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What started the Trojan War?

Was the trojan war real, who won the trojan war.

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According to the ancient Greek epic poet Homer , the Trojan War was caused by Paris , son of the Trojan king, and Helen , wife of the Greek king Menelaus , when they went off together to Troy. To get her back, Menelaus sought help from his brother Agamemnon , who assembled a Greek army to defeat Troy.

Another myth attributes the origin of the Trojan War to a quarrel between the goddesses Athena, Aphrodite, and Hera over who among them was the fairest. After Paris chose Aphrodite, Athena and Hera plotted against Troy .

There has been much debate over historical evidence of the Trojan War. Archaeological finds in Turkey suggest that the city of Troy did exist but that a conflict on the immense scale of a 10-year siege may not have actually occurred. There is also contention over whether the ruins in Turkey represent the same Troy as the one Homer and others described in Greek mythology.

The Greeks won the Trojan War. According to the Roman epic poet Virgil , the Trojans were defeated after the Greeks left behind a large wooden horse and pretended to sail for home. Unbeknown to the Trojans, the wooden horse was filled with Greek warriors. They sacked Troy after the Trojans brought the horse inside the city walls.

What happened to Achilles in the Trojan War?

The death of Achilles , the greatest Greek warrior of the Trojan War, is not described in Homeric works. In Arctinus’s Aethiopis , Achilles is said to have been killed by Paris of Troy .

Trojan War , legendary conflict between the early Greeks and the people of Troy in western Anatolia , dated by later Greek authors to the 12th or 13th century bce . The war stirred the imagination of the ancient Greeks more than any other event in their history and was celebrated in the Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer , as well as a number of other early works now lost, and frequently provided material for the great dramatists of the Classical Age. It also figures in the literature of the Romans (e.g., Virgil ’s Aeneid ) and of later peoples down to modern times.

In the traditional accounts, Paris , son of the Trojan king, ran off with Helen , wife of Menelaus of Sparta , whose brother Agamemnon then led a Greek expedition against Troy. The ensuing war lasted 10 years, finally ending when the Greeks pretended to withdraw, leaving behind them a large wooden horse with a raiding party concealed inside. When the Trojans brought the horse into their city, the hidden Greeks opened the gates to their comrades, who then sacked Troy, massacred its men, and carried off its women. This version was recorded centuries later; the extent to which it reflects actual historical events is not known.

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By: History.com Editors

Updated: May 31, 2023 | Original: December 18, 2009

The story of the Trojan War—the Bronze Age conflict between the kingdoms of Troy and Mycenaean Greece–straddles the history and mythology of ancient Greece and inspired the greatest writers of antiquity, from Homer, Herodotus and Sophocles to Virgil. Since the 19th-century rediscovery of the site of Troy in what is now western Turkey, archaeologists have uncovered increasing evidence of a kingdom that peaked and may have been destroyed around 1,180 B.C.—perhaps forming the basis for the tales recounted by Homer some 400 years later in the “Iliad” and the “Odyssey.”

The Narrative of the Trojan War

According to classical sources, the war began after the abduction (or elopement) of Queen Helen of Sparta by the Trojan prince Paris. Helen’s jilted husband Menelaus convinced his brother Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, to lead an expedition to retrieve her. Agamemnon was joined by the Greek heroes Achilles , Odysseus, Nestor and Ajax, and accompanied by a fleet of more than a thousand ships from throughout the Hellenic world. They crossed the Aegean Sea to Asia Minor to lay siege to Troy and demand Helen’s return by Priam, the Trojan king.

Did you know? Some traditions portray Homer as a blind poet, because the name Homer sounds like a word for "blind" in some Greek dialects. In the “Odyssey,” a blind bard appears telling stories of the war, which some interpret as a cameo by the poem's author.

The siege, punctuated by battles and skirmishes including the storied deaths of the Trojan prince Hector and the nearly-invincible Achilles, lasted more than 10 years until the morning the Greek armies retreated from their camp, leaving a large wooden horse outside the gates of Troy. After much debate (and unheeded warnings by Priam’s daughter Cassandra), the Trojans pulled the mysterious gift into the city. When night fell, the horse opened up and a group of Greek warriors, led by Odysseus, climbed out and sacked the Troy from within.

After the Trojan defeat, the Greeks heroes slowly made their way home. Odysseus took 10 years to make the arduous and often-interrupted journey home to Ithaca recounted in the “Odyssey.” Helen, whose two successive Trojan husbands were killed during the war, returned to Sparta to reign with Menelaus. After his death, some sources say she was exiled to the island of Rhodes, where a vengeful war widow had her hanged.

