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Some notes on the ppt about the events after the Iliad.
Slide 2: Achilles was fatally wounded in the heel by an arrow shot by Paris with the help of
Apollo.
In the previous lecture, I commented on the image [1] to the left where Achilles with the
help of Athena kills Hector. Apollo is walking away but he turns his head and with his hand
holding an arrow is pointing to Achilles. If you draw an imaginary line from Apollos’ arrow
to the ground it will hit Achilles on the heel. This is foreshadowing Achille’s death caused
by an arrow shot by Paris. Hector before he dies, he prophecies Achilles’ death by the hands
of Paris and the help of Apollo.
What we see in the image [2] to the right, is Paris shooting an arrow while Apollo in the
centre directs the arrow with his hand to pierce Achilles heel.
Slide 4: Achilles is not portrayed as invulnerable in the Iliad; he is wounded on the arm in
book 21.166-67, and the Trojan Agenor remarks about him later in this book (lines 568-70)
("the skin even for this one is vulnerable to sharp bronze, and there is only one life in him,
and men say he is mortal").
Achilles was probably killed outside the walls of Troy with two or more arrows. The first hit
his foot or ankle, crippling him and taking away his legendary speed (Achilles is typically
referred to as swift-footed), while the other arrows killed him. This "swiftness of foot"
would be an enormous advantage to the hero and make it very difficult for an opponent to
shoot him. A wound to his leg, ankle, or foot would effectively remove his advantage of
swiftness and make a second, fatal shot easier. If a shot first immobilized Achilles, then he
would be much easier to kill.
Perhaps the arrows were also poisoned and that would have caused his death. Apollo is a
god of plague and sickness which he sends through his arrows. Ios can mean arrow or
poison.
What we see in the image to the left is that Paris has already shot an arrow directed by
Apollo to Achilles’ heel, he is about to shoot another and there are three more on the
ground waiting to be used.
Slide 5: In this image on a vase we see the battle over the body of Achilles. The artist has
inscribed the names of the warriors. See the close-up image: Achilles is on the ground face
down. Ajax holding his shield is protecting Achilles’ body and he is killing a Trojan who is
trying to drag the body with a rope. Behind Ajax is Athena. Paris is seen to the right
shooting. Notice the body of Achilles: he has one arrow on his heel and another one on his
back. This proves the theory that Achilles' cause of death was not that the arrow pierced the
only vulnerable part of his body, but it took away his speed, he was immobilized and so it
was easier to be killed.
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Slide 6: It was important that the body of Achilles had to be retrieved by the Greeks so that
the Trojans would not abuse it, but they also wanted to obstruct the Trojans from getting his
divine armour.
Ajax managed to hoist the corpse onto his shoulders and then carried it back to the Greek
camp, while Odysseus fought off the Trojans from behind.
Slide 8: After a splendid funeral, the Greeks burned Achilles’ body and mixed his ashes in
the jar with those of Patroklos. Achilles’ armour was offered as prize to the next- best
warrior. Everybody knew this to be Ajax, Achilles’ first cousin, but Odysseus claimed them
too. Each made a speech before the assembled Greeks. Odysseus’ eloquence and persuasive
skills won the armour for Odysseus.
In this image we see Odysseus talking on the podium, while Ajax listens. Between them we
see Achilles’ armour.
Slide 9: Ajax was devasted that the armour was not awarded to him. He felt dishonoured.
That loss of honour (timé) resulted in anger, as Achilles had reacted when his prize was
taken away. Mad with anger and grief at being denied the armour, he attacks the leaders
(Agamemnon, Menelaos and Odysseus) cutting them to pieces. So, he thought. Athena had
clouded his mind and when he recovered his senses, he saw that he had killed a flock of
sheep and the shepherds. Shamed and humiliated he walks to a secluded shore and commits
suicide throwing himself on his sword.
Slide 11: The bow and poisonous arrows of Herakles were given to a Greek warrior
Philoctetes after Herakles’ death. Paris was hit by one of these poisonous arrows. According
to one version he did not die immediately but his wound was infected.
Oenone was skilled in the healing arts but was hurt by Paris’ betrayal of her with Helen of
Sparta. She refused to help him, and he was carried back to Troy where he died. Oenone
regretted her decision and rushed to Troy with aid but arrived too late. In her grief, she flung
herself onto his funeral pyre and died.
Slide 13: Although the greatest heroes on both sides were dead, the war still dragged on
with no end in sight. The Greeks finally took the city by deception.
Odysseus had an idea. He instructed Epeus, a talented artisan to construct an enormous
Wooden Horse (Dourios Hippos). Fifty warriors, among them Odysseus, concealed
themselves in the horse’s hollow belly. The Greeks burnt their tents and sailed away,
pretending to go home, but they hid behind the nearby island of Tenedos.
They left behind one man, Sinon who told the Trojans when they captured him that the
horse was an offering to Athena to help Greeks return safely back to Greece. He also told
them that the Greeks made the horse too big on purpose so that it cannot pass through the
city walls; because if it was brought inside, an oracle said that the city would never be
captured.
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Slide 14: On this early storage vessel used for burial, we see the Wooden Horse on wheels
and small windows indicating the Greeks that are hiding inside.
Slide 15: Not all the Trojans believed the words of Sinon:
Cassandra, the prophetic daughter of king Priam told them the truth and foresaw the
destruction of Troy if they let the horse in; but no one paid attention to her because she was
cursed by Apollo not to be believed.
Laocoon, a priest of Apollo hurled his spear on to the horse and said it should be destroyed.
Yet the Trojans ignored the hollow sound the spear made when it struck the horse. Their
judgment appeared to be vindicated when two huge serpents swam over the sea and
throttled Laocoön and his two sons.
Slide 17: The famous words of Laocoön of never trusting a Greek bearing gifts we find in
the Aeneid, a story written by the Roman poet Virgil.
Practice your Latin!
Here we see the concept of a tricky gift again. Remember Pandora who was described by
Hesiod as a beautiful evil? The horse was a very attractive well-constructed creation which
like Pandora herself and like her “box ” was presented as gift, one that hid a deadly nature.
Slide 19: The name “Trojan horse” was applied to deceptively benign computer codes that
seem like legitimate applications but are written to damage or disrupt a computer’s
programming or to steal personal information.
The Trojan viruses hide themselves within seemingly harmless programs or try to trick you
into installing them.
Slide 20: The Greeks tricked the Trojans into thinking they had gone home when in fact
they had merely retreated to Tenedos. Once the enemy dropped their guard, they planned to
return in a surprise attack. To know when to move, the Greeks would look for a lighted-
torch signal, to be given by Sinon who had pretended to be a traitor and a deserter. At that
sign the Greeks would row rapidly to Troy. The island of Tenedos lies about 7 miles from
the Trojan port, they would have covered the distance in little more than an hour.
Slide 21: The Trojans dragged the horse inside the citadel. That night while the Trojans
were asleep after celebrating their victory, the Greeks descended to the ground from the
horse’s belly, opened the city gates and admitted their companions who had returned form
Tenedos.
The slaughter began. The Greeks hunted and killed the Trojan men and took the women
captive. The city burned.
The videoclip is from the movie Troy, showing the Trojans bringing the horse in their city.
In the movie, it is Paris who urges Priam and the Trojans to burn the horse, not Laomedon
or Cassandra. Note also that Achilles in the movie is still alive. But according to the ancient
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Greek sources Achilles was already dead and so he was not one of the warriors hidden in
the horse. The movie Troy takes a complete turn from the events as they were known to the
ancient Greeks. In the movie for example we see Agamemnon being killed by Briseis and
Andromache and Helen escape to safety through a tunnel! The director has also killed
Menelaos almost at the beginning of the movie through the hand of Hector. So, treat the
movie as the director’s version of events.
Slide 22: The Fall of Troy caused by the Trojan Horse may well be based on knowledge of
siege machines on wheels, as we see them on Assyrian reliefs of the ninth to seventh
centuries.
• These siege engines were covered with wet hides, so that the flaming arrows the
defendants threw would slip.
• The siege machines were named after animals (horse, rams, turtles)
Slide 23: Neoptolemos, Achilles’ son, who came to Troy after the death of his father
brutally killed Priam. In some sources Neoptolemos took Andromache, Hector’s wife as a
captive but snatched her baby Astyanax and flung him down from the tower. Here we see
that Astyanax is already dead on the lap of king Priam who waits his end by the sword of
Neoptolemos.
Slide 24: Cassandra tried to find refuge in the temple of Athena by clinging to Athena’s
statue, but Ajax the Lesser (or the Locrian Ajax) dragged her away by force. This Ajax is of
course not Ajax, Achilles’ cousin, he is already dead. Ajax the Lesser, some sources say,
raped Cassandra under the statue of the goddess. Athena was so offended by that sacrilege
and at that point withdrew her support for the Greeks.
In the mage, the same vase that depicts the death of Priam, we see Ajax grabbing Cassandra
by the hair as she hugs the statue of Athena. Her nakedness probably indicates that she will
be raped by Ajax.
