Who today does not know the famous legend of Troy and the Trojan Horse? This myth is difficult to believe, but the authenticity of the existence of Troy was confirmed by excavations by the famous German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann back in the century before last. Modern archaeological research confirms the historicity of the tragic events that occurred in the 12th century BC. More and more details are being revealed about the Trojan War and the circumstances surrounding it...
Today it is known that a major military clash between the union of the Achaean states and the city of Troy (Ilion), located on the shores of the Aegean Sea, occurred between 1190 and 1180 (according to other sources, around 1240 BC) years BC.
The first sources telling about this equally legendary and terrible event were Homer’s poems “Iliad” and “Odyssey”. Later, the Trojan War was the theme of Virgil's Aeneid and other works in which history was also intertwined with fiction.
According to these works, the reason for the war was the abduction by Paris, the son of the Trojan king Priam, of the beautiful Helen, the wife of the king of Sparta, Menelaus. At the call of Menelaus, the oath-bound suitors, famous greek heroes, came to his aid. According to the Iliad, an army of Greeks, led by the Mycenaean king Agamemnon, the brother of Menelaus, set out to free the kidnapped woman.
An attempt to negotiate the return of Helen failed, and then the Greeks began a grueling siege of the city. The gods also took part in the war: Athena and Hera - on the side of the Greeks, Aphrodite, Artemis, Apollo and Ares - on the side of the Trojans. There were ten times fewer Trojans, but Troy remained impregnable.
The only source for us can only be Homer’s poem “The Iliad,” but the author, as the Greek historian Thucydides noted, exaggerated the significance of the war and embellished it, and therefore the poet’s information must be treated very carefully. However, we are primarily interested in fighting and methods of warfare in that period, which Homer talks about in some detail.
So, the city of Troy was located a few kilometers from the shore of the Hellespont (Dardanelles). Trade routes used by Greek tribes passed through Troy. Apparently, the Trojans interfered with the trade of the Greeks, which forced the Greek tribes to unite and start a war with Troy, which was supported by numerous allies, which is why the war dragged on for many years.
Troy, on the site of which today is the Turkish town of Hisarlik, was surrounded by high stone wall with teeth. The Achaeans did not dare to storm the city and did not block it, so the fighting took place on a flat field between the city and the besiegers’ camp, which was located on the banks of the Hellespont. The Trojans sometimes broke into the enemy camp, trying to set fire to Greek ships pulled ashore.
Listing in detail the ships of the Achaeans, Homer counted 1186 ships on which a hundred thousand army was transported. Undoubtedly, the number of ships and warriors is exaggerated. In addition, we must take into account that these ships were simply big boats, because they were easily pulled ashore and launched into the water quite quickly. Such a ship could not carry 100 people.
Most likely, the Achaeans had several thousand warriors. They were led by Agamemnon, the king of the “many-gold Mycenae.” And at the head of the warriors of each tribe there was a leader.
Homer calls the Achaeans “spearmen,” so there is no doubt that the main weapon of the Greek warriors was a spear with a copper tip. The warrior had a copper sword and good defensive weapons: leggings, armor on his chest, a helmet with a horse's mane and a large copper-bound shield. Tribal leaders fought on war chariots or dismounted.
The warriors of the lower hierarchy were worse armed: they had spears, slings, “double-edged axes,” axes, bows and arrows, shields and were a support for their leaders, who themselves entered into single combat with the best warriors of Troy. From Homer's descriptions one can imagine the environment in which the martial arts took place.
It happened like this.
The opponents were located close to each other. The war chariots lined up; the warriors took off their armor and placed them next to the chariots, then sat down on the ground and watched the single combat of their leaders. The combatants first threw spears, then fought with copper swords, which soon became unusable.
Having lost his sword, the fighter took refuge in the ranks of his tribe or was given new weapons to continue the fight. The winner removed the armor from the dead man and took away his weapons.
For the battle, chariots and infantry were located in in a certain order. The war chariots were lined up in front of the infantry in a line maintaining alignment, “so that no one, relying on their art and strength, would fight against the Trojans ahead of the rest alone, so that they would not rule back.”
Behind the war chariots, covering themselves with “convex” shields, lined up foot soldiers armed with spears with copper tips. The infantry was built in several ranks, which Homer calls “thick phalanxes.” The leaders lined up the infantry, driving the cowardly warriors into the middle, “so that even those who don’t want to have to fight against their will.”
The war chariots were the first to enter the battle, then “continuously, one after another, the phalanx of the Achaeans moved into battle against the Trojans,” “they walked silently, fearing their leaders.” The infantry delivered the first blows with spears, and then cut with swords. The infantry fought war chariots with spears. Archers also took part in the battle, but the arrow was not considered a reliable weapon even in the hands of an excellent archer.
It is not surprising that in such conditions the outcome of the struggle was decided physical strength and the art of wielding weapons, which often failed: copper spear tips bent and swords broke. The maneuver had not yet been used on the battlefield, but the beginnings of organizing the interaction of war chariots and foot soldiers had already appeared.
This battle continued until nightfall. If an agreement was reached at night, the corpses were burned. If there was no agreement, the opponents posted guards, organizing the protection of the army in the field and defensive structures (the fortress wall and the fortifications of the camp - a ditch, sharpened stakes and a wall with towers).
The guard, usually consisting of several detachments, was placed behind the ditch. At night, reconnaissance was sent to the enemy’s camp in order to capture prisoners and find out the enemy’s intentions; meetings of tribal leaders were held, at which the issue of further actions was decided. In the morning the battle resumed.
