James Baquet Not every conflict is 100 percent — or even 10 percent — historical. One thinks of battles in China’s “Romance of the Three Kingdoms,” or India’s “Ramayana.” Western accounts that fall into this category include the Biblical Battle of Jericho, in which the blowing of trumpets caused a wall to fall down, and, preeminently, the Trojan War. Most of the details in Homer’s account of the siege of Troy, called “The Iliad,” are purely imaginary. The magical protection afforded the hero Achilles when his semi-divine mother dipped him into the River Styx, leaving only his heel vulnerable; the Judgement of Paris, in which a Trojan prince had to choose which of three goddesses should receive a golden apple inscribed, “To the Fairest”; the intervention of those same goddesses on behalf of their favored ones throughout the war — all of these place this war and its background squarely in the realm of mythology. Nevertheless, the values embodied by the various heroes (and anti-heroes) in the story had, and to a lesser extent continue to have, an enormous impact on their culture. Honor, manliness, piety, and hospitality — these are all encoded in Homer’s story. To the extent that the war was historical, archaeology suggests it may have taken place around 1300 to 1100 B.C. Based on Homer’s “Catalogue of Ships” in Book II of “The Iliad,” ancient historians estimated the Greek force at between 70,000 and 130,000 men. It was led by Mycenaean King Agamemnon, brother to Spartan King Menelaus, whose wife Helen was abducted by Paris, causing the war. On the Trojan side, Hector, son of King Priam, commanded a force of unknown size, but which included allies from a number of linguistic groups, such that commands had to be translated to the troops. Casualties on the Trojan side neared 100 percent, as after the well-known ruse of the Trojan Horse, the Greeks sacked the city and put its inhabitants to the sword. The physical city of Troy, excavated by Heinrich Schliemann, shows layer upon layer of cities, referred to as Troy I, Troy II, etc. It is believed that the city that fell to the Greeks may have been Troy VIIa; Troy VIIb was rebuilt around a century later. Vocabulary: Which word above means: 1. given visible form 2. plundered, looted 3. engraved, written on 4. sphere, domain 5. trick 6. dug up 7. able to be hurt 8. holy attitude, reverence 9. main characters lacking the qualities of a hero 10. interceding or interfering between two groups | 