The Trojan War

Known by virtually all ancient Greeks, the story of the Trojan War is one of the most famous tales in Greek mythology. It is recounted in numerous works of Greek literature, most notably Homer’s epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey, and represented visually in Greek art.

The myth tells of an ancient decade-long war waged around 1200 BC between the Achaeans (Greeks who were part of the Mycenaean civilization) and the city of Troy. The conflict began with a quarrel among Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite over which of them was the “fairest” and should be awarded a golden apple. The three goddesses went to Paris, a shepherd and Trojan prince, to decide who was the fairest, and each offered him something of value (power, wealth, or the most beautiful woman in the world) to persuade him to give the apple to her. Paris ultimately chose Aphrodite, who promised him that Menelaus’ beautiful wife Helen would fall in love with him.

After awarding Aphrodite the apple, Paris seduced and kidnapped Helen, taking her back to Troy. Menelaus demanded her return, but the Trojans refused. As a result, he persuaded Agamemnon, his brother and the king of Mycenae, to lead an army of Achaean troops against the city of Troy. After many indecisive battles and the loss of great heroes on both sides, the war was finally brought to an end when the Trojans were deceived into wheeling a large wooden horse into their city. Unbeknownst to them, Achaean soldiers hidden inside the horse sneaked out in the middle of the night and opened up the city gates, allowing the rest of the Achaean army into Troy to slay the sleeping Trojans.

The question of whether or not the Trojan War actually occurred is still the subject of scholarly debate. For one, there are no first-hand reports from people who witnessed the war. Even Homer lived hundreds of years after it supposedly took place and did not record his epics until sometime between the 8th and 5th centuries BC. By that time, they had already been passed down orally for generations and may have become embellished and inaccurate.

Before historians could determine whether or not the Trojan War happened, they needed to find Troy. This discovery came in 1870 when German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann excavated at the site of Hisarlik in modern-day Turkey, where he discovered the ruins of an ancient city. Schliemann later identified this city as Troy, a claim that shattered the long-held belief that Troy was purely legendary and that has now been accepted by most scholars.

The city of Troy was located on a windy plain that not only overlooks the Dardanelles straights, but also links the Mediterranean to the Black Sea and Asia Minor to southeast Europe, just as Homer described in The Iliad. Moreover, Troy’s heavy fortifications show evidence of being repeatedly attacked and repaired. The fact that such fortifications even existed in the first place is a sign that Trojans felt a significant threat from outside invaders.

In spite of the fortifications, excavations at the site of Troy have revealed that the ancient city appears to have been destroyed around 1180 BC, probably by a war the city lost. Furthermore, unburied skeletal remains, the presence of weapons (arrowheads, spearheads, and sling bullets) ready for deployment, and traces of a widespread fire that have been found at Schliemann’s site also support the idea that a significant military conflict took place at Troy.

The most plausible explanation is that a war, or a series of battles, was fought between Greeks and Trojans over control of wealth and trade in the Dardanelles, a water passage connecting the Mediterranean to the Black Sea. Recent evidence indicates that the city of Troy had become very wealthy by imposing heavy taxes on ships passing through the waterway, so securing this area would have brought significant economic benefits to the Greeks.

While the evidence points to a battle taking place at Troy around 1200 BC, there is nothing to suggest that any of the mythical elements of the story actually happened. Most likely, these were added to the tale over time to make it more captivating.