The Trojan War Epics

Little is known about the historical Homer. Historians date the completion of the “Iliad” to about 750 B.C., and the “Odyssey” to about 725. Both began within the oral tradition, and were first transcribed decades or centuries after their composition. Many of the most familiar episodes of the war, from the abduction of Helen to the Trojan Horse and the sack of Troy, come from the so-called “Epic Cycle” of narratives assembled in the sixth century B.C. from older oral traditions.

In the first century B.C. the Roman poet Virgil composed the “Aeneid,” the third great classical epic inspired by the Trojan War. It follows a group of Trojans led by the hero Aeneas who leave their destroyed city to travel to Carthage before founding the city of Rome. Virgil’s aim was in part to give Rome’s first imperial dynasty an origin story as impressive as that of the Greeks.

Is the Trojan War a Real War?

Many portions of the Trojan War epics are difficult to read historically. Several of the main characters are direct offspring of the Greek gods (Helen was fathered by Zeus, who disguised himself as a swan and raped her mother Leda), and much of the action is guided (or interfered with) by the various competing gods. For example, Paris supposedly won Helen’s love after awarding the Goddess Aphrodite the golden apple for her beauty (“The Judgment of Paris” tells the story of how Paris was asked to select the most beautiful goddess between Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite by granting the winner a golden apple). Lengthy sieges were recorded in the era, but the strongest cities could only hold out for a few months, not 10 full years.

Major excavations at the site of Troy in 1870 under the direction of German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann revealed a small citadel mound and layers of debris 25 meters deep. Later studies have document more than 46 building phases grouped into nine bands representing the site’s inhabitation from 3,000 B.C. until its final abandonment in A.D. 1350. Recent excavations have shown an inhabited area 10 times the size of the citadel, making Troy a significant Bronze Age city. Layer VIIa of the excavations, dated to about 1180 B.C., reveals charred debris and scattered skeletons—evidence of a wartime destruction of the city that may have inspired portions of the story of the Trojan War. In Homer’s day, 400 years later, its ruins would have still been visible.

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The Trojan War was fought between Greeks and the defenders of the city of Troy in Anatolia sometime in the late Bronze Age . The story has grabbed the imagination for millennia but a conflict between Mycenaeans and Hittites may well have occurred, even if its representation in epic literature such as Homer 's Iliad is almost certainly more myth than reality.

The Trojan War has defined and shaped the way ancient Greek culture has been viewed right up to the 21st century CE. The story of gods and heroic warriors is perhaps one of the richest single surviving sources from antiquity and offers insights into the warfare , religion , customs, and attitudes of the ancient Greeks.

Paris & Helen

The main source for our knowledge of the Trojan War is Homer's Iliad (written sometime in the 8th century BCE) where he recounts 52 days during the final year of the ten-year conflict. The Greeks imagined the war to have occurred some time in the 13th century BCE. However, the war was also the subject of a long oral tradition prior to Homer's work, and this, combined with other sources such as the fragmentary Epic Cycle poems, give us a more complete picture of what exactly the Greeks thought of as the Trojan War.

The Trojan War, in Greek tradition, started as a way for Zeus to reduce the ever-increasing population of humanity and, more practically, as an expedition to reclaim Helen, wife of Menelaus , King of Sparta and brother of Agamemnon . Helen was abducted by the Trojan prince Paris (also known as Alexandros) and taken as his prize for choosing Aphrodite as the most beautiful goddess in a competition with Athena and Hera at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis . Menelaos and the Greeks wanted her back and to avenge Trojan impudence.

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The coalition of Greek forces (or Archaians as Homer often calls them) was led by King Agamemnon of Mycenae . Amongst the cities or regions represented were Boiotia, Phocia, Euboea, Athens , Argos , Corinth , Arcadia, Sparta, Kephalonia, Crete , Rhodes , Magnesia, and the Cyclades . Just how many men these totalled is unclear. Homer states an army of 'tens of thousands' or rather more poetically 'as many [men] as the leaves and flowers that come in springtime'.

Amongst the Greek warriors were some extra special heroes, leaders who were the greatest fighters and displayed the greatest courage on the battlefield. Also, they often had a divine mother or father whilst the other parent was a mortal, thereby creating a genealogical link between the gods and ordinary men. Amongst the most important were Achilles , Odysseus , Ajax, Diomedes , Patroclus , Antilokus, Menestheus, and Idomenus.

The Greeks were aided by several of the Olympian gods of Greek religion . Athena, Poseidon , Hera, Hephaistos , Hermes , and Thetis all gave direct or indirect help to the Greeks in Homer's account of the war. The gods had their favourites amongst the men fighting down on the plains of Troy and they often protected them by deflecting spears and even spiriting them away in the heat of battle to put them down somewhere safe, far from danger.

