Introduction
Barry Strauss’s book The Trojan War: A New History describes events during the war from a historical perspective. The book draws much evidence from Homer’s poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, which many scholars and poets have long used as the primary source of information for the wars (Murphy 23).
The author introduces his book by saying that the Trojan War was not a myth and happened (Strauss 29). He also affirms that the description of the city was, as Homer put it. However, he argues that the poems Iliad and Odyssey are heroic narratives full of exaggerations. Through this book, Strauss expands the reader’s understanding of the events during the war from a historical perspective rather than a heroic view, as Homer does.
Summary
Chapter One: War for Helen
Strauss begins his book by discussing the origins of the Trojan War, where he, like Homer, takes the opinion that the war was caused by the abduction of Helen, the wife of Menelaus, who was at the time the king of Sparta. Accounts such as the Iliad and other historical narratives from the Bronze Age agree that Helen was the most beautiful woman, and according to Strauss, she was “the spark that ignited the war” (Parker 27; Strauss 44). The position taken by Strauss and Homer has been subject to much debate, with many modern scholars stating that there had been previous constant conflicts between Homer’s Greece and the city of Trojan.
Chapter Two: The Black Ships Sail
The chapter begins with the Greeks planning how they will attack the Trojans following the abduction of Helen, the king’s wife. The king of Sparta could assemble a large army thanks to his kingdom having many allies like Agamemnon, Odysseus, and Ajax the Greater (Montanari, 2022). According to the narrative, the Greeks had greater naval power than the Trojans; thus, they did not resist them at sea when they started their attack. The author agrees with Homer’s narration that the leading Greek ships were quickly attacked and their sailors killed by Hector, the greatest warrior after Achilles.
Chapter Three: Operation Beachhead
It begins with the battle of the beach, where the Trojans and the Greeks battle on the shores of the sea. In his poems, Homer suggests that the Trojans won that battle of the seas, which Strauss seems to disagree with, arguing that if the Trojans had won, Greece would not have been able to set a camp offshore.
The chapter also discusses Hector’s abilities, with Strauss disagreeing with Homer’s narration that “Hector was an expert spearman” (Strauss 94). Strauss proves his argument by the fact that the rulers of the Anatolian kingdom, located not far away from Troy, had a portrait with a spear at hand, displaying that the community was made up of spearmen rather than archers.
Chapter Four: Assault on the Walls
This chapter presents the tale of the Greek army trying to get Helen released from captivity through negotiation. The part sent to negotiate fails to reach a deal with Troy, and thus, the war continues. The Trojan Wall is breakable, built by the Gods. Strauss does not believe that the Trojan Wall is unbreakable because the Gods have built it, but because they have always been ahead of the latest storming techniques. Heir’s efforts to take the wall down and up were unsuccessful; the war continued for over nine years.
Chapter Five: The Dirty War
The fifth chapter of the book starts with the book describing Achilles and the way he fought, according to Homer and according to Strauss. According to Homer, Achilles is more of a fairy tale fighting by himself, describing him as “The swift-footed Achilles, the equal of the war-god Ares” (Strauss 140). Strauss’s account of how Achilles approached battle is different based on history, proposing that the real Achilles probably was “accompanied on the raid by a platoon of his men” who would be willing to fight fearlessly alongside him.
The author also describes that Achilles would be accompanied by his right-hand man, Menoetius, and play a role similar to that of an Egyptian right-hand man. The story further describes the nature of Homer’s Achilles, who looks invulnerable in all aspects.
Chapter Six: An Army in Trouble
Chapter six presents various challenges soldiers faced in captivity in the Trojan Walls and Greek camps. Among the biggest challenges the armies faced were diseases such as fever, avian flu, plague, and SARS. These ailments affected the Greeks more than the Trojans because they had better shelters. However, the Greeks saw it as a punishment from Apollo for refusing to take heed of Chryses, the prophet who had served in Apollo’s temple.
