Trojans

The Trojans are the inhabitants of Troy, the wealthy and well-walled city in the Troad whose ten-year siege by the Achaeans provides the foundational event of the Homeric epic tradition. In the Odyssey, the war against Troy is already over, but its consequences saturate the narrative: the Trojan prince Paris abducted Helen, wife of Menelaus, triggering the conflict; the city was finally sacked through the stratagem of the wooden horse; and the returning Achaean heroes, including Odysseus, suffered prolonged hardships because of the gods' anger over the war's excesses. The Trojans thus function as the absent enemy whose defeat both enables and complicates the homecoming of the Greek warriors.

Identity and Role in the Poem

The Trojans are consistently portrayed as formidable opponents. Odysseus recalls that "the Trojans fight well both with bow and spear" and are "excellent also at fighting from chariots" . Their city, Troy, is repeatedly called "the famous town of Troy" and "the great city of king Priam" , emphasizing its wealth and importance. The Trojans are not merely a collective enemy but include named individuals who appear in the memories of the characters: the prophet Helenus, the warrior Deiphobus, and the aged king Priam himself. The poem also acknowledges that the Trojans had their own gods and oracles; Apollo had foretold the quarrel between Odysseus and Achilles that would begin the chain of events leading to the city's fall .

The Trojans as Victims of War

While the Odyssey is told from the Greek perspective, it does not entirely suppress the Trojan experience of suffering. When Demodocus sings of the sack of Troy, Odysseus weeps "as a woman weeps when she throws herself on the body of her husband who has fallen before his own city and people, fighting bravely in defence of his home and children" . The simile compares Odysseus's grief to that of a Trojan woman being carried into slavery, momentarily aligning the Greek hero with the enemy's loss. Helen herself, speaking in Menelaus's palace, says that the Trojan women "made lamentation" for the men Odysseus killed during his spy mission inside the city . The poem thus acknowledges the human cost of the war on both sides.

The Trojans as Foil to Greek Civilization

The Trojans serve as a cultural foil in several episodes. When Odysseus encounters the Cyclopes, he notes that they "have no laws nor assemblies of the people, but live in caves on the tops of high mountains" , a description that implicitly contrasts with the ordered city-life of both Greeks and Trojans. The Cyclopes' lack of ships and agriculture marks them as more savage than either side in the Trojan War. Similarly, the Laestrygonians are described as "ogres, not men" who throw rocks and eat Greeks raw, a barbarism that surpasses even the fiercest Trojan warrior. These monstrous peoples define the limits of civilization, with Troy representing the highest form of non-Greek urban culture—wealthy, organized, and worthy of a ten-year war.

The Trojans in the Underworld and in Prophecy

In the underworld, the ghost of Agamemnon tells Odysseus that he heard the Trojan princess Cassandra scream as Clytemnestra killed her , a reminder that the war's violence extended to non-combatants and continued after the fall of the city. The prophet Teiresias warns Odysseus that if his men harm the cattle of the Sun, they will be destroyed, and even if Odysseus himself escapes, he will return "in bad plight after losing all your men" and find trouble in his house . This prophecy echoes the fate of the Trojans: just as they lost their city through the transgression of Paris, so Odysseus's men will lose their lives through their own folly. The Trojans thus serve as a cautionary example of how divine anger can destroy even a great city.

The Trojans as a Memory and a Warning

Throughout the Odyssey, the Trojans are less a present force than a persistent memory. The suitors in Ithaca are compared unfavorably to the Trojans: they waste Odysseus's estate without the excuse of war, and their behavior is more disgraceful than that of any enemy. When Odysseus finally kills them, he declares that they have "feared neither God nor man" , a charge that echoes the Trojans' own impiety in harboring Paris. The poem thus uses the Trojans as a moral benchmark: even the enemy in war observed certain codes of hospitality and respect for the gods, while the suitors violate every norm. The Trojans, though defeated, retain a kind of dignity in the Odyssey as a great people who fought bravely and suffered terribly, their fate a warning to all who would defy divine law.