The Destruction of Troy | |
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Written by | John Banks |
Date premiered | November 1678 |
Place premiered | Dorset Garden Theatre, London |
Original language | English |
Genre | Tragedy |
Setting | Troy, Anatolia |
The Destruction of Troy is a 1678 tragedy by the English writer John Banks. It was first staged by the Duke's Company at the Dorset Garden Theatre in London. It depicts the Trojan War as inspired by Homer's Iliad .
The original cast included Samuel Sandford as Priam, Henry Harris as Hector, John Crosby as Paris, Joseph Williams as Troilus, Matthew Medbourne as Agamemnon, Thomas Betterton as Achilles, William Smith as Ulysses, Thomas Gillow as Diomedes, John Bowman as Patroclus, Henry Norris as Menelaus, Cave Underhill as Ajax, Emily Price as Helena, Mary Betterton as Andromache, Elizabeth Barry as Polyxena and Mary Lee as Cassandra. [1]
Ulysses devises a plan to steal the statue of Minerva that has provided Troy security throughout the war. To do this, the Greeks bribe a Trojan soldier, Antenor, for access to the temple wherein she is located. Afterwards, Ulysses is praised by his fellow generals and soldiers. Angered because he feels he has gotten no credit for his help in physically stealing the statue, Achilles refuses to continue participating in the war. Both the Greeks and the Trojans agree to a three-day truce before a round of one-on-one duels. On the day of the duels, Cassandra warns her brothers that they will be killed in battle, but both dismiss her warnings. After Hector kills Patroclus, a Greek soldier, Achilles swears revenge but is restrained. Soon afterwards, the Greeks invade the Trojan camps. In the process, Achilles, who has now resumed fighting, kills Hector offstage. As he is rejoicing, he catches sight of Polyxena, Hector's sister, whom he falls in love with at first sight. Priam, King of Troy, arranges a marriage between the two as a way of securing peace. Meanwhile, Ulysses and his fellow princes and generals devise a plan to overtake Troy: the Greeks will deliver a giant wooden horse to the Trojans as a supposed wedding gift, but in reality, it is a device used to hide Greek soldiers who will then exit the interior of the horse and destroy Troy. On the day of the wedding, Paris vows revenge against Achilles for killing Hector, which he achieves when he murders Achilles by shooting his ankle with an arrow. At the moment Achilles is killed, Ulysess's plans come to fruition.
In Greek mythology, Achilles or Achilleus was a hero of the Trojan War who was known as being the greatest of all the Greek warriors. The central character in Homer's Iliad, he was the son of the Nereid Thetis and Peleus, king of Phthia and famous Argonaut. Achilles was raised in Phthia along with his childhood companion Patroclus and received his education by the centaur Chiron. In the Iliad, he is presented as the commander of the mythical tribe of the Myrmidons.
In Greek mythology, Hector is a Trojan prince, a hero and the greatest warrior for Troy during the Trojan War. He is a major character in Homer's Iliad, where he leads the Trojans and their allies in the defense of Troy, killing countless Greek warriors. He is ultimately killed in single combat by the Greek hero Achilles, who later drags his dead body around the city of Troy behind his chariot.
In Greek mythology, Priam was the legendary and last king of Troy during the Trojan War. He was the son of Laomedon. His many children included notable characters such as Hector, Paris, and Cassandra.
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, Polyxena was the youngest daughter of King Priam of Troy and his queen, Hecuba. She does not appear in Homer, but in several other classical authors, though the details of her story vary considerably. After the fall of Troy, she dies when sacrificed by the Greeks on the tomb of Achilles, to whom she had been betrothed and in whose death she was complicit in many versions.
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.
In Greek mythology, Deiphobus was a son of Priam and Hecuba. He was a prince of Troy, and the greatest of Priam's sons after Hector and Paris. Deiphobus killed four men of fame in the Trojan War.
Troy is a 2004 epic historical war film directed by Wolfgang Petersen and written by David Benioff. Produced by units in Malta, Mexico and Britain's Shepperton Studios, the film features an ensemble cast led by Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Sean Bean, Brian Cox, Brendan Gleeson and Orlando Bloom. It is loosely based on Homer's Iliad in its narration of the entire story of the decade-long Trojan War—condensed into little more than a couple of weeks, rather than just the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon in the ninth year. Achilles leads his Myrmidons along with the rest of the Greek army invading the historical city of Troy, defended by Hector's Trojan army. The end of the film is not taken from the Iliad, but rather from Quintus Smyrnaeus's Posthomerica, as the Iliad concludes with Hector's death and funeral.
Troilus is a legendary character associated with the story of the Trojan War. The first surviving reference to him is in Homer's Iliad, composed in the late 8th century BCE.
Paris is a rock musical written by Australian rock musician Jon English and David Mackay between 1987 and 1990, based on the myth of the Trojan War. A concept album was released in Australia in 1990 with the first stage production taking place in Sydney in 2003.
Helen of Troy is a 2003 British-American television miniseries based upon Homer's story of the Trojan War, as recounted in the epic poem, the Iliad.
King Priam is an opera by Michael Tippett, to his own libretto. The story is based on Homer's Iliad, except the birth and childhood of Paris, which are taken from the Fabulae of Hyginus.
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.
Cassandra is a 1983 novel by the German author Christa Wolf. It has since been translated into a number of languages.
The Iliad is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the Odyssey, the poem is divided into 24 books and was written in dactylic hexameter. It contains 15,693 lines in its most widely accepted version. Set towards the end of the Trojan War, a ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Mycenaean Greek states, the poem depicts significant events in the siege's final weeks. In particular, it depicts a fierce quarrel between King Agamemnon and a celebrated warrior, Achilles. It is a central part of the Epic Cycle. The Iliad is often regarded as the first substantial piece of European literature.
Ransom (2009) is a novel by Australian author David Malouf. It retells the story of the Iliad from books 22 to 24.
Troades is a fabula crepidata of c. 1179 lines of verse written by Lucius Annaeus Seneca.
Troilus and Cressida is a play by William Shakespeare, probably written in 1602.
Troilus And Cressida; Or, Truth Found Too Late is a 1679 tragedy by the English writer John Dryden. It was first staged by the Duke's Company at the Dorset Garden Theatre in London. It was a reworking of William Shakespeare's 1602 play Troilus and Cressida, set during the Trojan Wars. In acknowledgement of this Dryden has the prologue spoken by Shakespeare's ghost, defending the alterations made to the play.