Aftermath of the Trojan War
The Trojan War having lasted eleven years with massive casualties on both the Greek and Trojan sides, was a complicated entanglement of people and plots impossible to keep straight and its aftermath was much the same. This article attempts to answer the question of what happened to the survivors once the war ended.
According to Greek mythology the aftermath of the Trojan War was almost as bloody and destructive as the war itself. The total annihilation of Troy by the victorious Greeks and the slaughter of its people, including the torture of men, rape of women and murder of children, was such a callous and cold-blooded act that the gods themselves were outraged and determined that severe punishment was necessary for the atrocities the Greeks had committed. So it was, that once they had departed from Troy to return to their own countries, misfortune and tragedy followed them.
Manic Violence
Seemingly driven mad by the war itself, (which had taken 11 years to reach an end), and the newfound power of their position as victors, the Achaeans unleashed a terrible wrath upon the city on its final night. All buildings were set on fire and burned to the ground. There was indiscriminate slaughter throughout the land. The Achaeans swarmed the streets, forcibly entered homes, and even desecrated temples, killing people randomly as their rampage continued. Their rioting and looting did not stop with morning light. Some people had managed to remain hidden during the night, thinking that morning would bring safety with it, but these people were discovered and murdered as well in broad daylight.
The Trojan Royal Family
The members of the Trojan royal family, terrified beyond description by the violence surrounding them, escaped to the temples hoping to find protection there, but it was futile. The Achaeans respected neither their priests nor their gods. They only knew the power of their own hatred for the enemy.
In what became a systematic slaughter, Priam was henceforth killed by Neoptolemus at the alter of Zeus, and Cassandra, who had sought refuge in the shrine of Athena, was found clinging desperately to a wooden image and dragged away from the temple by Ajax who then raped her. Deiphobus, who had married Helen after the death of Paris, was captured by Menelaus who took revenge by torturing him to death, cutting his ears, arms, nose and other body parts off.
Later, their quest for vengeance almost over, the Achaeans divided the captives of royal blood among them: Helen was returned to Menelaus, who planned to kill her, but was so captivated by her seductive beauty that he spared her life. Polyxena was given to Neoptolemus, who slashed her throat on Achilles’ grave. Cassandra was in turn given to Agamemnon. Neoptolemus received Andromache, and Hecabe was given to Odysseus. However, she could not tolerate the idea of enslavement and so cursed the Achaeans in such vile ways that in the end she was stoned to death. And even Astyanax, son of Hector, was thrown down from the battlements to his death.
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