The Spark

• The story of the Trojan War exemplifies the “butterfly effect”
• The Apple of Discord
• The Judgment of Paris

• Sea Nymphs
• Thetis: most beautiful
Nereid
• Both Zeus and Poseidon really wanted Thetis as one of their conquests until…
• They both heard a prophecy that Thetis would bear a son who would be greater than his father.
• Didn’t go over well with such egotistical gods.

• Once he heard the prophecy,
Zeus appealed to Hera and asked her to set Thetis up with a mortal
• One with mortal blood couldn’t overtake an
Olympian
• Hera set Thetis up with a mortal man named Peleus

• All of the big-shot divinities were there
• Centaurs, nymphs
• Apollo and muses served as her wedding band
• Even Hephaestus and Ares were getting along (crazy talk!)
• One goddess didn’t make the list… Eris, the goddess of discord
• Who would want discord and strife at her wedding?!

• The fact that Eris wasn’t invited to the party of the century turned out to have a maleficent domino effect
• Eris took an apple and wrote on it “To the Fairest One” and quietly placed it on the table with all of the guests’ gifts
• After all of merrymaking, the goddesses Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena saw the apple and began to squabble

• At a wedding, shouldn’t the
“Fairest” be the bride?!
These goddesses didn’t think so…
• They asked Zeus to intervene and determine who “the Fairest” was
• Zeus wanted nothing to do with the decision
• Zeus instructed Hermes to give the apple to Paris, prince of Troy

• Hermes called together Paris,
Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena to the mountain top
• Paris initially couldn’t decide who was “the Fairest,” but the goddesses wouldn’t let him go until he decided
• Each goddess bribed him
• Hera: rule of Europe and Asia
• Athena: wisdom and great combat skills
• Aphrodite: the most beautiful woman in the world

• Aphrodite got the apple
• He made enemies with 2 goddesses
• Aphrodite consulted with
Eros about the most beautiful woman in the world
• Result: Helen of Sparta, who was already to married to Menelaus, king of Sparta and brother of Agamemnon

• Aphrodite and Paris plotted to get Helen away from
Menelaus and bring her to
Troy
• A piece of apple caused one of the greatest wars of the
Western World