This is roughly how the endless battles between the Achaeans and Trojans proceeded. According to Homer, only in the tenth (!) year of the war the main events began to unfold.
One day, the Trojans, having achieved success in a night raid, drove the enemy back to his fortified camp, surrounded by a ditch. Having crossed the ditch, the Trojans began to storm the wall with towers, but were soon repulsed.
Later, they still managed to break the gate with stones and break into the Achaean camp. A bloody battle for the ships ensued. Homer explains this success of the Trojans by the fact that the best warrior of the besiegers, the invincible Achilles, who had quarreled with Agamemnon, did not participate in the battle.
Seeing that the Achaeans were retreating, Achilles' friend Patroclus persuaded Achilles to allow him to join the battle and give him his armor. Inspired by Patroclus, the Achaeans rallied, as a result of which the Trojans met fresh enemy forces at the ships. It was a dense formation of closed shields “pike near pike, shield against shield, going under the neighboring one.” The warriors lined up in several ranks and managed to repel the attack of the Trojans, and with a counterattack - “strikes of sharp swords and double-edged pikes” - they drove them back.
In the end, the attack was repulsed. However, Patroclus himself died at the hands of Hector, son of Priam, king of Troy. So Achilles' armor went to the enemy. Later, Hephaestus forged new armor and weapons for Achilles, after which Achilles, enraged by the death of his friend, again entered the battle.
Later he killed Hector in a duel, tied his body to a chariot and rushed to his camp. The Trojan king Priam came to Achilles with rich gifts, begged him to return his son's body and buried him with dignity.
This concludes Homer's Iliad.
According to later myths, later the Amazons, led by Penfisileia, and the king of the Ethiopians Memnon came to the aid of the Trojans. However, they soon died at the hands of Achilles. And soon Achilles himself died from the arrows of Paris, directed by Apollo. One arrow hit the only vulnerable spot - Achilles' heel, the other - in the chest. His armor and weapons went to Odysseus, recognized as the bravest of the Achaeans.
After the death of Achilles, the Greeks were predicted that without the bow and arrows of Hercules, who were with Philoctetes, and Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, they would not be able to take Troy. An embassy was sent for these heroes, and they hastened to help their compatriots. Philoctetes mortally wounded the Trojan prince Paris with an arrow from Hercules. Odysseus and Diomedes killed the Thracian king Res, who was rushing to help the Trojans, and took away his magic horses, which, according to prediction, if they entered the city, would make it impregnable.
And then the cunning Odysseus came up with an extraordinary military trick...
For a long time, secretly from others, he talked with a certain Epeus, the best carpenter in the Achaean camp. By evening, all the Achaean leaders gathered in Agamemnon’s tent for a military council, where Odysseus outlined his adventurous plan, according to which it was necessary to build a huge wooden horse. The most skillful and courageous warriors must fit in its belly. The rest of the army must board the ships, move away from the Trojan shore and take refuge behind the island of Tendos.
Once the Trojans see that the Achaeans have left the coast, they will think that the siege of Troy has been lifted. The Trojans will surely drag the wooden horse to Troy. At night, the Achaean ships will return, and the warriors, hiding in the wooden horse, will come out of it and open the fortress gates. And then - the final assault on the hated city!
For three days the axes clattered in the carefully fenced-off part of the ship's anchorage, and for three days the mysterious work was in full swing.
In the morning fourth day The Trojans were surprised to find the Achaean camp empty. The sails of the Achaean ships melted in the sea haze, and on the coastal sand, where only yesterday the tents and tents of the enemy were colorful, stood a huge wooden horse.
The jubilant Trojans left the city and wandered curiously along the deserted shore. They were surprised to surround a huge wooden horse, towering above the bushes of coastal willows. Some advised throwing the horse into the sea, others - burning it, but many insisted on dragging it into the city and placing it on the main square of Troy as a memory of bloody battle peoples
In the midst of the dispute, the priest of Apollo Laocoon approached the wooden horse with his two sons. “Fear the Danaans who bring gifts!” - he cried and, snatching a sharp spear from the hands of the Trojan warrior, threw it at the wooden belly of the horse. The pierced spear trembled, and a barely audible copper ringing was heard from the horse’s belly.
But no one listened to Laocoon. All the attention of the crowd was attracted by the appearance of the young men leading the captive Achaean. He was brought to King Priam, who stood surrounded by court nobility next to a wooden horse. The prisoner identified himself as Sinon and explained that he himself had escaped from the Achaeans, who were supposed to sacrifice him to the gods - this was a condition for a safe return home.
Sinon convinced the Trojans that the horse was a dedicatory gift to Athena, who could bring down her wrath on Troy if the Trojans destroyed the horse. And if you place it in the city in front of the temple of Athena, then Troy will become indestructible. At the same time, Sinon emphasized that this is why the Achaeans built the horse so huge that the Trojans could not drag it through the fortress gates...
As soon as Sinon said these words, a scream of terror came from the direction of the sea. Two crawled out of the sea huge snake and entwined the priest Laocoon, as well as his two sons, with deadly rings of their smooth and sticky bodies. In an instant, the unfortunate ones gave up the ghost.
"Laocon and his sons" - sculptural group V Vatican Museum of Pius Clement depicting a fight to the death Laocoon and his sons with snakes.
Now no one doubted that Sinon was telling the truth. Therefore, we must quickly install this wooden horse next to the temple of Athena.
