History UsefulNotes / TheTrojanWar

** ''Telephos'', a lost play [[ShapedLikeItself likely about Telephos,]] who was wounded and then healed by Achilles when the Achaeans made their first attempt to sail to Troy.

** ''Telephos'', a lost play likely about Telephos, who was wounded and then healed by Achilles when the Achaeans made their first attempt to sail to Troy.

* WatchingTroyBurn: One degree removed, a this is a cinematography trope, something Homer wasn't playing with. So adaptations of this are the true Trope Namers.

* AchillesHeel: Does ''[[DeadUnicornTrope not]]'' show up in ''Literature/TheIliad''. This came from ''Literature/TheAchilleid''.

* WatchingTroyBurn: At one remove; this is a cinematography trope, something Homer wasn't playing with.
* ...And anything that shows up in spin-offs, sequels, etc. (Those are covered in their own work pages.)

Finally, there's often talk about what kind of relationship, precisely, existed between Achilles and Patroclus. The easiest jump to make is to the Hellenic custom of pederastic patronage; in the ''ErastesEromenos'' relationship, the older man (the ''erastes'') traded advice, networking and business connections to a younger man (the ''eromenos''), who would in return make himself available for various sexual favors. The historical objection to Achilles and Patroclus having this kind of relationship is that it might not have ''existed'' at the time; this was a feature of ''Classical'' Athens, not Heroic Athens, and first developed in the 7th century BC, long after this war was fought. (ExactWords time: this does not preclude the two of them from having had some sort of other sexual or romantic relationship; there is no evidence about this one way or another.) Additionally, Patroclus was probably ''older'' than Achilles. Achilles also had a canonical son, who fought alongside him in the war. In fact, that son is who married Hermione at the end of things, with him being maybe 17 and her at least twice that. But that's another story. It also doesn't (or shouldn't) imply anything about the relationship Achilles had with Patroclus (whatever it was), since Achaeans were more the "AnythingThatMoves" type in those days.[[/folder]]

** In Book 5, Diomedes, mightiest hero of the Greeks in the absence of Achilles, gains the blessing of Athena and becomes unstoppable in combat, culminating in the only recorded instance of a mortal hero besting an Olympian in combat. Diomedes first defeats Aeneas, the noble Trojan warrior prince and second greatest warrior of Troy (and hero of a later epic cycle, the Aenied, in which he became the mythological ancestor of the founders of Rome), who also happened to be the demigod son of Aphrodite. When the Greek goddess of love came to her son's defense, Diomedes injured her as well and drove her from the field of battle, as Athena had granted him the ability to see immortals on the battlefield. After this, Ares, god of war, began to fight alongside Hector on the Trojan side, filling the Greek army with fear. Because of this, Athena herself appeared (invisibly, having borrowed Hades's helm of invisibility) and drove Diomedes's chariot into battle against the god of war, which allowed Diomedes to drive his spear into Ares's belly - banishing the war god back to Olympus as he screamed in the voice of ten thousand warriors (at which Ares complains to Zeus about the injury leading to Zeus telling Ares to stop whining about losing).

** In Book 11, Agamemnon, chief commander of the Greeks, joins the fight and shows that he too is one of the mightest warriors of the war and provides one of the earliest examples of the FrontlineGeneral.

** Books 20-22 detail the legendary invincible rage that Achilles is known for, in which he goes on a RoaringRampageofRevenge against the Trojans following the death of Patroclus.

Also, we should talk about SacredHospitality. This value doesn't show up much in Western culture today (except in scattered places like the DeepSouth and certain areas around the Mediterranean, including the Balkans and modern Greece),[[note]]The Mediterranean is generally the most hospitality-mad region of the world (probably because of its history as a multiethnic crossroads of trade and cultural exchange). The modern peoples who hold hospitality in highest regard are probably the Arabs, the Turks, the Greeks, and the Albanians (all emphatically Mediterranean) plus the Persians (not Mediterranean but basically in Mediterranean orbit for as long as they've been around) and the Slavic peoples (some of whom are Mediterranean, some of whom aren't, but all of whom had strong influence from Greek and to a lesser extent Turkish culture).[[/note]] but the ancient Greeks were absolutely ''mad'' for it; in fact, the god who took domain over SacredHospitality was none other than Zeus himself. ''Xenia'', sometimes translated as "guest-friendship" or "ritualized friendship," is the act of being really, really nice to passing strangers—they get the best food, the best wine, the seat of honor, gifts aplenty. Maybe he's a stranger, but you treat him like your favorite uncle. This had three major impacts on Hellenic life.

