The Trojan War
Introduction
There were two periods of civilisation in Greece in the Ancient World. The first started round about 2500 BC in Crete, the Cycladic Islands and around Mycenae. It lasted for well over a thousand years and was followed by a period of a couple of hundred years known as the Greek Dark Ages. One of the most momentous events, if it actually happened, towards the end of this earlier period of civilisation (roughly 1250 BC) was the Trojan War. It became one of the most important sources for stories used in the second great period of Greek civilisation (from about 800 BC to 30 BC) and appears again and again in surviving literature and art. Even today Helen of Troy and Achilles are famous names and we still talk about a Trojan horse, beware of Greeks bearing gifts, having an Achilles’ heel, working like a Trojan and making an Odyssey among other illusions to the war. In this tour we shall look at some of the depictions of the war in Greek art and I shall also give a brief outline of the events of the war as we go round.
A. Room 12 Case 7
For centuries historians argued over whether the stories of the Trojan War were mere myths or whether there was any basis in actual events. In the Nineteenth Century archaeologists tried to prove the events might have taken place by excavating in some of the places mentioned in the stories. Chief among these were the German archaeologist, Heinrich Schliemann, who excavated Troy and Ancient Mycenae. Although historians now think the objects Schliemann identified as coming from the period of the war are probably too early, his excavations proved that the sites were real enough and subsequent excavations have proved there was a society in Mycenae round about 1250 BC that would have been wealthy enough and sophisticated enough to organise an invasion of Asia Minor. Some of the objects in this case date from the period when it is thought the war took place. A considerable number of them are weapons of the type that would have been used in the battles. There are a number of arrow heads which remind us of the many stories of great archers such as Paris who shot and killed the great hero Achilles with his arrows; hitting him in his one vulnerable spot, his heel. One of the most splendid of the bronze daggers comes from Ithaca, the home of one of the most famous of the Greek Heroes, Odysseus. He was the brains behind the wooden horse ruse that ended the war and thanks to Homer he became famous for not reaching his home for nine years after the war was over, having lost all his troops and followers in the process. One can imagine him using this fine dagger in his struggles. It is a particularly strong weapon as the hilt in integral to the blade and not added in another material as was more common.
B. Room 13 Case 9 Sophilos Dinos
Sophilos is the earliest potter and painter from Ancient Greece whose name has survived. You can see it written between the two pillars of the house: “Sophilos Megraphsen” – “Sophilos made me” or “Sophilos painted me”. He was active in Athens round about 580 BC using a mixture of styles, the Corinthian procession of mythical beasts on the lower part of the Dinos and the stand, and the new Athenian narrative style at the top. A Dinos was a mixing bowl for water and wine and was particularly associated with wedding celebrations which is probably why Sophilos has used the story of the Marriage of Peleus and Thetis here.
Thetis was a goddess, one of the Nereids, the daughters of King Nereus, a very ancient sea god. She was very beautiful and both Zeus, the king of the gods, and his brother Poseidon, the current sea god took a fancy to her. However, they heard a prophecy that her son would be greater than his father and as neither of them wanted a son who would be greater than they were they backed off pretty rapidly and insisted she married a mortal. The lucky (or unlucky) man was Peleus. He had to fight hard to win Thetis over as she kept changing into different things to try and escape, such as a sea monster, fire or wild beasts. You can see some of these depicted on pots in other parts of the museum. At their wedding occurred the incident called the Judgement of Paris which set in motion the events which led to the Trojan War.
C. Room 13 Case 8 Judgement of Paris Vase by Lydos
Thetis’ mother, Doris, when drawing up the guest list deliberately left out Eris, the goddess of discord, as you would. Unfortunately, Eris took umbrage and sent a wedding gift, a golden apple inscribed “for the fairest”. Anyone with any tact would have interpreted this as being for the bride but three of the divine guests, Hera, the queen of the gods, Aphrodite, the goddess of love and Athene, who should have known better, being the goddess of wisdom, were not renowned for their tact and each claimed the apple for herself. They asked Hermes to judge them but he was far too bright to make enemies of the two losers so asked the unsuspecting Paris to make the decision. He too found it hard until each of the contestants in the heavenly beauty contest offered him a bribe: Athene, wisdom, Hera, power, Aphrodite, the most beautiful woman in the world. Being a typical man, Paris went for the beautiful woman and chose Aphrodite for the prize. Unfortunately, Helen (the most beautiful woman in the world) was already married and her husband, Menelaus, did not take kindly to Paris taking her back to Troy with him. He persuaded his brother, Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, to lead an expedition of all the great Greek warriors to Troy to win her back. Troy’s defences were so great that it took them 10 years to succeed, and this was the Trojan War.
D. Room 13 Case Exekias Vase
Exekias lived a generation later than Sophilos and was one of the finest of the so called black figure potters. As you can see, most of the figures on the pots in this case are in black on a red terracotta background. Remarkably, there is no pigment in the black; it is exactly the same clay as the terracotta which has been used like a paint in a liquid form. This particular clay found near Athens has the remarkable quality that if it is used as a slip and the amount of oxygen is varied during the firing and the temperature is controlled up and down in a very precise way the solid pot turns red but the liquid clay oxidizes and turns black.
