The Trojan War

Summary

Olivia Coolidge's The Trojan War retells the whole legend of Troy, from its cause in heaven to the homecomings of the Greek kings, in 33 short chapters that can each be read as a story on its own. It begins with the golden apple thrown among the goddesses, the judgment of Paris, and the beauty of Helen, whom Paris carries off from her husband Menelaus of Sparta. The Greek leaders who once swore to defend Helen's marriage are called to war: Odysseus pretends to be mad to stay with Penelope and his infant son, and is exposed; the young Achilles, hidden by his mother Thetis among the daughters of a king, is discovered; and at Aulis Agamemnon's daughter Iphigenia is demanded as the price of a fair wind. Chapters on the Trojan princes, Hector and Paris among the sons of Priam, and on the mustering of the host bring both sides into view. The middle chapters follow the long siege and then the events of Homer's Iliad: the time of discouragement, the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles, the duel of Paris and Menelaus, Hector's parting from Andromache and their child, the night raid of Odysseus and Diomedes, the death of Patroclus in Achilles' armor, Achilles' revenge on Hector, the funeral games, and Priam's journey by night to ransom his son's body. Coolidge also includes the medieval love story of Troilus and Cressida. The last part draws on later Greek and Roman tradition: Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons, comes to help Troy; Achilles falls to an arrow from Paris; Ajax and Odysseus contend for his armor; Achilles' son Pyrrhus is brought to the war; the bow of Heracles is fetched from the wounded Philoctetes; Paris, struck down, seeks healing from the nymph Oenone, whom he had abandoned; Odysseus and Diomedes steal the Palladium; and the wooden horse brings about the sack of the city. The book closes with the fates of the conquered and the conquerors: the Trojan women led away captive, Agamemnon murdered on his return, the wanderings of Menelaus and Helen, Telemachus's visit to old Nestor, Odysseus's return in disguise to the hut of his swineherd, and the stringing of the great bow in his hall. Houghton Mifflin published it in Boston in 1952, with drawings by Edouard Sandoz, as a companion to Coolidge's Greek Myths.

Top Lessons

• Small choices, great wars

  The war begins with a golden apple and a young man's vanity, and it ends with a city burned and kings murdered at their own hearths. Coolidge's opening chapters let readers see how pride, desire and broken oaths grow into catastrophe for thousands who had no part in the first choice.

• Anger and its cost

  Achilles' quarrel with Agamemnon leads him to sit out the fighting until his friend Patroclus dies in his place. His anger then turns into a revenge so fierce that he drags Hector's body. Only when old Priam comes to him in grief does Achilles remember his own father and give the body back.

• Two kinds of hero

  Hector fights to defend his family and city, knowing he may lose; Odysseus wins by wit, disguise and patience. The book holds up strength, cunning, loyalty and endurance as different shapes of courage and lets readers weigh them.

• Victory is not the end

  The final chapters show the Greek winners scattered, delayed and even killed on returning home, while the Trojan women go into slavery. Coolidge carries the story past the sack of Troy so that readers see what war leaves behind.

Verified Quotes

Medical Lens

The legend Coolidge retells contains several episodes of interest to the history of medicine and of madness, though she tells them as story, not as clinical description. Odysseus's feigned madness to escape the draft is one of the oldest stories of malingering detected. In the traditional versions of the quarrel, Apollo's plague on the Greek camp, sent for the dishonor of his priest, frames epidemic disease as divine punishment. The contest for Achilles' armor traditionally ends in Ajax's madness and death by his own hand, and Philoctetes is abandoned for years because of a festering snakebite wound before the Greeks need his bow. Paris, wounded by that bow, seeks healing from the nymph Oenone, a figure of healing knowledge in Greek legend. Readers should check how fully Coolidge, writing for young readers, includes each of these details.

• Chapter 3, The madness of Odysseus

  Odysseus pretends to be mad to avoid going to war, and the pretense is exposed.

• Chapter 11, The quarrel

  The quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles, which in Homer arises from Apollo's plague on the camp.

• Chapter 21, The armor of Achilles

  Ajax and Odysseus contend for the dead hero's armor; in the tradition Ajax's defeat ends in madness and suicide.

• Chapters 23–24, The bow of Heracles; Oenone

  The wounded Philoctetes and his bow are brought to Troy; the wounded Paris turns to the healer Oenone.