The OdysseyThe Odyssey and the and the Trojan WarTrojan War

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15 December 200915 December 2009

For the FairestFor the FairestThe saga begins with jealousy and

pointless anger: Eris, the Goddess of Discord, throws the apple into the banquet, and Aphrodite, Athena, and Hera grow obsessed with it

This proves, once again, that the gods are just as prone to failure as humans – the jealousy Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite feel over being named “the fairest” seems unworthy of divinities

Not only are such feelings shallow, but the consequences of their dispute are ruinous to men

Bad ChoicesBad ChoicesParis ignores the fact that he’s

already with someone (Oenone) and chooses Aphrodite’s temptation (the most beautiful woman) over Athena’s (crushing the Greeks) and Hera’s (dominion over Europe and Asia)

This is short-sighted and selfish – he isn’t thinking through his actions

This sets the tone for the rest of the story – and even carries through to The Odyssey, to an extent

SelfishnessSelfishness Helen was so beautiful that Tyndareus (her

“mother’s husband” – she’s another one of Zeus’s offspring) had to force her suitors to make a pledge – that each would swear to support and defend whoever he had chosen for her hand

It’s a selfish choice – each man accepts because he hopes he’ll win Helen and doesn’t want to have to fight off the rest any more than Tyndareus wants to

Tyndarus eventually chooses Menelaus (Agamemnon’s brother) to be King of Sparta

When Paris makes his selfish choice, Helen ends up with him, and the clash of selfish desire leads to war

Nowhere to HideNowhere to HideTwo men – Odysseus and Achilles – try to

avoid the warBoth attempt deception when they fear

honesty won’t do the trickOdysseus poisons his own land – salting

the earth – as part of the deceptionAchilles hides himself in women’s clothing Both men are unmasked by fundamental

desires – Odysseus to protect Telemachus, and Achilles’s interest in weapons over the jewelry (Odysseus actually lays the trap for him)

Interestingly, however, it’s Odysseus’s ability to hide that helps turn the war in favor of the Greeks

SacrificeSacrifice At Artemis’s bidding, Aulis/Aeolus leaves the

Greek fleet unable to fight – the North Wind blows

The North Wind was Odysseus’s downfall as well – now, just as later, it’s punishing humans for an unnecessarily violent action (although Artemis is responsible here instead of Zeus)

In order to get around it, the Greeks have to appease Artemis, who’s been angered by the killing of a hare and her young – so they capture and kill Agamemnon’s own beloved daughter, Iphigenia

They trick her by convincing her that she’s about to be married to Achilles, then kill her as she cries out for the very father who decided to allow her to die

Another Bad ChoiceAnother Bad ChoiceThis satisfies Artemis, but it’s a

heartless, inhuman choice – Agamemnon’s been ordered to fight by Menelaus, and his “ambition to conquer Troy” proves greater than his love for his family

Compare Agamemnon’s choice to Odysseus’s actions regarding his own family, and it looks even worse

Always About a GirlAlways About a GirlThe battle is evenly matched for nine

years Then Agamemnon makes a thoughtless

choice – forgetting the wife at home (who will be responsible for his death later), he decides to keep Chryseis for his own after the Greeks carry her off

Chryseis is the daughter of Apollo’s priest, and this crime against the priest’s family angers Apollo so greatly that he rains sickness and death upon the Greeks

Achilles stands up, allows the soothsayer to tell everyone that Chryseis must be returned, and unites the men in support against Agamemnon

ConsequencesConsequencesAn interesting parallel to Helen’s

captureAlso odd that Agamemnon would

steal someone else’s daughter so soon after allowing his own to be murdered

Even worse, Agamemnon decides to steal Achilles’s “prize of honor” – Briseis

Achilles lets the men know that he’ll make Agamemnon pay

Zeus’s Wandering HeartZeus’s Wandering HeartThis spurs his mother, Thetis, to go to

Olympus to plead for the Trojans’ success

The gods are split, with Hera supporting the Greeks and Zeus preferring the Trojans (although he tried to stay neutral, he finds it hard to resist the sea nymph, which only angers Hera more)

Zeus convinces Agamemnon in a dream to attack, and he does so without Achilles’s help

It Was Almost Over…It Was Almost Over…The attack leads to a confrontation

between Menelaus and Paris – Menelaus wins, and is about to kill Paris before Aphrodite interferes (thus prolonging the conflict)

The Trojans hated Paris, and are actually willing to let Menelaus kill him – but no one knew where Aphrodite had taken him

Then the Trojans prove willing to give Helen back, in the interest of fairness – but Hera is bent on ruining Troy out of jealousy (hating that Zeus is listening to Thetis), and sends Athena down to interfere

Athena convinces Pandarus to shoot Menelaus, who survives – and the conflict rages anew

It Wasn’t Meant to BeIt Wasn’t Meant to Be The gods’ continued interference in the Trojan

war raises the same kind of questions about fate and control that we pursued a long time ago

It looks for all the world like the men are pawns in the gods’ bizarre games, and the divinities act without any thought to the consequences of their actions; they’re like children chasing candy

Aeneas is saved, Ares is wounded, Athena denies a righteous prayer – it’s all so arbitrary

Ultimately, that’s the most frustrating aspect of both the Trojan War and The Odyssey – both are tales of preventable mistakes

The Loss of a FriendThe Loss of a Friend Achilles refuses to rejoin the battle – he’s still

mad about Briseis He eventually rejoins when Patrolochus is killed

and Hector takes his armor. He won’t fight on behalf of love of country, but

he will fight for personal vengeance (another key aspect of the war)

Hector’s death is entirely dishonorable – Athena cheats, and an honorable fighter loses

Achilles defiles Hector’s body (remember, the body is important to the Greeks – Odysseus will have to go back to Aeaea to bury Elpinor), but Priam – the father – appeals to Achilles to win his son’s body back

Achilles agrees, and the war ceases for nine days (remember nine years?) while the Trojans mourn the loss of their hero

The Death of HeroesThe Death of Heroes Paris, always the coward, shoots at Achilles

– and Apollo guides the arrow into Achilles’ heel (the only spot Thetis had missed while dipping him in the River Styx to make him immortal), killing him

Soon thereafter, Ajax kills himself in shame over his own rage (having felt dishonored when Odysseus won Achilles’s armor)

The loss of two great heroes wounds the Greeks, but Odysseus captures a prophet who tells them that victory will meet them when they use Hercules’s bow and arrows

Philoctetes has them; he’s been abandoned on an island due to his wounds, but Odysseus and others bring him back to be healed

Betrayal?Betrayal? Philoctetes shoots Paris, and he begs to

be returned to Oenone She had once told him she knew of a drug

that could cure anything When he returns to beg for her help, she

refuses to forgive him, watches him die, and commits suicide

How different is this from what we’ll see from Penelope and Odysseus?

Ooooh…a Horse!Ooooh…a Horse! The Greeks construct the horse, and

Odysseus and others hide inside it The Greeks hide behind the nearest island Sinon leaves himself for capture, and his

story (designed by Odysseus) convinces the Trojans that the Greeks are gone

Moreover, the horse is supposedly a gift to Athena, designed to turn the tides of war in the Greeks’ favor, and its immense size is supposed to dissuade the Trojans from taking it into the city

Not Quite That WonderfulNot Quite That WonderfulThe Trojans, of course, find this

irresistible, and claim it as a gift left in surrender

Laocoon tries to warn them, but the gods interfere again and kill him

This is the final “convincer” – the Trojans, desiring Athena’s patronage, take the horse inside their walls

After that, it’s all over but the shouting – the sacrifices of Astaynax and Hecuba’s daughter end the war that essentially began with the sacrifice of Agamemnon’s daughter

ParallelsParallelsParallels between the Trojan

War and The OdysseyRelationships between fathers

and sonsHonor, faithfulness, and deceitThe arbitrary will of the godsThe justification of awful deedsIgnorance of consequencesSacrifice and sufferingThe terrifying power of love

Interpretive!Interpretive! 1) What do the myths show us about the human

race of long ago? 2) Could the myths be set in a different time and

place and still have the same effect? 3) What were the original writers of the myths

(not Hamilton) trying to show by having Zeus fall in love with so many mortal women?

4) How did the persona of Zeus change over the course of the myths?

5) What does the behavior of Hera tell you about her?

6) What did the new belief in Dionysus show about the Greeks of the time?

7) Why were Aphrodite, Hera, and Pallas Athena willing to accept the judgment of a mortal man, Paris?

8) What does Achilles’ treatment of Hector’s body tell you about Achilles?