A Prelude to The Odyssey

• Helen was the most beautiful woman in the world who every man wanted to marry.
• She was afraid if she made the decision on who to marry, it would lead to violence.
• King Odysseus of Ithaca suggested that Helen choose for herself. The men agreed and she chose King Menelaus of Sparta.

• This did not sit well with Paris, a wealthy prince from Troy, so he kidnapped Helen and took her home to Troy.
• Odysseus felt it his duty to rescue her, but he knew he could not do so without the help of the brave warrior Achilles, who was considered the most feared fighter.

• As a child, Achilles was held by his mother near the back of his heel and dipped in the magical river Styx- his heel was the only part of his body that was unprotected
• This is where we get the term Achilles heelwhich signifies a person’s weakness
• Achilles acquired his skills from the half man/half horse centaur Chinon

• Even though he really wanted to go to war, his parents did not want the young Achilles to fight, so they persuaded him to leave and avoid war.
• He dressed as a maiden, but Odysseus discovered where he was hiding and went after him.
• He approached the maidens with jewels and a sword. All of them went after the jewels except for Achilles, who went after the sword.
• Achilles then realized he needed to fight, and
1000 ships were launched to save Helen from
Paris

• King Priam had meeting with his 50 sons, including Hector, who was the most feared
Trojan warrior and wanted to fight and Paris, who said he would never return Helen to
Menelaus to avoid war.

• The prophet Cassandra, priestess of Apollo and daughter of Priam, predicted death to
Hector, tricky Odysseus and Troy burning.
• Being Apollo’s former love, he gave her the vision to see into the future
• She turned on him, so when she predicted the destruction, he told everyone she was a mad women and was not to be believed.

• The war raged on for years.
• Hector was the most feared Trojan warrior and Achilles the most feared Greek warrior.
Hector made it clear that one day they would meet on the battlefield and only one would survive.
• Achilles protected himself with special armor made from the blacksmith Hephaestus, met
Hector in battle, and killed him

• Achilles was asked by Priam to return Hector’s body for a proper burial, but Achilles laugh at him and said no.
• He took it one step further by tying Hector to the back of his chariot and dragged his body around the city, mutilating it. This showed disrespect, and the gods were angry.
• To get revenge on Achilles, Paris, who was hiding while everyone fought, shot a poison arrow, which was guided by Apollo, into the heel of Achilles (his only unprotected part) and killed him.
• Not long after that. Paris was killed by a poison arrow himself.

• The war has been dragging on for almost ten years with numerous soldiers getting killed
• One morning, the Trojans woke up and didn’t see any Greeks and declared victory
• Just outside of the city was a huge wooden horse, and they did not know what to do with it.
• Poseidon was god of the oceans. Laocoon,
Poseidon’s priest said the horse was a trick and was to be destroyed

• Sinon, Odysseus’ right hand man, came out of hiding in the bushes and said that the gift was a victory symbol and a gift to the god Athena
• Laocoon said Sinon was lying and to burn the horse.
• Two enormous serpents grabbed Laocoon and drown him, a sign from the gods said the people because Poseidon had his own priest drown. He did so out of respect for Odysseus

• For a victory celebration, the Trojans brought the horse into the city.
• What they didn’t know is that the Greeks were not only hiding in the city, but 20 of Odysseus’ best men were hiding in the horse.
• The Trojans partied all night, and when they passed out, Odysseus’ men came out of the horse, killing all Trojans in sight and setting the city on fire

• As the killing continued, many innocent Trojans went to seek shelter in the temples, where respect to the gods were shown.
• The Greeks ignored this, killing everyone in sight, completely angering the gods, especially
Poseidon, who helped Odysseus and his men win
• As punishment for this disrespect, Poseidon swore that Odysseus and his men would have a difficult journey home to Ithaca, and they would have to redeem themselves