A.
The Wedding of Peleus and Thetis
1. Eris is not invited
2. She crashes, brings a golden apple with a
special message
3. Three goddesses claim it
a. Hera
b. Athena
c. Aphrodite
4. Zeus isn’t touching this one! Sends them
to Mt. Ida for Paris to judge
Paris Has to Choose
B. The Judgment of Paris
1. Paris is a prince of Troy, Priam’s son
2. Priam sent Paris to herd sheep in Mt. Ida: a
prophecy says Paris will be the ruin of Troy
3. Paris is content living with a nymph, Oenone
4. The 3 goddesses arrive and offer bribes
a. Athena: will make him lord of Europe and Asia
b. Hera: will give him victory over Greece
c. Aphrodite: will give him the most beautiful woman
in the world
5. Paris is weak and a coward: he picks
Aphrodite
The Marriage and Kidnapping of
Helen
C. The Capture of Helen
1. Helen is the most beautiful
a. Daughter of Zeus and Leda
b. So beautiful Theseus tried to kidnap her as a child
c. Every prince in Greece wanted her: she’s gorgeous, and her
husband will get to be king of Sparta
d. Her “dad,” King Tyndareus of Sparta, makes her suitors swear
to champion Helen’s husband, no matter who’s picked
e. The suitors agree to unite and punish anyone who might kidnap
Helen (This whole deal was Odysseus’s idea—he’ll regret it.)
f. Menelaus is chosen
2. Paris goes to Sparta to visit as guest of Menelaus and Helen
a. He is received well, according to laws of hospitality
b. Menelaus goes to Crete, trusting Paris in Sparta
c. Paris runs away with Helen
3. A note on Aphrodite: she is angry with Tyndareus for
forgetting (on ONE occasion) to sacrifice to her. Her curse: his
daughters would be famous w****s.
A. Chieftains rush to join, all but two
1. Odysseus, King of Ithaca
a. doesn’t want to leave his family
b. feigns madness; plows a field and sows it with salt
c. Palemedes puts Odysseus’s son in the plow’s way
d. Odysseus turns the plow, proving he’s sane
e. It’s off to the army for him!
2. Achilles
a. Thetis, his mother, knows he’ll die if he goes to Troy
b. Thetis hides him at the court of Lycomedes, disguising
him as a girl
c. Odysseus is sent to find him: he’s the cleverest Greek
d. Odysseus dresses as a peddler, bringing girly stuff and
weapons
e. One “girl” really digs the weapons; when a fake battle cry
is issued, “she” reveals herself
f. It’s off to the army for him!
”Was this the face that launched a thousand
ships?” Christopher Marlowe
“
B. 1000 ships set out for war
C. Trouble at Aulis
1. Can’t sail—the north wind won’t let them
2. Soothsayer reveals: someone killed a deer
sacred to Artemis
3. Must sacrifice Iphigenia, daughter of
Agamemnon
(commander-in-chief)
4. Agamemnon agrees
a. tells wife, Clytemnestra, to send Iphigenia for a
wedding to Achilles
b. Iphigenia arrives with her wedding clothes and
is killed
c. Clytemnestra holds a long grudge
5. Wind stops, ships sail
A. Royal Family of Troy
1. King: Priam
a. old
b. has 50 sons
2. Queen: Hecuba (not the mother of all 50 sons, just 17 or so)
3. Paris (we’ve met him; we’re not impressed)
4. Hector (now we’re impressed)
a. the greatest warrior in Troy
b. Priam’s noblest son
c. The only prince of Troy NOT to develop the hots for Helen
d. The only one to be nice to Helen when everyone is tired of a 10
year war
5. Andromache
a. Hector’s wife
b. Her husband is too into her to look at Helen
6. Cassandra
a. was loved by Apollo, who gave her the gift of prophecy
b. rejected the god, who cursed her: no one would ever believe her
truths
Leaders for the Greeks
B.
