The War Of Troy

Quintus' epic, written probably in the third century after Christ, is the only extant literary work from antiquity that gives a connected account of the events of the Trojan War. It tells what happened to Achilles and to Troy, and of the fatal enterprises of the Queen of the Amazons and the King of Ethiopia, the funeral games held in honor of Achilles, the victory of Odysseus in his contest with Aias, the death of Paris, the strategy of the wooden horse, and the capture and sack of Troy.

In this perceptive retelling of The Iliad, a young Greek teacher draws on the enduring power of myth to help her students cope with the terrors of Nazi occupation. Bombs fall over a Greek village during World War II, and a teacher takes her students to a cave for shelter. There she tells them about another war—when the Greeks besieged Troy. Day after day, she recounts how the Greeks suffer from thirst, heat, and homesickness, and how the opponents meet—army against army, man against man. Helmets are cleaved, heads fly, blood flows. And everything had begun when Prince Paris of Troy fell in love with King Menelaus of Sparta's wife, the beautiful Helen, and escaped with her to his homeland. Now Helen stands atop the city walls to witness the horrors set in motion by her flight. When her current and former loves face each other in battle, she knows that, whatever happens, she will be losing. Theodor Kallifatides provides remarkable psychological insight in his version of The Iliad, downplaying the role of the gods and delving into the mindsets of its mortal heroes. Homer's epic comes to life with a renewed urgency that allows us to experience events as though firsthand, and reveals timeless truths about the senselessness of war and what it means to be human.

The War at Troy breathes vigorous new life into the myths of Homer's Illiad, skillfully rejuvenating Paris and Helen, Agamemnon and Clytaemnestra, Achilles, Odysseus and Hector in this startingly contemporary drama of the passions. Here two powerful generations of men and women live out their destinies in the timeless zone where myth and history intersect, and where quarrels among immortal gods mirror the conflicts of the human heart. This imaginative retelling will surely benefit from the renewed interest in this classic tale (the movie "Troy" starring Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom lands in May 2004).

The Trojan War is the most famous conflict in history, the subject of Homer's Iliad, one of the cornerstones of Western literature. Although many readers know that this literary masterwork is based on actual events, there is disagreement about how much of Homer's tale is true. Drawing on recent archeological research, historian and classicist Barry Strauss explains what really happened in Troy more than 3,000 years ago. For many years it was thought that Troy was an insignificant place that never had a chance against the Greek warriors who laid siege and overwhelmed the city. In the old view, the conflict was decided by duels between champions on the plain of Troy. Today we know that Troy was indeed a large and prosperous city, just as Homer said. The Trojans themselves were not Greeks but vassals of the powerful Hittite Empire to the east in modern-day Turkey, and they probably spoke a Hittite-related language called Luwian. The Trojan War was most likely the culmination of a long feud over power, wealth, and honor in western Turkey and the offshore islands. The war itself was mainly a low-intensity conflict, a series of raids on neighboring towns and lands. It seems unlikely that there was ever a siege of Troy; rather some sort of trick -- perhaps involving a wooden horse -- allowed the Greeks to take the city. Strauss shows us where Homer nods, and sometimes exaggerates and distorts, as well. He puts the Trojan War into the context of its time, explaining the strategies and tactics that both sides used, and compares the war to contemporary battles elsewhere in the eastern Mediterranean. With his vivid reconstructions of the conflict and his insights into the famous characters and events of Homer's great epic, Strauss masterfully tells the story of the fall of Troy as history without losing the poetry and grandeur that continue to draw readers to this ancient tale.

Illus. in full color. "An ancient history lesson emerges from this account of the way the Greeks tricked the Trojans and rescued Helen of Troy. The book is well tailored to younger readers with careful explanations and short sentences; a pronunciation guide is appended. Drawings portray the story's main events. A nice supplement to units on ancient Greece or mythology."--Booklist.

A SONG OF WAR Troy: city of gold, gatekeeper of the east, haven of the god-born and the lucky, a city destined to last a thousand years. But the Fates have other plans—the Fates, and a woman named Helen. In the shadow of Troy's gates, all must be reborn in the greatest war of the ancient world: slaves and queens, heroes and cowards, seers and kings . . . and these are their stories. A young princess and an embittered prince join forces to prevent a fatal elopement. A tormented seeress challenges the gods themselves to save her city from the impending disaster. A tragedy-haunted king battles private demons and envious rivals as the siege grinds on. A doomed hero launches a desperate plan to bring the war to a close. A grizzled archer and a desperate Amazon risk their lives to avenge their dead. A trickster conceives the greatest trick of all. A goddess' son battles to save the spirit of Troy even as the walls are breached in fire and blood. Seven authors bring to life the epic tale of the Trojan War: its heroes, its villains, its survivors, its dead. Who will lie forgotten in the embers, and who will rise to shape the bloody dawn of a new age?

This book treats the Trojan War from historical aspect separated from myths. There are enough historical facts to treat it in this way because the ancient authors have written a lot about this war. Helena the queen of Sparta or knows as Helen of Troy could have been a reason for this war but in fact she was not the real cause of it, because Achaeans killed before the king of Troy, Laomedon and took in slavery the princes of Troy, Hesiona. So, all this conflict lasted for 30 years from the death of Laomedon, to the fall of Troy. According to Dares of Phrygia a testimony of the war the war itself lasted 10 years, six months and 12 days and brought more than 1.5 million deaths and also thousands of injured people. So for the dimension of time, space and casualties it has the features of and world war. In this book is treated the origin of tribes that participated in this war both from Trojans and Achaeans camps. The origin of those tribes was from Pelasgian and Illyrians that were the oldest people that have inhabited that part of Europe and Asia Minor. So we have had a Dardan dynasty in Troy that had links also with Dardans of Illyria( Kosovo today). The Phrygians of Troy were tribes that emigrated according to ancient authors from region around Epidamnus or Durres of today Albania. Almost all tribes of Troy had links with tribes known in history as Illyrians. All the dynasties of Achaeans with the most important kings as Agamemnon and Menelaus, were ancestors from Pelops of Phrygia and were from the same origin as were the Phrygians too, so Illyrians. The Achaeans population was of Pelasgian origin. The ethic of Trojan war is found all in the Albanian canonical law and today that preserves very well the laws of that time in hospitality, loyalty, blood feud, the non violation of victims, the non removal of armature after death, the pledge and oath, costumes that are inherited from the Pelasgians and Illyrians. For this book are seen only the ancient authors and especially two authors that wrote for it, as Dicty of Crete that participated in war with Achaeans and also Dares of Phrygia that participated with Trojans. Homer is seen only as third source together with all historical sources of antiquity. This book for the first time brings the real origin of the Achaeans that are called after as Greeks when in fact they never called themselves as Greeks. Greek is called according to Aristotle a tribe in Pelasgian Dodona of Epirus, where Albanian Tosk dialect is formed and is today the official language of Albania. So Greek tribe is also linked with Albanians of Epirus that were called as Pelasgians Tosk before 2500 years and are called and Tosks Albanians and today. Historians until now instead to find the real Greeks have invented them. So, it must be reconsidered according to fact all history of antiquity . This was not a war between Greeks and Trojans but between Acheans and Trojans or between tribes known in history as Pelasgian and Illyrians.

THE WAR AT TROY: A TRUE HISTORY. Tells the story of the entire saga based on ancient sources with a humorous tongue-in-cheek tone. Fascinating and a great source for what the ancients actually said about the course of this most famous war.

PART FOUR OF THE TROY QUARTET Bringing ancient myth to life with passion, humour, and humanity, Lindsay Clarke vividly retells the story of Troy and of the heroes who fought there.