TROJAN WAR: THE PODCAST

THE STORY  (65 minutes)   Homer’s Iliad opens with the storyteller’s invocation to the Muse: “The wrath of Achilles – sing it now, goddess, sing through me ….”  When Achilles learns that his beloved Patroclus is dead – at the hands of Hector –Achilles “snaps”.  What follows is a powerful, disturbing and truly horrifying podcast episode. THE COMMENTARY:  WHAT HAPPENS TO US AFTER WE DIE?  (25 minutes; begins at 1:05) This post story commentary is dedicated to Bronze Age beliefs about death and the afterlife.  I explore what warlords like Hector, Achilles, Agamemnon and Odysseus would have believed about death, about funeral rites and burial, and about what was waiting for them “on the other side”.  To do so I follow the psyche (soul, spirit) of a man from the moment of imminent death (when the living man gains the gift of prophesy), through the dying man’s final breath (when the psyche is exhaled through the mouth), and then on to the psyche’s journey to the entrance to Hades – the land of the dead.  I provide a bit of mythological back story on Hades the deity, who rules over Hades the place.  I offer a caution to my listeners raised in the Judeo- Christian tradition -- Hades the deity is not Satan, Mephistopheles, or any other form of malevolent horned demon – we need to take care to not graft onto one mythology the beliefs of another.  Once at the gates of Hades, we follow the dead man’s psyche across the river (Styx or Acheron: sources vary, and we are regrettably short on empirical evidence) via the assistance of the able ferryman Charon.  Our dead man’s psyche then enters the Fields of Asphodel, where it spends eternity in the company of every other human being who has ever lived.  I note that the Bronze Age Greeks did not believe in any sort of post-life judgement by a god, followed by some sort of eternal reward or punishment.  All psyches spend eternity on the Fields of Asphodel, a grey place of eternal blandness. I do note that some psyches (usually humans whose parent was a god) get to travel instead to a place called Elysium, which, apparently, offers a significant upgrade in post-death accommodations from those offered in Asphodel.  But very, very few individuals every make it there:  even the greatest of Homer’s warlords were ultimately destined to the Fields of Asphodel.  I then discuss the other afterlife option:  a place of eternal torment and suffering called Tartarus.  But I again warn my Judeo-Christian listeners that this is not Hell (a place for people who are particularly bad or unrepentant on Earth). Rather, Tartarus is reserved as a series of personal, customized “hells”, designed by Zeus for particular individuals who personally annoyed Him.  I provide examples of such individuals - Tantalus, Sisyphus and Prometheus – and describe their various customized “hells”.  Finally, I discuss the Bronze Age Greek belief that a dead man’s psyche could not depart from the land of the living and travel to the land of the dead, unless the dead man’s body had been provided with the appropriate funeral rites (cremation first, followed by internment of the bones).  A man mutilated and killed in battle, or killed and then mutilated, was doomed to spend eternity “trapped” in the land of the living in ghost form, wounds and all, until the appropriate funeral rites were performed.  Which, I conclude, explains why the threat, or the actual deed, of desecrating corpses and refusing to allow appropriate funeral rites for those corpses, was of such deep concern to men like Hector and Patroclus. Jeff RELATED IMAGES

THE STORY (50 minutes)   This episode traces the personal griefs of two bitter enemies:  Achilles, who has lost his best friend and soul mate, Patroclus; and King Priam, who has lost his son and his heir, Hector.  Both Achilles and Priam are inconsolable, until Zeus and Deadly Destiny unite them, under the roof of one tent. What transpires in that tent is truly remarkable. THE COMMENTARY:  WHAT HAPPENS NEXT & WHY DOES HOMER END THE ILIAD HERE? (19 minutes; begins at 50:00)   With this podcast episode I conclude telling those episodes of the Trojan War Epic which are found in Homer’s Iliad.  Trojan War: The Podcast will continue, of course, but without benefit of Homer’s remarkable text.  In this post story commentary I pause to address a question commonly asked by first-time readers through Homer’s Iliad:  why does Homer end his story with the funeral of Hector, when there are clearly so many “what happens next?” questions left to answer?  To wit:  what happens to Paris; to Helen; to Achilles; to the Greek army; to the city of Troy itself?  The beginning of an answer to this question starts by reminding my podcast listeners that Homer’s original audience (c. 700 B.C.E.) already knew the answer to every “what happens next” question.  The story of the Trojan War was the foundational cultural document of the Greeks, from the days of the war itself (c. 1250 B.C.E.) right up through Homer’s own time, and then for another seven centuries or so afterwards.  