Myth or reality? The British Museum shows how Troy continues to inspire artists and archeologists today.
Image: The Devonshire Collections
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Troy — who is who in the mythic saga
Many people will have heard of the Trojan War. But who were the protagonists and what roles did they play? Here's more about Paris, Helen, Achilles and the other heros in this Greek saga.
Image: Courtesy Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York
Paris, the judge
Zeus, the king of the Greek gods, sent his messenger Hermes to ask Paris, the Trojan king's son, to choose — by handing her an apple — the goddess he felt was the most beautiful: Hera, Athena or Aphrodite. Paris decided on the latter, which didn't sit well with the other two. They swore eternal revenge on him and his native Troy.
Image: Courtesy Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York
Helen, the cause of war
Aphrodite had promised Paris Helen of Sparta, thought to be the most beautiful woman in the world, as a gift for choosing her above the other godesses. Paris traveled to Sparta, fell in love with Helen (played by Diane Kruger in the 2004 movie "Troy"), and although she was married to Menelaus, King of Sparta, abducted her to Troy. Which occasioned the Trojan War.
Image: imago/United Archives
Agamemnon, Greek commander-in-chief
Enraged, Menelaus' brother Agamemnon, supreme commander of the Greeks, sailed for Troy. A calm sea slowed the ship down, so Agamemnon decided to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia to appease the goddess of the hunt, Artemis — whom he had offended by killing a hind that was sacred to her. At the last moment Artemis showed mercy and laid a hind on the altar in place of Iphigenia.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. Wüstneck
Priam, the last King of Troy
"I, wretched man that I am, had the bravest men in all Troy for my sons, and there is not one of them left," lamented Priam, King of the fabled city of Troy. Whether the city ever existed or whether it is just a myth remains controversial to this day. The legendary ancient Greek writer Homer made it famous in his epic poem "Iliad," which describes a ten-year war that destroyed Troy.
Image: National Museet Denmark
Achilles, almost invincible
Achilles was the greatest of the Greek warriors — he of the world-famous heel that was the only vulnerable part of his body. Achilles and Agamemnon successfully fought the Trojan War. In the end, however, Paris shot an arrow at his only weak spot, and Achilles died.
Image: The Devonshire Collections
Odysseus, the crafty warrior
At first, this hero didn't want to get involved. But as an ally of the King of Sparta, Odysseus — also known as Ulysses — had no choice, so he joined the Trojan War and became a celebrated warrior known for extraordinary guile. His homeward journey is famous. It's a ten-year odyssey with all manner of adventures, immortalized in Homer's "Odyssey" — and in a 1954 film starring Kirk Douglas.
Image: picture alliance/dpa
Penthesilea, Queen of the Amazons
As the battle for Troy intensified, Penthesilea rushed to rescue the Trojans. She was the queen of the Amazons, beautiful but militant women both feared and worshipped. Few men stood a change against them. Achilles, however, succeeded in killing Penthesilea — only to fall in love with her after taking off her helmet.
Image: The Trustees of the British Museum
The Trojan Horse
The legendary wooden horse trumps all the other protagonists. After a ten-year siege of Troy, the Greeks built a gigantic hollow wooden horse, hid soldiers inside and placed it at the city gates. The unsuspecting Trojans pulled the contraption in — and were duly overwhelmed by the Greeks.
Image: picture-alliance/United Archives
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Scholars disagree whether Troy ever existed and where exactly it would have been. But the fascination for the city is undisputed. Its fate was immortalized about 2,800 years ago in one of the world's oldest epics, Homer's "Ilias."
Myth or reality? An exhibition at the British Museum in London will explore that question until March 8, 2020. About 300 exhibits show how the Trojan War and its heroes affected literature, painting, music, folk customs — and warfare. An installation by British sculptor Anthony Caro draws parallels between the brutality of the Trojan War and the Balkan conflict of the 1990s. The painting "Vengeance of Achilles" by US expressionist artist Cy Twombly shows a bloody spearhead.
Complex heros
"We recognize ourselves in the human aspects of the main protagonists," the exhibition's chief curator Alexandra Villing told the German Press Agency (dpa). That is why there are various exhibits from the contemporary world and the realm of pop culture, too, including posters from the 2004 Hollywood film "Troy" starring Brad Pitt and literary references by writers like Christa Wolf, Pat Barker and Margaret Atwood.
Heinrich Schliemann, a pioneer in the field of archaeologyImage: picture-alliance/Bildagentur-online/Sunny Celeste
The show also reveals how complex the Trojan War protagonists' personalities were. "The heroes are also murderers — it's about destruction, violence, conflict, grief and loss," says the British Museum director Hartwig Fischer, adding that the exhibition is "an appeal to end violence and destruction."
Archeaologists enamored with Troy
Myth or reality — German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann went looking for the legendary city in what is now northwestern Turkey in the 1870s and claimed he found it. "Troy — Myth and Reality," the first major Troy show in London since Schliemann presented his findings there in 1877, dedicates a section to his excavation works and critically questions his methods and hastily-drawn conclusions.
Today we know that Schliemann's findings date to about 1,300 years before the Trojan War was believed to have transpired, including a cache of gold he attributed to the last king of Troy and accordingly named "Priam's treasure." However, the Schliemann exhibits on show are important in that they underline the fascnation with and longing for the vanished city. Many exhibits are on loan from the National Museums in Berlin, including two ceramic containers that survived two fires — one in the town Schliemann had decreed was Troy and another during the bombing of Berlin at the end of the Second World War.
