Tuesday, June 8, 2010

How Achilles was dragged into the Trojan war


The story around the Trojan war was once built upon a large tradition of epics where the Iliad and Odyssey was only two of many (even thou they were considered the greatest already during antiquity). It might be mentioned in this context that the Iliad only tell the tale of how Achilles was angered by Agamemnon, the Greek leader. neither the start of the war, nor the end is mentioned.

This mosaic depicts one of these other stories. It is said that Thetis, the mother of Achilles, hid her son in the house of Lykomedes where he was dressed a s girl to make sure that he never went to Troy to face his doom. Here you see the moment when the cunning Odyssey come in and manage to trick Achilles into revealing himself and thus forcing him to join the Greeks.

Mosaic form Kourion, the 3rd century AD.

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