So when Homer constructed the Iliad, he did not have to worry about addressing questions of “what has already happened”, or questions of “what will happen afterwards”.  His audience already knew.  Instead, Homer could leap into his story in medias res (the middle of things) and then, 24 books later, leave his story still in medias res.  And since Homer could confidently assume his listeners knew the plot, he could instead focus his artistry on other concerns, namely character.  And so the Iliad has no intention of being the complete story of the Trojan War, but instead is the story of one man’s experience of a few short weeks during that war.  The Iliad is primarily the story of Achilles; of his transformative journey from the day he loses Briseis, through to that day on which he returns Hector’s body: a story that unfolds over a matter of mere weeks, in an epic that unfolds over decades.  Right from the Iliad’s opening lines, Homer makes his subject clear.  Homer opens not with the invocation: “Sing goddess, of the terrible Trojan War ….”, but instead with “Sing goddess, of the rage of Achilles …” (That Homer manages, through his story of Achilles, to accomplish so much more - to show us terrible/glorious war; to make us believe in the gods and Deadly Destiny; and to breathe compelling characters into life – well those accomplishments are simply additional testament to Homer’s storytelling art).   I conclude the post story commentary by noting that Trojan War:  The Podcast is not in the “great art” business, but rather in the more pedestrian “what happens next?” business.  And my own guiding rule, since way back in Episode One:  The Apple of Discord, is to respect that many of my listeners do not know “what happens next”.  So I have done my best to navigate, dance, bob and weave around all possible plot spoilers.  So, listen to Trojan War:  The Podcast for the fun of the story; but then go back to Homer’s Iliad for the pleasure of the art! Happy Listening, Jeff RELATED LINKS The History of Ancient Greece podcast Ancient Greece Declassified podcast Literature and History podcast RELATED IMAGES

THE STORY  (59 minutes)   With Hector dead, the desperate Trojans grasp on to increasingly ridiculous deus ex machina solutions to save their city from the Greeks.  And then old King Priam hatches the most hair-brained (or brilliant) scheme of them all….. THE COMMENTARY  HOW DID ACHILLES DIE and WHO KILLED HIM? (15 minutes; begins at 59:00)   With this podcast episode we leave behind Homer`s account of the Trojan War, and once again delve into that jambalaya of accounts, fragments, partial references and contradictory content that served as our source materials in Episodes One through Ten.   I remind listeners that the death of Achilles does not appear in Homer – though Homer clearly predicts it and even tells us who will kill Achilles (Paris), and even where Achilles will die (on the Trojan Plain).  I then raise the perennial and frustrating debate on whether or not Achilles was immune from physical injury.  I note that Homer’s Achilles is vulnerable to injury (a Trojan arrow draws blood in Book 21 of Iliad; and Achilles needs armour when entering battle).  But on the other hand, the Achilles of the River Styx story (you will recall that Thetis immersed her infant son in that river) is clearly immune from physical injury.  I note that a storyteller cannot have it both ways.  Either Achilles is immune, due to his Styx-dunking, or he is not immune.  I defend my personal storyteller choice of “immune Achilles” on the grounds that the Styx-dunking is an established and popular part of the Trojan War Epic canon, and in my view makes for a more satisfying story.  Homer, I note, did not include the Styx story, because it had not yet been written down (or even created?) until 100 A.C.E., by a writer named Statius (in The Achilleid).  Next I explore whether a poison arrow, if lodged into Achilles’ left heel, could have actually caused his death.  Here I cite The Trojan War: A New History, by Barry Strauss, 2006,  who argues “yes”. Finally, I confess that my “version” of the death of Achilles (via Priam’s plot to marry Achilles to his daughter Polyxena, and Paris’ assassination of Achilles in a temple of the god Apollo) holds together on the most gossamer of primary source threads.  But I invite (dare) storytellers to come up with a more plausible and satisfying account of Achilles’ death, given the paucity and contradictory nature of the surviving accounts.  I conclude by reviewing a series of “death of Achilles” accounts which I rejected in my version of the telling.  I conclude by inviting listeners to explore the source materials, and come up with their own best understanding of how Achilles died. Happy Listening, Jeff RELATED LINKS ACHILLES: MYTH VS REALITY by greekmythcomix WHY WAS PARIS SUCH AN UTTER PLONKER by greekmythcomix DEATHS IN THE ILIAD INFOGRAPH by greekmythcomix ACHILLES' LAST STAND by Led Zeppelin, live 1979 YOUTUBE RELATED IMAGES