Having built a low platform on wheels, the Trojans installed a wooden horse on it and drove it to the city. In order for the horse to pass through the Scaean Gate, the Trojans had to dismantle part of the fortress wall. The horse was placed in the designated place.
While the Trojans, intoxicated with success, celebrated their victory, at night the Achaean spies quietly got off their horses and opened the gates. By that time, the Greek army, following a signal from Sinon, had quietly returned and now captured the city.
As a result, Troy was sacked and destroyed.
But why was it the horse that caused her death? This question has been asked since ancient times. Many ancient authors tried to find a reasonable explanation for the legend. A wide variety of assumptions were made: for example, that the Achaeans had a battle tower on wheels, made in the shape of a horse and upholstered in horse skins; or that the Greeks managed to enter the city through an underground passage on the door of which a horse was painted; or that the horse was a sign by which the Achaeans distinguished each other from their opponents in the dark...
Almost all the heroes, both Achaeans and Trojans, die under the walls of Troy. And of those who survive the war, many will die on the way home. Some, like King Agamemnon, will find death at home at the hands of loved ones, while others will be expelled and spend their lives wandering. In essence, this is the end of the heroic age. Under the walls of Troy there are no victors and no vanquished, heroes are becoming a thing of the past, and the time of ordinary people is coming.
Curiously, the horse is also symbolically associated with birth and death. A horse made of spruce wood, carrying something in its belly, symbolizes the birth of a new one, and the Trojan horse is made of spruce boards, and armed warriors sit in its hollow belly. It turns out that the Trojan horse brings death to the defenders of the fortress, but at the same time it also means the birth of something new.
Around the same time, another event occurred in the Mediterranean. an important event: one of the great migrations of peoples began. Tribes of the Dorians, a barbarian people who completely destroyed the ancient Mycenaean civilization, moved from the north to the Balkan Peninsula.
Only after several centuries will Greece be reborn and it will be possible to talk about Greek history. The destruction will be so great that the entire pre-Dorian history will become a myth, and many states will cease to exist.
The results of recent archaeological expeditions do not yet allow us to convincingly reconstruct the scenario of the Trojan War. However, their results do not deny that behind the Trojan epic lies the story of Greek expansion against a major power located on the western coast of Asia Minor and preventing the Greeks from gaining power over this region. Let's hope that true story The Trojan War will still be written someday.
Who today does not know the famous legend of Troy and the Trojan Horse? This myth is difficult to believe, but the authenticity of the existence of Troy was confirmed by excavations by the famous German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann back in the century before last. Modern archaeological research confirms the historicity of the tragic events that occurred in the 12th century BC. More and more details are being revealed about the Trojan War and the circumstances surrounding it...
Today it is known that a major military clash between the union of the Achaean states and the city of Troy (Ilion), located on the shores of the Aegean Sea, occurred between 1190 and 1180 (according to other sources, around 1240 BC) years BC.
The first sources telling about this equally legendary and terrible event were Homer’s poems “Iliad” and “Odyssey”. Later, the Trojan War was the theme of Virgil's Aeneid and other works in which history was also intertwined with fiction.
According to these works, the reason for the war was the abduction by Paris, the son of the Trojan king Priam, of the beautiful Helen, the wife of the king of Sparta, Menelaus. At the call of Menelaus, oath-bound suitors, famous Greek heroes, came to his aid. According to the Iliad, an army of Greeks, led by the Mycenaean king Agamemnon, the brother of Menelaus, set out to free the kidnapped woman.
An attempt to negotiate the return of Helen failed, and then the Greeks began a grueling siege of the city. The gods also took part in the war: Athena and Hera - on the side of the Greeks, Aphrodite, Artemis, Apollo and Ares - on the side of the Trojans. There were ten times fewer Trojans, but Troy remained impregnable.
The only source for us can only be Homer’s poem “The Iliad,” but the author, as the Greek historian Thucydides noted, exaggerated the significance of the war and embellished it, and therefore the poet’s information must be treated very carefully. However, we are primarily interested in the fighting and methods of warfare in that period, which Homer talks about in some detail.
So, the city of Troy was located a few kilometers from the shore of the Hellespont (Dardanelles). Trade routes used by Greek tribes passed through Troy. Apparently, the Trojans interfered with the trade of the Greeks, which forced the Greek tribes to unite and start a war with Troy, which was supported by numerous allies, which is why the war dragged on for many years.
Troy, on the site of which today is the Turkish town of Hisarlik, was surrounded by a high stone wall with battlements. The Achaeans did not dare to storm the city and did not block it, so the fighting took place on a flat field between the city and the besiegers’ camp, which was located on the banks of the Hellespont. The Trojans sometimes broke into the enemy camp, trying to set fire to Greek ships pulled ashore.
Listing in detail the ships of the Achaeans, Homer counted 1186 ships on which a hundred thousand army was transported. Undoubtedly, the number of ships and warriors is exaggerated. In addition, we must take into account that these ships were just large boats, because they were easily pulled ashore and launched quite quickly. Such a ship could not carry 100 people.
Most likely, the Achaeans had several thousand warriors. They were led by Agamemnon, the king of the “many-gold Mycenae.” And at the head of the warriors of each tribe there was a leader.
Homer calls the Achaeans “spearmen,” so there is no doubt that the main weapon of the Greek warriors was a spear with a copper tip. The warrior had a copper sword and good defensive weapons: leggings, armor on his chest, a helmet with a horse's mane and a large copper-bound shield. Tribal leaders fought on war chariots or dismounted.
