I think I would be important for the Romans to link their cultural heritage & origins to the Trojan War because the gift of the Greek wooden horse started the war. Staying true to their culture could have resulted in no war at all. To an immigrant or visitor would have perceived a sense cultural identity in Rome, would have partly a good message of the way that they stayed true to their culture. But also partly a bad message because they received a Greek gift that was supposedly from a Greek god, and they brought it into their city, until soon after when the Greeks attacked the city during the night.
I think that the artist who painted the paining on page 29 favored the Trojans. I can tell that he favors the Trojans in a couple different ways. First of all, the painting is of the Trojans, so the artist obviously had a preference to paint the Trojans rather than the Greeks. Another way that I can tell that the artist favors the Trojans is because he shows the priest Laocoon thrusting his spear into the side of the wooden horse because he is protesting against the gift, because he doesn’t trust the Greeks.
I think this event has such importance and affect on our world today because without the Trojan War there would be no founding of Rome. When the Greeks attacked on Troy using the Trojan horse, Aeneas left to found his own city. The city that he founded is Rome and from that came many important parts of our society today. For example, kids still went to school and played games, their parents still had jobs, and so many more examples. As you can see the Trojan War has had a great impact on our world today and the way we live, so people recognize that and use the name because it was such a compelling event.
The phrase ‘Beware the Greek bearing gifts’ [referring to the deadly gift of the Trojan horse] means that be aware of what you are being given and make sure that you trust whatever it is that you are being given. If I did not know the story of the Trojan War, than I probably would have no idea what it meant.
The Trojan horse is a great military tactic. I think that even thought the Greek warriors used a trick to win; they still won fairly against the city of Troy. It was very ethical and strategic for the Greek heroes to use a trick to win. Is doing whatever you can do to win the right thing to do? In the way that the Greeks demonstrate this… no. The way that the Greeks are doing whatever you can to win is by killing others and I do not believe that war is the answer to problems. So no, I do not think that winning at any cost is justified.
I think the painter did not paint the ancient ships and the clothing true to what they really were because we did not know what the clothing looked like or what the ships looked like because no one knows what these things looked like. This is just an artist’s interpretation what the ship and clothing would have looked like. Because no one knows what this looked like people have imagined it as what artist’s interpretations and historians beliefs are about the culture of the renaissance. We believe what we are shown through these visual interpretations but we don’t know that these aren’t necessary what these people looked liked or what their ships looked like.
