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The Returns from Troy are the stories of how the Greek leaders returned after their victory in the Trojan War. Many Achaean heroes did not return to their homes, but died or founded colonies outside the Greek mainland. The most famous returns are those of Odysseus, whose wanderings are narrated in the Odyssey , and Agamemnon, whose murder at the hands of his wife Clytemnestra was portrayed in Greek tragedy.
The Achaeans entered the city using the Trojan Horse and slew the slumbering population. Priam and his surviving sons and grandsons were killed. Glaucus, son of Antenor, who had earlier offered hospitality to the Achaean embassy that asked the return of Helen of Troy and had advocated so [1] was spared, along with his family by Menelaus and Odysseus. Aeneas took his father on his back and fled. He was left alone because of his piety. [2] The city was razed and the temples were destroyed.
Of the women of the royal family, Locrian Ajax violated Cassandra on Athena's altar while she was clinging to her statue, which since looks upward. [3] She was awarded to Agamemnon. Neoptolemus got Andromache, wife of Hector and Odysseus took Priam's widow Hecuba (known in Greek as Hecabe). [4] The ghost of Achilles appeared before the survivors of the war, demanding that the Trojan princess Polyxena be sacrificed before anybody could leave, as either part of his spoil or because she had betrayed him. Neoptolemus did so. [5] [6]
News of Troy's fall quickly reached the Achaean kingdoms through phryctoria, a semaphore system used in ancient Greece. A fire signal lit at Troy was seen at Lemnos, relayed to Athos, then to the look-out towers of Macistus on Euboea, across the Euripus straight to Messapion, then to Mount Cithaeron, Mount Aegiplanctus and finally to Mount Arachneus where it was seen by the people of Mycenae, including Clytaemnestra. [7]
But though the message was brought fast and with ease, the heroes were not to return this way. The Gods were very angry over the destruction of their temples and other sacrilegious acts by the Achaeans and decided that most would not return. A storm fell on the returning fleet off Tenos island. Also Nauplius, in revenge for the murder of his son Palamedes by Odysseus, set up false lights in Cape Caphereus (also known today as Cavo D'Oro, on Euboea) and many were shipwrecked. [8]
Among the lesser Achaeans very few reached their homes.
According to the Odyssey , Menelaus's fleet was blown by storms to Crete and Egypt where they were unable to sail away because the wind was calm. [30] Only 5 of his ships survived. [31] Menelaus had to catch Proteus, a shape-shifting sea god to find out what sacrifices to which gods he would have to make to guarantee safe passage. [32] Proteus told Menelaus that he was destined for Elysium (the Fields of the Blessèd) after his death. Menelaus returned to Sparta with Helen 8 years after he had left Troy. [33]
Agamemnon returned home with Cassandra to Mycenae. His wife Clytemnestra (Helen's sister) was having an affair with Aegisthus, son of Thyestes, Agamemnon's cousin who had conquered Argos before Agamemnon himself retook it. Possibly out of vengeance for the death of Iphigenia, Clytemnestra plotted with her lover to kill Agamemnon. Cassandra foresaw this murder, and warned Agamemnon, but he disregarded her. He was killed, either at a feast or in his bath [34] according to different versions. Cassandra was also killed. [35] Agamemnon's son Orestes, who had been away, returned and conspired with his sister Electra to avenge their father. [36] He killed Clytemnestra and Aegisthus and succeeded to his father's throne yet he was chased by the Furies until he was acquitted by Athena. [37] [38]
Odysseus (or Ulysses), attempting to travel home, underwent a series of trials, tribulations and setbacks that stretched his journey to ten years' time. These are detailed in Homer's epic poem the Odyssey .
At first they landed in the land of the Ciconians in Ismara. After looting the land they were driven back with many casualties. A storm off Cape Maleas drove them to uncharted waters. They landed in the land of the Lotus-eaters. There a scouting party ate from the lotus tree and forgot everything of home. Odysseus had to drag crew members back to the ship.
The rest then set sail and landed at the land of Polyphemus, son of Poseidon. After a few were killed by him Odysseus blinded him and managed to escape, but earned Poseidon's wrath.
They went next to the isle of Aeolus, god of winds. Odysseus was received hospitably by the Aeolus who gave him a favorable wind and a bag that contained the unfavorable wind. When Odysseus fell asleep in sight of Ithaca his crew opened the bag, and the ships were driven away.
