Trojan War Background

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Trojan War Background

The mythical basis for the Trojan War is traced to the goddess Discord, who was peeved at not being invited to a feast by the other gods. She tossed an apple labeled "For the Most Beautiful" into the midst of the goddesses, and Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite all claimed it. Zeus, wisely, refused to decide among them and sent the goddesses to Paris (also called Alexandros), a son of King Priam of Troy. Hera offered him power, Athena wisdom, and Aphrodite the world's most beautiful woman for wife. Paris chose Aphrodite, and she sent him to get Helen, Queen of Sparta, for his wife.

Helen, however, was already married to Menelaus, brother of Agamemnon (both sons of Atreus, king of Argos). The brothers, along with a host of other Greek men, had courted Helen; King Tyndareus of Sparta, Helen's "earthly" father (technically, Helen was daughter of Zeus and Leda, but Leda married Tyndareus), required all of Helen's suitors to swear they would come to the aid of Helen's husband -- whoever that turned out to be -- if anyone ever tried to take Helen. All the suitors swore the oath; Tyndareus chose Menelaus and handed over the kingdom of Sparta along with Helen. Agamemnon married Clytemnestra, Helen's half-sister, and returned to his kingdom of Argos. Odysseus, another suitor, married Helen's cousin Penelope.

When Paris arrived in Sparta, he was a guest in Menelaus' household before taking Helen back to Troy with him. Whether Helen consented to go is a matter of contention; different stories give different versions of her complicity. Menelaus, with his older brother Agamemnon, called on all the suitors to honor their oath and get Helen back.

Odysseus did not want to join the expedition, so he pretended to be crazy. When Menelaos' messenger arrived in Ithaka, he found Odysseus plowing the seashore and planting salt. He suspected Odysseus was pretending, so the messenger placed Odysseus' infant son Telemakhos on the sand in the path of the plow. Odysseus turned the plow aside to save his son and the pretense was over. He joined the Greeks (also called Danaans) preparing to leave for Troy.

The Greek fleet gathered at Aulis, but when they tried to set sail for Troy, the wind blew against them. They consulted the priests and discovered that a hunter had killed a pregnant hare, angering the goddess Artemis. Agamemnon's eldest daughter Iphigeneia was brought to Aulis under the pretense of marrying Akhilleus, but she was sacrificed to the goddess to allow the fleet to sail. The Greeks fought at Troy for nine years, finally taking the city in the tenth year. Before the city falls, the events recounted in Homer's Iliad take place: Agamemnon quarrels with Akhilleus, the Greeks' most powerful warrior, over a slave girl. Akhilleus withdraws from the fighting in protest. In his absence, the Trojans, led by Priam's eldest son Hektor, temporarily get the better of the Greeks and threaten to destroy the Greek camp and their ships. Akhilleus' best friend Patroklos is killed by Hektor, after which Akhilleus rejoins the fight, kills Hektor, and sets the stage for the fall of Troy. [The Iliad ends here.] Soon after, Paris killed Akhilleus with a lucky arrow shot, Odysseus thought up the ruse of the Trojan Horse to get the Greek army inside Troy, and the end came with most of the male defenders killed and the women and children taken home with the Greeks as prisoners of war (slaves).

All the Greek princes except Nestor had problems getting home, most falling victim (along with their Trojan prisoners) to heavy storms (=angry gods). Agamemnon arrived home only to be killed by his wife (or, in some versions, by her lover, his cousin Aegisthus); Agamemnon's captive from Troy, Paris' sister Kassandra, was killed with him. A few years later, Agamemnon and Clytemnestra's son Orestes returned home and killed his mother and Aegisthus to avenge his father's death. Menelaus and Helen wandered for eight years before making it home, and Odysseus finally arrived home after ten years of wandering and captivity.

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