Slide 26: In this image from an ancient vase we see 3 separate incidents brought together in
one panel:
Neoptolemos holding Astyanax by the foot, either to toss him over the wall, or to use his
body to kill Priam.
To the left we see Menelaos who is holding his sword ready to strike Helen who removes
her veil. Menelaos in several sources plan to kill Helen for the horrible troubles she caused
eloping with Paris. As he is about to strike, she reveals her breasts. Menelaos stunned by her
beauty casts his sword away and takes Helen back to Sparta where they will rule as king and
queen for many years.
Here we see Helen removing her veil only.
Slide 27: In both images we see that Menelaos chases Helen with the intension to kill her,
but in both cases, we see his sword falling on the ground as he is stunned by her beauty. In
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the image to the right we also see a small flying eros (cupid) between Helen and Menelaos,
signifying the love and the desire that Menelaos still feels for Helen. 4
Slide 29: Troy was built on a very strategic location, on the only maritime passage between
the Black sea and the Mediterranean. The strait from ancient times since today has been a
zone of conflict. The Black Sea was essential to the wheat supplies as well as to gold and
other precious metals.
Slide 30: The first settlement of Troy was built very early about 3,000 BC, at the start of
Bronze age. There are 9 phases of settlement at the archaeological site of Troy, one on top
of the next, like a large layer cake. The last ancient layer was a Roman city. If you go to the
archaeological site today, you will mostly see the Roman ruins.
Slide 31: The excavations of Troy continue today. Archaeologists connect Troy VI and VII
with the legend of the Trojan war. An earthquake destroyed Troy VI . Survivors rebuilt it as
Troy VII but it was destroyed at about 1150 by enemy action. The excavation revealed
crowed housing inside the citadel, installation of stockpiles of food, sling stones and
arrowheads, spearheads. The conclusion of one of the excavators, Carl Blegen, was that the
town was subjected to siege, capture and destruction. But were these enemies Greek? We
lack definite evidence to identify the aggressors as Greek.
Slide 36: To have a better perspective of the tragedies that have befallen the extended family
of Agamemnon, have a look at the genealogical tree and every possible crime that has been
committed in that cursed family.
While Agamemnon was in Troy, his wife Clytemnestra takes a lover, Aegisthus,
Agamemnon’s first cousin. They both plot the murder of Agamemnon upon his return.
Slide 37: On this red figure vase, we see Agamemnon just being stabbed by Aegisthus who
grabs him by the hair. Agamemnon is naked and wrapped in a bath robe. The murder
happened after he was offered a bath by Clytemnestra upon his return home. We see her
behind Aegisthus holding a small double axe.
Slide 38: After the death of Agamemnon, the next victim is Cassandra. Clytemnestra has no
compassion for Cassandra and sees her only as the other woman that Agamemnon dared to
bring home.
In this image we see Clytemnestra about to give a blow to Cassandra with a double axe.
Clytemnestra most of the times is portrayed holding a double axe, because it is a tool of
ritual sacrifice. But here the victims are not animals but people. To the left of the image we
see a tripod that is falling. This is the symbol of Apollo, the symbol of prophecy. We know
that Cassandra was cursed by Apollo to utter prophecies that were never believed. Apollo
never protected his priestess. In the tragic play Agamemnon, written by Aeschylos,
Cassandra, just before she dies, she frees herself of the burden of her prophetic gift and
denounces Apollo.
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Slide 41: Orestes will kill his mother eventually, but he is taken aback when his mother
shows him her breast.
In the image he has grabbed her by the hair and is about to strike her with his sword, but he
stops in mid action as she reveals her breast to remind him that she was the one who gave
him life. One of the Furies (goddesses of retribution) is shown on the upper right corner that
signifies what will happen after Orestes kills his mother: He will be chased and mentally
tormented by a horde of Furies revenging his mother’s murder.
We can see again the power of the breast. Helen, Clytemnestra's sister, had revealed her
breast to Menelaus to make him see her beauty and feel sexual desire for her. Her ultimate
purpose was to be saved. Helen was saved. Sexual love proved to be stronger than motherly
love. Orestes will not spare his mother.

Slide 44: In this powerful painting by French artist Bouguereau, we see 3 Furies with snake
hair holding torches tormenting Orestes acting as his guilty conscience. We see his mother
Clytemnestra with Orestes’ sword plunged in her heart.
The torment of Orestes by the Furies will stop only when Orestes will go to Athens to stand
trial by jury. The Furies will plead their own case representing Clytemnestra . The goddess
Athena will acquit Orestes.