In the next of the Laestrygonians next they neared, where the cannibalistic inhabitants sank his fleet (except Odysseus' ship) and ate the crew.
Next they landed on Circe's island, who transformed most of the crew into pigs, but Odysseus managed to force her to transform them back and left.
Odysseus wished to speak to Tiresias, so he went the river Acheron in Hades, where they performed sacrifices which allowed them to speak to the dead. They gave them advice on how to proceed. Then, he went to Circe's island again.
From there he set sail through the pass of the Sirens, whose sweet singing lure sailors to their doom. He had stopped up the ears of his crew with wax, and Odysseus alone listened while tied to the mast.
Next was the pass of Scylla and Charybdis where he lost part of his ship's crew. The rest landed in the isle Thrinacia, sacred to Helios (the Sun) where he kept sacred cattle. Though Odysseus warned his men not to (as Tiresias had told him), they killed and ate some of the cattle after Zeus placed Odysseus in his sleep to test his crew. Under a threat from Helios to take the sun and shine it in the Underworld, Zeus shipwrecked the last ship and killed everyone except Odysseus.
Odysseus was washed ashore on Ogygia, where the nymph Calypso lived. She made him her lover for seven years and would not let him leave, promising him immortality if he stayed. On behalf of Athena, Zeus intervened and sent Hermes to tell Calypso to let Odysseus go.
Odysseus left on a small raft furnished with provisions of water, wine and food by Calypso, only to be hit by a storm and washed up on the island of Scheria and found by Nausicaa, daughter of King Alcinous and Queen Arete of the Phaeacians, who entertained him well and escorted him to Ithaca. On the tenth year of sailing, the twentieth year away from home, he arrived at his home on Ithaca.
There Odysseus traveled disguised as an old beggar by Athena he was recognized by his dog Argus, who died in his lap. Then he discovered his wife Penelope had been faithful to him all these years despite the countless suitors, including Antinous and Eurymachus, that were eating and spending his property all these years. With his son Telemachus' help and that of Athena and Eumaeus the swineherd, killed all of them except Medon, who had been polite to Penelope, and Phemius, a local singer who had only been forced to help the suitors against Penelope. Penelope tested him by saying they'd move his immovable bed, which correctly Odysseus pointed out couldn't be done, and he forgave her. On the next day the suitor's relatives, led by Eupeithes, the father of the suitor Antinous, tried to take revenge on him but they were stopped by Athena.
Years later Odysseus' son by Circe, Telegonus came from the sea and plundered the island thinking it was Corcyra. Odysseus and Telemachus, defended their city and Telegonus accidentally killed his father with the spine of a stingray. He brought the body back to Aeaea and took Penelope and Telemachus with him. Circe made them immortal and married Telemachus, while Telegonus made Penelope his wife.[183] This is where the tale of the Trojan War for Greek mythology ends. According to a Roman tradition Odysseus did not die this way: when old he took a ship to sea and, crossing the Pillars of Hercules he discovered the estuary of the Tagus river and found there the city of Lisbon.[ citation needed ] [39]
In Greek mythology, Agamemnon was a king of Mycenae who commanded the Achaeans during the Trojan War. He was the son of King Atreus and Queen Aerope, the brother of Menelaus, the husband of Clytemnestra, and the father of Iphigenia, Iphianassa, Electra, Laodike, Orestes and Chrysothemis. Legends make him the king of Mycenae or Argos, thought to be different names for the same area. Agamemnon was killed upon his return from Troy by Clytemnestra, or in an older version of the story, by Clytemnestra's lover Aegisthus.
Cassandra or Kassandra in Greek mythology was a Trojan priestess dedicated to the god Apollo and fated by him to utter true prophecies but never to be believed. In modern usage her name is employed as a rhetorical device to indicate a person whose accurate prophecies, generally of impending disaster, are not believed.
In Greek and Roman mythology, Odysseus, also known by the Latin variant Ulysses, is a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in that same epic cycle.
The Trojan War was a legendary conflict in Greek mythology that took place around the 12th or 13th century BC. The war was waged by the Achaeans (Greeks) against the city of Troy after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology, and it has been narrated through many works of Greek literature, most notably Homer's Iliad. The core of the Iliad describes a period of four days and two nights in the tenth year of the decade-long siege of Troy; the Odyssey describes the journey home of Odysseus, one of the war's heroes. Other parts of the war are described in a cycle of epic poems, which have survived through fragments. Episodes from the war provided material for Greek tragedy and other works of Greek literature, and for Roman poets including Virgil and Ovid.
