis and her sisters collected the bones of her son from the ashes and placed them in a golden urn near the ashes of Patroclus under those artificial hills near the Hellespont, which are still considered to be the tombs of Achilles and Patroclus left after the Trojan War.
Philoctetes and Neoptolemus
After the brilliant funeral games in honor of Achilles, it was to be decided who was worthy of receiving his weapon: it was to be given to the bravest of the Greeks. This honor was claimed by Ajax Telamonides and Odysseus. Trojan prisoners were chosen as judges. They decided in favor of Odysseus. Ajax found this unfair and was so annoyed that he wanted to kill Odysseus and Menelaus, whom he also considered his enemy. On a dark night, he secretly went out of his tent to kill them. But Athena struck him with a cloud of reason. Ajax killed the herds of cattle that were with the army, and the shepherds of these cattle, imagining that he was killing his enemies. When the darkness passed, and Ajax saw how wrong he was, he was seized with such shame that he threw himself on his sword with his chest. The whole army was saddened by the death of Ajax, who was stronger than all Greek heroes after Achilles.
Meanwhile, the Trojan soothsayer, Helen, who was captured by the Achaeans, told them that Troy could not be taken without the arrows of Hercules. The owner of these arrows was the wounded Philoctetes, abandoned by the Achaeans on Lemnos. He was brought from Lesbos to the camp near Troy. The son of the god of healing, Asclepius, Machaon healed the wound of Philoctetes, and he killed Paris. Menelaus desecrated the body of his offender. The second condition necessary for the victory of the Greeks in the Trojan War was the participation in the siege of Neoptolemus (Pyrrhus), the son of Achilles and one of the daughters of Lycomedes. He lived with his mother, on Skyros. Odysseus brought Neoptolemus, gave him his father's weapons, and he killed the beautiful Mysian hero Eurypylus, who was the son of Heraclid Telephus and Priam's sister, and was sent to help the Trojans by his mother. The Achaeans now defeated the Trojans on the battlefield. But Troy could not be taken as long as it remained in its acropolis, Pergamum, a shrine given to the former Trojan king Dardanus by Zeus - palladium (an image of Pallas Athena). To look out for the location, palladium, Odysseus went to the city, disguised as a beggar, and was not recognized in Troy by anyone except Helen, who did not betray him because she wanted to return to her homeland. Then, Odysseus and Diomedes sneaked into the Trojan temple and stole the palladium.
Trojan horse
The hour of the final victory of the Greeks in the Trojan War was already close. According to a legend already known to Homer and told in detail by later epic poets, the master Epey, with the help of the goddess Athena, made a large wooden horse. The bravest of the Achaean heroes: Diomedes, Odysseus, Menelaus, Neoptolemus and others hid in it. The Greek army burned their camp and sailed to Tenedos, as if deciding to end the Trojan War. The Trojans who came out of the city looked with surprise at the huge wooden horse. The heroes who hid in it heard their deliberations on how to deal with it. Helen walked around the horse, and loudly called the Greek leaders, imitating the voice of each wife. Some wanted to answer her, but Odysseus held them back. Some Trojans said that one cannot trust one's enemies, and one should drown the horse in the sea or burn it. The most insistent of all was the priest Laocoön, the uncle of Aeneas. But before the eyes of all the people, two large snakes crawled out of the sea, wrapped rings around Laocoön and his two sons and strangled them. The Trojans considered this a punishment to Laocoon from the gods and agreed with those who said that it was necessary to put the horse in the acropolis, dedicate it as a gift to Pallas. The traitor Sinon, whom the Greeks left here to deceive the Trojans with the assurance that the horse was destined by the Greeks as a reward for the stolen palladium, and that when it was placed in the acropolis, Troy would be invincible, especially contributed to the adoption of this decision. The horse was so large that it could not be dragged through the gate; The Trojans made a hole in the wall and dragged the horse into the city with ropes. Thinking that the Trojan War was over, they feasted happily.
