Speech for History class

1.Introduction

Hello? my name is kim sung jin and I'm going to explain about difference between Histories and Iliad's explanation about Trojan war. First I will talk about content of iliad, Second about Trojan war version Histories, third, about difference, and lastly about my opinion.

 

2. Iliad - Trojan war

Iliad, it is version of Greek mythology, and also Iliad is the most famous one. When we ask people to explain about Trojan war, most people will answer about content of iliad. About Iliad, iliad is a part of original version of Greek mythology about Trojan war. It is actually explanation of last year of Trojan war.

There was a party of god, but goddess whose name is Eris was not invited. Eris was angry so she planed to mess up the party. She threw golden apple written 'to the most beautiful goddess'. Hera, Athena, Aprodite both insisted that it was apple for herself. Zeus ordered prince of troy, Paris to decide it. All three goddess offered privilege to Paris, Paris chose Aprodite, who offered him the most beautiful woman in the world - who was Helen, queen of sparta. Paris kidnapped Helen, which led to Trojan war. Greek sent armies to Troy to conquer. Beginning of the war is not that important. At the middle of the war, Iliad story starts. Agamemnon mocked omen of Apollo, whose daughter became prisoner of Argamemmnon so trying to get his daughter back. Apollo was mad so he mad plague happen to Greeks. Agamemnon agreed on sending his daughter back, but he took prisoner of Achilles which made Achilles angry so Achilles do not participated on war. Achilles did not participated for long time, but he found that Hector killed patroclus, who was his close friend. He wanted to revenge to Hector, so he participated on war and killed Hector and took the corpse to his barrack. King of troy, who was father of Hector, went to Achilles and bring corpse of Hector back. At here Iliad story ends. About end of the war, Odysseus made wooden horse, inside there were Greek armies. Trojans take horse inside the castle, and Troy was conquered. This wooden horse is so famous that there is virus named Troy horse. This is end of version of iliad and now I will explain about version of Herodotus explained.

 

3. Histories - Trojan war

Content of Histories is very different from Iliad. It is a little simple. I think Herodotus didn't think Trojan war was major thing.

Paris, kidnapped Helen. But unfortunately, storm came and Paris accidentally arrived to Egypt. Slaves of Paris, ran away and said everything what Paris done to king of Egypt. King ordered to Paris to leave all treasures and Helen at Egypt and go away in 3 days. Greek, who didn't know where Helen actually was, sent armies to Troy. Greek asked for Helen back and also make compensation by treasure. Trojans, said there wasn't Helen and to find Helen, go to Egypt. Trojans even sweared it, but Greek thought it was false so Trojans were teasing them so Greek conquered Troy. Greeks found that there wasn't Helen and heard same story about Helen, so they realized and moved to Egypt. Menelaus, found Helen there and very happy. But, at Egypt, Menelaus did very bad thing. Storm came again, so Menelaus could not go back to sparta. He was very pleased to go back to his home, so he sacrificed two Egyptian kid. Egyptian got very angry so they tried to kill Menelaus. Menelaus barely ran away to Lydia.

 

4. Difference

I want to talk about different between Histories and Iliad. There is two thing which are same, first Paris kidnapped Helen, second as consequence of it, Trojan war began and Troy was conquered. But there are many different points between two. First, at Iliad, Paris went back to Troy, but at Histories, because of storm he accidentally arrived to Egypt. Second, as consequence of First point, at Histories, there wasn't Helen at Troy. Third, at Histories, there are no heroes or gods like Achiles, Hector, Menelaus, Apollo, Zeus fighting for many years at Troy. Histories just mention that Greek conquered Troy. Fourth, we can guess that Trojan war didn't actually take so long time because Egyptian might send people to tell Menelaus that Helen is at Egypt, but Menelaus didn't know about it. He found that fact after he conquered Troy. Lastly, there are many explanation why Trojan war actually began like Greek wanted to conquer aroudn the world, or Troy was rich, but Histories, Menelaus had war because he wanted to have Helen back. When beginning of the war, Greek first requested Trojans to give Helen back and satisfaction of their mental damage. Also, after conquering Trojans, Menelaus found Helen was at Egypt so he went to Egypt, which he didn't really cared about conquering Troy.

 

5. My opinion & Conclusion

Now I want to talk about my opinion. I think, story of Histories is more trustable. there are some reasons why I think Histories is more trustable. First, no king in the world will have war for their son's love. If I was Priam, I would send Helen to sparta back as soon as possible. Who would have war for on love? Also, Paris was not that important prince. He wasn't a successor. His brother, Hector would be a next king. Second, Iliad, is little like a fantasy. There are gods fighting each other, and there are also unbeatable heroes like Achilles, who don't die unless he do not damage his feet. These was reason why I think Histories is more reasonable.

 

Thank you for listening.