The best of the Greeks
1. Achilles
a. immortal except his heel (mom dipped him in the Styx for immortality, missed the heel—
oops!)
b. golden armor
c. greatest Greek warrior
2. Agamemnon
a. King of Mycenae
b. Leader of the Greeks
c. bossy, proud, unreasonable
3. Menelaus
a. King of Sparta
b. Helen’s husband
c. Agamemnon’s brother
4. Odysseus
a. King of Ithaca
b. Crafty, the smartest hero
5. Ajax
a. crazy strong
b. fiercest warrior
6. Protesilaus (he’s up for honorable mention)
a. first to land on shores of Troy
b. Why is this a big deal? A prophecy said the 1st to land would be 1st to die
c. After his death, Hermes brought him back once to see his wife, who killed
herself and joined him on his return to the underworld
C. The 2 greatest warriors knew they would die in this war
Woman Trouble
D. The Women of the Trojan War
1. Battle has raged 9 years with no victor
a. Iliad begins in the 10th year of the war
b. this is a literary technique known as in medias res
2. Achilles and Agamemnon butt heads over captive women
3. Chryseis
a. Agamemnon captured her
b. Her dad is a priest of Apollo, and he begs her release
c. Agamemnon refuses
d. Divine retribution: Apollo rains down arrows of fatal sickness on Greeks
e. Achilles calls a conference and brings in Calchas, a soothsayer
f. The verdict: Chryseis must be returned
g. Agamemnon’s pride is wounded, he is furious
4. Briseis
a. Achilles captured her
b. When forced to give up Chryseis, Agamemnon takes Briseis from Achilles
c. Achilles is furious: he drops out of the war, stays in his tent
d. Greeks begin to lose the war
The Super Bowl of the Gods
E. The gods take sides
1. Lining up for the Trojans
a. Aphrodite: Paris picked her
b. Ares: always sides with his girlfriend
c. Apollo: fond of Hector, angry with the Greeks over Chryseis
d. Artemis: always sides with her twin
e. Zeus: supposed to be neutral, but favors Troy anyway
2. On the Greek side
a. Hera: woman scorned syndrome
b. Athena: same condition
c. Poseidon: Greeks are a seagoing culture
3. Thetis pushes Zeus to help Troy
a. Greeks can’t win without Achilles
b. Zeus sends Agamemnon a lying dream, telling him to attack
c. fierce battle ensues
Fighting over Helen
F. Menelaus v. Paris
1.There is a clearing in the battle, and the two are left alone to fight
2. Honor dictates no interference
3. Paris strikes, Menelaus deflects; Menelaus’s sword doesn’t wound
Paris
4. Menelaus’s sword breaks for no reason
5. Menelaus attacks Paris, is about to drag him off
6. Aphrodite intervenes, spirits Paris away
7. Menelaus hunts Paris among the Trojans—they want to give him up;
can’t find him
8. Agamemnon says Menelaus won, so Helen should be returned
9. Athena tricks a Trojan into breaking a truce, and the battle is on
again
G. Aphrodite and Ares are humiliated
1. When Diomedes wounds Aeneas, Aphrodite’s son, she tries to
help; Diomedes wounds her and she runs away
2. Ares tries to scare the Greeks and Hera chases him off the field
The Death of Patroclus
H. Hector prepares for his last day
1. He knows he’s going to die
2. Goes up to the walls of Troy, where the Trojans watch the war, to see
his
wife and baby son, Astyanax
3. Baby is afraid of his armor and cries; Hector removes his helmet and says
farewell
4. Tenderest moment in the Iliad
I. Greeks lose ground
1. Hector drives the Greeks back
2. Greeks need Achilles
a. Agamemnone offers to return Briseis
b. Achilles remains proud and stubborn; nothing will induce him to
return
3. Hera borrows Aphrodite’s girdle and “distracts” Zeus, giving Greeks a
chance
4. Zeus figures it out and comes back for Troy
5. Achilles’s best friend Patroclus takes Achilles’s armor, goes into battle
a. Trojans think he’s Achilles and are intimidated
b. Hector kills Patroclus
c. Achilles flips out
Hector’s Last Stand
J. Achilles v. Hector
1. Achilles gets new armor from Thetis—magical, that can’t be pierced
2. Hector wears the armor he took from Patroclus’s body
3. Hector waits for Achilles, sees him coming, radiant and godlike, and
starts running
4. Hector can’t quite outrun Achilles, but Achilles can’t catch him,
either
5. Fate isn’t with Hector
a. Apollo has been helping Hector, something Zeus has
approved
b. Athena warns Zeus to back off, as fate is against Hector
c. Apollo must leave Hector’s side
6. Hector finally stops to fight, fooled by Athena, who takes the form
of
a brother and promises to help him fight Achilles
