Bailey .
Language Arts
February 2002
THE TROJAN WAR & THE ODYSSEY
"Odysseus! General Odysseus!"
"Hush, soldier." Crouched in the darkness, my army and I speak only in whispers, for fear we will be given away. O Athena! I, Odysseus-king of Ithaca- am afraid. Will this hollow wooden horse be enough to recapture King Menelaus's wife, Helen, and end the lasting conflict we are now calling the Trojan War?
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It was the 12th century B.C., in Ancient Greece. The peaceful Grecian empire, however, had been shattered by conflict between two armies. The Greeks (coming from the cities such as Sparta and Ithaca), and the Trojans -people of a city-state in the Aegean Sea- were fighting. One of the causes of what we know as the Trojan War was a woman. Beautiful Helen, wife of King Menelaus of Sparta, who had eloped with Prince Paris of Troy. However, another plausible cause for 10 years of war could have been control over the Dardanelles, a passage in the Mediterranean Sea. Whether Helen, known as "the face that launched the thousand ships," or control of the Dardanelles, brought war, the land of the Greeks stayed in an uproar for about a decade.
The Trojan War was a 10-year conflict fought near and in Troy. However, the Grecian army knew that if they could get inside the gates of Troy, victory was almost certain. Troy's gates were hard to get through, though. After 10 years of unsuccessful fighting, general Odysseus of Ithaca came up with the idea of a horse. The horse was wooden and hollow, able to fit a small part of the Greek army inside. The horse was brought into Troy when the Trojans took it as an offering to the gods. Soon, night fell, and the coalition of men opened the gates for the majority of the army waiting outside. The Greeks looted and plundered Troy, brought Helen to Menelaus, and returned home.
There were many stories and poems told about the Trojan War. One famous epic was the Odyssey, telling the story of General Odysseus. According to the epic, Odysseus and his men left Troy. They traveled to the island of Thrace, whose people were considered savage by the Greeks. He and his men plundered the island and left, not bothering to bury a number of their men who died after an attack.
After the plunder at Thrace, the group traveled to the island of the Lotus Eaters. These people were lazy, only caring to lie in the grass and eat lotus blossoms. Odysseus and many of his men escaped this temptation, but he lost approximately three to the flowers. Next, Odysseus and his men landed on the island of Polyphemus the Cyclops. Once they found his cave, Odysseus and his men were in constant danger of being eaten. Odysseus and his men watched fellow crew members get eaten for some time before they took action. Odysseus defeated the great Polyphemus by putting out his eye with a sharp stick. However, Polyphemus's father, Poseidon, swore war on Odysseus for putting the cyclops's eye out.
Then, Odysseus and his men journeyed to the place where the Lord of the Winds rested. The Lord gave Odysseus a gift that the men were not to open. Still, the crew opened the bag containing the gift, and Odysseus and his crew were once again at the mercy of the sea. Odysseus and his crew then traveled to the island of Circe, the enchantress. Circe turned many of Odysseus's men into pigs, but with a little bit of help from the gods, Odysseus survived Circe's magic and allied himself to the powerful woman.
Circe directed Odysseus to the Land of the Dead, where Odysseus spoke to the blind prophet Tiresias. The blind man told him more about the upcoming homeward voyage. Following his visit to the Land of the Dead, Odysseus and his men traveled towards the land of the Sirens. These beasts lured soldiers to their island, only to kill them. Odysseus gave all his men beeswax, to protect them from the Siren's singing, and told them to tie him to his mast. Odysseus was the only person on the ship to hear the Siren's singing, and he, like many other men, could not resist the temptation. Even so, the men had been ordered to row until they were far past the Sirens.
The ship of Odysseus next encountered the greatly feared narrows, with monsters waiting to devour the ship. There was Charybdis, the great whirlpool that sucked ships in, then spit them out, and Scylla, the many-headed, dragon-like monster. Odysseus developed a plan to get them safely through the narrows, and it worked. Yet, Odysseus's men soon died in a fierce storm, and Odysseus washed up on the island of the nymph Calypso. Calypso kept Odysseus with him for seven years before Hermes, the messenger god, was sent to draw Odysseus away from the nymph's isle.
Meanwhile, Odysseus's son, Telemachus, went to look for his father. After traveling to Sparta and finding no helpful information, he returned to Ithaca. On the other hand, Odysseus encountered Poseidon, and miraculously survived again. This time, Odysseus washed up on the island of Princess Nausicaa, who learned about Odysseus by way of a dream. Odysseus was welcomed generously by the princess's family, but became upset when musicians began singing songs about the Trojan War. He told his story to the people in court, and revealed his name. The king ordered Odysseus sped home at once to Ithaca.
After arriving in Ithaca, Odysseus slept on his home shore until morning, when he was visited by Athena. She disguised him as a beggar, and sent him to his old shepard's house. Though Odysseus stayed with the shepard for the full day and through the night, the shepard never detected that the beggar he was housing was the rightful king of Ithaca. The next day, Odysseus was taken to meet Queen Penelope, Odysseus's believed-to-be widow. After a long discussion with the queen, Odysseus was allowed to be cleaned by his old nursemaid, the first one to recognize the long-gone warrior. Following Odysseus's reunion with the maid, he met his son. Telemachus and Odysseus together developed a plan to get rid of the suitors plaguing Penelope.
Disguised as a beggar, Odysseus appeared at the dinner Penelope was holding. She proposed that whoever could string Odysseus's bow and shoot an arrow through twelve ax heads would be her future husband. None of the suitors being successful, Odysseus offered to try. He was permitted to, and won the contest. This allowed everyone in the hall to see Odysseus as who he truly was. Telemachus and his father fought the suitors, and defeated the people in his house. Penelope, not sure that the man who had won the contest was her husband, had the bed Odysseus made moved out into the hall. When Odysseus complained, Penelope knew her husband was home at last.
The Odyssey was one epilogue to the Trojan War. According to the beginning of the poem, Odysseus was inside the Trojan Horse when the attack against Troy was led. From there, Odysseus and his men traveled on their long journey back to Ithaca. The poet who wrote the Odyssey was also credited with the Iliad. The Odyssey is very important to culture today, and it was very important to the ancient Greeks.
The Odyssey had a large impact on ancient Greeks. The epic told how heroes behaved and what gods were like. Even today, Odysseus-like characters are the models of heroes around the world. The Odyssey is also used in many high-school English curriculums. In epic form, the Odyssey was most likely passed down by word of mouth from poet to poet. Homer, the author attributed with the Odyssey, is said to be the last in that line. Homer was a blind poet living 2,700 years ago. Homer also wrote the Iliad, a poem about Agamemnon and the majority of the Trojan War.
Homer's epics tell stories of heroism and bravery that are held in high regard worldwide. His characters not only molded images of heroes for the ancient Greeks, Odysseus and Agamemnon are now models of heroes. The Trojan War is a great example of bravery, and the Trojan Horse was a great use of cunning to end a ten-year conflict. We should never forget the Odyssey, nor should we forget the conflict preceding it.
RESOURCES
2. http://www.royalty.nu/legends/Troy.html
3. Sutcliff, Rosemary. The Wanderings of Odysseus: The Story of the Odyssey . New York: Delacorte Press, 1996.