The warriors of the lower hierarchy were worse armed: they had spears, slings, “double-edged axes,” axes, bows and arrows, shields and were a support for their leaders, who themselves entered into single combat with the best warriors of Troy. From Homer's descriptions one can imagine the environment in which the martial arts took place.
It happened like this.
The opponents were located close to each other. The war chariots lined up; the warriors took off their armor and placed them next to the chariots, then sat down on the ground and watched the single combat of their leaders. The combatants first threw spears, then fought with copper swords, which soon became unusable.
Having lost his sword, the fighter took refuge in the ranks of his tribe or was given new weapons to continue the fight. The winner removed the armor from the dead man and took away his weapons.
For battle, chariots and infantry were placed in a certain order. The war chariots were lined up in front of the infantry in a line maintaining alignment, “so that no one, relying on their art and strength, would fight against the Trojans ahead of the rest alone, so that they would not rule back.”
Behind the war chariots, covering themselves with “convex” shields, lined up foot soldiers armed with spears with copper tips. The infantry was built in several ranks, which Homer calls “thick phalanxes.” The leaders lined up the infantry, driving the cowardly warriors into the middle, “so that even those who don’t want to have to fight against their will.”
The war chariots were the first to enter the battle, then “continuously, one after another, the phalanx of the Achaeans moved into battle against the Trojans,” “they walked silently, fearing their leaders.” The infantry delivered the first blows with spears, and then cut with swords. The infantry fought war chariots with spears. Archers also took part in the battle, but the arrow was not considered a reliable weapon even in the hands of an excellent archer.
It is not surprising that in such conditions the outcome of the struggle was decided by physical strength and the skill of using weapons, which often failed: copper spear tips bent and swords broke. The maneuver had not yet been used on the battlefield, but the beginnings of organizing the interaction of war chariots and foot soldiers had already appeared.
This battle continued until nightfall. If an agreement was reached at night, the corpses were burned. If there was no agreement, the opponents posted guards, organizing the protection of the army in the field and defensive structures (the fortress wall and the fortifications of the camp - a ditch, sharpened stakes and a wall with towers).
The guard, usually consisting of several detachments, was placed behind the ditch. At night, reconnaissance was sent to the enemy’s camp in order to capture prisoners and find out the enemy’s intentions; meetings of tribal leaders were held, at which the issue of further actions was decided. In the morning the battle resumed.
This is roughly how the endless battles between the Achaeans and Trojans proceeded. According to Homer, only in the tenth (!) year of the war the main events began to unfold.
One day, the Trojans, having achieved success in a night raid, drove the enemy back to his fortified camp, surrounded by a ditch. Having crossed the ditch, the Trojans began to storm the wall with towers, but were soon repulsed.
Later, they still managed to break the gate with stones and break into the Achaean camp. A bloody battle for the ships ensued. Homer explains this success of the Trojans by the fact that the best warrior of the besiegers, the invincible Achilles, who had quarreled with Agamemnon, did not participate in the battle.
Seeing that the Achaeans were retreating, Achilles' friend Patroclus persuaded Achilles to allow him to join the battle and give him his armor. Inspired by Patroclus, the Achaeans rallied, as a result of which the Trojans met fresh enemy forces at the ships. It was a dense formation of closed shields “pike near pike, shield against shield, going under the neighboring one.” The warriors lined up in several ranks and managed to repel the attack of the Trojans, and with a counterattack - “strikes of sharp swords and double-edged pikes” - they drove them back.
In the end, the attack was repulsed. However, Patroclus himself died at the hands of Hector, son of Priam, king of Troy. So Achilles' armor went to the enemy. Later, Hephaestus forged new armor and weapons for Achilles, after which Achilles, enraged by the death of his friend, again entered the battle.
Later he killed Hector in a duel, tied his body to a chariot and rushed to his camp. The Trojan king Priam came to Achilles with rich gifts, begged him to return his son's body and buried him with dignity.
This concludes Homer's Iliad.
According to later myths, later the Amazons, led by Penfisileia, and the king of the Ethiopians Memnon came to the aid of the Trojans. However, they soon died at the hands of Achilles. And soon Achilles himself died from the arrows of Paris, directed by Apollo. One arrow hit the only vulnerable spot - Achilles' heel, the other - in the chest. His armor and weapons went to Odysseus, recognized as the bravest of the Achaeans.
After the death of Achilles, the Greeks were predicted that without the bow and arrows of Hercules, who were with Philoctetes, and Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, they would not be able to take Troy. An embassy was sent for these heroes, and they hastened to help their compatriots. Philoctetes mortally wounded the Trojan prince Paris with an arrow from Hercules. Odysseus and Diomedes killed the Thracian king Res, who was rushing to help the Trojans, and took away his magic horses, which, according to prediction, if they entered the city, would make it impregnable.
And then the cunning Odysseus came up with an extraordinary military trick...
For a long time, secretly from others, he talked with a certain Epeus, the best carpenter in the Achaean camp. By evening, all the Achaean leaders gathered in Agamemnon’s tent for a military council, where Odysseus outlined his adventurous plan, according to which it was necessary to build a huge wooden horse. The most skillful and courageous warriors must fit in its belly. The rest of the army must board the ships, move away from the Trojan shore and take refuge behind the island of Tendos.
