Trojan War

American  

noun

Classical Mythology.

1. a ten-year war waged by the confederated Greeks under Agamemnon against the Trojans to avenge the abduction of Helen, wife of Menelaus, by Paris, son of the Trojan king Priam, and ending in the plundering and burning of Troy.

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Trojan War British  

noun

1. Greek myth a war fought by the Greeks against the Trojans to avenge the abduction of Helen from her Greek husband Menelaus by Paris, son of the Trojan king. It lasted ten years and ended in the sack of Troy

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Trojan War ¹ Cultural  

1. In classical mythology, the great war fought between the Greeks and the Trojans. The Greeks sailed to Troy in order to recover Helen of Troy, the beautiful wife of a Greek king. She had been carried off to Troy by Paris, a prince of Troy. (Aphrodite had promised Helen to Paris following the Judgment of Paris.) The fighting continued for ten years, while Achilles, the greatest warrior of the Greeks, refused to fight because he had been offended by the commander, Agamemnon. Achilles finally took to the field and killed the greatest Trojan warrior, Hector. Having seriously weakened the Trojan defense, the Greeks achieved final victory through the ploy of the Trojan horse. They burned Troy to the ground and returned to Greece.

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Trojan War ² Cultural  

1. A war in ancient times between forces from the mainland of Greece and the defenders of the city of Troy, in what is now Turkey. The war seems to have begun about 1200 b.c. It is the basis of many classical legends, some of which appear in the ancient poems the Iliad and the Aeneid.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Trojan War

Only the two most recent versions — Nolan’s and Uberto Pasolini’s 2024 “The Return,” starring a sinewy Ralph Fiennes — center on Odysseus’ culpability for the carnage of the Trojan War.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026

"The Odyssey", which follows Greek hero Odysseus on his long journey home after the Trojan War, stars Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway as Odysseus and Penelope, with Tom Holland portraying their son Telemachus.

From Barron's ● Jul. 28, 2026

Set in the late Bronze Age, in about the 13th Century BC, The Odyssey tells the story of the hero Odysseus and his quest to return from the Trojan War to his kingdom of Ithaca.

From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026

In Homer’s “Odyssey,” about the hero’s 10-year quest to return home from the Trojan War, the story zigzags among locations, time periods and narrators.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026

Because of the wicked way they had treated Cassandra, Athena had been angry at all the Greeks indiscriminately, but before that, during the Trojan War, she had especially favored Odysseus.

From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton