The Fall of Troy and Its Aftermath The Return of Odysseus

Question 1

Causes of Trojan War

Answer 1

Breaking Xenia, fulfilling The Oath of Tyndareus

Question 2

Length of Trojan War

Answer 2

Approx ten years

Question 3

End of the Trojan war

Answer 3

Conditions for the end (as explained by Calchas)
1. Achilles fights again,
2. Statue of Athena taken from Troy, and
3. Bow of Heracles joins the action.

Odysseus, dressed as a beggar, gets the statue.

Odysseus and Neoptolemus sail to Lemnos and get the Bow from Philoctetes (guy who lit Hereclies funeral pyre)

Most men die. a few survived. Remember: Aeneas, carried his disabled father, Anchises, and led his young son, Ascanius, out of the burning city.

Question 4

Trojan Horse: Odysseus’s idea

Answer 4

• 50 warriors concealed themselves inside the hollow belly of a wooden horse
  Including Odysseus, Menelaus, Diomedes, and Neoptolemus
• Greeks left no trace on the beach pretending to have sailed away leaving only the horse. Sinon (badly beaten, presumed sacrifice but escaped) emerges from the bush explaining the horse was an offering to poseidon (for safe travel).
• Laocoön (priest of Poseidon) suspected the horse contained warriors, hurled a spear at it and two serpents arose from the sea and strangled him and his two sons.
  he was being punished for sleeping with his wife within temple precincts
• However the Trojans saw it as divine intervention and took the horse inside.
• That night The Greeks killed all the Trojan men and took all the women and children captive.

Question 5

Death of Priam

Last King of Troy

Answer 5

Prima and his son seek shelter at an altar of Zeus. Neoptolemus finds them and first kills Priam’s son in front of him, then drags priam to the altar and kills him too.

Question 6

Neoptolemus

Answer 6

Murdered Priam. Also carries the youngest of Priam’s daughters, Polyxena, to the tomb of his father Achilles and cuts her throat over it, pouring the blood to quench his thirst.

Question 7

Historical Troy?

Answer 7

In antiquity, no one doubted the historicity of the war itself

Question 8

Agamemnon

Nostoi - “Homecomings”

Answer 8

Story of Agamemnon’s return to Argos told in a trilogy by Aeschylus, Oresteia

Question 9

Murder of Argememnon

Answer 9

While away, his wife Clytemnastra was having an affair with his cousin Aegisthus. When Agamemnone gets home Clytemnestra kills him in an attack planned with Aegisthus
Claimed motivation from Agamemnon’s sacrifice of her daughter, Iphigenia.

Question 10

Revenge by Orestes

Agamemnon and Clytemnastra’s son

Answer 10

Delphic oracles order him to return home and avenger the murder of his father (kill his mother) meets up with his sister, Electra, she’s down to kill their mom.
Orestes dresses as a messenger reporting his own death, Aegisthus (agamemnon’s cousin, banging Clytemnestra) greets him, Orestes kills him, then kills Clytemnestra

Question 11

Trail of Orestes

Answer 11

Furies persecute Orestes for killing family (miasma), driving him madd

Goes to Athens to seek justice (court of Athena), Jury of twelve to decide his fate

Argument = Athena born only from Zeus, therefore Orestes is only blood tied to his father
the jury is split, but Athena breaks the tie and sides with Orestes

Question 12

Odyssey: Odysseus’s narrative, how he got home (comedy story of revenge and happy ending)

Answer 12

• Away from home for 20 years, 10 at troy, 3 at sea, 7 with nymph Calypso
• Polyphemus: Cyclops that traps them in his cave and eats most of them
• They Get him really drunk, They Blind him with a big hot stick, Then they hide tied under his sheep to escape.
• Note Odysseus introduces himself as nobody so when Polyphemus cries for help he says “Nobody is trying to kill me” and the other Cyclops think he is crazy and leave.

Question 13

Aeolus

Answer 13

The wind-king, six sons six daughters (all married to one another)
* Gift of a sealed cowhide bag that contains the dangerous winds.
* Warned not to untie under any circumstances.
* GUESS WHAT?? Odysseus falls asleep and his crew open it
* They were then blown back to Aeolus who thinks they are cursed and send them away

Question 14

Laestrygonians: cannibalistic tribe

Home: Odeyses’s journey home

Answer 14

Everyone is killed and every ship is destroyed except for Odysseus’ ship.

They did not dock in the harbour

Question 15

Circe

Aeaea (Circe’s place)

Answer 15

Circe turns all but one of his men to animals (pigs). Odysseus goes himself, meets Hermes who gives him a magic herb moly (POP A MOLLY I’M SWEAT! YEAH -YE!).

Circe offers him the same magic potion. Doesn’t work because of the herb (moly). Odysseus, with his sword (wink wink) forces her to do him no harm, they bang, she releases his men, they stay for one year and then return home.

Question 16

Scylla and Charybdis

Answer 16

Charybdis: enormous whirlpool that sucks down and spits

Scylla: monster that lives beneath a cliff as sheer as glass

• They choose to sail next to Scylla She devours 6 of his men, they get by.

Question 17

Calypso: island of Ogygia

Answer 17

A beautiful nymph who loves him and offers him eternal life, if only he’ll marry her. He stays for 7 years, but longs to go home every day. Athena asks Zeus to release Odysseus from his suffering and the persecutions of Poseidon, zeus consents, hermes lets calypso know that she need to let hm go.

Question 18

Nausicaä

Answer 18

After swimming for three days, Odysseus arrives at land. Nausicaä has a dream where Athena tells her to wash laundry at the sea to attract a husband. Goes to the beach, meet Odysseus, give him a bath (emerges shining like a young man) Nausicaä brings him back to her father. Nausicaä’s people, the Phaeacians, are marvelous seafarers, they transport him back to ithaca while he sleeps.

Question 19

Telemachus

Odysseus’ son.

Answer 19

Meets Odysseus after returning from Pylos and Sparta (looking for his dad). Tells his dad what has been happening;

Question 20

Odysseus’ return to Ithaca

Answer 20

Suitors have been eating his food, spending his money, and trying to get with his wife.
Sneaks into his home as a beggar. Penelope, his wife, doesn’t recognise him. Finally, he will take a test. He who can string my husband’s bow and holes of 12 aligned ax handles will be able to marry me. No one can but Odysseus can do it. Odysseus and his son ++ massacre the 108 unarmed suitors. Penelope tested him one more time and then they were all good.

Question 21

Penelope

Answer 21

says she will marry a sutor once she finishes her tapistry (weaving work).
Undoes it every night for 20 years, so she doesn’t have to marry anyone.

Question 22

Compare Agamemnon and Odysseus

Answer 22

Each returns from Troy to find his house in the hands of enemies
Both have sons that must fight to restore family right and honour

Difference:
Odysseus survives because Penelope is an ideal wife
Agamemnon dies because his wife has an affair and has no care for him