The Trojan War Flashcards
Thyestes
(Son of Pelops & Hippodamia)
Rivalry with Atreus:
Atreus was the oldest, Thyestes wanted the throne regardless. Whoever could produce a fleece from a golden lamb would be king.
Atreus vowed to sacrifice a golden lamp to Artemis (daughter of Zeus and sister of Apollo), he did but he kept its fleece in a chest rather than give it to the gods. his wife Aërope, was the only other who knew of its location
Thyestes was sleeping with his brothers wife and she give him the fleece
Atreus couldn’t accept, declared if Zeus makes the sun rise in the west I will be king
It miraculously did and Thyestes was banished
Banquet of Thyestes
Theyestes broke Xenia
Atreus wasn’t satisfied with just banishing Thyestes, invited him for a banquet and fed Thyestes his own son’s torsos.
Thyestes curses Atreus and flees to oracles, “have a son with his own daughter, Pelopia”
Thyestes doesn’t know where his daughter is, sees a girl by a river and rapes her. TADA, it was his daughter! Thyestes drops his sword (important later)
Aegisthus
son of Thyestes and Pelopia.
Atreus thought it was his.
Atreus assigned Aegisthus to kill his father (who he captured) but Thyestes recognises the sword that Aegisthus has as his own.
Pelopia relizes she was raped by her father and kills herself with his sword. Aegisthus takes revenge on Atreus stabbing him in the back and completing the prophecy from the Oracle.
Thyestes became king of Mycenae.
Leda and the Swan
Lada, wife to Tyndareus
Zeus was horny and took the shape of a swan and “had his way with her” (raped her)
Tyndareus also had intercourse with her on the same night
Had 4 children, (some say hatched out of 2 eggs) two from Tyndareus, and two from zeus
By Zeus: Polydeuces (Pollux) and Helen (semidivine)
By Tyndareus: Castor and Clytemnestra (mortal)
The Oath of Tyndareus
(is Odysseus’ solution)
All the suitors of Helen (“the most beautiful woman in the world”) will come together and fight anyone who tries to take Helen from the rightful winner of her hand in marriage.
Odysseus’s scheme, in exchange, marries Tyndareus’s daughter Penelope
Menelaus, son of Atreus, is victorious, marries Helen (offered most money).
Wedding of Peleus and Thetis
Peleus and Telamon murder their half brother (Phocus) for his athletic abilities, exiled,
Telamon flees to Salamis, becomes king, fathers Ajax (A suitor of Helen and hero of the Trojan War)
Peleus travels to Phthia: Zeus had lusted after Thetis, Prometheus said Thetis’s sun would be greater than his father. Zeus said “NOPE.” allowed Hereclies to free Prometheus (kill eagle). Zeus arranges for Thetis to marry Peleus instead
Hera arranges a big wedding!! (grateful Thetis didn’t sleep with zeus)
- The Judgment of Paris
at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis
Eris (Strife) wasn’t invited to the wedding. In resentment, she rolls an apple, stating “the most beautiful will get it”
Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena want it! And fight for it
Zeus tells everyone to lets Paris (son of the Trojan King Priam) decide who is most beautiful
-The Trojans
In Homer’s account, the Trojans are viewed as a foreign people. But, they share the same gods and generally behave a lot like Greeks
Except that Priam has multiple wives
Priam
father of Hector (Trojan’s greatest fighter) and Paris: married Hecabe (Hecuba)
Priam gets Hecabe pregnant. She has a dream “FIRE AND BRIMSTONE.” (the child would cause the city’s destruction). They expose the child…. HEY A Shepherd!!
Shepherd raises the child named Paris (aka; Alexander = “warder-off of men”)
Hermes (Son of Zeus and messenger of the gods) appears to Paris, presenting him naked goddesses for inspection; Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena (they offer bribes.
He chooses Aphrodite as the most beautiful who offered him “the most beautiful woman in the world”… Aphrodite offered Helen (daughter of Zeus and Leda) as prize, but she is married to Menelaus
Helen
Menelaus greets Paris warmly, honouring xenia. Helen falls madly in love (thanks Aphrodite!).
While Menelaus is gone, Helen and Paris take all his treasure and run off
Paris Breaks Xenia!
Menelaus is pissed, call his brother Agamemnon and goes to gather all the members of The Oath of Tyndareus.
* All of Helen’s former suitors assembly with their armies
Odysseus
Married to Penelope, Tyndareus’s daughter, just gave birth to a son so Odysseus doesn’t want to go to fulfill the Oath of Tyndareus
Tries to avoid going to war
* Odysseus acts madd plowing the beach, Palamedes throws his kid in front of the plow, Odysseus not actually being mad stops and them has to go on the quest to troy
- Later Odysseus takes revenge on Palamedes planting a letter on a trojan captive (implying he was going to betray them for gold) and leaves money in Palamedes’ tent. Palamedes = Stoned to death and left to rot unburied (a traitor’s death).
Achilles
(son of Peleus and Thetis)
The prophet of the expedition, Calchas, said Greeks needed Achilles to take Troy and win the war.
Birth of Achilles
Thetis had placed him on the hearth to burn away his mortal portions, Peleus discovered them, Thetis cast him to the ground (not fully immortal) and left the world.
* “Achilles heel” story only appears later (1st century CE)
Entrusted to Chiron (our Centaur homeboy). Learns outdoor life
Avoiding the war at first: once old enough, Thetis, took him to Scyros to prevent him from joining the war).
* Concealed Achilles in the women’s quarters dressed as a woman.
* Odysseus devises a plan, jewelry and sword, hears pirates, Achilles takes the sword, “LET ME AT THEM ‘’ hahaha, hi Achilles. He goes on the quest.
Achillies’s Anger
subject of the Iliad is ultimately the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon, which led to Achilles’ unbridled anger and fateful consequences
Achilles’s Death
Paris shoots and kills Achilles with the help of Apollo (not in the Iliad)
- Ajax is able to take Achilles’ corpse and bring it back to Greek lines
- Achilles is given a splendid funeral and his ashes are mixed with Patroclus’
- Thetis, Achilles’s mother, has also told her son that he should come home and survive to old age, but that if he stays at troy, he will die (albeit in glory)
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