THE TROJAN WAR
CHAPTER ONE: THE PROPHECY
A long, long time ago, a queen had a disturbing dream in which she would give birth to a burning
log of wood. She interpreted the dream to mean that she would give birth to a son who would destroy her
kingdom. Believing the dream to be true, the queen was terrified. When the child was born, her husband,
King Priam, gave the child to his servant and instructed him to leave the baby atop a far away mountain.
The baby, they thought, would surely die of exposure.
The servant did as he was told, but when he returned five days later, he found that the baby had
been nursed by a bear and had survived. Not having the heart to kill the child again, he took him in,
named him Paris, and raised him as a son.
Paris grew to be extraordinarily handsome, strong, and brave. A beautiful nymph and prophetess
name Oenone adored him and they quickly fell in love. When Paris asked her about the future, however,
Oenone replied, “Don’t ask.”
THE TROJAN WAR
CHAPTER TWO: THE APPLE OF DISCORD
A long, long time ago, there was a hero named Paleus and a sea-nymph named Thetis who were
getting married. They decided to throw a wedding party and invited all of the usual gods and goddesses,
except for Eris, who was known as the goddess of discord (disagreement). They felt that if she were to
attend their party that she would curse their marriage and make them fall out of love with each other.
When Eric found out that she was not invited, she was furious! So she resorted to what she was
best at—causing havoc. She attended the wedding party anyway and, knowing that it would cause an
argument, she tossed a golden apple among the goddesses and said that it was a prize for the most beautiful
woman in the world.
Goddesses are not known for being the most humble bunch, so they instantly began arguing over
the apple. After a good deal of bickering and hair-pulling, they narrowed the contest to three finalists.
1. Hera—wife to Zeus
2. Athena—goddess of war
3. Aphrodite—goddess of love
The three appealed to Zeus, king of the Gods, to be the judge. Zeus had his faults, but he was no
fool. He knew there was no clear way out of the situation, so he turned to Hermes, his trusted advisor, to
resolve the conflict. Hermes then took the apple to Paris, a prince of Troy, and suggested that he should
judge the contest. The three goddesses agreed, so Paris was brought to them to decide who the winner
would be.
Paris came upon the three bathing goddesses atop a mountain. Their divine beauty proved too
much for him to handle, so the goddesses took a more pragmatic approach.
Hera told him, “If you give the apple to me, you shall rule over all of Europe and Asia. You will
be master of all you survey.” Thusly tempted, Paris was ready to appoint the fairest, but Athena had a
proposition of her own.
Athena told him, “Choose me, and you shall excel at every art. You will be the greatest warrior in
history, and you will lead the Trojans against the Greeks and leave all Greece in ruins.” This, too, appealed
to Paris.
Aphrodite smile slyly, because she had a proposition of her own. She told him, “Imagine the most
beautiful woman in the world. No woman you have ever laid eyes on can compare. This woman puts
them all to shame. Give me the apple, and she will be yours.”
Paris quickly made his decision and gave the apple to Aphrodite.
THE TROJAN WAR
CHAPTER THREE: ALL IS FAIR IN LOVE AND WAR
Helen was the most beautiful woman to ever have lived on Earth. Some would even say that her
beauty was superior to that of the most beautiful goddesses. When the time came for Helen to marry, her
father welcomed all of the most eligible bachelors into his home. Many who hoped for her hand in
marriage were powerful leaders and Helen’s father was worried that choosing one of another might anger
them, which would cause trouble for his kingdom.
One of the suitors, Odysseus, was a very wise and intelligent man and he noticed that the king
seemed to be struggling with his decision. He advised the king to take an oath to accept Helen’s choice for
whom she wanted to marry and then promise to support that person whenever the need should arise.
The suitors all agreed and Helen chose a man named Menelaus to be her husband, and though he
was quite dull and non-intelligent, he had vast amounts of wealth. The contest for her hand was ended and
the two were wed.
One day, a young prince of Troy, Paris, showed up to Menelaus’ house. Good hospitality was a
very important thing to the ancient Greeks, so Menelaus welcomed Paris and offered him nourishment.
Even though he had a funeral to go to out of town, he offered Paris the run of the house while he was
gone.
