The Trojan War: A New History(1)

Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships,
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.

--Christopher Marlowe


I am currently reading Barry Strauss's new book on the Trojan War. Scholarship on Homer is wide and deep. There is no shortage of analysis and opinion about Homer’s epic poem. So far the difference with Barry's book seems to be the up-to-date research and the skill of his story telling. Barry is a gifted writer. Over the next couple of postings I thought I'd share some interesting aspects about the Trojan War (or Iliad), that Strauss discusses in his new book.

The Trojans were the great middlemen of the Aegean littoral. They were primarily horse traders. Barry refers to them as the "used car salesmen" of the ancient world, and as such, they were probably not so popular. Troy was aided in her ascendancy to power and wealth by the God of the north wind: Boreas. Boreas is a wind that blows in the Dardanelles for up to sixty days during the summer. Merchant ships, which had not as of this time in history learned to "tack," were forced to dock at Troy until the winds subsided. So the Trojans were not so much a gatekeeper as a inn keeper of the Hellespont. Probably thousands of seamen every summer were forced to stay and spend there wages in Troy. Recent Archeology has revealed that Troy covered approximately 75 acres and had a population of approximately 5 to 7 thousand people.

Barry calls the Greeks the "Vikings" of the ancient world. They were pirates, traders, sailors, warriors and scallywags. The Greeks had three advantages over the Trojans, according to Barry. "They were less civilized, more patient and had strategic mobility because of their ships" (The Trojans did not have a navy anything like the Greeks). These advantages would be the knockout punch--or slow death--for the Trojans in the end.

Of course Homer says the Trojan War was started over an incident of wife stealing. However, the taking of Helen, who's face may have “launched a thousand ships” (more like 350), was not an act uncommon for the times. Women were the spoils of war, booty, and men will be men. More than likely, the Greek war with the Trojans was simply a cover for the true motives of the Greeks: greed and plunder.

Thinking on the Classics

For classical learning I have ever been a zealous advocate

-Thomas Jefferson


Why did many of the American founding fathers love classical literature? By classical literature I mean ancient Greek and Roman writings. I can say, at least from my own experience, that they probably loved it because its central focus was mankind. Yes, classical literature, to borrow the words of Alexander Pope, is the “proper study of man.”

The first time I read Thucydides I was suffused with reality. Thucydides’ Melian dialogue has none of the equivocations, evasions and cants of our modern political world, or the professional management world for that matter. The discussion there is straightforward, brutally pragmatic with no grafting. Why is this attractive? Because it deals with a fundamental reality: the power struggle. It is an absolute—though brutally sobering—sincere discussion on the nature of the relationship between power and justice.

These words from Thucycides' Milian dialogue have stayed with me for many years:

"...since you know as well as we do that right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must."

These are not the words of an optimist, but of a cold realist. The idea, just as with all art, is to present an imitation of life, a memesis. Reality is confronted, not hidden from in these words. The idea is to see the world for what it is so that you can act to avoid ruin.

Building a civilization, just as it is with building our own personal character, is a struggle between what is and what can be. No matter what we may think, human behavior is guided by fear, self-interest and honor. By some very hard self-reflection we know this to be very true. The classical writers accepted this as a reality to be embraced, as did many of the American founders. The American Constitution is a document of checks and balances meant to check individuals in power and channel our less than civic behavior towards socially useful ends.

The founders understood the Greek drama, that life is tragic. Before the first President was sworn in the articles of impeachment were drawn up. The classics instill so much in the student that is good and useful. The tragic lessons that pervade classical literature should not—and did not by the way—cause despair in its scholars. No, it only made the success of man and civilization more astonishing. Man has survived and succeeded despite his limitations. Man is the great creator, the poet of nature, and the builder. We should respect the fallen nature of man, not deny it. There are limitations within the human condition that must be respected or we risk retribution. Classical literature teaches us that man is a composite creature, both the clay of the earth and the spark of the divine. Within each man or woman there is a contest between the spirit and the beast. An education in Greek and Roman literature gives one a respect for that perpetual struggle that continually goes on in the world and within the soul of each individual.

Read classical literature if you really want to understand the founding ideals of America, but most of all read classical literature if you want to understand mankind.