Capture of Troy by the Greeks
But at midnight, Sinon lit a fire - a signal to the Greeks waiting at Tenedos. They swam to Troy, and Sinon unlocked the door made in d Eos carries away the body of the Memnon-wooden horse. By the will of the gods, the hour of the death of Troy, the end of the Trojan War, has come. The Greeks rushed to the carelessly feasting Trojans, slaughtered, robbed and, having plundered, set fire to the city. Priam sought salvation at the altar of Zeus, but Achilles' son Neoptolem killed him at the very altar. Priam's son Deiphobes, who married Helen after the death of his brother Paris, courageously defended himself in his house against Odysseus and Menelaus, but was killed. Menelaus led Helen to the ships, whose beauty disarmed his hand, raised to strike the traitor. The widow of Hector, the sufferer of Andromache, was given by the Greeks to Neoptolemus and found in a foreign land a slavish fate, predicted to her by her husband at the last farewell. Her son Astyanax was, on the advice of Odysseus, thrown off the wall by Neoptolemus. The soothsayer Cassandra, the daughter of Priam, who sought salvation at the altar, was torn off from him by the blasphemous hand of Ajax the Small (son of Oileus), who overturned the statue of the goddess with a frantic impulse. Cassandra was given as booty to Agamemnon. Her sister Polyxena was sacrificed over the coffin of Achilles, whose shadow demanded her as a prey for herself. The wife of the Trojan king Priam Hecub, who survived the fall of the royal family and kingdom. She was brought to the Thracian coast and found out there that her son (Polydorus), whom Priam had sent with many treasures before the start of the war under protection to the Thracian king Polymestor, had also died. Legends spoke differently about the further fate of Hecuba after the Trojan War; there was a legend that she was turned into a dog; according to another legend, she was buried on the northern shore of the Hellespont, where her tomb was shown.
The fate of the Greek heroes after the Trojan War
The adventures of the Greek heroes did not end with the capture of Troy: on the way back from the captured city, they had to experience many troubles. The gods and goddesses, whose altars they defiled with violence, subjected them to grievous fates. On the very day of the destruction of Troy, in the assembly of heroes, heated with wine, there was, according to Homer's Odyssey, a great strife. Menelaus demanded to immediately sail home, and Agamemnon wanted to soften the anger of Athena with hecatombs (by bringing several sacrifices, each of a hundred oxen) before sailing. Some supported Menelaus, others supported Agamemnon. The Greeks completely quarreled, and the next morning the army was divided. Menelaus, Diomedes, Nestor, Neoptolemus and some others boarded the ships. At Tenedos, Odysseus, who sailed with these leaders, quarreled with them and returned to Agamemnon. The companions of Menelaus went to Euboea. From there, Diomedes returned favorably to Argos, Nestor to Pylos, safely sailed to their cities Neoptolemus, Philoctetes and Idomeneo. But Menelaus was caught by a storm near the rocky Cape Malea and brought to the coast of Crete, on the rocks of which almost all of his ships crashed. He himself was carried away by a storm to Egypt. Tsar Polybus cordially received him in the hundred-gate Egyptian Thebes, gave him and Elena rich gifts. The wanderings of Menelaus after the Trojan War lasted eight years; he was in Cyprus, in Phenicia, he saw the countries of the Ethiopians and Libyans. Then the gods gave him a joyful return and a happy old age with the eternally young Elena. According to the stories of later poets, Helen was not at all in Troy. Stesichorus said that Paris only stole the ghost of Helen; according to the story of Euripides (the tragedy " Helena"), he took away a woman like Helen, created by the gods to deceive him, and Hermes transferred the real Helen to Egypt, to King Proteus, who guarded her until the end of the Trojan War. Herodotus also believed that Helen was not in Troy. The Greeks thought that the Phoenician Aphrodite (Astarte) was Helen. They saw the temple of Astarte in that part of Memphis where the Tyrian Phoenicians lived; probably from this arose the legend of Helen's life in Egypt.
Agamemnon, upon returning from the Trojan War, was killed by his wife, Clytemnestra, and her lover, Aegisthus. A few years later, the children of Agamemnon, Orestes and Electra, severely avenged their mother and Aegisthus for their father. These events formed the basis for a whole cycle of myths. Ajax the Small, on his way back from Troy, was killed by Poseidon for his unheard-of pride and blasphemous insult to the altar when Cassandra was captured.
Odysseus suffered the most adventures and hardships when returning from the Trojan War. His fate gave the theme and plot for the second great
