Introduction
You often look at ancient myths as mere fairy tales, separated from any historical reality. You struggle to connect the brilliant epics of antiquity with the physical ruins unearthed by archaeologists. Stephen Fry resolves this tension in Troy by weaving together classical literature, Bronze Age history, and lively narrative prose.
Stephen Fry retells the greatest epic of antiquity, blending ancient myth and archaeology to expose the timeless passions, deceptions, and tragedies of the Trojan War.
The book explores how divine bargains and generational curses established the doomed city. You will trace the conflict from the judgment of Paris and the gathering of the Greek fleet to the brutal ten-year siege outside the walls of Ilium.
- How did a golden apple spark a legendary war?
- What role did the Olympian gods play in human warfare?
- How did Heinrich Schliemann discover the physical remains of Troy?
- Which strategies ultimately brought down the impregnable fortress?
1. Foundations and Early Curses
Myths and historical facts can coexist in our minds. You can simultaneously analyze real archaeology and embrace symbolic elements of fiction. Stephen Fry explains that supernatural elements require your acceptance alongside personality details and physical origins.
The origins of Troy and the royal houses of Greece are rooted in divine bargains, stolen horses, and generational curses.
Founding of the City
Prince Ilus founded the city of Troy after following a sacred cow directed by an oracle. He received a divine wooden carving from the sky.
Ilus won a cow at the Phrygian Games and followed the animal until it lay down on the plain of Dardania. A wooden carving of Pallas Athena fell from the sky upon his prayer, striking him temporarily blind. He built his city around a central temple to house this sacred totem.
Ilus placed the wooden carving called the xoanon or the Palladium into the innermost sanctum of the temple. He believed the city would endure as long as the totem remained unmolested.
Erichthonius established a prosperous reign in Dardania, becoming the richest man in the world. He was famed for his legendary herds of swift horses. Local river gods blessed his lands, allowing him to accumulate vast wealth and three thousand mares.
The North Wind took the form of a stallion to father exceptionally light-footed horses by his herd. The resulting colts were reportedly so agile that they could gallop through fields of corn without bending a single stalk.
Prince Ganymede possessed exceptional beauty that led to his abduction by Zeus. Zeus compensated this loss with the gift of divine immortal horses. Zeus took the form of an eagle to carry the boy up to Olympus to serve as cupbearer. He sent Hermes with two magical horses that could gallop over water and the assurance of Ganymede's immortality to console the boy's father Tros.
Curses and Lineages
Pelops sought to win the hand of Hippodamia by defeating her father King Oenomaus in a chariot race. He bribed Oenomaus's charioteer Myrtilus to replace the bronze axle linchpins with beeswax. This caused the king's fatal crash.
Eighteen brave men who previously raced and lost against Oenomaus had their heads mounted on poles around the hippodrome. When Myrtilus attempted to claim his promised reward, Pelops hurled him off a cliff into the Myrtoan Sea. Myrtilus then cursed Pelops and all his descendants.
King Laomedon showed extreme greed and refused to pay Apollo and Poseidon for building Troy's walls. This brought a devastating plague and a sea monster upon the city. Apollo unleashed deadly plague arrows into the city in revenge, and Poseidon sent a ferocious sea monster to block the Hellespont and starve Troy of trade.
Laomedon's daughter Hesione was chained to a rock in the Hellespont as a sacrifice to the sea beast after priests and prophets declared it necessary for relief.
2. Causes and Departure
A golden apple of discord, the judgment of Paris, and a binding oath among suitors set a colossal fleet on a path toward a ten-year siege.
The Apple of Discord
Eris, the goddess of strife, disrupted the divine wedding of Peleus and Thetis. She rolled a golden apple inscribed To the Fairest to the feet of Zeus. This triggered a dispute between Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite.
Zeus held the golden apple while Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite each demanded it. Hermes suggested Paris as the impartial judge.
Paris awarded the golden apple to Aphrodite in exchange for the most beautiful mortal woman, Helen. Hera offered power and Athena offered wisdom. Paris also went by the name Alexander.