* It kept open the lines of diplomacy. Let's say you're at war with someone—the Spartans, to grab a name out of thin air. During the war, Menelaus comes to visit. ''Xenia'' requires that you treat him with honor and respect, even though he's your ArchEnemy: the best food, the best wine, the place of honor, blablahetc, as opposed to (say) murdering him in his bed. And a good thing too, because what if he was coming to sue for peace? (Besides, a fellow Hellene was much more likely to be a FriendlyEnemy than anything else. Warfare was more genteel in these days.)

But marriage bonds aren't much to Aphrodite, the goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation. Paris, having ditched the nymph without a backward glance, visited Sparta under the guise of a diplomatic mission, and seduced Helen while he was there. The exact nature of the relationship between them is ambiguous even in Homer, much less his translations; nobody knows [[QuestionableConsent if Helen was forced into it by Aphrodite's love magic]], or if she consented to it of her own will. Whatever the case, Paris got his mad hot sexing, and went home happy.\\

So off Helen goes, and Menelaus rallied his forces. This would have been a ''lot'' more difficult than it sounds, because the Hellenes[[labelnote:*]]This is what the Greeks called themselves and continue to call themselves to this day. The word for "Greece" ''in'' (Modern) Greek is "Hellas", the official name of today's Greek state is "the Hellenic Republic" even in English, and the title of the Greek monarch (before Constantine II butterfingered it) was "King of the Hellenes" (again, even in English).[[/labelnote]] were not particularly united at that point in time. This was the age of [[BloodKnight "Heroic Warfare"]], which is rather like the bronze-age version of feudalism: any central authority was pretty weak, so while a king like Agamemnon might theoretically command the loyalty of his vassals, it would be a real pain in the neck trying to get them all pointed in one direction and going off to fight the Trojans rather than feuding among themselves. Getting ''multiple'' kings to do this would have made cat-herding look easy. (Frankly, what's surprising is not that it took them eight years to land at Troy, but that it didn't take them ''longer''.) \\

So off Helen goes, and Menelaus rallied his forces. This would have been a ''lot'' more difficult than it sounds, because the Hellenes[[labelnote:*]]This is what the Greeks called themselves; even today the word for "Greece" ''in'' Greek is "Hellas"[[/labelnote]] were not particularly united at that point in time. This was the age of [[BloodKnight "Heroic Warfare"]], which is rather like the bronze-age version of feudalism: any central authority was pretty weak, so while a king like Agamemnon might theoretically command the loyalty of his vassals, it would be a real pain in the neck trying to get them all pointed in one direction and going off to fight the Trojans rather than feuding among themselves. Getting ''multiple'' kings to do this would have made cat-herding look easy. (Frankly, what's surprising is not that it took them eight years to land at Troy, but that it didn't take them ''longer''.) \\

According to the Achaeans themselves, the Trojan War took place during the 12th or 13th century BC, with Troy itself located somewhere in northwestern Anatolia (today part of UsefulNotes/{{Turkey}}). During classical history, the Greeks accepted the war as fact, although many doubted that it transpired exactly as stated.[[note]] Thucydides for instance doubted that the war could have occured as described, he being a military man was sure that it was logistically impossble, but he accepted that it was a real conflict. [[/note]] This continued through TheMiddleAges. However from the time of UsefulNotes/TheEnlightenment onwards, they began to doubt it. By the time of the nineteenth century historians believed Troy to be just north of Albany. Really.[[note]]For those unfamiliar with American geography, there is a small city called Troy in [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkState Upstate New York]], just north of the state capital, Albany.[[/note]] The historian George Grote devoted only a few pages to it in his massive 11 volume ''History of Greece'', stating (with the smug certainty and confidence that only Victorians could have) that it was a fun but baseless story... at least until archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann unearthed the ruins of a city he claimed to be Troy in 1870. His claims have not been challenged. Uh oh. Schliemann's died a year later, in 1871.\\