The prophecy that Peleus and Thetis would have a son greater than his father came true in the form of Achilles, probably the greatest of all Greek heroes. Being the son of a goddess he had great strength and courage but Thetis had also made him almost invulnerable by dipping him into the river Styx as a baby. His only vulnerable point was the heel that she held him by to stop him being carried away by the current. This is where we get the term Achilles heel from and it has entered medical dictionaries as the Achilles tendon, a particularly vulnerable spot for athletic injuries. The earliest surviving stories about the Trojan War are the great epic poems by Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey, probably written in the 8th century BC. The Iliad ends after Achilles has killed the greatest of the Trojan heroes, Hector and has eventually been persuaded to return his body to his father, King Priam, for burial. In one of the earliest surviving manuscripts the last words are “And next there came an Amazon.” This was thought to be an indication to reciters to continue the story with the next episode in the war when Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons, the mythical race of warrior women, entered the war on the side of the Trojans. The earliest surviving texts for this part of the story come from around 400 AD so depictions such as this from 560 BC are a much earlier confirmation that they were part of the original story. Some scholars have suggested that the later story that at the point of death their eyes met and they fell in love can already be seen in versions such as Exekias’.
E. Room 15 Case 3 Berlin Painter
In the 5th century the Athenians discovered that by reversing the black figure technique and leaving the figures red and the background black they could make the people more realistic and put greater detail in them. This is known as the Red Figure technique and one fine exponent of this was the Berlin Painter. He (or she) did not sign any of his paintings but his style was recognised in the Berlin museum and the British Museum has some fine examples including this large crater with two battles involving Achilles. On this side he has just defeated the great Trojan Prince, Hector, as described in the Iliad. Both heroes have the backing of a particular god or goddess. Athene herself spurs Achilles on but Apollo, who had been supporting Hector, realises that his hero is beaten and turns tail and abandons him to his fate. On the other side is another tale of single combat between Achilles and a Trojan ally. Like the Penthesilea story this does not appear in Homer but survives from other authors. Achilles’ opponent is Memnon who was one of King Priam’s allies who brought his troops into the war but like Penthesilea he was killed in single combat with Achilles. Like Achilles, his mother was also a goddess, Eos, the goddess of the Dawn, and she is helping him just as Thetis is helping Achilles.
F. Room 14 Six Technique Lekythos
This small pot shows Odysseus escaping from Polyphemus as described by Homer in the Odyssey. The technique is named after Jan Six who first described it. The whole pot is covered in black slip and then the figures were added in white or red slip with other colours added. Homer described the epic voyage made by Odysseus at the end of the Trojan War in the Odyssey. It had been Odysseus who came up with the idea of hiding in the gigantic wooden horse apparently left for the Trojans after the Greeks had set sail and then opening the gates to their companions who were not far away, after the horse had been dragged into the city. Odysseus made many enemies, not least the god Poseidon who did all he could to hamper Odysseus’ return to Ithaca. At one point he was captured by Poseidon’s son, the giant Polyphemus who killed and ate one of his companions each night. Odysseus blinded Polyphemus and then he and his surviving companions escaped by clinging underneath Polyphemus’ sheep who he had to let out of his cave during the day to feed.
Conclusion
Odysseus had many other adventures and these are depicted on other pots and paintings in the Museum as are the tales of other Greeks who survived the war such as Agamemnon. There are busts of some of the writers whose stories have kept the whole myth alive such as Homer and Sophocles in the Hellenistic Room (22). If you are interested in finding out more about the Trojan War there are four cases in the Greek and Roman Life Gallery (69) with further objects depicting scenes from the war. Also upstairs there are some pots in the Greeks in Italy Gallery (73), such as the blinding of Polyphemus; the wonderful Boccanera tiles showing the Judgement of Paris, as well as some mirrors with scenes from the story, in the Etruscan Gallery (71) and some of the objects in the Roman Empire Gallery (70) have scenes from the war such as the Portland Vase (which may show the courting of Peleus and Thetis) and the Pompeii murals (one of which shows Odysseus and the Sirens) as well as depictions of one of the few Trojans to escape, Aeneas, who traditionally was one of the ancestors of the Romans. From a later period and further afield, in the Hotung Gallery (33) there is a C3rd AD depiction of the Trojan Horse (one of the few in the museum) from Gandhara (modern Pakistan) showing the influence of the Hellenistic kingdom of Bactria (in modern Afghanistan). In the European galleries, there are a number of Renaissance representations of the myths in the Waddesdon Bequest (Room 45) including another tiny Trojan Horse, and in the Nineteenth Century Room (47) there are two Wedgwood copies of the Portland Vase and other classical scenes such as the Apotheosis of Homer showing how much influence these myths have had on every generation over the past 3,000 years.
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