While herding on Mount Ida, Paris was appointed by Hermes to judge which goddess deserved the apple. Hera promised imperial power, Athena promised wisdom and mastery. Aphrodite showed him the image of Helen of Sparta, causing Paris to immediately award her the apple.
Paris opened a scallop shell presented by Aphrodite and saw the shimmering, captivating face of Helen of Sparta.
Odysseus resolved Tyndareus's dilemma over Helen's numerous suitors by proposing a lottery tied to a sacred oath. The oath bound all competitors to defend the winning husband.
Fearing civil war if he chose one suitor for Helen, Tyndareus accepted Odysseus's plan. All suitors swore an oath before the gods to accept the lottery result and defend Helen and her chosen husband against any challenger. In exchange, Odysseus was granted Penelope's hand in marriage.
Tyndareus drew the winning ticket for Menelaus from a great copper bowl after every suitor swore the binding oath.
Thetis attempted to make Achilles invulnerable by dipping him in the River Styx and immortalize him in fire. She later hid him disguised as a girl on Skyros to escape a fatal war prophecy.
Thetis dipped infant Achilles in the Styx while holding his heel. She tried to burn away his mortality with ambrosia until interrupted by Peleus. Thetis and Peleus had seven children before Achilles.
To prevent his death in the prophesied war, she hid him among King Lycomedes' daughters on Skyros. He lived there as Pyrrha and fathered Pyrrhus with Deidamia among the Myrmidons.
Odysseus exposed Achilles on Skyros by having soldiers stage a sudden violent raid. This prompted Achilles to instantly snatch a sword instead of screaming.
Gathering the Fleet
Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia to appease Artemis after shooting a sacred stag. This finally generated the wind needed for the Achaeans to sail to Troy.
When the Greek fleet stalled at Aulis due to a total lack of wind, Calchas announced that Artemis was punishing Agamemnon for killing her sacred stag. Despite initial resistance, Agamemnon lured Iphigenia to Aulis under the false pretext of marrying Achilles.
Agamemnon used Achilles' name without his knowledge to summon Iphigenia to Aulis under the guise of a wedding.
Iphigenia willingly accepted her fate. At the moment Calchas brought down the knife, she vanished, a stag bled on the altar, and the West Wind, known as Zephyrus, began to blow a massive hecatomb.
The Greeks abandoned Philoctetes on the deserted island of Lemnos because he suffered from a festering, foul-smelling viper bite sustained while visiting a sacred shrine.
While leading the Greeks to sacrifice to Heracles on Chryse, Philoctetes stepped on a viper. The resulting suppurating wound emitted an unbearable stench and caused such severe agony that Agamemnon and Menelaus ordered him left behind on Lemnos with Heracles' legendary bow and poisoned arrows from the Hydra.
Diomedes helped Philoctetes across Chryse before the Atreides decreed he must be marooned on Lemnos.
Philoctetes had brought seven ships to the Greek fleet before being abandoned. He spent ten years stranded on Lemnos.
3. The Ilium Campaign
Olympian factionalism, Achilles' wrath, and divine artifacts drive the brutal conflict outside the walls of Troy.
Immortal gods treat mortal conflicts like sporting matches and support specific champions. Artemis, Apollo, Leto, Aphrodite, and Ares side with Troy, while Hera, Athena, Hermes, Poseidon, Hephaestus, and Thetis support the Achaeans. Hades and Dionysus remain neutral but benefit from the deaths and celebrations, whereas Demeter and Hestia focus solely on the grieving families at home.
Artemis delays the Greek fleet at Aulis by demanding the sacrifice of Iphigenia, and Aphrodite rescues Paris from single combat with Menelaus by spiriting him away in a cloud of dust.
Enraged when Agamemnon compensates for losing Chryseis by forcefully seizing Briseis from his tent, Achilles draws his sword in fury. Guided by Athena, he sheathes it but swears an oath to abandon Agamemnon's war entirely and refuses to fight until the flames reach his own ships.
Achilles withdraws his Myrmidons and refuses to lift a finger for the Achaeans after Agamemnon takes Briseis, making his mother Thetis ask Zeus to punish the Greeks.
