Troy After Death of Hector
Our main (surviving) account of the fall of Troy is not in the Iliad
or the Odyssey.
• It’s in Book 2 of Virgil’s Aeneid (written in Latin ca. 30-20 BCE).
Death of Achilles
Achilles soon after is killed by an arrow from Paris in his
heel.
• Thus, “Achilles’ heel” = symbol of weak spot, one
vulnerability.
• How exactly this arrow was fatal is not clear, but Paris seems
to have had help from Apollo.
• Homer does not make Achilles invulnerable; he ignores this
story of one spot of weakness.
The Trojan Horse
Odysseus comes up with the strategy of the Trojan
Horse.
• He has a huge wooden horse built, big enough to hide 50
men inside it (compare Jason’s 50 Argonauts).
• The rest of the Greeks pretend they are giving up and
sail away, just out of sight.
The Trojan Horse
“Beware of the Greeks, even bearing gifts.”
The Death of Laocoön
Two snakes come from the sea
and eat Laocoön and his two
sons.
The Fall of Troy
Since the story is now told by Virgil (in which the Trojans are to become the the
future Romans), the Greeks become the bad guys.
• Neoptolemus also captured Polyxena, the youngest of Priam’s daughters, and cut
her throat over the tomb of his father Achilles as a blood offering.
• Hector’s wife Andromache is taken as a slave and their baby son, Astyanax, is
thrown from the walls to his death at Odysseus’ suggestion.
The Escape of Aeneas
Aeneas escapes to found the
Roman race, with the help of his
mother Aphrodite/Venus.