The Trojan Army

The Trojan army defending the great city of Troy, led by their king Priam, had assistance from a long list of allies. These included the Carians, Halizones, Kaukones, Kikones, Lycians, Maionians, Mysians, Paionians, Paphlagonians, Pelasgians, Phrygians, and Thracians.

The Trojans, too, had their semi-divine heroes and these included Hector (son of Priam), Aeneas , Sarpedon , Glaucus, Phorkys, Poulydamas, and Rhesos. The Trojans also had help from the gods, receiving assistance during the battle from Apollo , Aphrodite, Ares , and Leto .

Key Battles

Most of the Trojan War was in a fact a protracted siege, and the city was able to resist the invaders for so long principally because its fortifications were so magnificent. Indeed, in Greek mythology , the walls of Troy were said to have been built by Poseidon and Apollo who, after an act of impiety, were compelled by Zeus to serve the Trojan King Laomedon for one year. There were, though, battles outside the city where armies fought, sometimes with chariots, but mostly by men on foot using spears and swords and protected by a shield, helmet, and armour for the chest and legs. War waged back and forth across the plains of Troy over the years, but the really exciting battles seem to have been reserved for the final year of the siege and the following are a selection of the highlights.

Paris v Menelaus

Tiring of indecisive battles, Menelaus offered to fight Paris in single-combat and so settle the issue of the war. Agreeing to this, the two warriors drew lots to see who would have first throw with their spear. Paris won and threw first but his spear landed harmlessly in the shield of Menelaus. The Greek king then threw his weapon with tremendous force and the spear went through the shield of Paris and carried on through to pierce his armour. If Paris had not swayed at the last moment, he would surely have been killed outright. However, Menelaus was not finished and with his sword he struck a fearful blow on the Trojan prince's helmet. The sword shattered, though, and fell in pieces into the dust. Menelaus then grabbed Paris' helmet with his bare hands and proceeded to drag him from the field. Choking as his helmet strap wrapped around his neck, Paris was only saved through the intervention of Aphrodite who broke the helmet strap and, covering the prince in a thick mist, spirited her favourite back to the safety of his perfumed bedroom.

Hector v Ajax

The meeting of the two great heroes echoes that of Menelaus and Paris. Each throw their spears but to no effect. Hector then threw a large rock at the Greek, only for him to fend it off with his shield. Ajax then returned the favour with an even bigger rock, smashing Hector's shield. They then drew their swords and closed for mortal combat but were each stopped by their comrades who called for an end to the fighting as night was approaching. Displaying the code of honour for which the good old days were famous, the two warriors even said goodbye on friendly terms by exchanging gifts, Hector giving a silver -hilted sword and Ajax giving a splendid purple belt.

The Greek Ships Attacked

Following a tremendous day of fighting, Hector led the Trojans in an attack on the very walls of the Greeks' camp. Breaking through the gates, the Trojans sent the Greeks fleeing in panic back to their ships. However, as Zeus was momentarily distracted by the charms of Hera, Poseidon stepped in to encourage the Greeks who rallied and forced the Trojans to retreat. Then the tide of battle changed again and, with the support of Apollo, an inspirational Hector, in his finest hour, once more beat the Greeks back to their ships where he sought to set them ablaze.

Patroclus Falls

Invincible Achilles was quite simply the greatest warrior in Greece , or anywhere else for that matter. Much to the Greek's frustration, though, he sat out most of the final act of the war in a big sulk. Agamemnon had stolen his female war-booty Briseis and consequently, the hero refused to fight. Agamemnon at first doesn't seem to have been too bothered about losing his temperamental talisman but as the Trojans started to gain an upper hand in the war, it began to look like Achilles would be needed if the Achaians were to actually win the protracted conflict. Accordingly, an increasingly desperate Agamemnon sent an appeal to Achilles with promises of vast treasure if he would only re-join the conflict. These Achilles refused but with the Greek camp under attack, Patroclus appealed to his mentor and great friend Achilles to rejoin the conflict and, when he still refused, Patroclus asked for permission to wear Achilles' armour and lead the fearful Myrmidons himself. Achilles, on seeing one of the Greek ships already ablaze, reluctantly gave his consent but warned Patroclus to only repel the Trojans from the camp and not pursue them to the walls of Troy.

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Patroclus then led the Greek fight-back, the Trojans were swept back and he even managed to kill the great Trojan hero Sarpedon. Flushed with success, the young hero then ignored Achilles' advice and rashly carried the fighting on towards Troy. However, at this point, great Apollo intervened on behalf of the Trojans and struck the helmet and armour from Patroclus, shattered his spear and knocked his shield from his arm. Thus exposed and defenceless, Patroclus was stabbed by Euphorbos and then Hector stepped in to deal the fatal blow with a pitiless stab of his spear.

Achilles' New Armour

When Achilles discovered the death of his great friend Patroclus, he was overcome with grief and rage and he swore to take terrible revenge on the Trojans and Hector in particular. After a suitable show of mourning, Achilles finally decided to enter the battlefield once more. It was a decision which would seal the fate of Troy.

Before he could enter the fighting, though, Achilles needed new armour and this was provided by his divine mother Thetis who had Hephaistos, the master craftsman of Olympus, make him the most magnificent set of armour ever seen. Using bronze , tin, silver, and gold , the god made a massive shield which depicted a myriad of earthly scenes and all the constellations. So too, he made a dazzling, gold-crested helmet for the hero. Resplendent in his shining armour, Achilles, still mad with rage, predictably routed the Trojans who fled in panic behind the safety of their city walls.

Hector v Achilles

Hector alone remained standing outside the walls but at the sight of the awesome Achilles on the rampage, even his nerve gave way and he made a run for safety. Achilles, however, gave chase and pursued the Trojan prince three times around the city walls. Finally catching him, Achilles killed his quarry with a vicious stab of his spear in Hector's throat. Achilles then stripped the body of its fine armour and, tying Hector by the ankles to his chariot , Achilles dragged the body back to the Greek camp in full view of Priam standing atop the fortifications of the city. This was a shockingly dishonourable act and against all the rules of ancient warfare.

Having avenged the death of Patroclus, Achilles arranged funeral games in his fallen friend's honour. Meanwhile, Priam entered the Greek camp in disguise and begged Achilles to return the body of his son that he might be given proper burial . Initially reluctant, the emotional pleas of the old man were finally heeded and Achilles consented to return the body. Here the Iliad ends but the war still had a few more twists of fate to turn.

The Trojan Horse & Victory

The war involved several more exciting episodes including Achilles' fight with and killing of the Ethiopian King Memnon and the Amazon Penthesilea who both came to the aid of the Trojans. Achilles was even said to have fallen in love with the beautiful Amazon just at the moment he killed her with his spear. Achilles himself met his destiny and was killed by an arrow to his only weak spot, his ankle, shot by Paris and guided by Apollo. Odysseus and Ajax squabbled over the hero's magnificent armour and Ajax went mad with disappointment when he lost out on the prize. Slaughtering a herd of sheep he thought were Greeks, he fell on his sword in a messy and pointless suicide. Philoktetes got revenge for Achilles by fatally shooting Paris with the legendary bow of Hercules . Finally, Odysseus even managed to get into the city in disguise and steal the sacred Palladion statue of Athena.

The final and decisive action was, though, the idea of the wooden horse. Odysseus, inspired by Athena, thought up the ruse to get a body of men inside the walls of Troy. First, the Greeks all sailed off into the sunset leaving a mysterious offering to the Trojans of a gigantic wooden horse which in reality concealed a group of warriors within. Just to make sure the Trojans took the horse within the city, Sinon was chosen to stay behind and tell a cock and bull story about the Greeks having given up and left a nice present. The Trojans did take the horse inside the city walls but whilst they were enjoying a drunken celebration of their victory, the Greeks climbed out of the horse, opened the city walls for the returning Greek army, and the city was sacked and the population slaughtered or enslaved. Helen was taken back to Argos and of the Trojan heroes only Aeneas escaped to eventually set up a new home in Italy .

Victory had its price though. Due to their pitiless ravaging of the city and its people and even worse, outrageous sacrilegious acts such as the rape of Kassandra, the gods punished the Greeks by sending storms to wreck their ships and those who did eventually return were made to endure a protracted and difficult voyage home. Even then, some of the Greeks who did make it back to their homeland only did so to face further misfortune and disaster.

Trojan War: Art & Literature

Troy and the Trojan War became a staple myth of Classical Greek and Roman literature and were revisited many times by writers in works such as Aeschylus ' Agamemnon , Euripides ' Trojan Women , and Virgil 's Aenid . Also in pottery decoration and in sculpture , artists were captivated by the Trojan War. Scenes of the judgement of Paris, Achilles fighting Hector, Achilles playing dice with Ajax, and Ajax falling on his sword were just some of the myriad scenes from the story that would appear in art again and again over the centuries. Perhaps more importantly, the Trojan War came to represent the struggle of Greeks against foreign powers and it told tales of a time when men were better, more able, and more honourable.