Little did Menelaus know, though, that Paris was not there with good intentions. Menelaus was
indeed married to the most beautiful woman in the world and, because a goddess had given him the goahead, Paris had his sights set on her as well. With the king’s departure, Paris kidnapped Helen and made
haste back to his hometown of Troy with her as his captive.
When Menelaus returned, he was concerned. His charming guest was gone and all of his valuables
had disappeared as well. When he discovered that his wife had been taken too, he was inconsolable.
Furious, he marched to the house of his brother, Agamemnon, who was king of a neighboring country and
demanded that they retaliate and get his wife back. The kings rallied their armies and eagerly set sail to
Troy to plunder and pillage.
THE TROJAN WAR
CHAPTER FOUR: THE 10 YEAR WAR
Odysseus and his wife, Penelope, were at home with their newborn baby son, Telemachus, when
Odysseus got the message that his expertise were needed in battle against the Trojans. Though loyal to his
country of Greece, he did not want to leave his family.
Willing to do anything to get out of going to war, he pretended to be crazy. He put on funny
clothes and walked around mumbling to himself, sowing his field with salt. When the recruiter returned to
take him away, he saw Odysseus’s insane antics but was not fooled. The man took the baby boy and
placed him in front of Odysseus’s plow and, instead of running him over, Odysseus turned the plow at the
last second, proving that he was indeed in his right might. He gave up his act and reluctantly headed off
for war.
On their way to the battle front, they also picked up Achilles, the most powerful warrior in all of
Greece. Before joining them, Achilles’s mother dipped him in the river Styx, which was said to have
magical properties. The water gave him powers of his own, making him completely invulnerable to
injury—almost. Because she was holding him by his heel, that was the only part of him that was not
touched by the water, therefore being the only spot that wasn’t protected.
With Greece’s two best warriors present, the fighting began but would not end for another 10
years. Many powerful men from both sides perished in the war, including Achilles himself who was shot
with an arrow in the heel by Paris, a young prince of Troy. Paris did not last long after that and he too
was shot by an arrow, though the one to hit him was laced in poison. A nymph named Oenone had the
power to save him, but she declined and he died soon afterwards. Both sides mourned their losses and the
fighting raged on, and on, and on.
THE TROJAN WAR
CHAPTER FIVE: HOLD YOUR HORSES
Two of the most powerful armies, the Greek and the Trojans, had been fighting for 10 years and
both were completely exhausted. Neither were willing to submit to the other, though, so the fighting raged
on.
This is when Odysseus, one of the Greek’s most skillful and cunning warriors, came up with a
plan. Knowing that the horse was a symbol of strength, hope, and good-will to the Trojans, Odysseus told
his men to construct a giant, hollow horse out of wood. His plan was to deliver the contraption to the
Trojans as a gift, but hide a few of his soldiers within it.
This proved to be a brilliant plan. The Trojans accepted the gift and wheeled the giant horse
inside their city, unsuspecting any treachery or bad intentions. When night fell, the few hidden soldiers
were able to sneak out of the wooden steed and open the city’s gates in order to let the rest of the troops
inside.
The Trojans were caught completely off guard and hardly had time to react before they were
overrun. The Greeks didn’t waste any time sacking the city and set it ablaze to ensure that it would never
return to its former glory. The Trojans were finally defeated and Helen, the most beautiful woman in the
world who was being held prisoner within Troy, was at last set free and was able to return to her husband
Menelaus, who was the leading commander of the Greek army.
When the fighting was over, for some reason the Greek soldiers decided not to make any sacrifices
to the gods. They even killed a woman who was clinging to a statue of Athena, desecrating it. Odysseus,
knowing that this might mean bad news for the troops, pleads for the others to give thanks and offer
sacrifices to the gods in apologies, but none comply. He was not wanting to face the wrath of the gods,
though, so he attempted to appease Athena by demanding the offender be killed. The others laughed at
him and continued to neglect their offerings.
As the soldiers set sail to return to their homeland and families, Odysseus turned out to be right.
Unfortunately, Athena, with the help of the sea-god Poseidon, came down and killed many of the surviving
Greeks in a terrible storm and there was nothing that any of them could do to escape it. Whether
Odysseus was spared merely because he lingered in Troy for a while after the fight and therefore was not
on the ships that Athena sank or because he did everything he could to try and appease her after the fight,
we do not know for sure. His journey home, though, was no pleasant cruise either.
TO BE CONTINUED…