The Trojan War, [[Literature/TheTrojanCycle taletellers and storyspinners]] would have us believe, actually began at a wedding. The mortal man Peleus was marrying the sea nymph Thetis, and Zeus was throwing the wedding feast. On the guest list: everyone. Yes, ''everyone''—every single living thing, mortal or immortal. (Just how much the wedding invitations cost, one can only imagine.) Just one person—well, goddess, actually—wasn't invited: Eris, the Goddess of Discord. Frankly, it's understandable why you wouldn't want ''her'' at a wedding. But the gods of Myth/ClassicalMythology are nothing if not {{pride}}ful, and [[RevengeSVP she kind of took it personally]].\\

!!Works based around this conflict include:

[[AC:Classical]]
* Naturally, Creator/{{Homer}}'s ''Literature/TheIliad'' and ''Literature/TheOdyssey''.
* Also, the six other lost epics of Literature/TheTrojanCycle.
* The great tragedian Creator/{{Aeschylus}} wrote a trilogy called ''Theatre/TheOresteia''. The first part of the trilogy, ''Theatre/{{Agamemnon}}'', tells the story of Agamemnon's murder by his wife, Clytemnestra. In ''Theatre/TheLibationBearers'', Agamemnon's children, Orestes and Electra, kill Clytemnestra. The trilogy ends with ''Theatre/TheEumenides'', where Orestes stands trial for Clytemnestra's murder.
* Several surviving plays by Creator/{{Euripides}}, including:
** ''Andromache'', a tragedy following the wife of Hector who was given to Achilles' son Neoptolemus as a war prize.
** ''Electra'', which retells the story of Electra and her murder of Clytemnestra from ''The Oresteia''.
** ''Hecuba'', set immediately after the Trojan war and following Priam's now-enslaved wife.
** ''Helen'', a play following the alternate story that Helen never went to Troy, but rather was whisked away to Egypt by the gods (while a fake went with Paris).
** ''Iphigenia at Aulis'', opening as the Greeks prepare to set sail for Troy. Artemis demands they sacrifice Agamemnon's daughter, Iphigenia, before they be allowed to depart.
** ''Iphigenia among the Taurians'', something of a FixFic, in which Iphigenia is retconned into having been saved from sacrifice by Artemis and made a priestess among the Taurians, who practice HumanSacrifice
** ''Rhesus'' (though the authorship is debated), set in the midst of the war when the king of Thrace, Rhesus, arrives to support the Trojans.
** ''The Trojan Women'', following the women of Troy who were captured after the Greeks destroyed the city.
* A few surviving plays by Creator/{{Sophocles}}, including:
** ''Theatre/{{Ajax}}'', a tragedy set after the death of Achilles, where the eponymous warrior is infuriated that the armour of Achilles was granted to Odysseus rather than him.
** ''Theatre/{{Philoctetes}}'', set just before the end of the war, where Odysseus and Neoptolemus must convince the crippled and much wronged Philoctetes to go to Troy to secure Greek victory.
** ''Theatre/{{Electra}}'', another version of the myth (see Euripides' ''Electra'', above).
* Vergil's ''Literature/{{Aeneid}}'', set after the war but with several flashbacks to the fall of Troy.
* Several books in Creator/{{Ovid}}'s ''Literature/{{Metamorphoses}}''.
* The ''Latin Iliad'' (1st century CE), a heavily abridged Latin version of the ''Iliad'', condenses Homer's some 16,000 verses into a meagre 1,070 lines. Widely used as a schoolbook in the Middle Ages.
* During {{the Middle Ages}}, most readers in Western Europe were introduced to the Trojan War not through ''The Iliad'' (because people in Western Europe were bad at Greek), but instead by two Late Roman prose narratives, specifically:
** ''Dictys of Crete's Chronicle of the Trojan War'': Supposedly the journal of Dictys, a companion of King Idomeneus of Crete in ''The Iliad'', which was buried together with its author and later recovered from his tomb; but more realistically a slightly tongue-in-cheek 4th century work using DirectLinetoTheAuthor.
** ''Dares Phrygius' History of the Fall of Troy''. Supposedly the eyewitness account of Dares of Phrygia, a Trojan priest mentioned in ''The Iliad''. However, as the Latin work uses 5th century CE language and there is no mention of the work prior to that time, it must be inferred that the true author was an anonymous Late Roman writer. Notable for telling the story of the war from a Trojan viewpoint, probably [[PerspectiveFlip directly inspired]] by the ''Chronicle of Dictys of Crete''. The ''History of Dares Phrygius'' was the most influential description of the Trojan War for the Middle Ages, as medieval Western Europe tended to side with the Trojans, on account of the ''Aeneid'' which glorifies the survivors of Troy as the forefathers of the Romans, and thus, indirectly, Western European civilization.
::These two works also thoroughly [[{{Demythification}} demythified]] the Trojan War, removing all instances of DivineIntervention which are ubiquitous in the Homeric epics, and thus made the story palatable for a Christian culture.

