The Trojan War was, according to one ancient account, a population-control measure by Zeus.
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Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, The Procession of the Trojan Horse into Troy, c. 1760, oil on canvas.
Public domain/via Wikimedia
The Odyssey is giving today’s moviegoing audiences a glimpse into the myths of the distant past, but one of the most surprising ideas in the Homeric tradition feels decidedly modern: overpopulation.
In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was a deadly conflict that Zeus orchestrated to fight human overpopulation. According to a surviving fragment of The Cypria (a prequel to Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey):
About the Author
Chelsea Follett is a research fellow at the Cato Institute’s Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity and the author of The Grim Old Days: An Introduction to the Preindustrial Past.
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The Odyssey is giving today’s moviegoing audiences a glimpse into the myths of the distant past, but one of the most surprising ideas in the Homeric tradition feels decidedly modern: overpopulation.
In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was a deadly conflict that Zeus orchestrated to fight human overpopulation. According to a surviving fragment of The Cypria (a prequel to Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey):
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About the Author
Chelsea Follett is a research fellow at the Cato Institute’s Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity and the author of The Grim Old Days: An Introduction to the Preindustrial Past.
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