Troy In Archaeology

There has been much scholarly debate as to whether the mythical Troy actually existed and if so, whether the archaeological site discovered in Anatolia which revealed a city which had prospered over thousands of years of habitation was actually the same city; however, it is now almost universally accepted that the archaeological excavations have revealed the city of Homer's Iliad .

Of the several cities built on top of each other, Troy VI (c. 1750-1300 BCE) is the most likely candidate for the besieged city of Homer's Trojan War. Impressive fortification walls with several towers certainly fit the Homeric description of 'strong-built Troy'. The lower town covers an impressive 270,000 m² protected by an encircling rock-cut ditch and suggests a grand city like the Troy of tradition.

Troy VI was partially destroyed but the exact cause is not known beyond some evidence of fire. Intriguingly, bronze arrowheads, spear tips, and slingshots have been found at the site and even some embedded in the fortification walls, suggesting some sort of conflict. The dates of these (c. 1250 BCE) and the site destruction correlate with Herodotus ' dates for the Trojan War. Conflicts over the centuries between the Mycenaean and Hittite civilizations are more than probable, colonial expansion and control of lucrative trade routes being prime motivators. However, such conflicts are unlikely to have been on the scale of Homer's war, but collectively they may well have been the origin of the epic tale of the Trojan War which has fascinated for centuries.

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Bibliography

• Carabatea, M. Greek Mythology. Pergamos, Peania, 2007
• Carpenter, T.H. Art and Myth in Ancient Greece. Thames & Hudson, 1991.
• Cline, E.H. The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean. Oxford University Press, USA, 2012.
• Fields, N. Troy C. 1700-1250 BC. Osprey Publishing, 2013.
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• Homer. The Odyssey. Penguin Classics, 2006.
• Hornblower, S. The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Oxford University Press, USA, 2012.

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The Trojan War: A New History

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Though the city is completely destroyed, Aeneas is heir to the Trojan throne. In the Iliad , Poseidon predicts Aeneas’s succession. The Greeks return to the ships with booty, slaves, and bodies. The Greek army soon sets upon each other. At first, Ajax instigates dispute. He is stoned for incurring Athena’s wrath when he seized Cassandra . The brothers Agamemnon and Menelaus dispute publicly about whether to appease Athena immediately or set off for home.

Nestor travels to Pylos, Diomedes to Argos and Neoptolemus to Phthia, but Locrian Ajax is drowned by Poseidon for blasphemy. Menelaus loses most of his ships on the journey home and returns to Sparta in time to hear that his brother has been murdered by his wife, Clytemnestra, and her lover, Aegisthus. Menelaus and Helen continue to rule Lacedaemon, marrying their daughter to Neoptolemus. Odysseus takes ten years to make it home to Ithaca, a course that is charted in Homer’s Odyssey .

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• Strauss, B. (2006). "The Trojan War: A New History." Simon & Schuster.
• Hammond, N. G. L. (1986). "The Genius of the Iliad." The Classical Quarterly, 36(1), 25-39.
• Morris, I. (1997). "Archaeology and Archaic Greek History." In I. Morris & B. Powell (Eds.), "A New Companion to Homer" (pp. 120-142). Brill.
• Boardman, J. (1997). "Greeks Overseas." In J. M. Cook (Ed.), "A New Companion to Greek Mythology" (pp. 136-153). University of Chicago Press.
• Latacz, J. (2010). "Troy and Homer: Towards a Solution of an Old Mystery." Oxford University Press.
• Korfmann, M. (2012). "Troia 1988-2010: Ein Forschungsbericht." Studia Troica, 20, 1-95.
• Romm, J. S. (2005). "The Trojan War: A New History." American Journal of Archaeology, 109(2), 279-282.
• Pritchard, A. (2019). "Suffering Soldiers: Revolutionary Suicide in the Trojan War." The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 139, 147-170.

