Trojan War
The Trojan War was the central event of Greek mythology — a ten-year siege of Troy by a Greek coalition, sparked by the abduction of Helen and ended by the stratagem of the Wooden Horse.
The Meaning of Trojan War
The war's causes traced back to the Judgement of Paris and the Apple of Discord. Agamemnon assembled a fleet of over a thousand ships. Key events: Achilles' withdrawal and return, Patroclus's death, Hector's fall, Ajax's suicide, the death of Achilles, the stratagem of the Wooden Horse, and Troy's destruction. The Iliad covers only fifty-one days of the tenth year; the full cycle (Epic Cycle) encompassed dozens of now-lost poems. The war was the foundational narrative of Greek civilisation — every city, family, and institution traced connections to it.
Symbols
Fun Fact
A "Trojan horse" in computing — malware disguised as legitimate software — preserves the stratagem that ended the war 3,200 years ago.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Titanomachy
💭 conceptwar, cosmology
The ten-year war between the Titans led by Cronus and the Olympian gods led by Zeus, resulting in the establishment of the Olympian order.
The Trojan War
💭 conceptWar, fate, heroism
A ten-year siege of Troy by a coalition of Greek kings, sparked by the abduction of Helen and shaped by the rivalries of the gods.
Iliad
💭 conceptLiterature
Homer's epic poem recounting the wrath of Achilles during the final year of the Trojan War
Fall of Troy
💭 conceptNarrative
The final destruction of the city of Troy through the stratagem of the wooden horse after ten years of siege
Aeneid
💭 conceptLiterature
Virgil's epic poem following the Trojan hero Aeneas from the fall of Troy to the founding of Rome
Dionysiaca
💭 conceptLiterature
Nonnus's sprawling epic poem narrating the life and conquests of the god Dionysus in forty-eight books
Seven Against Thebes
💭 conceptNarrative
The doomed military expedition of seven champions against the city of Thebes in the generation before the Trojan War
Theseus and the Amazons
💭 conceptNarrative
The Athenian king's conflict with the warrior women that brought war to the gates of Athens itself
Epigoni
💭 conceptwar
The sons of the Seven against Thebes who returned a generation later and successfully sacked the city their fathers died attacking.
Mycenaean Culture
💭 conceptHistory
The Late Bronze Age Greek civilisation whose warrior aristocracy forms the historical basis of Homeric epic
Gigantomachy
💭 conceptwar, cosmology
The great battle between the Olympian gods and the Giants, fought to defend the divine order established after the Titanomachy.
Bronze Age Collapse
💭 conceptHistory
The catastrophic disintegration of Mediterranean civilisations around 1200 BCE that reshaped the ancient world