Gods and Heroes in Conflict
Desperate to save the Achaean ships from being burned by Hector, Patroclus begs Achilles to lend him his armor and his Myrmidons. Donning the iconic armor convinces both sides that Achilles has returned, creating immediate panic among the Trojans, but the proxy ultimately falls to Apollo and Hector.
Patroclus leads two and a half thousand fresh and fanatical Myrmidons led by Patroclus into battle wearing Achilles' armor, routing the Trojans before Apollo strips his weapons and Hector delivers the fatal blow.
At Thetis's request, the divine smith Hephaestus labours overnight in his forge on the isle of Lemnos to create peerless armor for Achilles. He crafts an elaborate five-layer shield depicting the night sky, flourishing cities, weddings, marketplaces, vineyards, herds, and warfare, capturing all human life beneath the heavens.
Hephaestus creates the Shield of Achilles featuring constellations, city life, and agricultural scenes after Thetis begs him to forge new armor overnight five layers thick, two of bronze, two of tin and a central core of solid gold.
Rejecting Polydamas's sound advice to retreat behind safe city walls after Achilles returns to battle, Hector insists on camping on the plain. During the final duel, Athena tricks him by impersonating Deiphobus, leaving Hector exposed when he discovers he lacks a second spear, enabling Achilles to strike the fatal blow.
Hector faces Achilles outside the Scaean Gate, is tricked by Athena disguised as Deiphobus, and dies when Achilles pierces his throat at the vulnerable point where the armor collarbone meets the neck.
Turning Points and Tragedies
Guided by Hermes through the Greek camp without being detected, elderly King Priam enters Achilles' tent and clasps his knees, invoking the image of Achilles' own father Peleus. Moved by the appeal, Achilles weeps together with Priam and agrees to a twelve-day truce to return Hector's uncorrupted body for proper funeral rites.
King Priam travels on a wagon filled with treasure into the enemy camp, kisses the hands of Achilles, and successfully ransoms the body of his son Hector after twelve days of horror before the truce is made, establishing a twelve-day truce agreed upon for Hector's funeral rites.
Achilles meets his end when Paris looses an envenomed arrow guided by Apollo. The shaft strikes Achilles precisely on the left heel—the only spot left vulnerable because Thetis held him there when dipping him in the River Styx as an infant.
Paris shoots an arrow from the battlements that pierces Achilles' left heel, leading to his swift death despite him killing multiple enemies as the venom spreads.
Guided by the renegade Helenus, Odysseus and Diomedes infiltrate Troy in beggar disguises smeared with horse dung. With help from Helen, they successfully steal the Palladium—a crudely carved wooden idol of Athena that fell from heaven—because its presence within the city walls prevents Troy from falling.
Odysseus and Diomedes sneak through a secret wall door, find Helen at the temple of Athena, and steal the sacred Palladium to bypass Troy's impregnable defenses.
4. Strategy and the Fall
Cunning strategy, a giant wooden horse, and unbridled wartime atrocities bring total destruction to the legendary city.
When Agamemnon's staff doubted the feasibility of hiding men inside a giant wooden structure, Odysseus argued for wit over war. You see him convince leaders to rely on a strategy designed by Epeius and guided by Athena.
Epeius built a gigantic hollow wooden horse with concealed breathing ducts, hidden trapdoors, and interlocking staves on the western slopes of Mount Ida. Epeius and his team spent three days constructing the wooden horse. There were thirty men hidden inside the belly of the wooden horse.
The Wooden Horse
Odysseus used his known, bitter enemy Sinon to stay behind and spin an elaborate story. Sinon claimed the wooden horse was a peace offering to Athena after the theft of her sacred statue. You observe that a successful deception requires utilizing existing personal animosities and plausible scapegoats to make the lie believable.
Sinon convinced King Priam that he was chosen as a human sacrifice by the Greeks but escaped. He played upon the historical framing of Palamedes from nine or ten years ago when the framed plot against Palamedes occurred to cement his credibility.
When Laocoön and the priest of Apollo struck the horse and warned the Trojans not to trust it, giant sea serpents emerged from the waves. They dragged him and his sons to their deaths, convincing the Trojans to breach their own walls. Skeptics of a flawed plan are often silenced by sudden tragedies that superstitious populations misinterpret as divine will.