Once the Trojans see that the Achaeans have left the coast, they will think that the siege of Troy has been lifted. The Trojans will surely drag the wooden horse to Troy. At night, the Achaean ships will return, and the warriors, hiding in the wooden horse, will come out of it and open the fortress gates. And then - the final assault on the hated city!
For three days the axes clattered in the carefully fenced-off part of the ship's anchorage, and for three days the mysterious work was in full swing.
On the morning of the fourth day, the Trojans were surprised to find the Achaean camp empty. The sails of the Achaean ships melted in the sea haze, and on the coastal sand, where only yesterday the tents and tents of the enemy were colorful, stood a huge wooden horse.
The jubilant Trojans left the city and wandered curiously along the deserted shore. They were surprised to surround a huge wooden horse, towering above the bushes of coastal willows. Some advised throwing the horse into the sea, others - burning it, but many insisted on dragging it into the city and placing it on the main square of Troy as a memory of the bloody battle of nations.
In the midst of the dispute, the priest of Apollo Laocoon approached the wooden horse with his two sons. “Fear the Danaans who bring gifts!” - he cried and, snatching a sharp spear from the hands of the Trojan warrior, threw it at the wooden belly of the horse. The pierced spear trembled, and a barely audible copper ringing was heard from the horse’s belly.
But no one listened to Laocoon. All the attention of the crowd was attracted by the appearance of the young men leading the captive Achaean. He was brought to King Priam, who stood surrounded by court nobility next to a wooden horse. The prisoner identified himself as Sinon and explained that he himself had escaped from the Achaeans, who were supposed to sacrifice him to the gods - this was a condition for a safe return home.
Sinon convinced the Trojans that the horse was a dedicatory gift to Athena, who could bring down her wrath on Troy if the Trojans destroyed the horse. And if you place it in the city in front of the temple of Athena, then Troy will become indestructible. At the same time, Sinon emphasized that this is why the Achaeans built the horse so huge that the Trojans could not drag it through the fortress gates...
As soon as Sinon said these words, a scream of terror came from the direction of the sea. Two huge snakes crawled out of the sea and entwined the priest Laocoon, as well as his two sons, with the deadly rings of their smooth and sticky bodies. In an instant, the unfortunate ones gave up the ghost.
"Laocón and his sons" - a sculptural group inVatican Museum of Pius Clement depicting a fight to the deathLaocoon and his sons with snakes.
Now no one doubted that Sinon was telling the truth. Therefore, we must quickly install this wooden horse next to the temple of Athena.
Having built a low platform on wheels, the Trojans installed a wooden horse on it and drove it to the city. In order for the horse to pass through the Scaean Gate, the Trojans had to dismantle part of the fortress wall. The horse was placed in the designated place.
While the Trojans, intoxicated with success, celebrated their victory, at night the Achaean spies quietly got off their horses and opened the gates. By that time, the Greek army, following a signal from Sinon, had quietly returned and now captured the city.
As a result, Troy was sacked and destroyed.
But why was it the horse that caused her death? This question has been asked since ancient times. Many ancient authors tried to find a reasonable explanation for the legend. A wide variety of assumptions were made: for example, that the Achaeans had a battle tower on wheels, made in the shape of a horse and upholstered in horse skins; or that the Greeks managed to enter the city through an underground passage on the door of which a horse was painted; or that the horse was a sign by which the Achaeans distinguished each other from their opponents in the dark...
Almost all the heroes, both Achaeans and Trojans, die under the walls of Troy. And of those who survive the war, many will die on the way home. Some, like King Agamemnon, will find death at home at the hands of loved ones, while others will be expelled and spend their lives wandering. In essence, this is the end of the heroic age. Under the walls of Troy there are no victors and no vanquished, heroes are becoming a thing of the past, and the time of ordinary people is coming.
Curiously, the horse is also symbolically associated with birth and death. A horse made of spruce wood, carrying something in its belly, symbolizes the birth of a new one, and the Trojan horse is made of spruce boards, and armed warriors sit in its hollow belly. It turns out that the Trojan horse brings death to the defenders of the fortress, but at the same time it also means the birth of something new.
Around the same time, another important event took place in the Mediterranean: one of the great migrations of peoples began. Tribes of the Dorians, a barbarian people who completely destroyed the ancient Mycenaean civilization, moved from the north to the Balkan Peninsula.
Only after several centuries will Greece be reborn and it will be possible to talk about Greek history. The destruction will be so great that the entire pre-Dorian history will become a myth, and many states will cease to exist.
The results of recent archaeological expeditions do not yet allow us to convincingly reconstruct the scenario of the Trojan War. However, their results do not deny that behind the Trojan epic lies the story of Greek expansion against a major power located on the western coast of Asia Minor and preventing the Greeks from gaining power over this region. We can only hope that the true history of the Trojan War will someday be written.
Kurushin M.Yu.
July 13th, 2017
Who today does not know the famous legend of Troy and the Trojan Horse? This myth is difficult to believe, but the authenticity of the existence of Troy was confirmed by excavations by the famous German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann back in the century before last. Modern archaeological research confirms the historicity of the tragic events that occurred in the 12th century BC. More and more details are being revealed about the Trojan War and the circumstances surrounding it...
Today it is known that a major military clash between the union of the Achaean states and the city of Troy (Ilion), located on the shores of the Aegean Sea, occurred between 1190 and 1180 (according to other sources, around 1240 BC) years BC.
The first sources telling about this equally legendary and terrible event were Homer’s poems “Iliad” and “Odyssey”. Later, the Trojan War was the theme of Virgil's Aeneid and other works in which history was also intertwined with fiction.
