The Aftermath of the Trojan War

The Oresteia

Agamemnon’s wife, Clytemnestra, holds a grudge against her husband for sacrificing their daughter Iphigenia at the start of the Trojan War. While Agamemnon is away fighting in Troy, Clytemnestra takes Aegisthus as her lover. When Agamemnon returns from Troy to Mycenae, carrying Pram’s daughter Cassandra as his captive, Clytemnestra and Aegis thus kill both of them. Agamemnon’s son Orestes returns from exile and conspires with his sister Electra to kill their mother and her lover to avenge their father. The three immortal Furies haunt Orestes for his matricide, but Apollo eventually forgives him.

The Odyssey

On the island of Ithaca, Odysseus’s wife, Penelope, awaits his return from the Trojan War. She is beset by many suitors but fends them off by explaining that she cannot remarry until she finishes weaving a burial shroud for her father-in-law, Laertes. To stall for time, Penelope secretly undoes each day’s weaving each night. Her son, Telemachus, sets off to search for his father, who is on the way home from Troy.

Although aided by Athena, Odysseus and his crew endure many perils at sea, including a confrontation with the giant Cyclops Polyphemus. Odysseus escapes Polyphemus by getting him drunk and then blinding him. When the Cyclops asks Odysseus’s name, Odysseus responds, “Nobody,” cunningly avoiding blame for the monster’s blinding. As he sails away, however, Odysseus reveals his name to the Cyclops and incurs the wrath of Polyphemus’s father, Poseidon, who hinders Odysseus for the rest of his journey.

The nymph Calypso imprisons Odysseus for seven years. Odysseus then has to pass through waters menaced by the irresistibly seductive Sirens. His men are turned to swine under the spell of the goddess Circe. Odysseus resists Circe’s magic but stays on her island as her lover for a year before she gives him directions to Ithaca.

At last, when Odysseus lands on Ithaca, he disguises himself as a begger and engages with the suitors in a contest for Penelope’s hand. In the contest, only the man able to bend the bow of Odysseus wins the right to marry Penelope. Odysseus wins the contest, reveals his true identity, and, with Telemachus’s help, slaughters the suitors to reclaim his wife and home.

The Aeneid

The Trojan warrior Hector visits Aeneas, another great Trojan warrior and a son of Aphrodite, in a dream and tells Aeneas that he must found a new city for the household gods of Troy. Aeneas escapes as Troy burns and sets off with a band of his countrymen.

After years of wandering, terrorized by the goddess Hera, they land at Carthage on the north coast of Africa. The queen and founder of Carthage, Dido, is struck by the arrow of Eros and falls in love with Aeneas. He stays with her for the winter, but when Hermes delivers a message from Zeus reminding Aeneas of his duty to found a new city in Italy, Aeneas abandons Dido, who, grief-stricken, commits suicide.

In Italy, Aeneas wages war against the local chieftain Turnus for the hand of Lavinia, princess of Latium. With the help of local allies, the Trojans defeat Turnus and assume authority over Latium, establishing a royal line from which Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, descend.