The Siege Of Troy

In this perceptive retelling of The Iliad, a young Greek teacher draws on the enduring power of myth to help her students cope with the terrors of Nazi occupation. Bombs fall over a Greek village during World War II, and a teacher takes her students to a cave for shelter. There she tells them about another war—when the Greeks besieged Troy. Day after day, she recounts how the Greeks suffer from thirst, heat, and homesickness, and how the opponents meet—army against army, man against man. Helmets are cleaved, heads fly, blood flows. And everything had begun when Prince Paris of Troy fell in love with King Menelaus of Sparta's wife, the beautiful Helen, and escaped with her to his homeland. Now Helen stands atop the city walls to witness the horrors set in motion by her flight. When her current and former loves face each other in battle, she knows that, whatever happens, she will be losing. Theodor Kallifatides provides remarkable psychological insight in his version of The Iliad, downplaying the role of the gods and delving into the mindsets of its mortal heroes. Homer's epic comes to life with a renewed urgency that allows us to experience events as though firsthand, and reveals timeless truths about the senselessness of war and what it means to be human.

It was the Age of Heroes Valiant warriors like Hector, Ajax, wily Odysseus, and brave Achilles, their exploits in battle, their secret passions and hidden strengths, their friendships and rivalries -these are what legends are made of. It began with a stolen kiss and the abduction of the beautiful Helen, wife of a king. Diplomacy gave way to insults, and soon it fell to Agamemnon to restore the honor of his brother, Menelaus of Sparta, by leading an army of heroes to the gates of the enemy fortress. Combat raged for nine years, neither side able to dominate the other. Until a brave Spartan dreamed up a desperate and daring gambit that just might turn the tide of battle in Sparta's favor. Intrigue, deception, betrayal, and the love of a woman whose face launched a thousand ships brought two great armies to war. The place was Troy . . . and this is the epic story known as The Iliad. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The author of I, Claudius reimagines the Trojan War for the young reader. “The writing is clear, straightforward, and, in places, poetic” (Kirkus Reviews). The Iliad has it all: war, corruption, greed, power, and the passions of both gods and men. In this detailed retelling, Robert Graves draws the major characters of this timeless classic in broad, gritty strokes, making Agamemnon, Paris, Odysseus, and others accessible for young readers. Written with a younger audience in mind, The Siege and Fall of Troy is nevertheless exhaustively researched and compelling enough to be of interest to both students of history and adult readers. With humor, wit, and energy, Graves is expert at weaving a story based on exhaustive scholarly research and deep imaginative prowess.

After the destruction of the city of Atlantis, Corydon is in a selfimposed exile. Clearly his presence only puts his friends in danger. And so he hides out in the desert, tending to goats and camels, keeping his friends safe by staying away. But, as ever, the gods of Olympos have other plans. Now the city of Troy is under siege, and Corydon’s friends are trapped inside. And so Corydon reluctantly joins them, hoping to help, and fearing that it is he that will tip the scales against them. In this thrilling conclusion to the trilogy about the gods and monsters of ancient Greece, Corydon knows that it will be up to him to thwart the mighty Zeus if the others are to live. At what cost will he buy their freedom?

The story of Troy speaks to all of us - the kidnapping of Helen, a queen celebrated for her beauty, sees the Greeks launch a thousand ships against the city of Troy, to which they will lay siege for ten whole years. It is a terrible war with casualties on all sides as well as strained relations between allies, whose consequences become tragedies. In Troy you will find heroism and hatred, love and loss, revenge and regret, desire and despair. It is these human passions, written bloodily in the sands of a distant shore, that still speak to us today.

The story of Helen and the judgement of Paris, of the gathering Heroes and the seige of Troy; of Achilles and his vulnerable heel, reared by the Centaur on wild honey and the marrow of lions; of Odysseus, the last of the Heroes, his plan for the wooden Horse and his many adventures on his long journey home to Greece. Also contains a beautiful introduction by best-selling author Michelle Paver, and additional endmatter including an author profile, who's who, activities, glossary and more.

This edited volume analyses siege warfare as a discrete type of military engagement, in the face of which civilians are particularly vulnerable. Siege warfare is a form of combat that has usually had devastating effects on civilian populations. From the near-contemporary Siege of Sarajevo to the real and mythical sieges of the ancient Mediterranean, this has been a recurring type of military engagement which, through bombardment, starvation, disease and massacre, places non-combatants at the heart of battle. To date, however, there has been little recognition of the effects of siege warfare on civilians. This edited volume addresses this gap. Using a distinctive regressive method, it begins with the present and works backwards, avoiding teleological interpretations that suggest the targeting of civilians in war is a modern phenomenon. Its contributors interrogate civilians’ roles during sieges, both as victims and active participants; the laws and customs of siege warfare; its place in historical memory, and the ways civilian survivors have dealt with trauma. Its scope and content ensure that the collection is essential reading for all those interested in the place of civilians in war. Chapter 2 of this book is available open access under a CC BY 4.0 license at link.springer.com