According to these works, the reason for the war was the abduction by Paris, the son of the Trojan king Priam, of the beautiful Helen, the wife of the king of Sparta, Menelaus. At the call of Menelaus, oath-bound suitors, famous Greek heroes, came to his aid. According to the Iliad, an army of Greeks, led by the Mycenaean king Agamemnon, the brother of Menelaus, set out to free the kidnapped woman.
An attempt to negotiate the return of Helen failed, and then the Greeks began a grueling siege of the city. The gods also took part in the war: Athena and Hera - on the side of the Greeks, Aphrodite, Artemis, Apollo and Ares - on the side of the Trojans. There were ten times fewer Trojans, but Troy remained impregnable.
The only source for us can only be Homer’s poem “The Iliad,” but the author, as the Greek historian Thucydides noted, exaggerated the significance of the war and embellished it, and therefore the poet’s information must be treated very carefully. However, we are primarily interested in the fighting and methods of warfare in that period, which Homer talks about in some detail.
So, the city of Troy was located a few kilometers from the shore of the Hellespont (Dardanelles). Trade routes used by Greek tribes passed through Troy. Apparently, the Trojans interfered with the trade of the Greeks, which forced the Greek tribes to unite and start a war with Troy, which was supported by numerous allies, which is why the war dragged on for many years.
Troy, on the site of which today is the Turkish town of Hisarlik, was surrounded by a high stone wall with battlements. The Achaeans did not dare to storm the city and did not block it, so the fighting took place on a flat field between the city and the besiegers’ camp, which was located on the banks of the Hellespont. The Trojans sometimes broke into the enemy camp, trying to set fire to Greek ships pulled ashore.
Listing in detail the ships of the Achaeans, Homer counted 1186 ships on which a hundred thousand army was transported. Undoubtedly, the number of ships and warriors is exaggerated. In addition, we must take into account that these ships were just large boats, because they were easily pulled ashore and launched quite quickly. Such a ship could not carry 100 people.
Most likely, the Achaeans had several thousand warriors. They were led by Agamemnon, the king of the “many-gold Mycenae.” And at the head of the warriors of each tribe there was a leader.
Homer calls the Achaeans “spearmen,” so there is no doubt that the main weapon of the Greek warriors was a spear with a copper tip. The warrior had a copper sword and good defensive weapons: leggings, armor on his chest, a helmet with a horse's mane and a large copper-bound shield. Tribal leaders fought on war chariots or dismounted.
The warriors of the lower hierarchy were worse armed: they had spears, slings, “double-edged axes,” axes, bows and arrows, shields and were a support for their leaders, who themselves entered into single combat with the best warriors of Troy. From Homer's descriptions one can imagine the environment in which the martial arts took place.
It happened like this.
The opponents were located close to each other. The war chariots lined up; the warriors took off their armor and placed them next to the chariots, then sat down on the ground and watched the single combat of their leaders. The combatants first threw spears, then fought with copper swords, which soon became unusable.
Having lost his sword, the fighter took refuge in the ranks of his tribe or was given new weapons to continue the fight. The winner removed the armor from the dead man and took away his weapons.
For battle, chariots and infantry were placed in a certain order. The war chariots were lined up in front of the infantry in a line maintaining alignment, “so that no one, relying on their art and strength, would fight against the Trojans ahead of the rest alone, so that they would not rule back.”
Behind the war chariots, covering themselves with “convex” shields, lined up foot soldiers armed with spears with copper tips. The infantry was built in several ranks, which Homer calls “thick phalanxes.” The leaders lined up the infantry, driving the cowardly warriors into the middle, “so that even those who don’t want to have to fight against their will.”
The war chariots were the first to enter the battle, then “continuously, one after another, the phalanx of the Achaeans moved into battle against the Trojans,” “they walked silently, fearing their leaders.” The infantry delivered the first blows with spears, and then cut with swords. The infantry fought war chariots with spears. Archers also took part in the battle, but the arrow was not considered a reliable weapon even in the hands of an excellent archer.
It is not surprising that in such conditions the outcome of the struggle was decided by physical strength and the skill of using weapons, which often failed: copper spear tips bent and swords broke. The maneuver had not yet been used on the battlefield, but the beginnings of organizing the interaction of war chariots and foot soldiers had already appeared.
This battle continued until nightfall. If an agreement was reached at night, the corpses were burned. If there was no agreement, the opponents posted guards, organizing the protection of the army in the field and defensive structures (the fortress wall and the fortifications of the camp - a ditch, sharpened stakes and a wall with towers).
The guard, usually consisting of several detachments, was placed behind the ditch. At night, reconnaissance was sent to the enemy’s camp in order to capture prisoners and find out the enemy’s intentions; meetings of tribal leaders were held, at which the issue of further actions was decided. In the morning the battle resumed.
This is roughly how the endless battles between the Achaeans and Trojans proceeded. According to Homer, only in the tenth (!) year of the war the main events began to unfold.
One day, the Trojans, having achieved success in a night raid, drove the enemy back to his fortified camp, surrounded by a ditch. Having crossed the ditch, the Trojans began to storm the wall with towers, but were soon repulsed.
Later, they still managed to break the gate with stones and break into the Achaean camp. A bloody battle for the ships ensued. Homer explains this success of the Trojans by the fact that the best warrior of the besiegers, the invincible Achilles, who had quarreled with Agamemnon, did not participate in the battle.
