Tiepolo, Giovanni Domenico: The Procession of the Trojan Horse into Troy
The Procession of the Trojan Horse into Troy from Two Sketches Depicting the Trojan Horse, oil on canvas by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, c. 1760; in the National Gallery, London. © Photos.com/upiterimages
In the traditional accounts, Paris, son of the Trojan king, ran off with Helen, wife of Menelaus of Sparta, whose brother Agamemnon then led a Greek expedition against Troy. The ensuing war lasted 10 years, finally ending when the Greeks pretended to withdraw, leaving behind them a large wooden horse with a raiding party concealed inside. When the Trojans brought the horse into their city, the hidden Greeks opened the gates to their comrades, who then sacked Troy, massacred its men, and carried off its women. This version was recorded centuries later; the extent to which it reflects actual historical events is not known.
Trojan War
Achilles killing Penthesilea during the Trojan War, interior of an Attic cup, c. 460 BCE; in the Museum of Antiquities, Munich.
The Mansell Collection/Art Resource, New York
https://www.britannica.com/event/Trojan-War
Ancient Greek goddess of love, beauty, desire, and all aspects of sexuality, Aphrodite could entice both gods and men into illicit affairs with her good looks and whispered sweet nothings. Born near Cyprus from the severed genitalia of the sky god Uranus, Aphrodite had a much wider significance than the traditional view as a mere goddess of love and sex. Worshipped by men, women, and city-state officials, she also played a role in the commerce, warfare, and politics of ancient Greek cities. In addition, Aphrodite was honoured as a protector of those who travelled by sea and, less surprisingly, courtesans and prostitutes. The goddess’ Roman equivalent was Venus.
Marble statue (severe style) of Apollo (c. 460 BCE) from the west pediment of the temple of Zeus, Olympia (Olympia Archaeological Museum).
Apollo was a major Greek god who was associated with the bow, music, and divination. The epitome of youth and beauty, source of life and healing, patron of the civilized arts, and as bright and powerful as the sun itself, Apollo was, arguably, the most loved of all the Greek gods. He was particularly worshipped at Delphi and Delos, amongst the most famous of all religious sanctuaries in the Greek world.
Ares was the Greek god of war and perhaps the most unpopular of all the Olympian gods because of his quick temper, aggressiveness, and unquenchable thirst for conflict. He famously seduced Aphrodite, unsuccessfully fought with Hercules, and enraged Poseidon by killing his son Halirrhothios. One of the more human Olympian gods, he was a popular subject in Greek art and even more so in Roman times when he took on a much more serious aspect as Mars, the Roman god of war.
Artemis was the Greek goddess of hunting, wild nature, and chastity. The daughter of Zeus and sister of Apollo, Artemis was regarded as a patron of girls and young women and a protectress during childbirth. She was worshipped across the Greek world, but her most famous cult site was as a fertility goddess at the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. To the Romans, the goddess was known as Diana.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leto
Leto is a Titan and the mother of the gods Apollo and Artemis in Greek mythology. Leto’s twin children were the result of an amorous encounter with Zeus, and to avoid his wife Hera’s wrath, the Titaness was obliged to give birth on the remote and barren island of Delos. Not involved in very much else in myth, the goddess did, nevertheless, have several sanctuaries dedicated to her, notably the Letoon at Xanthos in today’s southern Turkey. She also appears in Greek art, particularly scenes showing her alongside her more famous children. To the Romans, the goddess was known as Latona.
Water, or the Fight of Achilles against Scamander and Simoeis by Auguste Couder, 1819. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scamander
SKAMANDROS (Scamander) was a River-God of the Troad in north-western Anatolia (modern Turkey). During the Trojan War he tried to drown the hero Akhilleus (Achilles) but was driven back by Hephaistos (Hephaestus) with flame. The River Skamandros was the largest river of the Trojan plain.
A detail of the Artemesium bronze believed to represent Zeus (or Poseidon), 460 BCE. (National Archaeological Museum, Athens).
Zeus was the king of the Olympian gods and the supreme deity in Greek religion. Often referred to as the Father, as the god of thunder and the ‘cloud-gatherer’, he controlled the weather, offered signs and omens and generally dispensed justice, guaranteeing order amongst both the gods and humanity from his seat high on Mt. Olympus.
Was There a Trojan War?
by Manfred Korfmann
Despite assumptions to the contrary, archeological work of the new Troy project has not been performed for the purpose of understanding Homer's Iliad or the Trojan War. For the past 16 years, more than 350 scholars, scientists, and technicians from nearly 20 countries have been collaborating on the excavations at the site in northwestern Turkey that began as an Early Bronze Age citadel in the third millennium B.C. and ended as a Byzantine settlement before being abandoned in A.D. 1350. However, as current director of the excavations, I am continually asked if Homer's Trojan War really happened.
