The Fall of Troy According to Virgil

In book II of the Aeneid, Virgil depicts the fall of Troy as Aeneas tells his tale. Aeneas begins his story as the Greeks have constructed a giant horse. This was clearly an indication for the end of the war as there were no sign of the Greeks. However, this was a malicious trick by the Greeks as soldiers were in the hollow belly of the horse. At night, when the Trojans had fallen asleep, the Greek soldiers hidden in the horse came out, opened the gates, and gave the signal to the main army. Consequently, the war ends with the destruction of Troy and the flee of the Trojans. In this paper, I will try to discuss the primary reason for the fall of Troy.

In any war there are usually many causes for victory or loss. These causes could be economic, military power, state's defenses, strategic powers and even the will to win. In the Aeneid, the causes could be either the human factor, or the gods' factor or even both. However, what we see essential in the fall of Troy and the whole war is the strict interference of the gods. From the beginning, even though it is not part of the Aeneid, we see the interference of the gods as Helen falls in love with the handsome Paris with the help of Aphrodite. Even though Helen is married to one of the most powerful king of Greece she cannot help but fall in love with Paris. Later on we see another episode of the interference of the gods when Laocoon, a Trojan priest, threw a spear at the horse that was left on the gates of Troy. Shortly after twin snakes came across the sea and ate his sons at the altar. Then they attacked and ate Laocoon and came to rest at the altar of Minerva. This prompted the Trojans to think that the Gods want the horse to be led into the city. As the events advance we see the destruction of Troy as the gods are watching and manipulating every character like a pawn in a chess game. As Troy is being destroyed, Aeneas wakes up by a vision of Hector who tells him to flee from Troy. Aeneas sees the destruction of Troy and dashes to fight the Greeks as Venus tries to rescue her son from getting killed on the hands of the Greeks. The Gods' intervention is very lucid when Venus convinces Aeneas not to hold Helen or Paris accountable for Troy's downfall but to blame "the harsh will of the gods" (Book II, line 792).

If indeed, we take out the intervention of the gods factor then we will see that Helen would not have fallen in love with Paris and this whole war would not have started. Even, if the war started, the Trojans would not have accepted the wooden horse and Troy would not have been sacked or fell to the Greek soldiers

From my perspective, I believe that Troy fell because of the constant interference of the gods. Undoubtedly, this war would not have started without the will of the gods and wouldn't have ended without them either. I also believe that Virgil tries to diminish the human effect to reduce the blame on either sides of the war. In other words, the reader of this epic cannot really blame either the Greeks for winning or the Trojans for loosing but they both earn our sympathy if not our respect. Virgil cannot diminish the Trojans because in the epic, the Trojans are the founding fathers of Rome. I think this is very apparent when Virgil explains that not all the Trojans believed that the horse was a gift. This is clear when Laocoon throws a spear at the horse. Moreover, he goes in details about the reasons for the acceptance of the horse within the walls of Troy. In some sense, Virgil tries to explain that the Trojans did not really loose everything but they won their ancestors land where they will be the glory of a new empire.

In this paper I showed that Troy fell due to the intervention of the gods. Without their intervention, Troy would not have been sacked. Moreover, I showed that if we take the divine element the war would not have started or ended the way it did. I also showed the motif of the author to minimize the human factor so the reader can respect both parties of the war.

Bibliograph:

Virgil. The Aeneid. Vintage; Reissue edition (June 16, 1990)