Seeing that the Achaeans were retreating, Achilles' friend Patroclus persuaded Achilles to allow him to join the battle and give him his armor. Inspired by Patroclus, the Achaeans rallied, as a result of which the Trojans met fresh enemy forces at the ships. It was a dense formation of closed shields “pike near pike, shield against shield, going under the neighboring one.” The warriors lined up in several ranks and managed to repel the attack of the Trojans, and with a counterattack - “strikes of sharp swords and double-edged pikes” - they drove them back.
In the end, the attack was repulsed. However, Patroclus himself died at the hands of Hector, son of Priam, king of Troy. So Achilles' armor went to the enemy. Later, Hephaestus forged new armor and weapons for Achilles, after which Achilles, enraged by the death of his friend, again entered the battle.
Later he killed Hector in a duel, tied his body to a chariot and rushed to his camp. The Trojan king Priam came to Achilles with rich gifts, begged him to return his son's body and buried him with dignity.
This concludes Homer's Iliad.
According to later myths, later the Amazons, led by Penfisileia, and the king of the Ethiopians Memnon came to the aid of the Trojans. However, they soon died at the hands of Achilles. And soon Achilles himself died from the arrows of Paris, directed by Apollo. One arrow hit the only vulnerable spot - Achilles' heel, the other - in the chest. His armor and weapons went to Odysseus, recognized as the bravest of the Achaeans.
After the death of Achilles, the Greeks were predicted that without the bow and arrows of Hercules, who were with Philoctetes, and Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, they would not be able to take Troy. An embassy was sent for these heroes, and they hastened to help their compatriots. Philoctetes mortally wounded the Trojan prince Paris with an arrow from Hercules. Odysseus and Diomedes killed the Thracian king Res, who was rushing to help the Trojans, and took away his magic horses, which, according to prediction, if they entered the city, would make it impregnable.
And then the cunning Odysseus came up with an extraordinary military trick...
For a long time, secretly from others, he talked with a certain Epeus, the best carpenter in the Achaean camp. By evening, all the Achaean leaders gathered in Agamemnon’s tent for a military council, where Odysseus outlined his adventurous plan, according to which it was necessary to build a huge wooden horse. The most skillful and courageous warriors must fit in its belly. The rest of the army must board the ships, move away from the Trojan shore and take refuge behind the island of Tendos.
Once the Trojans see that the Achaeans have left the coast, they will think that the siege of Troy has been lifted. The Trojans will surely drag the wooden horse to Troy. At night, the Achaean ships will return, and the warriors, hiding in the wooden horse, will come out of it and open the fortress gates. And then - the final assault on the hated city!
For three days the axes clattered in the carefully fenced-off part of the ship's anchorage, and for three days the mysterious work was in full swing.
On the morning of the fourth day, the Trojans were surprised to find the Achaean camp empty. The sails of the Achaean ships melted in the sea haze, and on the coastal sand, where only yesterday the tents and tents of the enemy were colorful, stood a huge wooden horse.
The jubilant Trojans left the city and wandered curiously along the deserted shore. They were surprised to surround a huge wooden horse, towering above the bushes of coastal willows. Some advised throwing the horse into the sea, others - burning it, but many insisted on dragging it into the city and placing it on the main square of Troy as a memory of the bloody battle of nations.
In the midst of the dispute, the priest of Apollo Laocoon approached the wooden horse with his two sons. “Fear the Danaans who bring gifts!” - he cried and, snatching a sharp spear from the hands of the Trojan warrior, threw it at the wooden belly of the horse. The pierced spear trembled, and a barely audible copper ringing was heard from the horse’s belly.
But no one listened to Laocoon. All the attention of the crowd was attracted by the appearance of the young men leading the captive Achaean. He was brought to King Priam, who stood surrounded by court nobility next to a wooden horse. The prisoner identified himself as Sinon and explained that he himself had escaped from the Achaeans, who were supposed to sacrifice him to the gods - this was a condition for a safe return home.
Sinon convinced the Trojans that the horse was a dedicatory gift to Athena, who could bring down her wrath on Troy if the Trojans destroyed the horse. And if you place it in the city in front of the temple of Athena, then Troy will become indestructible. At the same time, Sinon emphasized that this is why the Achaeans built the horse so huge that the Trojans could not drag it through the fortress gates...
As soon as Sinon said these words, a scream of terror came from the direction of the sea. Two huge snakes crawled out of the sea and entwined the priest Laocoon, as well as his two sons, with the deadly rings of their smooth and sticky bodies. In an instant, the unfortunate ones gave up the ghost.
"Laocón and his sons" - a sculptural group in Vatican Museum of Pius Clement depicting a fight to the death Laocoonand his sons with snakes.
Now no one doubted that Sinon was telling the truth. Therefore, we must quickly install this wooden horse next to the temple of Athena.
Having built a low platform on wheels, the Trojans installed a wooden horse on it and drove it to the city. In order for the horse to pass through the Scaean Gate, the Trojans had to dismantle part of the fortress wall. The horse was placed in the designated place.
While the Trojans, intoxicated with success, celebrated their victory, at night the Achaean spies quietly got off their horses and opened the gates. By that time, the Greek army, following a signal from Sinon, had quietly returned and now captured the city.
As a result, Troy was sacked and destroyed.
But why was it the horse that caused her death? This question has been asked since ancient times. Many ancient authors tried to find a reasonable explanation for the legend. A wide variety of assumptions were made: for example, that the Achaeans had a battle tower on wheels, made in the shape of a horse and upholstered in horse skins; or that the Greeks managed to enter the city through an underground passage on the door of which a horse was painted; or that the horse was a sign by which the Achaeans distinguished each other from their opponents in the dark...