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The Trojan War is easily one of the most critical events in Greek Mythology as perhaps best emphasized in Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad. While there are variations in the accounts as to the causes of the War, the War that was waged by Achaeans against Troy, follows the loss of the King of Sparta’s wife to Paris. This does however remain largely debatable as regards its historical veracity, with beliefs that Homeric literature did exaggerate different things in line with varied poetic needs. This paper assesses the varied accounts of the primary and secondary factors that caused or contributed to the War by referring to the Classical Mythical accounts. It seeks to find a consensus among the different accounts by reconciling variations in every account to one another or explaining the possible cause of the variations. After Zeus had vanquished his own father, Cronus, he ascended the throne as the King of gods in line with earlier prophesies by Caucasus. The king, who had married his own sister Hera, the Goddess of childbirth and marriage, was however unfaithful, instead maintaining multiple relationships from which bore him children. He believed in the urgent need to procreate in the event of Themis depopulating the world during the Trojan War. A marriage between Thetis and Peleus, which had been arranged either by Zeus’ order or in a bid by Thetis to please Hera, played a considerable role in sowing the seeds for the Trojan War. It turned out that Thetis and Peleus did not invite the goddess of discord, Eris to their nuptials. This greatly outraged Eris, who stormed the wedding but was stopped at the door on Zeus’ orders. Out of rage, Eris cast her gift, a golden apple, meant for the fairest of them all. Aphrodite, Athena and Hera claimed the golden apple on account of their respective beauty, effectively leading to a break out of a bitter quarrel amongst them. To settle the quarrel, Zeus asked Hermes to lead the three gods to the man that the he believed was the most handsome on earth, Paris, the Prince of Troy. Having showered, the gods appeared before him naked with the promises of power, wealth and a beautiful woman in the world from Hera, Athena and Aphrodite respectively. In return for Aphrodite’s promise to make Menelaus wife, Helen fall in love with him, Paris settled on her. Paris did set off to Sparta to capture the most beautiful woman in the world as had been promised to him by Aphrodite against the counsel of both Helenus and Cassandra, who tried to dissuade him from going to Sparta. In Sparta, the Maleness welcomed Paris as a royal guest. Under the disguise of a diplomatic mission to Sparta, and on his entry to Menelaus’ palace, Eros shot Helen with cupid’s arrow so that she fell in love with Paris. During his stay, Menelaus left to bury his uncle Crateus in Crete. As soon as he left to attend a funeral, Paris eloped with his wife. He also left with a considerable amount of Menelaus’ possessions. While on the run, Hera brought a storm that stranded the lovers in Egypt, during which time Helen was replaced by a cloud likeness of her. The assertions of Helen being switched in Egypt is not born out in all the narratives, with Homer’s account arguing that the actual Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world arrived in Troy along with Paris. Such tales are however deeply embedded in multiple Greek mythologies in which gods switched themselves with their likeness for varied reasons, which is why it may have turned up in several subsequent mythological tales. Outraged by Paris’ deception, the Menelaus summed all of Helen’s previous suitors to hold them on their promise to defend her love for her chosen suitor. These suitors were wary to go to battle, so much so that Odysseus feigned illness before he was found out by Palamedes. In spite of these, Homer states that Odysseus was in favor a military action and went helped in the recruitment of men, including in asking Achilles. Menelaus also sought the support of Achilles in line with the initial prophesy that it was impossible to defeat Troy without Achilles’ involvement. The fleets would later assemble under Agamemnon, but owing to his difficulties with the sacred stags of Diana or possibly because of careless boasting, which is why she is raised a storm in the ocean to stop the ships from sailing. It proved difficult to find Troy in these circumstances, worsened by the varying beliefs about who exactly had taken Helen that included a siege Teuthranians because of the suspicions that he had taken. The troops returned home, but after repeated diplomatic overtures that failed to ensure the return of Helen and the stolen treasure, The War of Trojan broke out.

Works Cited

Homer and Stanley Lombardo. The Essential Odyssey. New York: Hackett Publishing Co, Inc, 2000. Proclus. "Chrestomathy 4, Ilio Persis, says Odysseus killed Astyanax, while Pausanias, 10.25.9, says Neoptolemus." (n.d.). Trzaskoma, Stephen, R. Scott Smith and Stephen Brunet. An Anthology of Classical Myth: Primary Sources in Translation . New York: Hackett Publishing Co, Inc, 2004.

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• The largest sting operation you’ve never heard of

A new book looks at Anom, a messaging app started by the FBI to catch criminals

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Dark Wire: The Incredible True Story of the Largest Sting Operation Ever. By Joseph Cox. PublicAffairs; 352 pages; $32 and £25

I N JUNE 1970 the CIA did something audacious. In partnership with the BND , Germany’s spy agency, it secretly bought Crypto AG , a Swiss firm that was then the world’s leading purveyor of cipher machines. The devices were used by over 120 countries to encrypt sensitive diplomatic and military communications. For almost 50 years America, having subtly rigged the machines, could read many of those messages. “It was the intelligence coup of the century,” boasted a CIA report.