[[AC:Middle Ages & Renaissance]]
* After the Franks had taken over much of the former Western Roman Empire, Frankish historians came up with a [[BasedOnAGreatBigLie pseudohistory]] that traced the origin of the Franks back to survivors of Troy. This, of course, was in imitation of the ''Aeneid'' and served to elevate the Franks to an "equal level" with the Romans.
* The backstory of the Myth/ArthurianLegend as depicted in the British "chronicles" ''Literature/HistoriaBrittonum'' (various authors) and the ''Literature/HistoryOfTheKingsOfBritain'' by Geoffrey of Monmouth traces the ancestry of the pre-Saxon Celtic Britons to (you guessed it) Trojan refugees that were led to Britain by Brutus, a survivor of Trojan nobility and the direct descendant of Aeneas from ''The Aeneid''.
* The ''Literature/SnorraEdda'' by Creator/SnorriSturluson claims that the Aesir -- [[Myth/NorseMythology the Norse gods]] -- were actually (sense a pattern?) refugees from Troy that had migrated to Northern Europe and, because of their superior culture, became regarded as gods.[[note]]Snorri apparently scrapped this idea himself, as his later work ''Literature/{{Heimskringla}}'' does not mention Troy and places the Aesir migration in Roman times.[[/note]]
* ''Troilus and Criseyde'' by Creator/GeoffreyChaucer, which then was the source for ...
* ''Theatre/TroilusAndCressida'', by Creator/WilliamShakespeare, a play set during the events of the ''Iliad''.

[[AC:Modern]]
* ''Film/{{Iphigenia}}'', a 1977 film adaptation of Euripedes' play ''Iphigenia at Aulis'' (see above)
* Dan Simmons' novel, ''Ilium'', which recreates the events on an alternate Earth and Mars.

* ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1srs5OqHKFw The Fall of Troy]]'' (''La Caduta di Troia''), a 1910 Italian film. Probably the earliest film ever made about the Trojan War.
* ''Theatre/TheTrojanWarWillNotTakePlace'' by French Author Jean Giraudoux, written in 1935. The play takes place during the last few days of peace, before the war breaks out, and tells the story of Hector and his futile and increasingly desperate attempts to thwart fate by sending Helena home before war erupts.
* Eric Shanower's ''ComicBook/AgeOfBronze'' tells the story in detail (including the lesser-known parts like how difficult it was for Agamemmnon to get his vassals together), removing the mythological elements: the children of gods are actually their priests, Helen is beautiful because she spends a lot of time on cosmetics, Cassandra being spurned by Apollo was her being raped by a pedophile in a temple, etc.
* The second and third books of ''Literature/IslandInTheSeaOfTime'' are partly concerned with a roughly historical version of the Trojan War, being interfered with by stranded time-travelers. About the only event that survives intact is Achilles' sulking and subsequent rampage; he manages to survive the war.

* ''Ransom'' by David Malouf focuses entirely on Priam taking a cartload of treasure to Achilles in order to get back Hector's body, guided by a lowly driver named Somax and a Greek soldier [[spoiler:who turns out to be [[AngelUnaware Hermes in disguise]]]]. Meditations on grief, age, regret and class differences ensue.
* In Creator/TadWilliams ''Literature/{{Otherland}}'' series the characters meet in a simulation of the sacking of Troy at some point.

