Brandon Prince
Professor Joel Christensen
Classics 4973
7 May 2012
Annotated Bibliography – The Trojan War in History
Primary Resources:
Iliad. London: Penguin Group, 2003. Print.
-This is our generative text of the Trojan War, traditionally credited to Homer which in our current understanding is best described as a broad poetic tradition rather than an individual writing with a singular purpose. The story presented in the text is set near the end of the 10-year Trojan War and it focuses on the rage of Achilles and the consequences that ensue from this. But the scope and breadth of the text is vast and diverse touching on vital cultural issues such as when to make war, how to deal with political disagreements and what the purpose of life is.
Vergil, Sarah Ruden. The Aeneid. Yale Univ Pr, 2010. Print.
-This work by Vergil draws heavily from the story, motifs, and tone of the Greek epic tradition that preceded it to create a uniquely Roman, latinized compendium of epic that reframed the conflict between the Greeks and Trojans. The hero of this tale is Aeneas, a prince of Troy, and it follows his flight from the flames of Troy to Carthage and finally to the Italian peninsula where his descendants will eventually found Rome. This work cast the conflict on the plains of Troy in a new light, as the protagonist of this tale is a Trojan and not a Greek. During the middle ages when western Europe was heavily Latinized and much of the Greek influence had been lost this epic preserved the concept of an ancient war between the Greeks and Trojans.
West, Martin. Greek Epic Fragments. 497. Cambridge & London: Harvard University Press, 2003. Print.
-This book contains what remains of the surviving text from the Little Iliad and the Iliou persis in addition to the summary provided by Proclus in his Chrestomathy of the Greek Epic cycle. These texts follow the Iliad chronologically in describing the remainder of the Trojan War. The Little Iliad focuses on the Greek situation after the deaths of both Achilles and Telamonian Ajax. Sacrifices are made to the gods, prophecy is spoken, and special items are retrieved as needed. Proclus concludes this text at the ruse of the Trojan horse. In Iliou persis the trap of the Trojan horse is sprung and Troy suffers its untimely destruction. The text details the rape and slaughter of the Trojan people and the excesses of victory that the prideful Greeks practiced upon their defeated foes.
Books:
Strauss, Barry S. The Trojan War, A New History. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 2006. Print.
-This book is an enjoyable, romanticized telling of the Trojan War that tries to incorporate the myth of the Iliad along with the factual archaeological evidence linking the two in an attractive prose narrative that seeks to introduce readers who might not have more than a basic understanding of the Greek myth of the Iliad. Rather than bore the reader with the scholastic minutiae of the Little Iliad or the Iliou persis, Strauss incorporates these disparate threads of narrative into a larger story of an actual, ancient war.
Wood, Michael. In Search of The Trojan War. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. Print.
-This book gives the reader an honest archaeological and historical perspective on what ancient Troy truly was. Filled with large and detailed photographs, it is an archaeologically focused work that seeks to find the reality behind the romance of the stories we have been told about the Trojan War. This book also does an good job of updating the reader as to the modern state of academic belief regarding the authenticity of the events depicted in the ancient Greek literature that has survived to today.
Thomas, Carol G., and Craig Conant. The Trojan War. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2005. Print.
-This book examines how the two primary cultures of antiquity understood and interpreted the Trojan War. Although many scholars from both the Greek and Roman periods doubted the actual historicity of Trojan War from time to time, for the most part the people of those cultures entirely accepted the fact that they were the progeny of those who fought on the Greek side or the Trojan side in that ancient war. This belief in the existence of factual ancestors present in mythological lore that would form a large part of the Roman or Greek self-concept.
Articles:
Dué, C. (2008) “Homer’s Post-Classical Legacy”, in A Companion to Ancient Epic (ed J. M. Foley), Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Oxford, UK.
-This article will give you a systematic recounting of the reception of the Homeric epics in western history starting with the Greeks themselves in the ancient age and finishing with our current conceptions of the Trojan War tale. This article also provides relevant examples and extant reading on the art and literature that each subsequent culture has created in response to the Trojan War narrative. What is most interesting to notice in this article is the modernist recreations of the themes and motifs from the Trojan War epic in both art and literature of the period.
Raaflaub, K. A. (2008) “Epic and History”, in A Companion to Ancient Epic (ed J. M. Foley), Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Oxford, UK.
-This article examined the question of whether we can glean history from an artistic work like an epic, and one of the examples he uses is the Trojan War epic of early Greek myth. The article draws a stark, dividing line in the Trojan War myth by separating such works as the Aeneid and the Iliad/Odyssey due to the differing contexts into which the works were birthed. By reading into the epics to find history often the best information that can be gathered is mere suggestions and cultural memories of archetypical conflicts that shaped an ancient people’s self-concept.
Lord, Albert B., “Special Issue: Folklore and Traditional History” (Aug. – Dec., 1971), pp. 85-92 Journal of the Folklore Institute, Vol. 8, No. 2/3, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana.
-This article deals directly with the historicity of the events depicted in the Trojan War by examining the language used in the epic itself and the oral tradition into which it was born. By
citing modern examples found by philologists and linguists of today Lord argues that the cataloguing so prevalent in Homer should be seen as evidence of the war’s authenticity. In Lord’s argument, the cataloguing through repeated oral performances forms an historical composite of what was once many different Trojan wars.
Bryce, Trevor R., “The Trojan War: Is There Truth behind the Legend?”, Near Eastern Archaeology, Vol. 65, No. 3 (Sep., 2002), pp. 182-195, The American Schools of Oriental Research, Boston, MA
-This is an excellent article because it ties together many different threads of evidence regarding the historicity of the Trojan War. The focus in this article is upon fact and what can we reliably say about the conflict represented in Homer’s Iliad. This article was written for those who know the story but want to know where the scholarly communities sentiments lie in regards to the historicity of the Trojan War.
Internet Resources:
Crane, Gregory R., Perseus Digital Library. Dept. of Classics, Tufts University, 10 Apr 2012. Web. 16 Apr 2012. <www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/collection?collection=Perseus:collection:Greco-Roman>.
-This website provides a convenient online compendium of ancient texts in their original language along with a translation or notes for help in translating. There is also a large of amount of secondary sources for open use on the website along with a large photo collection of ancient Greek and Roman art and architecture. In addition to the Greek and Roman materials there is also a sizable collection of Arabic, Germanic, and Renaissance material as well.
“Publications”, Center for Hellenic Studies. Harvard University, 2009. Web. 16 Apr 2012. <http://chs.harvard.edu/wa/pageR?tn=Publications&bdc=12&mn=0>
-This website is a large, multi-faceted web resource available for anyone who is interested in the classical world. The publications portion of the site has a great collection of recent scholarly articles that should give the reader an excellent grasp of where modern scholars are focusing their study of the ancients. The focus of the website itself is to get more people involved in the study of the classical world either through the scholarly materials they provide online or by organizing and promoting trips to Greece itself so that students and scholars of any education level can participate.
Rutter, Jeremy B. Aegean Prehistoric Archaeology. Dartmouth College, 2009. Web. 16 Apr 2012. <http://www.dartmouth.edu/~prehistory/aegean>
-This is a good resource for the archaeologically minded person who would like to see pictures of the ancient Aegean world plus it has a good explanation of the excavations that have taken place at Hisarlik. From Schliemann to today the actual site of Troy has been a place of historical significance; the origins of archaeology were born pre-mature from the exertions of men who believed in myth enough to make it a reality for us today.