THE STORY  (50:00 minutes)   A dispute over honour leads to a leadership shift (and a profound tragedy) in the Greek army.  Meanwhile, Paris Prince of Troy discovers that “nemesis” is a word of particularly Greek origin. THE COMMENTARY    THE OENONE STORY:  A PATRIARCHAL MARRIAGE PRIMER   (20 minutes; begins at 50:00)   I devote this post-story commentary to an exploration of the “Paris and Oenone” story.  I begin by reviewing the basic details of the story that seems to be agreed upon by all tellers down through the ages.  In short:  Paris is hit by Philoctetes’ poison arrow.  The Trojan priests discover that only the healing arts of a particular forest nymph can save Paris from painful and certain death.  Paris realizes that the nymph in question is Oenone, his former wife, who he abandoned some twelve or so years ago, having been promised (by Aphrodite) a much hotter and sexually obliging woman (Menelaus of Sparta’s wife Helen). At the time, Oenone had uttered some appropriately “fore shadowy” words: “Someday you will need me Paris…”.  Paris, now dying of aforementioned arrow wound, asks Oenone (either via an embassy acting on his behalf, or, in some accounts, in person) to save him and Oenone says something to the effect of:  “No.  Let your current wife save you.”  And Paris dies. I briefly review the minor variations in this basic plot line, including: embassy begs for Paris’ life; Paris goes to Mt. Ida and begs for his own life; Helen – can you believe it! – begs for Paris’ life; Oenone travels to Troy, where the full royal family begs for Paris’ life.  But I note that in all cases, Oeneon says “No”. Then I outline the scene that follows, and that appears in ALL versions of the story.  A scene, I note, that I find both implausible and deeply troubling.  In all accounts of the Oenone story, following her initial rejection of Paris’ plea for help, Oenone relents, and goes searching for Paris, in order to save his life.  And when she arrives too late, and finds Paris dead, Oenone, in all accounts, then takes her own life.  Oenone commits suicide: sometimes by throwing herself off of Troy’s walls, sometimes by hanging herself, but in most accounts by throwing herself into Paris’ arms as his dead body burns on the funeral pyre. I spend the balance of the post story commentary exploring why storytellers through the ages – from Classical Greek times up through Victorian England – seem to adore the image of Oenone throwing her live body into her faithless ex-husband’s dead arms.  And though I acknowledge that I cannot help but see the Oenone story through my own culture’s values lens, I then go on to make my case.  I argue that the Oenone suicide appears to be a patriarchal society’s “polemic” or “primer” on the appropriate behaviour of wives, even the wives of faithless (and profoundly inadequate) husbands.  Instead of a more plausible plot line – that Oenone, an immortal, ageless forest nymph, would have “gotten over” the loss of her faithless/clueless husband twelve years after he had walked out on her – we are expected to believe that Oenone, on seeing her ex-husband dead, would have responded, to quote Tennyson as follows: “ and all at once The morning light of happy marriage broke Thro’ all the clouded years of widowhood, And muffling up her comely head, and crying ‘Husband!’ she leapt upon the funeral pile, And mixt herself with him and past in fire.”   THE DEATH OF OENONE, 1829 I conclude the post-story commentary by reviewing the cultural values of Bronze Age and Classical Greek society concerning the appropriate roles and accepted behaviours of both married men and married women. And I highlight the profoundly double standard.  Finally I argue that Oenone, fulfilling her role in a “patriarchal primer story”, is required to suicide after she allows her husband Paris to die,

ODYSSEY: THE PODCAST - my 14 episode, 24 hour sequel to Trojan War: The Podcast - is now recorded and waiting for you. Subscribe through your usual podcast provider, or go to odysseythepodcast.com! THE STORY   (60 minutes) Odysseus finally decodes the cryptic prophecy that “Troy’s walls will never be destroyed by an enemy force”, then sets to work on implementing the most audacious - and famous - “con” in the history of war. THE COMMENTARY     WAS THERE EVER REALLY A TROJAN HORSE?  (20 minutes; begins at 1:00:06) I begin this post-story commentary with a definitive:  “Yes, there really was a Trojan Horse”.  Homer’s Odyssey (c. 750 BCE) and Virgil’s Aeneid (c. 20 BCE) both tell us that there really was a giant wooden horse, and that is good enough for me.  Both Homer and Virgil employ “eye-witness” accounts of the famous horse; Homer’s witnesses were men hidden in the horse’s hollow belly, while Virgil’s witnesses were Trojans on the ground.  I note that the “canonical” version of the Trojan Horse story comes to us not via Homer, (who only mentions the horse briefly in the Odyssey) but via Virgil (who offers a detailed and compelling complete version of the entire horse caper in Book Two of the Aeneid). Then I turn to the objections of the “wooden horse non-believers”. They fall into two broad camps.  Camp #1 argues that a wooden horse (as described by Homer and Virgil) could not have existed for logistical and mechanical reasons.  