Numbers of the Trojan War

The Trojan War was the war that lasted TEN years and was caused by ONE face that launched a THOUSAND ships. It was the battlefield of Achilles and Hector, the stage for great kings such as Priam and Agamemnon and the location of what was possibly sly Odysseus's greatest triumph.

Aeneas Flees Fallen Troy

But there are lots of numbers in the story of the Trojan War, told in Homer's great work of poetry and the first western story, the Iliad. Below are some of these numbers and their significance to the story of ancient Greece's greatest victory.

1. THREE - The judgement of Paris is often used to explain the causes of the Trojan War. In the myth, Eris, goddess of strife and discord, after not being invited to the wedding of Achilles parents, bought a golden apple to the event and said it should only be awarded to the most beautiful goddess there. Hera, Athena and Aphrodite all claimed the apple, Zeus not wishing to offend any of them, declared that Paris, a trojan prince, should judge. After various inducements, he gave the apple to Aphrodite after she promised him the love of the most beautiful women in the world, Helen, the wife of Spartan King Menelaus. 
2. ONE - When the suitors of Helen could not describe who should be awarded her hand in marriage, it was clever Odysseus alone that came up with the idea that all her suitors should swear an oath to support and defend the marriage, regardless of which suitor was chosen. 
3. TWENTY EIGHT - The number of contingents from mainland Greece that sent ships to the war in support of Agamemnon and Menelaus. 
4. ONE THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED - The number of ships that Thucydides records as making up the Greek army in his History of the Peloponnesian War Book One Chapter Ten.
5. FIFTEEN - The number of Trojan allies listed in the second book of the Iliad, ultimately led by Hector the Prince of Troy.
6. NINE - The number of years that the Greeks besieged Troy for. This period is little recorded in myth or tales in favour of the exciting and bloody final year of the war. 
7. ELEVEN and TWELVE - The number of cities and islands that Homer records as Achilles conquering in the first book of the Iliad.
8. TWELVE - The number of days that Achilles abused the body of Hector after he had killed him in single combat. It was only after the gods intervened and only after Priam, led by Hermes, came to recover his son's body personally, that Achilles relented and returned the body. 
9. TWO - The number of people who advised against keeping the gift of the Trojan Horse. Cassandra, who had the gift of prophesy but was cursed never to be believed, and Laocoon who along with his two sons was eaten by serpents from the sea. 
10. EIGHT - The number of years it took for Menelaus to return home from Troy, with Helen in tow completely forgiven, his wife and queen again. 

The Laocoon from The Vatican Museum

It seems a shame after TEN years and a THOUSAND ships, that the story should end with Helen returning home to Sparta, the ONE wife and queen of the very man she had run away from in the first place. But, who doesn't love a happy ending?

Thanks for Reading

James