MYTHS and legends/MITOS y leyendas The Cultural Influence of the Legend of the Trojan War Ian Jonston reason for the extraordinary popularity and fecundity of the story of the Trojan War is the unquestioned quality and authority of these two great poems, even though they tell only a small part of the total narrative and were for a long time unavailable in Western Europe (after they were lost to the West, they did not appear until the fifteenth century). The Iliad was the inspiration for the archaeological work of Schliemann in the nineteenth century, a search which resulted in the discovery of the site of Troy at Hissarlik, in modern Turkey. 2. The Greek tragedians, we know from the extant plays and many fragments, found in the story of the Trojan War their favorite material, focusing especially on the events after the fall of the city. Aeschylus's famous trilogy, The Oresteia (Agamemnon, Choephoroi [Libation Bearers], and Eumenides [The Kindly Ones]), tells of the murder of Agamemnon and Cassandra by Clytaemnestra and Aegisthus, the revenge of Orestes, and the trial for the matricide. Both Sophocles and Euripides wrote plays about Electra, and Euripides also wrote a number of plays based on parts the larger story: The Trojan Women, The Phoenissae, Orestes, Helen, and Iphigeneia in Tauris (see 21 and 22 above). Sophocles also wrote Philoctetes (see 16) and Ajax (see 15) on events in the Trojan War. 3. Greek philosophers and historians used the Trojan War as a common example to demonstrate their own understanding of human conduct. So Herodotus and Thucydides, in defining their approach to the historical past, both offer an analysis of the origins of the war. Plato's Republic uses many parts of Homer's epics to establish important points about political wisdom (often citing Homer as a negative example). Alexander the Great carried a copy
of the Iliad around with him in a special Ian Johnston was born in Valparaiso, royal casket which he Chile, and raised in Canada and had captured from DaGreat Britain. He has a BSc in Georius, King of the Perlogy and Chemistry (McGill), a BA sians. in English and Greek (Bristol), and Ian Johnston 4. The Romans also an MA in English (Toronto). For (http://records.viu.ca/~joh adopted the story. many years he taught English, nstoi/index.htm Their most famous Classics, and Liberal Studies in a epic, Virgil's Aeneid, British Columbia college and unitells the story of Aeversity-colleges (now Vanouver Island University). He has published the Ironies of War, a study of Homer s Iliad and a neas (see 23). And in number of translations of classic Greek works (the latter are the middle ages, the available from Richer Resources Publications). Recordings of Renaissance, and right his translations of the Iliad, the Odyssey, and Beyond Good and up to the present day, Evil have been produced by Naxos Audiobooks. His web page writers have retold (http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/index.htm) contains a number parts of the ancient of his translations, handbooks, lectures, and essays. At present story. These adaptahe is retired and living in Nanimo, British Columbia. tions often make significant changes in the presentation of particular late fifteenth century. characters, notably Achilles, who in 5. For the past two hundred years there many versions becomes a knightly lover, has been a steady increase in the popuand Odysseus/Ulysses, who is often a larity of Homer's poems (and other major villain. Ulysses) and Diomedes works dealing with parts of the legend) appear in Dante's Inferno. Of particular translated into English. Thus, in addition note are Chaucer's and Shakespeare's to the various modern adaptations of treatments of the story of Troilus and parts of the total legend of the Trojan Cressida. war (e.g., Brad Pitt's Troy), the ancient Modern writers who have drawn on the versions are still very current. literary tradition of this ancient cycle of stories include Sartre (The Flies), O'Neill (Mourning Becomes Electra), Giradoux James Joyce’s indirect monologue and (Tiger at the Gates), Joyce (Ulysses), musical language supposed a literary Eliot, Auden, and many others. In addirevolution as well as his peculiar way of tion, the story has formed the basis for developing action (happening inside the minds operas and ballets, and the story of of the characters). During his last years, he wrote “Finnegans Wake”, Odysseus has been made into a minia tremendous and mysterious book where he exseries for television. This tradition is a perimented with words, combining several lancomplicated one, however, because guages and a web of psychological and historical many writers, especially in Medieval concepts. times, had no direct knowledge of the El monólogo indirecto libre y lenguaje Greek sources and re-interpreted the musical de James Joyce supusieron una details in very non-Greek ways (e.g., revolución literaria, así como su particular Dante, Chaucer, and Shakespeare). Homanera de desarrollar la acción, siempre dentro de la mente de los protagonistas. mer's text, for example, was generally Durante sus últimos años, escribió “Finnegans unknown in Western Europe until the
Ian Johnston
ULYSSES (VII)
Wake”, un libro genial y misterioso donde experimenta con las palabras combinando varios idiomas y una red de conceptos históricos y psicológicos.
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