In 2018 the FBI went one better with Operation Trojan Shield . “Dark Wire” by Joseph Cox, a technology journalist and the co-founder of 404 Media, a website, tells the story of how American and Australian officials quietly established Anom, an encrypted messaging service, to attract criminals seeking to evade surveillance on traditional platforms.

The app promised whizzy features, such as messages that would auto-delete and the ability to send voice notes that scramble a user’s voice. In reality, all the data was funnelled to a server in Lithuania, which was an open book to the FBI . The result was an intelligence bonanza, with the FBI processing as many as 1m messages a day in 45 languages. That led to the arrest of more than 1,000 people and the seizure of hundreds of firearms by the time the operation was wound up, and the subterfuge revealed, in 2021. It was the largest law-enforcement sting operation ever.

Mr Cox, who spent years doggedly tracking the story and getting to know its players, many of them unsavoury international gangsters, has written a vivid account of the saga. The pages pop with dramatic irony: criminals trade cocaine and confess to lurid murders in the belief that their incriminating texts and messages are safe from prying eyes. One agent confesses “chuckling to myself, as these guys in whatever foreign country are going back and forth, talking about the FBI ”.

Drug smugglers and hitmen speak for themselves, their personalities memorably captured by their own messages. Maximilian Rivkin, known as “Microsoft”, a sociopathic Swedish polyglot, plots crimes in Croatian, English, Spanish and Swedish. “He punctuated his assassination plans with heart and thumbs-up emojis,” writes Mr Cox. At one stage, Mr Rivkin requests a bulk discount for ordering multiple murders at once.

“Dark Wire” conveys the moral ambiguities and grubby trade-offs inherent in this sort of intelligence work . “The FBI was happy to allow some crimes to play out…if it meant collecting intelligence on other ones,” writes Mr Cox. “Some crimes ultimately weren’t worth burning the entirety of Anom over.” On around 150 occasions the FBI had to intervene to stop a threat to life, passing on details of murder plots to local authorities around the world, often disguising the source of the intelligence.

The book also raises deeper questions about the nature of secrecy, privacy and the law. If you want to communicate securely with someone without others eavesdropping, it makes intuitive sense to choose a device optimised for that purpose, such as Anom. The problem is that the people who go to such lengths to communicate privately often tend to be those who have something to hide, such as spies or criminals. Those devices, like Crypto AG machines before them, thus become particularly attractive targets for intelligence agencies and police forces. That, at least, is how it used to work.

Nowadays “end-to-end” encryption—the method of enciphering your messages so that they look garbled to anyone who should intercept them en route—is widely available on apps such as Meta’s WhatsApp, Apple’s iMessage and Signal. The result is that criminals and law-abiding citizens mingle on the same platforms.

Mr Cox says that security agencies see “large-scale, bulk interception missions” like Operation Trojan Shield as the future of the fight against organised crime. But can they pull off such a big coup again? Criminals will no doubt be warier of digital Trojan horses.  ■

For more on the latest books, films, TV shows, albums and controversies, sign up to Plot Twist , our weekly subscriber-only newsletter

This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “The telephone game”

Culture July 20th 2024

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Woodrow Wilson: the President who Led America through World War i

This essay about President Woodrow Wilson’s leadership during World War I highlights his initial efforts to maintain U.S. neutrality and his subsequent decision to enter the war in 1917. It discusses Wilson’s background as a scholar and reformer, his reaction to German provocations, and his vision for a post-war world order. The essay covers Wilson’s mobilization of the American economy and military, his Fourteen Points, and his advocacy for the League of Nations. Despite facing opposition at home, Wilson’s contributions had a lasting impact on international diplomacy and peacekeeping efforts. His presidency marked America’s emergence as a global power and his legacy endures in the principles of international cooperation.

How it works

World War I was a cataclysmic event that reshaped global politics and had a profound impact on the 20th century. During this tumultuous period, the United States was led by President Woodrow Wilson, a leader whose vision and policies significantly influenced the course of the war and the post-war world. Woodrow Wilson’s presidency is often remembered for his efforts to maintain neutrality initially and his subsequent decision to lead the nation into war in 1917, a move that helped turn the tide in favor of the Allies.

Woodrow Wilson, born in 1856 in Staunton, Virginia, was a scholar and a reformist before he became the 28th President of the United States. His academic background, including a tenure as President of Princeton University, and his tenure as the Governor of New Jersey, where he gained a reputation as a progressive reformer, shaped his approach to leadership. When World War I broke out in 1914, Wilson was determined to keep the United States out of the conflict. He believed in a policy of neutrality, aiming to mediate peace between the warring nations. His famous re-election slogan in 1916, “He kept us out of war,” reflected the public’s desire for peace and his commitment to avoiding entanglement in European conflicts.