In Greek mythology, Menelaus was a Greek king of Mycenaean (pre-Dorian) Sparta. According to the Iliad, the Trojan war began as a result of Menelaus’s wife, Helen, fleeing to Troy with the Trojan prince Paris. Menelaus was a central figure in the Trojan War, leading the Spartan contingent of the Greek army, under his elder brother Agamemnon, king of Mycenae. Prominent in both the Iliad and Odyssey, Menelaus was also popular in Greek vase painting and Greek tragedy, the latter more as a hero of the Trojan War than as a member of the doomed House of Atreus.
Telemachus, in Greek mythology, is the son of Odysseus and Penelope, who is a central character in Homer's Odyssey. When Telemachus reached manhood, he visited Pylos and Sparta in search of his wandering father. On his return to Ithaca, he found that Odysseus had reached home before him. Then father and son slew the suitors who had gathered around Penelope. According to later tradition, Telemachus married Circe after Odysseus’ death.
In Greek mythology, Orestes or Orestis was the son of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon, and the brother of Electra. He is the subject of several Ancient Greek plays and of various myths connected with his madness, revenge, and purification, which retain obscure threads of much older works. In particular Orestes plays a main role in Aeschylus' Oresteia.
In Greek mythology, Tyndareus was a Spartan king.
In Greek mythology, Helenus was a gentle and clever seer. He was also a Trojan prince as the son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy, and the twin brother of the prophetess Cassandra. He was also called Scamandrios, and was a lover of Apollo.
In Greek mythology, Neoptolemus, originally called Pyrrhus at birth, was the son of the warrior Achilles and the princess Deidamia, and the brother of Oneiros. He became the mythical progenitor of the ruling dynasty of the Molossians of ancient Epirus. In a reference to his pedigree, Neoptolemus was sometimes called Achillides or, from his grandfather's or great-grandfather's names, Pelides or Aeacides.
Diomedes or Diomede is a hero in Greek mythology, known for his participation in the Trojan War.
In Greek mythology and history, there were at least eleven men named Medon.
In Greek antiquity, Hermione was the daughter of Menelaus, king of Sparta, and his wife, Helen of Troy. Prior to the Trojan War, Hermione had been betrothed by Tyndareus, her grandfather, to her cousin Orestes, son of her uncle, Agamemnon. She was just nine years old when Paris, son of the Trojan king Priam, arrived to abduct her mother, Helen.
The Little Iliad is a lost epic of ancient Greek literature. It was one of the Epic Cycle, that is, the Trojan cycle, which told the entire history of the Trojan War in epic verse. The story of the Little Iliad comes chronologically after that of the Aethiopis, and is followed by that of the Iliou persis. The Little Iliad was variously attributed by ancient writers to Lesches of Pyrrha, Cinaethon of Sparta, Diodorus of Erythrae, Thestorides of Phocaea, or Homer himself. The poem comprised four books of verse in dactylic hexameter, the heroic meter.
The Nostoi, also known as Returns or Returns of the Greeks, is a lost epic of ancient Greek literature. It was one of the Epic Cycle, that is, the Trojan cycle, which told the entire history of the Trojan War in epic verse. The story of the Nostoi comes chronologically after that of the Iliupersis, and is followed by that of the Odyssey. The author of the Nostoi is uncertain; ancient writers attributed the poem variously to Agias, Homer, and Eumelos of Corinth. The poem comprised five books of verse in dactylic hexameter. The word nostos means "return home".
In Greek mythology, Thoas, a king of Aetolia, was the son of Andraemon and Gorge, and one of the heroes who fought for the Greeks in the Trojan War. Thoas had a son Haemon, and an unnamed daughter.
The Posthomerica is an epic poem in Greek hexameter verse by Quintus of Smyrna. Probably written in the 3rd century AD, it tells the story of the Trojan War, between the death of Hector and the fall of Ilium(Troy). The poem is an abridgement of the epic poems Aethiopis and Iliou Persis by Arctinus of Miletus, and the Little Iliad by Lesches, all now-lost poems of the Epic Cycle.
In Greek mythology, Eurypylus ("Broadgate") was the son of Telephus, king of Mysia. He was a great warrior, who led a Mysian contingent that fought alongside the Trojans against the Greeks in the Trojan War. He killed Machaon, and was himself killed by Achilles' son Neoptolemus.
In Greek mythology, Amphialus or Amphialos may refer to the following figures: