The legendary war over Troy that Jiang links to trade, piracy, mythic exaggeration, and Homer's narrative material.
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Trojan War
The legendary war over Troy that Jiang links to trade, piracy, mythic exaggeration, and Homer's narrative material.
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Key Notes
The popular mythic story of Paris, Helen, and the Greek attack on Troy that Homer transforms in the Iliad.
The Trojan War is introduced as the event that promises glory and makes mortals into gods, which is why Achilles goes and why Odysseus is tempted despite loving his family.
The banquet tradition matters because the bard's song of great deeds will force Odysseus to hear a heroic version of the Trojan War while hiding his identity.
The Trojan War legend begins as a mythic escalation of status, sex, divine rivalry, and trade conflict around Troy.
Troy matters strategically because it controls Aegean trade routes; in Jiang’s frame, the Trojan War is a trade war.
Jiang recounts the Trojan War as beginning with Nemesis's golden apple, Paris's choice of Aphrodite's bribe, and the abduction of Helen from Sparta to Troy.
The conventional Trojan War story ends with Odysseus's wooden horse, Greek soldiers entering Troy at night, opening the gates, and slaughtering the Trojans.
Troy is framed as the central logistics hub and toll gate of the Bronze Age world: whoever controlled it could profit because everyone had to pass through it.
Timestamped Evidence
"...you find your father, okay? So the story starts with the Trojan War, of course. Okay, so remember, Helen has been taken to Troy...."
"That's why Achilles enters this war, because this is the opportunity for him to prove that he is the greatest warrior in all of..."
"Okay, so he's a broken man. He's a very different person from the Iliad. Okay? So, now the question then is why? What happened..."
"...story of great deeds. And of course, he sings about the Trojan War. Okay? So, can you read, Ivory? Yeah."
"So, the bard is singing about the Trojan War. Okay?"
"...blind okay so the iliad and the odyssey are about the trojan war okay so let me explain to you what the trojan war..."
"He is the king of Mycenaean Greece. And so they organized this huge army to attack Troy, to retrieve Helen, okay? And this will..."
"and the three goddesses are hera who is the queen god they are athena the gods of wisdom and aphrodite who is the goddess..."
"course each goddess is trying to bribe paris so hera says paris if you pick me i will give you a kingdom i will..."
"a king but there are lots of other kings you have wisdom but like who knows you have wisdom right but hey if you..."
"...this city. Troy. Right? Troy. Which is why we have the Trojan War. We will discuss, actually, the Trojan War next class. Okay? But..."
"Okay? Well, there are different ways. The first way you can make money is mining. Guess what? It sucks because it's hard work and..."
Relevant Lectures And Readings
A source-grounded reading of Jiang’s lecture on Homer as the big bang of Greek civilization: empire turns writing into control, the polis turns speech into civic training, and the Iliad turns war into the...
Bronze begins as a weapon, becomes status, hardens into currency, and then teaches the world the dangerous rhythm of capital: rapid growth, total interconnection, elite consolidation, and sudden collapse.
Greek civilization begins as a reversal: chaos, illiteracy, and poverty force the polis, the alphabet, and Homer, until poetry teaches a new human being how to see, feel, and think.
The Bronze Age Collapse is not treated as a freak disaster.
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