* ''VideoGame/ATotalWarSagaTroy'' portrays the conflict on the ''VideoGame/TotalWar'' series' usual RiskStyleMap with prominent characters of it serving as the games factions. {{Demythification}} is out in force and aesthetics are firmly set in the archeological findings of the Bronze Age...though [[VoodooShark some explanations and implementations create questions as well as answers]] due to StoryAndGameplaySegregation. Players are fairly free to go about the game as they choose, though the Achaean and Trojans factions are naturally predisposed against each other and also inclined to ally with their fellows. "Homeric Victory" conditions require the factions' leader complete "epic missions" based on their actions during the original tale and completing tasks relevant to their character (Paris, for example, must also have performed a lot of rites to gain much favor with Aphrodite).
* Alick Rowe has several [[Creator/TheBBC BBC Radio 4]] plays set during the Trojan War/afterwards: The Horse, Operation Lightning Pegasus, and Odysseus on an Iceberg.
* The Series/DoctorWho serial [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E3TheMythMakers ''The Myth Makers'']].
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Achilles}}'', a 1995 StopMotion short. It is an abridged version of ''The Illiad'', and portrays Achilles and Patroclus as lovers.

* Parodied ruthlessly in the Literature/{{Discworld}} novel ''Literature/{{Eric}}'': [[spoiler:The Tsortians are bright enough to think that a giant wooden horse with trapdoors in it probably shouldn't be dragged into the city walls, the attackers go around the back into a servant's entrance while the Tsorteans are looking at the horse, and war had been dragging on for years, so naturally queen Elenor had remarried and had children with the Tsortean king since then]].
* The French comic book series ''Le Dernier Troyen'' (''"The Last Trojan"'') is the whole story JustForFun/RecycledInSpace and in the future (beginning with a poet named Virgil telling the story to a SpaceRoman emperor). Strangely enough, most of the supernatural elements are still present but dealt with through science (the Amazons are a OneGenderRace who used genetics to remove one of their breasts, the Medusa is defeated when it catches sight of itself in a surveillance room). Oh, and the Trojan Horse is a hollow asteroid that looks like a horse's head.
* ''VideoGame/EmpireEarth'': A condensed version of the Trojan War is one of the scenarios in the Greek campaign, featuring only Agamemmnon, Menelaus, Achilles, Odysseus and Priam. There are several references to the original story, like hints telling you to use your Prophet's disease powers to avoid ten years of fighting or Odysseus asking that Troy's temples be spared so as not to provoke the wrath of the gods, as he doesn't want to spend a decade getting home.
** [[ForeShadowing "These tribal barbarians..what are they called again, "Dorians"?]][[TemptingFate They are no threat to us."]]
* The Italian comic ''L'Iliade a Fumetti'' ("The Iliad as a Comic Book") is aimed to tell the story to young children, softening it up with ruthless humor. As it tells the story of the Iliad, the end of the war is shown in one of the two sequels, ''L'Eneide a Fumetti'' ("The Aeneid as a Comic Book").
* The first duology of Creator/EstherFriesner's "Princesses of Myth" series, ''Nobody's Princess'' and ''Nobody's Prize'', focus on a young Helen.
* ''Series/TroyFallOfACity'' runs through most of the standard events, from Paris having to choose the fairest of them all to the wooden horse, with a gritty modern-fantasy-TV look, complete with fairly plausibly Bronze Age costumes and props; it’s notable for its enigmatic JerkassGods wandering unseen among mortals; also known more for [[RaceLift Black Achilles]] due to ColourBlindCasting.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Lilith}}'' the first place the time-travelling protagonist visits is Wilusa during the Ahhiyawa siege, later noted to be the basis of the myth of the Trojan War.
* ''Literature/TheTroySaga'' by Creator/DavidGemmell is trilogy {{Demythification}} retelling of the Trojan War

* Featured as one of the time periods visited in ''WesternAnimation/MrPeabodyAndSherman'', with Agamemnon voiced by Creator/PatrickWarburton. Sherman joins the Greeks inside the Trojan Horse... which is itself infiltrated by Mr. Peabody in a ''smaller'' wooden horse.
-->'''Odysseus:''' I found this small wooden horse just like ours! Should I bring it in?\\
'''Agamemnon:''' ...[[TooDumbToLive It'd be rude not to.]]