7. Hector suddenly finds himself alone, facing Achilles, who is helped
by Athena
8. Achilles aims his spear at an opening in the throat of Hector’s armor,
kills him
The Desecration of Hector
K. Achilles breaks the rules—big ones
1.Hector, dying, asks that his body be returned
to his parents; Achilles refuses
2. Achilles ties Hector’s body (by the ankles)
to his chariot & drags it around Troy
3.Most gods are massively displeased: you
never, EVER violate the dead
4. Priam goes to Achilles with treasure to beg
for his son’s body
5. Achilles is touched, has the body bathed &
covered, and returns it
6. Nine days truce for funeral rites
A. Achilles’s last battle
1. kills Memnon of Ethiopia (he was helping Troy with an army)
2. drives Trojans back to the city walls
3. Paris shoots Achilles in that vulnerable heel—kills him (his bones are
laid with those of Patroclus)
B. The death of Ajax
1. Two heroes are nominated to receive the arms of Achilles: Ajax and
Odysseus
2. In a secret vote, Odysseus wins—it’s a huge honor
3. Ajax feels disgraced, plans to kill Agamemnon & Menelaus—he
blames them for turning the vote against him (he’s right)
4. Ajax pursues them by night; Athena strikes him mad—he thinks a
flock of sheep are the Greeks; thinks a ram is Odysseus & beats it
up
5. On regaining his senses, he’s humiliated and kills himself
Back to Pick Up Stinky Phil
C. The arms of Hercules
1. Greeks are discouraged and grab a prophet, Helenus
a. Greeks can’t win unless they kill Paris
b. Only the bow and arrows of Hercules can kill Paris
2. Philoctetes has them (and he’s NOT a satyr who coached
Hercules)
a. Philoctetes was with the Greeks on the way to Troy
b. On an island, he was bitten by a serpent and the wound would
not heal
c. The Greeks left him there
3. Odysseus goes for the weapons
a. First, he steals them
b. Guilt: he gets Philoctetes, takes him to Troy and a Greek
doctor
4. Healed, Philoctetes joins the battle, kills Paris with Hercules’s
arrows
D. Greeks have to steal the Palladium (sacred image of Athena) in order
to win—Odysseus is their man
How to Trick a Trojan
E. The Trojan Horse
1. Greeks have to get into Troy to win
2. Odysseus thinks up the Trojan horse
a. hollow, big enough to hold a number of men
b. chieftains are afraid, except Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, but they agree
3. Remaining Greeks pretend to sail away, but hide behind an island
a. one man, Sinon, left on the beach
b. primed with a story to get the horse in the city
4. Trojans are thrilled at Greek departure, rush to the beach and see Sinon
a. He cries, renounces his Greekhood
b. He says Athena was angry over the Palladium & demanded a sacrifice
c. Sinon was the sacrifice, but he escaped and hid
d. The horse is an offering to Athena, & it’s big so the Trojans can’t take it in
e. The Trojans fall for it
5. Warning! Warning!
a. Cassandra says not to take it in—no one believes her
b. Laocoon, a priest, says burn it—Poseidon sends 2 serpents to crush Laocoon and
his sons
F. Sigh . . .
1. The Trojans take the horse into the city
2. At night, soldiers sneak out and let the whole Greek army into the city
3. Troy is burning before the Trojans are even dressed
4. Trojans fight hard: they tear up roofs & throw beams on Greeks; put on dead Greeks’ armor to trap
more Greeks
5. The Greeks win
A.
B.
C.
D.
Priam: was spared by Achilles, but Neoptolemus kills him
Hecuba: taken into slavery
Polyxena (Trojan princess): killed on Achilles’s grave
Aeneas
1. fights Greeks as long as possible
2. escapes Troy (with mom Aphrodite’s help), saving his father & son, but not his wife
3. his adventures form the Roman epic, Virgil’s Aeneid, which gave Rome a cool history
E. Helen
1. Aphrodite helps her out of the city
2. She goes back to Menelaus, and they live happily ever after
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VgEpl3qd8o
F. Andromache
1. a captive, to be a slave to a Greek warrior
2. hopes to keep her baby, but that’s not how it’s done
3. messenger arrives, advises her to be brave and not to blame him
4. baby is taken and thrown from the walls of the city, like all the other babies
G. Cassandra
1. Agamemnon’s captive, she returns to Mycenae with him
2. She warns Agamemnon of impending doom, but is, of course, ignored
3. Clytemnestra is waiting (with a lover, Aegisthus) and murders Agamemnon and his
little hussy, too!