Start of the Story: Achaeans, Argives, Danaäns Wooing
• All the Greek kings and princes
wanted to marry Helen
• When Menelaus was chosen, to
prevent quarrels after the fact, all
the other suitors swore an
alliance to him—to defend his
interests militarily.
• So Menelaus took Helen back to
Sparta.
• Menelaus’ brother, Agamemnon,
married Helen’s sister,
Clytemnestra, and took her back
with him to Mycenae.
Marriage of Peleus & Thetis
• Thetis, sea goddess, was destined to have a son greater
than his father, so Zeus (attracted to her) determined to
marry her to a mortal and chose Peleus
• A great wedding was held and all the gods and goddesses
were invited, but one—Eris, Goddess of Discord.
• Eris came anyway and tossed onto the table a golden apple
inscribed – “To the Fairest’
• Minerva, Juno, and Venus all three claimed it
• Jove gave the decision to Paris, young Prince of Troy
• All three goddesses tried to bribe the judge – Hermes
oversaw the competition
• Paris selected Venus and was granted Helen as prize
• Helen was the wife of Menelaus, King of Sparta
Paris making the tough call…
Paris then visited Sparta and Helen went back with him to Troy –
Abduction or seduction? Various views were advanced in antiquity.
• Menelaus and his brother Agamemnon, King of
Mycenae, collected Greek leaders for war, calling
on them to make good their oath to Menelaus.
• Troops assembled at Aulis – 2 big events there
(1) An omen of war’s length, interpreted by
Calchas as the war would be long and Troy would
fall in its 10th year.
(2) Agamemnon angered Diana by killing her
deer. Artemis held up the winds for sailing and
Agamemnon was compelled to sacrifice his
daughter, Iphigenia, in order to get the fleet off.
• Greeks set sail: Agamemnon,
Menelaus, Achilles, Diomedes,
Ajax the Greater, Nestor,
Odysseus, Ajax the Lesser,
Idomeneus, Philoctetes were all
chiefs.
• Agamemnon supplied the
greatest forces and so was put in
charge
• Each of the other kings was lord
over the troops from his own
homeland
Ajax
Achilles, son of Peleus and Thetis
Trojans/Dardanians (Troy/Ilium)
Priam is King; Hecuba, his queen
Their children: Hector, Paris, Helenus,
Cassandra, Polyxena
Also fighting as Asian allies of Troy: Aeneas
and Sarpedon, plus Thracians, Amazons,
Ethiopians
Quarrel that opens Iliad
Events of Iliad
• In 9th year of war, a quarrel between Agamemnon and
Achilles over a girl
• Achilles sits out of the war, planning to go home
• The Greeks in subsequent battles are driven to their ships
and Trojans flourish under Hector’s leadership
• Patroclus, Achilles’ best friend, puts on Achilles’ armor
in order to raise morale of Greeks
• Hector, best fighter of the Trojans, kills Patroclus
• Achilles, maddened with grief over the loss of his friend,
reenters the war, eventually killing Hector
• Priam goes in person to ask for the corpse of his son
• Hector’s funeral
So Iliad ends, but war continued
• Amazon tribe joined the Trojans
• Achilles was killed by arrow of Paris, he was shot
in his heel, the only part of his body that could be
hurt.
• Competition for the armor of Achilles – Ajax, son
of Telemon, lost and went mad—killed himself;
Odysseus won
• Calchas the seer gave conditions for Troy’s fall –
1. Neoptolemus fighting 2. Palladium removed
from Troy 3. Bow of Heracles (held by
Philoctetes) on hand
All conditions fulfilled, then the
device of the wooden horse was
used.
Troy could not
be taken by
force, but
could be by
stealth.
Laocoon and
sons –
Laocoon,
Trojan priest of
Poseidon,
advised the
Trojans to burn
the wooden
horse. In
punishment, he
and his sons
were killed by
a giant sea
snake.
Wooden Horse
taken into the
city as
Laocoon and
his sons die in
foreground.
Aftermath
• Trojan men and boys killed
• Trojan women handed out as booty
• Cassandra, daughter of Priam and Hecuba,
went to Agamemnon; Hecuba to Odysseus;
Andromache to Neoptolemus, son of
Achilles
• All the Greeks had difficulties getting home
and staying home.
Homecomings, as with any war,
even the winners have difficulty.
• Ajax the Lessor was shipwrecked by Athena and
drowned by Poseidon for raping Cassandra in
Athena’s temple during the sack of Troy
• Agamemnon arrived home and was murdered by
his wife and her lover, Aegisthus.
• Menelaus was driven by a storm to Egypt where
he stayed for eight years before returning to
Sparta. He lost 55 of the 60 ships that sailed with
him.
Homecoming, continued…
• Diomedes returned home to an unfaithful wife.
He left and kept moving, finally landing in Italy.
• Idomeneus of Crete was rejected by his wife and
family. He also kept wandering until he came at
last to Italy.
• Neoptolemus went home by land and married
Helen’s daughter, Hermione. He was killed by her
fiancée, Orestes, son of Agamemnon.
And Odysseus – wandered for 10
more years before he could come
home to Ithaca.
This is the story of
the Odyssey – the
wanderings of
Odysseus, the
aftermath of war, and
Odysseus’
homecoming.