However, the circumstances soon changed. The unrestricted submarine warfare conducted by Germany, which led to the sinking of civilian and commercial ships, including the Lusitania, stirred public outrage and shifted American opinion. Furthermore, the interception of the Zimmermann Telegram, in which Germany proposed a military alliance with Mexico against the United States, pushed Wilson to reconsider his stance. In April 1917, with a heavy heart but firm resolve, Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany, stating that “the world must be made safe for democracy.”

Wilson’s leadership during the war was marked by his idealism and his commitment to a new world order based on democratic principles. He played a crucial role in mobilizing the American economy and military, transforming the United States into a formidable force on the global stage. The Selective Service Act of 1917 and the establishment of various wartime agencies ensured that the nation was prepared for the immense challenges of the war. American troops, known as the American Expeditionary Forces, under the command of General John J. Pershing, provided much-needed reinforcement to the weary Allied forces on the Western Front.

One of Wilson’s most significant contributions was his vision for the post-war world. In January 1918, he outlined his Fourteen Points, a set of principles aimed at establishing a just and lasting peace. These points included the promotion of self-determination, the reduction of armaments, and the establishment of an international organization to prevent future conflicts. Wilson’s ideas were revolutionary and reflected his belief in a fair and democratic world order.

The end of the war in November 1918 saw Wilson at the forefront of peace negotiations in Paris. His insistence on the creation of the League of Nations, an international body designed to resolve conflicts peacefully, was a testament to his commitment to his ideals. Although the League of Nations was included in the Treaty of Versailles, Wilson faced significant opposition back home. The U.S. Senate, led by isolationist sentiments, ultimately refused to ratify the treaty, and the United States never joined the League. This was a significant blow to Wilson, whose health deteriorated following a severe stroke in 1919.

Despite the setbacks, Wilson’s legacy as a wartime leader and a visionary for international cooperation endures. His efforts laid the groundwork for future international organizations, including the United Nations, which would come into existence after World War II. Wilson’s presidency during World War I was a period of profound change and set the stage for America’s emergence as a global power.

In conclusion, Woodrow Wilson’s presidency during World War I was marked by a complex blend of idealism and pragmatism. His initial commitment to neutrality, followed by his decisive entry into the war and his visionary plans for a post-war world, demonstrate the profound impact of his leadership. Wilson’s legacy is a testament to the challenges and responsibilities of guiding a nation through one of history’s most devastating conflicts, and his contributions continue to influence the principles of international diplomacy and peacekeeping today.

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PapersOwl.com. (2024). Woodrow Wilson: The President Who Led America Through World War I . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/woodrow-wilson-the-president-who-led-america-through-world-war-i/ [Accessed: 23-Jul-2024]

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News Analysis

An Assassination Attempt That Seems Likely to Tear America Further Apart

The attack on former President Donald J. Trump comes at a time when the United States is already polarized along ideological and cultural lines and is split, it often seems, into two realities.

• Share full article

By Peter Baker

Peter Baker has covered the past five presidents.

• Published July 14, 2024 Updated July 15, 2024

Follow the latest news on the Trump assassination attempt.

When President Ronald Reagan was shot by an attention-seeking drifter in 1981, the country united behind its injured leader. The teary-eyed Democratic speaker of the House, Thomas P. O’Neill Jr., went to the hospital room of the Republican president, held his hands, kissed his head and got on his knees to pray for him.

But the assassination attempt against former President Donald J. Trump seems more likely to tear America further apart than to bring it together. Within minutes of the shooting, the air was filled with anger, bitterness, suspicion and recrimination. Fingers were pointed, conspiracy theories advanced and a country already bristling with animosity fractured even more.

The fact that the shooting in Butler, Pa., on Saturday night was two days before Republicans were set to gather in Milwaukee for their nominating convention inevitably put the event in a partisan context. While Democrats bemoaned political violence, which they have long faulted Mr. Trump for encouraging, Republicans instantly blamed President Biden and his allies for the attack, which they argued stemmed from incendiary language labeling the former president a proto-fascist who would destroy democracy.

Mr. Trump’s eldest son, his campaign strategist and a running mate finalist all attacked the political left within hours of the shooting even before the gunman was identified or his motive determined. “Well of course they tried to keep him off the ballot, they tried to put him in jail and now you see this,” wrote Chris LaCivita, a senior adviser to the former president.

But the Trump campaign seemed to think better of it, and the post was deleted. A memo sent out on Sunday by Mr. LaCivita and Susie Wiles, another senior adviser, instructed Trump team members not to comment on the shooting.

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