The Size of Troy
Troy appears to have been destroyed around 1180 B.C. (this date corresponds to the end of our excavation of levels Troy VIi or VIIa), probably by a war the city lost. There is evidence of a conflagration, some skeletons, and heaps of sling bullets. People who have successfully defended their city would have gathered their sling bullets and put them away for another event, but a victorious conqueror would have done nothing with them. But this does not mean that the conflict was the war--even though ancient tradition usually places it around this time. After a transitional period of a few decades, a new population from the eastern Balkans or the northwestern Black Sea region evidently settled in the ruins of what was probably a much weakened city.
The main argument against associating these ruins with the great city described in the Iliad has been that Troy in the Late Bronze Age was a wholly insignificant town and not a place worth fighting over. Our new excavations and the progress of research in southeastern Europe has changed such views regarding Troy considerably.
It appears that this city was, by the standards of this region at that time, very large indeed, and most certainly of supraregional importance in controlling access from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea and from Asia Minor to southeast Europe and vice versa. Its citadel was unparalleled in the wider region and, as far as hitherto known, unmatched anywhere in southeastern Europe. Troy was also evidently attacked repeatedly and had to defend itself again and again, as indicated by repairs undertaken to the citadel's fortifications and efforts to enlarge and strengthen them.
A spectacular result of the new excavations has been the verification of the existence of a lower settlement from the seventeenth to the early twelfth centuries B.C. (Troy levels VI/VIIa) outside and south and east of the citadel. As magnetometer surveys and seven excavations undertaken since 1993 have shown, this lower city was surrounded at least in the thirteenth century by an impressive U-shaped fortification ditch, approximately eleven and a half feet wide and six and a half feet deep, hewn into the limestone bedrock. Conclusions about the existence and quality of buildings within the confines of the ditch have been drawn on the basis of several trial trenches and excavations, some of them covering a very large surface area. The layout of the city was confirmed by an intensive and systematic pottery survey in 2003. We have also discovered a cemetery outside the ditch to the south. The most recent excavations have determined that Troy, which now covers about seventy-five acres, is about fifteen times larger than previously thought.
Archeology Journal, Volume 57 Number 3, May/June 2004
To read the full article, click HERE.
https://archive.archaeology.org/0405/etc/troy.html
Goddess of wisdom, war and the crafts, and favourite daughter of Zeus, Athena was, perhaps, the wisest, most courageous, and certainly the most resourceful of the Olympian gods.
Zeus was told that his son would take his throne from him, just as he had taken power from his father Cronus. Accordingly, when Metis was pregnant, he swallowed her and Athena was born from Zeus’ head, wearing armour and fully grown. A popular theme in ancient Greek art, Hephaistos is often depicted in the role of midwife, splitting Zeus’ head with an axe.
Ancient Greek god of fire, metallurgy, and crafts, Hephaistos (Hephaestus) was the brilliant blacksmith of the Olympian gods, for whom he fashioned magnificent houses, armor, and ingenious devices. Hephaistos had his workshop beneath volcanos - Mount Etna on Sicily being a favorite haunt - and was, with his lame foot, unique as the only less-than-perfect god. To the Romans, he was known as Vulcan or Volcanus.
Hera (Roman name: Juno), wife of Zeus and queen of the ancient Greek gods, represented the ideal woman and was goddess of marriage and the family. However, she was perhaps most famous for her jealous and vengeful nature, principally aimed against the lovers of her husband and their illegitimate offspring. Hera herself was notable as one of the very few deities that remained faithful to her partner and she therefore came to symbolize monogamy and fidelity.
Hermes was the ancient Greek god of trade, wealth, luck, fertility, animal husbandry, sleep, language, thieves, and travel. One of the cleverest and most mischievous of the Olympian gods, he was the patron of shepherds, invented the lyre, and was, above all, the herald and messenger of Mt. Olympus so that he came to symbolise the crossing of boundaries in his role as a guide between the two realms of gods and humanity. To the Romans, the god was known as Mercury.
https://www.ancient.eu/Hermes/
Head of Thetis from an Attic red-figure pelike, c. 510–500 BC, Louvre
Thetis is a figure from Greek mythology with varying mythological roles. She mainly appears as a sea nymph, a goddess of water, or one of the 50 Nereids, daughters of the ancient sea god Nereus.
When described as a Nereid in Classical myths, Thetis was the daughter of Nereus and Doris, and a granddaughter of Tethys with whom she sometimes shares characteristics. Often she seems to lead the Nereids as they attend to her tasks. Sometimes she also is identified with Metis.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thetis
Silver tetradrachm from Macedon, 306-283 BCE. O: Nike, R: Poseidon. (Alpha Bank Numismatics Museum, Kerkyra, Corfu)
God of the sea and rivers, creator of storms and floods, and the bringer of earthquakes and destruction, Poseidon was perhaps the most disruptive of all the ancient Greek gods, not only for mortals but also to Zeus’ peaceful reign on Mount Olympus. Despite the above, the trident-bearing god was not always a negative force, and he did have a role as a protector, particularly to mariners, and as the patron of horses and horse breeding. To the Romans, he was known as Neptunus or Neptune.