Priam and Deiphobus ordered the Scaean Gate and parts of the surrounding wall to be dismantled so the massive horse could be brought inside in triumph. After years of stalemate, the Achaeans construct a massive hollow wooden horse, hide their best warriors inside, and pretend to sail away. They leave behind a spy named Sinon to convince the Trojans to bring the horse inside their walls. Once night falls, the hidden Greeks emerge, open the city gates for the returning army, and sack Troy completely.
Future Richard III in Shakespeare's Henry VI Part Three credits the deceitful Sinon with taking Troy, while Dante places Sinon deep in the Fraudulent Circle of his Inferno.
The Sack of Troy
Stephen Fry notes that historical armies throughout time, when subjected to the hardships of war, inevitably commit severe atrocities upon defeating an enemy city. Prolonged warfare hardens the hearts of soldiers, leading to bestial savagery and atrocities when victory is finally achieved. You recognize this pattern in history, such as 1945 when the Red Army entered Berlin and the ten years of war endured by the Achaeans.
Neoptolemus brutally murdered the young unarmed prince Polites and King Priam before Hecuba and her daughters, while Ajax the Lesser assaulted Cassandra in the temple.
Witnessing the total devastation, slaughter of children, and violations of sacred spaces inside Troy, Athena, Apollo, and Artemis agreed that the Greek victors must pay in full for their profanities. Zeus expressed regret for creating mankind, while Athena and Apollo resolved that the Achaeans must not be allowed to sail serenely back to domestic life. Complete and dishonorable military victory without regard for sacred laws invites the ultimate wrath of the gods upon the victors.
Aeneas manages to flee the burning city along with his father Anchises, his son Ascanius, and companions like Achates, setting the stage for the narrative of Virgil's epic poem the Aeneid. Following the destruction of Troy, the Trojan prince Aeneas escapes with survivors to lay the foundational legends of Rome. Aeneas, Anchises, Achates, Creusa, and Ascanius form the core group whose further adventures are chronicled in Virgil's Aeneid.
The ebook edition instructs readers to use the search feature of their ebook reader to find specific words or phrases from the index. The ebook index includes page references corresponding to the print edition from which it was created, allowing readers to navigate to equivalent print locations. Clicking on page references in the digital index takes the reader to the specific location where the corresponding print page begins.
- Use the search feature of your ebook reader to find a specific word or phrase from the index.
10 Key Ideas
- Stephen Fry resolves the tension between ancient epics and archaeology in Troy by weaving together classical literature, Bronze Age history, and lively narrative prose.
- The origins of Troy and the royal houses of Greece are rooted in divine bargains, stolen horses, and generational curses.
- King Laomedon's extreme greed in refusing to pay Apollo and Poseidon for building Troy's walls brought a devastating plague and a sea monster upon the city.
- Eris, the goddess of strife, disrupted the divine wedding of Peleus and Thetis by rolling a golden apple inscribed To the Fairest to the feet of Zeus, triggering a dispute between Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite.
- Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia to appease Artemis after shooting a sacred stag, which finally generated the wind needed for the Achaeans to sail to Troy.
- Enraged when Agamemnon forcefully seizes Briseis from his tent, Achilles withdraws his Myrmidons and swears an oath to abandon Agamemnon's war entirely.
- At Thetis's request, the divine smith Hephaestus labors overnight in his forge on the isle of Lemnos to create peerless armor for Achilles, featuring an elaborate five-layer shield that captures all human life beneath the heavens.
- Guided by the renegade Helenus, Odysseus and Diomedes infiltrate Troy in beggar disguises and successfully steal the Palladium because its presence within the city walls prevents Troy from falling.
- After years of stalemate, the Achaeans construct a massive hollow wooden horse, hide their best warriors inside, and pretend to sail away so that they can successfully open the city gates for the returning army and sack Troy completely.
- Aeneas manages to flee the burning city along with his father Anchises, his son Ascanius, and companions like Achates, setting the stage for the narrative of Virgil's epic poem the Aeneid.