The war kept going after that, of course. (For that matter, a lot of stuff happened ''before'' all this, but the we only have fragments and summaries of the other six epics of the Literature/TrojanCycle so, umm, we'll leave that off for now.) Achilles eventually died when the gods decided he had too high of a kill score, but it's interesting that every interpretation of the event portrays his killer (generally Paris) as a DirtyCoward who needed underhanded tactics to take him down; Achilles died undefeated. And, of course, by most accounts, he died of a poisoned arrow,[[labelnote:*]]or possibly [[MundaneSolution simple infection]][[/labelnote]] having been struck in his AchillesHeel, thus providing a [[RetCon later]] [[HandWave explanation]] for the whole invulnerability thing. Paris himself was later felled by a well-placed arrow, allegedly [[SortingAlgorithmOfWeaponEffectiveness from the bow of Philoctetes]]. \\

* Also, the six other lost epics of the Literature/TrojanCycle.

* ''Series/TroyFallOfACity'' runs through most of the standard events, from Paris having to choose the fairest of them all to the wooden horse, with a gritty modern-fantasy-TV look, complete with fairly plausibly Bronze Age costumes and props; it’s notable for its enigmatic JerkassGods wandering unseen among mortals; also known more for [[RaceLift Black Achilles]].

[[TrojanHorse The Trojan Horse]], meanwhile, was Odysseus's great stroke of [[EurekaMoment genius]], with Athena's advice; the horse was sacred to the Trojans, which is why they saw it as a meaningful tribute to Poseidon (the god of the sea, [[ComboPlatterPowers earthquakes, and horses]]). As a result, [[WildMassGuessing it's been claimed]] that the [[{{Demythification}} "actual event"]] which got ShroudedInMyth was an earthquake toppling the gates, which [[IdiotBall the Trojans had to dismantle]] [[CuriosityKilledTheCast to get the horse inside]]. Only a couple of people suggested it might be a trap; one of them was Cassandra (''[[TheCassandra The]]'' [[TheCassandra Cassandra]]), telling the original CassandraTruth. But it was all for naught. [[KillEmAll Every man of Troy was killed, the babies thrown off the wall]]. Every woman (who wasn't accidentally offed in the slaughter) was MadeASlave. Troy itself was burned to the ground. There may have been some free survivors, depending on who you read; two of the other epics, the ''[[Literature/TheTrojanCycle Little Iliad]]'' and the ''[[Literature/TheTrojanCycle Sack of Ilion]]'', claim a fellow named Aeneas (apparently Priam's cousin) got away --a tradition which Creator/{{Virgil}} ran with in ''Literature/TheAeneid''-- but if you don't believe them, then it was a TotalPartyKill as far as its citizens were concerned. Victorious, the Achaeans began their journey home.\\

* The French comic book series ''Le Dernier Troyen'' (''"The Last Trojan"'') is the whole story RecycledInSpace and in the future (beginning with a poet named Virgil telling the story to a SpaceRoman emperor). Strangely enough, most of the supernatural elements are still present but dealt with through science (the Amazons are a OneGenderRace who used genetics to remove one of their breasts, the Medusa is defeated when it catches sight of itself in a surveillance room). Oh, and the Trojan Horse is a hollow asteroid that looks like a horse's head.

* You never knew when a passing stranger might be [[AngelUnaware a god in disguise]]. A certain [[{{UsefulNotes/Christianity}} carpenter from Nazareth]] put it best: "As you did for the least of these, [[PalsWithJesus you did it for me]]." And rather [[TurnTheOtherCheek unlike the carpenter]], if you slighted a Greek god by ignoring him, he was ''not'' going to [[DisproportionateRetribution take it well]]--just ask Baucis and Philemon's neighbors. Oh right, you can't, Zeus [[BalefulPolymorph turned them all into fish]].

* TrojanHorse: Another famous DeadUnicornTrope.