Almost all the heroes, both Achaeans and Trojans, die under the walls of Troy. And of those who survive the war, many will die on the way home. Some, like King Agamemnon, will find death at home at the hands of loved ones, while others will be expelled and spend their lives wandering. In essence, this is the end of the heroic age. Under the walls of Troy there are no victors and no vanquished, heroes are becoming a thing of the past, and the time of ordinary people is coming.
Curiously, the horse is also symbolically associated with birth and death. A horse made of spruce wood, carrying something in its belly, symbolizes the birth of a new one, and the Trojan horse is made of spruce boards, and armed warriors sit in its hollow belly. It turns out that the Trojan horse brings death to the defenders of the fortress, but at the same time it also means the birth of something new.
Around the same time, another important event took place in the Mediterranean: one of the great migrations of peoples began. Tribes of the Dorians, a barbarian people who completely destroyed the ancient Mycenaean civilization, moved from the north to the Balkan Peninsula.
Only after several centuries will Greece be reborn and it will be possible to talk about Greek history. The destruction will be so great that the entire pre-Dorian history will become a myth, and many states will cease to exist.
The results of recent archaeological expeditions do not yet allow us to convincingly reconstruct the scenario of the Trojan War. However, their results do not deny that behind the Trojan epic lies the story of Greek expansion against a major power located on the western coast of Asia Minor and preventing the Greeks from gaining power over this region. We can only hope that the true history of the Trojan War will someday be written.
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Trojan horse - in ancient greek mythology a huge wooden horse, the construction of which is associated with one of the final episodes of the Trojan War.
The war between the Trojans and the Danaans began because the Trojan prince Paris stole the beautiful Helen from Menelaus. Her husband, the king of Sparta, and his brother gathered the army of Achaea and went against Paris. During the war with Troy, the Achaeans, after a long and unsuccessful siege, resorted to cunning: they built a huge wooden horse, left it near the walls of Troy, and they themselves pretended to sail away from the shore of the Troas (the invention of this trick is attributed to Odysseus, the most cunning of the Danaan leaders , and the horse was made by Epeus). The horse was an offering to the goddess Athena of Ilium. On the side of the horse was written “This gift is brought to Athena the Warrior by the departing Danaans.” To build a horse, the Hellenes cut down the trees that grew in the sacred grove of Apollo. dogwood trees(Kranei), they appeased Apollo with sacrifices and gave him the name Carnea (for the horse was made of maple).
The priest Laocoont, seeing this horse and knowing the tricks of the Danaans, exclaimed: “Whatever it is, be afraid of the Danaans, even those who bring gifts!” (Quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentes!) and threw his spear at the horse. However, at that moment, 2 huge snakes crawled out of the sea and killed Laocoont and his two sons, since the god Poseidon himself wanted the destruction of Troy. The Trojans, not listening to the warnings of Laocoon and the prophetess Cassandra, dragged the horse into the city. Virgil’s hemistich “Fear the Danaans, even those who bring gifts,” often quoted in Latin (“Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes”), has become a proverb. This is where the phraseological unit “Trojan horse” arose, used to mean: a secret, insidious plan disguised as a gift.
Inside the horse sat 50 of the best warriors (according to the Little Iliad, 3000). According to Stesichorus, 100 warriors, according to others - 20, according to Tsetsu - 23, or only 9 warriors: Menelaus, Odysseus, Diomedes, Thersander, Sfenel, Acamant, Foant, Machaon and Neoptolemus. The names of all were listed by the poet Sakad of Argos. Athena gave the heroes ambrosia.
At night, the Greeks, hiding inside the horse, got out of it, killed the guards, opened the city gates, let in their comrades who had returned on ships, and thus took possession of Troy (“Odyssey” by Homer, 8, 493 et seq.; “Aeneid” by Virgil, 2, 15 et seq. Sl.).
Interpretations
According to Polybius, “almost all barbarian peoples, at least most of them, kill and sacrifice a horse either at the very beginning of a war, or before a decisive battle, in order to reveal a sign of the near future in the fall of the animal.”
According to the euhemeristic interpretation, in order to drag him in, the Trojans dismantled part of the wall, and the Hellenes took the city. According to the assumptions of some historians (found already with Pausanias), the Trojan Horse was actually a battering machine, used to destroy walls. According to Dareth, a horse’s head was simply sculptured on the Skeian Gate.
There was the tragedy of Jophon “The Destruction of Ilion”, the tragedy of an unknown author “The Departure”, the tragedies of Livius Andronicus and Naevius “The Trojan Horse”, as well as the poem of Nero “The Wreck of Troy”.
Dating
Troy fell 17 days before the summer solstice, on the eighth day before the end of Fargelion. According to Dionysius the Argive, it was the 12th of Fargelion, in the 18th year of the reign of Agamemnon and the 1st year of the reign of Demophon in Athens. According to the author of the “Little Iliad”, on the full moon. According to Aegius and Derkiol, the 28th day of Panema, according to Hellanicus - 12 fargelion, according to other historiographers of Athens - 28 farhelion, on the full moon, Last year the reign of Menestheus, according to others - 28 scirophorion. Or in winter. According to the Parian Chronicle, Troy fell in 1209 BC. e.
With the help of a living horse, Charidemus took Troy again c. 359 BC uh..