The Trojan War

I. The myths

A. Events leading up to the War

• Oath of Tyndareus
• Wedding of Peleus and Thetis: Golden Apple
• Judgement of Paris
• Rape of Helen
• Sacrifice of Iphigenia at Aulis
• Troy besieged (5th century vases: Achilles and Ajax playing a game, Achilles bandages Patroclus)

B. Events of Homer's Iliad

• Plague: Agamemnon takes Briseis
• Achilles refuses to fight (Embassy, 5th century vase)
• Duel of Menelaus and Paris
• Paris returns to Helen
• Aristea of Diomedes (fighting Aeneas, 5th-century vase)
• Hector and Andromache
• Hector kills Patroclus
• Achilles gets new armor from Hephaistos
  
• Achilles kills Hector
• Priam ransoms Hector (close-up of Priam)

C. End of the War

• Trojan horse (welcomed to city: Roman Fresco)
• Aeneas escapes: leads other survivors to Italy

E. Gods

1. On Trojan side: Artemis, Aphrodite, Apollo, Ares
2. On Greek side: Hera, Athena, Poseidon
3. Overseeing it all: Zeus

II. Homer and History

• Excavations in Bronze Age Troy

1. Heinrich Schliemann (1880's)

1. Wilhelm Dörpfeld (1890's)
2. Carl Blegen (1930's)
3. contemporary excavations

1. Evidence for a Hittite connection: tablet recording a treaty with Wilusa
2. Bronze Age writing: Linear B tablet
   

• Excavations at Mycenae

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