Folks in this camp first point out that it would have taken months to construct a horse of the size and “hollow belly capacity” required, and during those months the Trojans from their high walls would have had a clear view of the construction project taking place across the Trojan plain, and no doubt would have seen that the horse was hollow.  And, hence, would not have allowed it into their city.  The second argument in this camp is based on weight and mobility issues.  The gist of the argument goes something like this:  Bronze Age technology was incapable of constructing a structure large enough to house 30 soldiers, tall enough to be higher than Troy’s walls, but still mobile enough to be transported across the Trojan Plain, from construction site to those walls.  And therefore there could not have been a wooden horse as described in the canonical account. This leads us to Camp #2 of the “wooden horse non-believers”.    These folks generally base their arguments against the wooden horse on the belief that “Even the Trojans could not have been THAT stupid!” And therefore, whatever is was that destroyed Troy, and whatever you wish to call it, it was certainly NOT a large hollow wooden horse on wheels.  So what was the “real” Trojan Horse? The most popular argument is that the horse was simply a huge battering ram that somehow managed to affect a breach in Troy’s walls (or gates).  Apparently a contemporary Bronze Age culture (the Assyrians) routinely used battering rams in siege warfare – and this is intriguing – protected the soldiers doing the “ramming” by covering the battering rams in wet animal hides (horse hides anyone?).  Sometimes they even painted animal faces or images on to the rams (a horse face anyone?). So the Trojan “horse”, this argument concludes, was simply a gigantic, animal skin covered, possible painted, battering ram. The preceding theory, however, of necessity has to abandon the prophecy that “the walls of Troy will never be destroyed by an enemy force”.  So I prefer the following, much more elaborate, hypothesis. Archaeologists tell us that “Priam’s Troy” was most likely either Troy 6, or Troy 7a. Troy 6 was a large wealthy city destroyed c 1250 BCE; Troy 7a, a much smaller and less wealthy city, was destroyed by warfare and fire c 1184 BCE.  Now in this particular hypothesis, Troy 6 was Priam’s Troy.  And we know that Troy 6 was destroyed by an earthquake,

ODYSSEY: THE PODCAST - my 14 episode, 24 hour sequel to Trojan War: The Podcast - is now recorded and waiting for you. Subscribe through your usual podcast provider, or go to odysseythepodcast.com! THE STORY and A MESSAGE FROM JEFF WRIGHT  (1:39:53)   Odysseus confronts Priam, Menelaus confronts Helen, and Agamemnon confronts Fate and Deadly Destiny …. all on the night when the mighty city of Troy finally falls. And so, with the city of Troy in flames and the Greek fleet set sail across the wine dark seas for home, history’s most awesome epic  - the Trojan War Epic - comes to a close.  We have travelled a long way together in twenty episodes, from Episode One: The Apple of Discord to Episode Twenty: The Sack of Troy.   It has been my pleasure and privilege to be your storyteller and guide on that journey.  I have enjoyed sharing every wonderful moment with you.  And I have taken constant delight in (and energy from) your generous enthusiasm and support. Of course a story this awesome generates its own “what happens next?” questions, plus an wealth of new subplots and sequels. Fortunately for us, all of that "awesomeness" is now available for your podcast listening pleasure, at ODYSSEY: THE PODCAST. My sequel podcast picks up the story right where Trojan War pod leaves off, down on the burning beaches of Troy.  Odyssey: The Podcast tells all the tales found in Homer's Odyssey, of course, but also answers a host of "what happened next?" questions about Agamemnon, Menealus, Helen, and even the late, great Achilles! You can listen to all 24 hours (14 episodes) of Odyssey: The Podcast on whatever platform you listened to Trojan War pod, or via odysseythepodcast.com. In the meantime, let us stay in touch.  Should you wish to talk with me (to share ideas; to make suggestions; to offer insights; to invite me to speak/perform in your town), then the best way to reach me is via my professional email:  jeff@trojanwarpodcast.com.   And should you wish to make a donation ( to say "thanks" for the past 25 hours of fun!), then visit my Donate page on this website. My website jeffwrightstoryteller.com provides video footage from my live shows and details of my other projects.   If you take the time to write, I will do my level best to reply.  And should you wish to keep posted on my plans, then you might want to follow my Facebook page:  Trojan War: The Podcast.  That is where I will post updates on my podcast and public performance plans going forward.  And if you subscribe to my Twitter feed, @trojanwarpod, I promise to deliver some fun tweets on all things Trojan War and Odyssey.. So once again, thank you for listening.  A great story requires a great audience, and you have been wonderful.    Jeff   RELATED LINKS   RELATED IMAGES