How many trojans survived the trojan war

Determined to get Helen back and punish the Trojans, Agamemnon and his brother marched a mighty army against Troy, and eventually succeeded in bringing its people to their knees. Helen of Troy, portrayed here in a painting by Edward Burne-Jones, has fascinated artists through the centuries Credit: Trustees of the British Museum. In antiquity, even respected historians were willing to believe that this war actually happened. Modern scholars, however, have tended to be more sceptical.

Did the Trojan War happen at all? Greek vases, Roman frescoes, and more contemporary works of art depicting stories inspired by Troy are exhibited alongside archaeological artefacts dating from the Late Bronze Age.

What emerges most palpably from the exhibition is how eager people have been through history to find some truth in the story of the Trojan War. The Romans went so far as to present themselves as the descendants of the surviving Trojans. In his poem, the Aeneid , Virgil described how the hero Aeneas escaped the burning citadel with a group of followers after the Greeks entered in their wooden horse.

Aeneas and his men left to found a new home in Italy. The grim realities of battle are described so unflinchingly in the Iliad that it is hard to believe they were not based on observation. Troy, too, is portrayed in such vivid colour in the epic that a reader cannot help but to be transported to its magnificent walls. Told of a possible location for the city, at Hisarlik on the west coast of modern Turkey, Schliemann began to dig, and uncovered a large number of ancient treasures, many of which are now on display at the British Museum.

Although he initially attributed many finds to the Late Bronze Age — the period in which Homer set the Trojan War — when they were in fact centuries older, he had excavated the correct location. The number of the Trojans is scarcely one tenth that of the besiegers; and although they possess many brave heroes, such as Aeneas, Sarpedon, Glaucus, and especially Hector, in their fear of Achilles they dare not risk a general engagement, and remain holed up behind their walls.

On the other hand, the Achaeans can do nothing against the well-fortified and defended town, and see themselves confined to laying ambuscades and devastating the surrounding country, and compelled by lack of provisions to have resource to foraging expeditions in the neighborhood, undertaken by sea and by land under the generalship of Achilles.

At last the decisive tenth year arrives. The Iliad narrates the events of this year, confining itself to the space of fifty-one days.

Over the course of the war, the Greeks have taken many war prizes from the surrounding countryside. One of these prizes happens to be Chryseis, the daughter of Chryses, a priest of Apollo. He comes in priestly garb into the camp of the Greeks to ransom his daughter from Agamemnon.

He is rudely repulsed, and Apollo consequently visits the Greeks with a plague. In an assembly of the Greeks summoned by Achilles, the seer Calchas declares the only means of appeasing the god to be the surrender of the girl without ransom. Agamemnon assents to the general wish; but, by way of compensation, takes from Achilles, whom he considers to be the instigator of the whole plot, his favorite slave Briseis.

Achilles withdraws in a rage to his tent, and implores his mother Thetis to obtain from Zeus a promise that the Greeks should meet with disaster in fighting the Trojans until Agamemnon returns the girl and restores Achilles' honor. The Trojans immediately take the open field, and Agamemnon is induced by a promise of victory, conveyed in a lying dream from Zeus, to start the fight.

The armies are standing opposed to one another, prepared for fight, when they agree to a treaty that the whole conflict will be decided by a duel between Paris and Menelaus. Paris is overcome in the duel, and is only rescued from death by the intervention of Aphrodite. When Agamemnon presses for the fulfillment of the treaty, the Trojan Pandarus breaks the peace by shooting an arrow at Menelaus, and the agreement falls apart.

The first open engagement in the war begins, in which, under the protection of Athena, Diomedes performs miracles of bravery and wounds even Aphrodite and Ares.

Diomedes and the Lycian Glaucus are on the verge of fighting, when they recognize one another as hereditary guest-friends and stop their duel, a marker of how important is the concept of hospitality XENIA, in Greek. The day ends with an indecisive duel between Hector and Ajax son of Telamon. They call a truce to bury their dead, and the Greeks, acting on the advice of Nestor, surround their camp with a wall and trench.

When the fighting begins again, Zeus forbids the gods to take part in it, and ordains that the battle shall end with the defeat of the Greeks. On the following night Agamemnon already begins to think about fleeing, but Nestor advises reconciliation with Achilles.

Agamemnon sends an embassy, including Odysseus, to make amends with Achilles. The efforts of ambassadors are, however, fruitless. Then Odysseus and Diomedes go out on a night-time reconnaissance mission, kill many Trojans, and capture a Trojan spy. On the succeeding day Agamemnon's bravery drives the Trojans back to the walls of the town; but he himself, Diomedes, Odysseus, and other heroes leave the battle wounded, and the Greeks retire behind the camp walls.

The Trojans advance and attack the Greek walls. The opposition of the Greeks is brave; but Hector breaks the rough gate with a rock, and the stream of enemies pours itself unimpeded into the camp. Once more the Greek heroes who are still capable of taking part in the fight, especially the two Ajaxes and Idomeneus, succeed with the help of Poseidon in repelling the Trojans, while Telamonian Ajax dashes Hector to the ground with a stone; but the latter soon reappears on the battlefield with fresh strength granted to him by Apollo at the command of Zeus.

Poseidon is obliged to leave the Greeks to their fate; they retire again to the ships, which Ajax in vain defends. The Trojans advance still further to where they are able to begin torching the Greek ships. British Museum, London. Odysseus wandered ten years. The case was submitted to the judgment of King Neoptolemus of Epirus, who condemned him to exile.

Some think that Neoptolemus judged in this way because he wanted to get possession of the island of Cephallenia, which is close to Ithaca.

Odysseus is also reported to have gone to Thesprotia in Epirus, where he offered a certain sacrifice, following the instructions he had received in the Underworld from Tiresias.

There he married Queen Callidice 2 , and had by her a son Polypoetes 4 , to whom he bequeathed the kingdom when he returned to Ithaca. In any case, Odysseus returned to Ithaca, where he died. Guneus 2 , a Thessalian, went to Libya and settled near the Cinyps river; Antiphus 5 , from Cos one of the Sporades islands, now Dodecanese, off the southwestern coast of Asia Minor , settled in Thessaly.

Philoctetes emigrated to Italy. Phidippus, who had led an army from Cos, settled in Andros the most northerly of the Cyclades Islands. Agapenor from Arcadia settled in Cyprus. Prothous 4 from Magnesia in eastern Thessaly, settled in Crete. Podalirius, following the instructions of the oracle at Delphi , settled in Caria southwestern Asia Minor. Alcmaeon 1 's son Amphilochus 2 , said to have arrived late to the Trojan War , was killed in single combat by Mopsus 2 son of Manto 1 , daughter of Tiresias in Caria.

This Mopsus 2 had just caused Calchas ' death, by defeating him in the art of divination. Among the Trojans, Aeneas and Antenor 1 survived, owing to their treason, as some affirm. Antenor 1 settled in northern Italy, and Aeneas came first to Carthage where he mislead Dido , and thence to Italy. But some assert that these two, when the Trojan War was over, fought against each other for the possession of the Troad, and that in this conflict Antenor 1 was successful.

Aeneas then, forced to leave, passed to Italy. For his services as a traitor, some say, Agamemnon gave Helenus 1 , and also Cassandra , their freedom. And after the intercession of Helenus 1 on behalf of Hecabe 1 and Andromache , Agamemnon again gave these two their freedom. It is said that those four Trojans migrated to the Thracian Chersonese, and settled there with twelve hundred followers. But others have said that Helenus 1 followed Neoptolemus to Epirus, marrying Neoptolemus ' mother Deidamia 1.

After her, Helenus 1 married Andromache , whom Neoptolemus had kept as concubine until his death. Helenus 1 and Andromache , reigning in Epirus as king and queen, were later visited by the exiled Aeneas. According to Dares, the war lasted ten years, six months and twelve days, and After the war, Aeneas departed, along with 3.

Diomedes 2. Priam 1.