Tales from Greek Myths

14: The Trojan War I

The Golden Apple:

Peleus was the king of Phthia. He was being married to Thetis, who was one of the Nereids( 50 sea-nymphs born from the sea god Nereus and Doris, who is one of the three thousand daughters of Titan Oceanus). Peleus was the son of Aeacus( demigod son of Zeus).

All the gods were invited to their wedding and bought many gifts for the newly wedded couple. Eris( daughter of Erebus and Nyx ) also came to the wedding but was stopped at the door because she was not a Royal or Olympian god( she was a decedent of Nyx while the Olympian gods were descendants of Gaia and thought of others as impure and unimportant gods).

Insulted, she threw from the door a gift of her own, a golden apple from the heavens which was nearly impossible to come by as it was guarded by Atlas.

The apple was claimed by Athena, Hera and Aphrodite. They quarreled bitterly over it, and none of the other gods would venture an opinion favoring one, for fear of earning the enmity of the other two.

The Judgement of Paris:

Zeus ordered Hermes(Messenger God/Son of Zeus) to lead the three goddesses to Paris, a prince of Troy, to make the final decision. 

Paris was unable to decide between them, so the goddesses resorted to bribes. Athena offered Paris wisdom, skill in battle, and the abilities of the greatest warriors; Hera offered him political power and control of all of Asia; and Aphrodite offered him the love of the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen of Sparta. Paris awarded the apple to Aphrodite.

The most beautiful woman in the world was Helen, one of the daughters of Tyndareus, King of Sparta. Tyndareus had chosen Menelaus as her husband.  Menelaus was a political choice on her father's part. He had both wealth and power.

Paris, under the guise of a supposed diplomatic mission, went to Sparta with Eros( son of Ares and Aphrodite/God of Lust ) to get Helen and bring her back to Troy. Eros could make anyone fell in love with the first person they see, after being shot from his arrow.

So before Helen could look up to see Paris enter the palace, she was shot with an arrow from Eros and fell in love with Paris when she saw him, as promised by Aphrodite. Paris took Helen with her to Troy without anyone knowing.

Dawn of War:

Menelaus and his ally, Odysseus, traveled to Troy, where they unsuccessfully sought to recover Helen by diplomatic means. The tensions between Sparta and Troy rose and soon led to war.

Sparta was much larger then Troy and had numbers advantage. All the kingdoms of Sparta came together to participate in the war. They had been looking for an excuse to invade Troy for a long time ago.

About 1'200 ships and 130'000 Spartans came to the beaches of Troy. Hector( elder brother of Paris and son of King Priam ) was the greatest warrior in Troy and commander of the Trojan army. 

Although the Spartans had a numbers advantage, they could not penetrate the legendary walls of Troy and were soon butchered by the Trojan archers which were led by Hector.

The Spartans were forced to retreat and regroup at the beach where they camped and waited for more reinforcements. 

Achilles:

Achilles was the son of Peleus and Thetis. The river Styx was located in the underworld, in which humans were dipped after they had died to become alive and immortal. 

When Achilles was just a baby, his mother dipped him in the river Styx. Achilles became invulnerable in all of his body except for his heel because, when his mother dipped him in the river, she had held him by one of his heels.

Achilles grew up to be the greatest Greek warrior of all time. He took part in many wars and won each one. He had been stabbed hundreds of times but couldn't die due to his immortal body. All the other kingdoms used to fear the Greeks because of him.

Soon Achilles gave up all the fighting and decided to start a quite life. Menelaus sent Odysseus, who was an old friend of Achilles,  to convince him to join the war.

It had been prophesied that Achilles would live a happy and uneventful life and die of old age but his name would soon be forgotten. And if he joined the Trojan war, he would gain immortality through poetry but he would also die in the war. 

Achilles wanted his name to be remembered and decided to take part in the Trojan War. Soon 200'000 Greeks were sailing towards Troy with Achilles in the lead.