Greek Victorys In The Trojan War

In stories, such as The Iliad by Homer and The Life of Themistocles by Plutarch, two Greek characters were highly recognized as crucial to the Greek victories. In the Iliad, the character Odysseus took a great role in the victories that led to winning the long 10 years Trojan War. In the Life of Themistocles, Plutarch describes how Themistocles also played a large role in the Greek victory in defeating the Persians. These two leaders, in comparison, were both men of intellect. They often used many strategies that consisted of persuasion and trickery. In contrast, they were different in terms of their motivation behind being leaders From the beginning of their early life, it is easily distinguishable how different these two characters were and how different they were going to be leaders. Themistocles was born into a middle-class family. He was the son of Necole, who came from the Lycomid, an aristocratic family. His mom, however, was not a Greek person so she was considered an alien. (Plutarch 1). Being born into this family, he had to work for what he wanted in life. Making him vulnerable to crave power and the reputation that he didn’t have before (Plutarch 3). On the other hand, Odysseus was born in a wealthy and royal family. He was the son Laertes, King of Ithaca. A descendant of Hermes, the son of Zeus and Pleiad Maia. Being born into such family, he had been bound to have high expectations and to become a leader just as his father was. This meaning that in comparison with Themistocles, he had all that he wanted, he was wealthy therefore he didn’t need to crave the power he was born into. In contrast, as a leader, his motivation behind being a leader was to be a good leader to help his fellow soldiers. During their active leadership in their teams during the war, they were very similar in terms of using their intellect. They used many smart strategies, which most often were persuasion and trickery to get what they wanted and to bring their city to victory. …show more content…
Odysseus wanted to defeat the Trojans because he actually wanted to win the battle. Odysseus had a lot of ideas and became part of the action that took place during the Trojan War. As a soldier, Odysseus had at first convinced Achilles to join the Greeks to fight the Trojan War, as he was told that Achilles was an essential part of the team to be able to defeat Troy. The Greeks were later told by Kalchos that the Greeks would gain victory if three things were done (Iliad Book 2). Essentially, Odysseus did all the things that had to be done, however, the Greeks still had not defeated the Trojans which led to his idea. Lastly, his persuasion helped end the Trojan war when he had to idea of the wooden horse, his idea was to hide warriors inside the wooden horse to go in Troy and attack everyone in the city. His plan was a success, the Trojans at the end were mostly slaughtered (The Odyssey Book 4). In other words, he persuaded his people that his idea was going to help destroy the Trojans, to then build the horse and trick the Trojans into thinking the wooden horse was a gift from that meant the greeks had surrendered and were a gift from a goddess. This emphasizing how Odysseus was as a leader, he took large parts in the success of the victory and showing how intelligent he was. This makes Odysseus use of intelligence in terms of strategies similar to Themistocles. Themistocles approaches in the war against the Persians were mostly based on Naval power. As an archon, he was credited with the creation of the Piraeus, which was a naval base that stored and protected all the ships that were needed for battle. (Plutarch 19). This also emphasizing how his persuasion helped the Greeks to be more effective in battle. Without the Piraeus, the fleet would not have been expanded and trimemes would not have been stored safely so that when it was time for battle they would have plenty of ships. Themistocles later had persuaded his city to build the trimemes with the newly found silver that were later used