Conflicts arose in the Greek camp, making Achilles withdraw from the fight, thus lowering the morale of the Greek military force. However, Agamemnon had dreamed that Zeus had decided to give the Greeks victory, making him keep fighting (Strauss 140). Additionally, Odysseus supports him in keeping up the fight and warns Thersites that he will strip her if she continues sniping at him.
Chapter Seven: The Killing Fields
The chapter on killing fields begins with the Trojans and Greece in a battleground where both parties felt weak. So, the parties called their warriors, each side opting to call upon the person who caused the war. Strauss agrees with Homer’s narratives in this chapter, narrating how the fight between Paris and Menelaus turned out (Strauss 186). Both parties ended up getting injured, but neither died.
Chapters Eight and Nine: Night Moves & Hector’s Charge
These chapters prove that the kings and soldiers of the Bronze Age always dreamed of undying glory. Homer’s narrations and Strauss’s account show that Hector dreamed of irreversible glory, but the glory would only come from the gods. According to Homer’s narrations, to gain favor and victory in fights, the gods would grant a fighter victory.
As the Greek army continued to be demotivated, Hector continued to rally them, making them flee and leave the camps they had set up (Mari 10). Hector then finds himself in a battle with Achilles’s friend, only for him to discover he had killed the wrong person. When Achilles discovers that Hector has killed his friend, he decides to rejoin the war.
Chapters Ten and Eleven: Achilles’ Heel and The Night of the Horse
Chapter ten starts with Achilles furious after learning that his friend has been killed. He and Hector battle, resulting in Hector fleeing and Achilles chasing him. When Achilles finally catches him, Hector decides to fight back, a fight that Achilles wins (Horn 23). Homer’s tale is just a fairy tale, as the author Strauss suggests that warfare in the Bronze Age would never have turned out that way.
However, Achilles does not live long enough to enjoy his victory, as he is struck on his only weak point, his heel, by a poisoned arrow. This demotivates the Greek people, making the Trojans think that they have won the war. However, the cunning, wise leader Odysseus decides to devise the Trojan horse, which helps the Greek people invade the Trojan Walls.
Evaluation
Unlike Homer’s poems, Strauss’s book gives the readers a historical narrative of how the Trojan War turned out from a historical perspective. The author analyzes the Iliad, Odyssey, and other historical texts to describe them as accurately as possible. However, most of the information found in the book is old, and the purpose of Strauss’s writing this text is unclear. The author also lacks an authoritative voice when he states, “The Bronze Age was an era that preferred to put things in personal terms rather than in abstractions” (Strauss 17). Readers of Homer’s poems could also be disappointed by how Strauss presents his characters, making Achilles the Hero and Hector the villain.
Conclusion
The Trojan War by Barry Strauss broadens the reader’s insight into the war’s events by presenting them from a historical standpoint instead of the heroic perspective portrayed by Homer. The book describes how Helen and Paris contributed to tensions between the Trojan City and Greece. The authors chronically discuss how the events resulted from the planning, sending of the ships, assault on the wall, negotiations, and one-on-one battle. Although the book informs readers about how things turned out, it lacks a clear purpose, and the author writes in abstract terms.
Works Cited
Horn, Fabian. “The Death of Achilles in the Iliad: Motif Transference and Poetic Technique.” Mnemosyne, vol. 74, no. 1, 2020, pp. 1-28.
Mari, Francesco. “Politeness, Gender and the Social Balance of the Homeric Household: Helen between Paris and Hector in Iliad 6.321–356.” Journal of Historical Pragmatics, vol. 20, no. 2, 2019, pp. 263–285, Web.
Montanari, Franco. “History of Ancient Greek Literature.” History of Ancient Greek Literature. De Gruyter, 2022, Web.
Murphy, Lauren. “Horses, Ships, and Earthquakes: The Trojan Horse in Myth and Art.” 2022, Web.
Parker, Jan. The Iliad and the Odyssey: The Trojan War: Tragedy and Aftermath. Pen and Sword Military, 2021.
Strauss, Barry. The Trojan War. Simon and Schuster, 2006.