HOMER and the Trojan War
(Iliad)



ILIUM (TROY)
was a royal city in what is now northwest Turkey, in the river valley of the Skamander River, some three or four miles from the Hellespont (the modern town is called Hissarlik). The archaeological site was originally excavated by Heinrich Schliemann in the 1870's..
TROS:
king of Troy, was the son of an Erechthonius ('born of the earth') and of the daughter of the River Simois, Astioche.
ILOS:
son of Tros and Callirhoe ('beautifully flowing'); she was a daughter of the river god Skamandros. Other siblings were: GANYMEDE, Assaracus, Cleopatra.
Ilos married Eurydice, and had children: Laomedon and Themiste (She married Capys, son of Assaracus, who was her first-cousin).

LAOMEDON,

for whom Poseidon and Apollo built the walls of Troy, had:
PRIAM (his successor as King of Troy), HESIONE (Heracles story), and 7 others
PRIAM married:
(1) Arisbe (They had a son, Aesacus);
(2) HECUBA, whose children were:
Helenus (the seer)TroilusDeiphobus
Alexandros (Paris) Polydoros HECTOR
Cassandra Polyxena and 41 others

 

GODS who favored the Greeks included: Hera, Athena, and Thetis.

GODS who were uncommitted were: Zeus, Hades, Hermes, Iris, Persephone and Demeter.

GODS who supported the Trojans were: Aphrodite, Apollo, Poseidon, and (for a while) Athena.

NOTE: Some gods who were "uncommitted" ended up supporting "The Will of Zeus" and therefore the Greeks. Athena, who had a temple in Troy, decided to support Odysseus and supplied him and Epeus with the plans for the Wooden Horse; she also had her statue (the Palladion) removed from Troy by Aeneas. Poseidon and Apollo had built the walls of Troy; both killed Greeks by the thousands, either at Troy during the war, or on the sea on the way home.



PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS in the ILIAD:




 

May 25, 2009 4:32 PM

John Paul Adams, CSUN
john.p.adams@csun.edu

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