The Trojan War: Roman History Story Time ESL Listening

(TESOL Worksheets--Roman History, Story Time ESL Listening)

Worksheet: docs, pub
Video: HERE (Based off of an old paper I wrote HERE--The Trojan War can be considered Roman History if you include the mythology that the Romans were descended from the refugees of Troy).

Watch the Video: https://youtu.be/6porE2TqFHE

The Trojan War Roman History 1194–1184 BC

More than half of all surviving Greek literature is written about it. It has been the subject of a Shakespeare play and many Hollywood movies. From it we get such phrases as “Achille's heel”, “Cassandra complex”,  and “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts”, and also words like “Pander”. It is, of course, the Trojan War.

The Greeks never tired of hearing the stories of courageous heroes and their mighty deeds in battle. Yet the modern reader often has trouble getting involved in the story. A ten year war over one unfaithful wife? And you thought the Vietnam War was pointless! Could the ancients really be so barbaric as to glorify such a war?

Until recently, the Trojan War was thought to be nothing more than a myth. How could a war in which gods fought alongside mortals, horses could speak, and heroes performed impossible acts even have a remote element of truth? Thanks to the work of amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, we now know that, like most other myths, the Trojan War has its basis in truth.

According to ancient legend, the city of Troy was built by two of the gods. Today, archaeologists refer to this city as Troy VII, the seventh city built on that location. The ancient Greeks had many reasons to attack the Trojans. The Trojans dominated the Greeks in trade. They also stood as a barrier to further eastward expansion, and they controlled valuable land and water routes.

Fear of the Trojans kept the Greeks in check for years, but events eventually changed. An earthquake devastated Troy, and the Hittite empire, Troy’s strongest ally, disintegrated. The Greeks seized their chance. For whatever reason they finally went to war against Troy, they needed little provocation. Perhaps the story of Helen has a little truth in it after all.

After the war ended, the Greeks returned home, but they had only a brief moment of peace. They were themselves attacked and besieged by the Dorians. The Greeks, still in the bronze age, were no match for the Dorians. One by one, the Greek cities fell until only Athens was left.

Eventually the Dorian invaders became absorbed by the Greeks, but the entire Greek world, exhausted, isolated, and fragmented, collapsed into economic depression and political instability. The Greeks longed for the good old days, and poets nostalgically sang about the heroes of old. And so this almost insignificant war, which otherwise might have been totally forgotten by history, became the most famous conflict of all time.

However, as circumstances changed, the view of the story changed too.  During the  Peloponnesian War, the war-weary Greeks began to look at the whole Trojan War as a tragedy and senseless loss of life.  Plays like The Trojan Women emphasized the senselessness of the war.

Eventually the legend of Troy passed on to other cultures, who didn't have the same historical connection to it, and the war was viewed differently yet again. The Romans believed that they were descended from the Trojans, and Roman epics glorified Aeneas, one of the Trojan heroes.

After the Romans, many medieval and renaissance authors continued the story of Troy.  A popular medieval story featured two doomed lovers in Troy: Troilus and Cressida.  It was later adapted into a play by William Shakespeare.

For all of these reasons, the Trojan War has undergone many different interpretations throughout the years.