MAPS OF THE GREECE
Greece is about the size of Alabama. Its 11 ½ million people are overwhelming Christian Orthodox. Greece has often spoken up for its fellow Orthodox Serbs. The conflict over Kosovo has Serbia at war with the NATO alliance, and has spread closer to NATO members, Greece and Turkey. Tensions in this part of the world were part of the Cold War, and eventually led the West to create NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. In the late 1940's, President Harry Truman used military and economic aid to head off a communist insurgency in Greece, and threatened Soviet incursions in Turkey.In Greek mythology the Trojan War pitted a coalition of Greek principalities against Troy, a city located on the coast of what is now Anatolia, just south of the entrance to the Dardanelles. The war was the subject of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.
According to Homer and other Greek epic poets, King Priam's son Paris brought Helena, wife of King Menelaus of Sparta, back to Troy with him. To recover Helena, the Greeks sent an expedition to Troy under Agamemnon, brother of Menelaus. The war lasted 10 years, although the first 9 years seem to have been indecisive. Only in the tenth year, after Achilles had killed Hector, the greatest of the Trojan warriors, were the Greeks assured of victory.
Using a stratagem devised by Odysseus, the Greeks feigned retreat; the Greek fleet sailed out of sight, leaving behind as a "gift" the Trojan Horse. Inside the large wooden horse was concealed a squad of Greek soldiers who, after the horse had been dragged into the unsuspecting city and under the cover of darkness, emerged and opened the gates. After the Greek fleet quietly returned, the soldiers entered Troy and great slaughter followed. Many Trojan women, including members of the royal family, were carried off into captivity.
The work of the 19th-century archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann showed that the story of the war was probably based on historical events of the early 12th century BC. Some scholars believe that the Trojans were a Luwian-speaking people who came into conflict with the Mycenaean Greeks.
