tragic flaws being such things as pride of possession or power, ruthlessness in getting revenge, stubbornness in the pursuit of some goal, and sexual conflicts and lascivious appetites. The Greek people realized that character was destiny, and that one’s achievements could often stem from the same root as one’s crimes.
The tale of the Trojan War blended these heroic and tragic elements into a profound, brilliant picture, not only of history and legend, but of the Greek philosophy and view of life. The tale of the Trojan War is perhaps the finest legend of the Greek culture. The chief heroes of this tale, Hector and Achilles, were doomed from birth to a violent, premature death. Yet there was a measure of grandeur in their code of honor, and in their defiance of fate. Most of the survivors too were doomed to a dismal end or to suffer a long ordeal. It was a tragedy in the fullest sense: a war which no one would win.
Although the gods played a chief role in the Trojan War, at least in the telling if not in the actual event, their histories and characters will not be discussed at any length here. The main reason for this is that the subject matter is too complicated to cover in a brief tale. Most of the notable accomplishments are achieved by the mortals in the story, and it is with them that most people are most interested. The story of the Trojan War usually begins with the birth of the woman who was the chief cause of the trouble, Helen, but in order to fully understand the tale, a little background information is necessary.
The city of Troy had two important founders: the first was Dardanus, a son of Zeus by one of his many concubines. Dardanus married a daughter of Teucer, a king in Asia Minor, as did his brother Iasius. After marrying, Dardanus decided that Asia Minor would be the perfect site for his dream city, Troy. The second was a descendant of his, King Laomedon, who built the city. He was assisted in this by Apollo and Poisedon, who were sentenced to a year’s work under Laomedon by Zeus as punishment for angering the great god. Actually, Poisedon, the sea god, did most of the work, while Apollo played his lyre and tended the royal oxen. When the work was done and the walls were finished, Apollo and Poisedon requested their rightful wages. Laomedon foolishly refused to pay them. They then demanded them under dreadful consequence, yet Laomedon held stubbornly to his denial. This foolish hard-headedness earned him the undying enmity of these gods, something no mortal wishes to acquire. In revenge, Apollo visited the city with a plague, and Poisedon sent a great sea-monster to ravage to land. But this was not the end of the discord; the city of Troy paid dearly for its offense when the Great War began, for Apollo and Poisedon refused to aid the city, indeed, helping its enemies.
The Trojan War, fought in King Priam’s old age, grew out of years of rivalry between the wealthy Dardanian (from Dardanus, Troy’s founder) or Trojan kingdom, which controlled the trade route to the Black Sea, and the equally wealthy cities of the Argolid in Greece. Myth states that a large part was played by the gods in the initiation of the war, and Homer firmly cemented the gods into his tales. The age-old buildup of unwise actions, petty grievances, and the desire for revenge eventually would have caused the war anyway. However, its immediate cause was the unwise action of Helen, the daughter of Sparta’s king, Tyndareos. This is the legend, paraphrased, as Homer told it in the Iliad.