Paris -- son of Priam

Priam -- King of Troy

Greek mythology has it that the Trojan war arose over the kidnapping of Helen, wife of Menelaus, a Greek woman, by Paris, the son of Priam, the king of Troy.

According to the myth, Paris believed that he was entitled to Helen. Aphrodite, the goddess of love awarded him to her for awarding her the prize in a beauty contest he was judging. The story is as follows.

The Judgment of Paris.

Aphrodite -- goddess of love

Hera -- queen of the gods

Athena -- goddess of wisdom

One day, Hera, the queen of the gods, Athena, the goddess of wisdom, and Aphrodite, the goddess of love, got into an argument about which of them was most beautiful. They decided to put the matter before a judge, and selected Paris, son of Priam, the King of Troy. At the time, Paris was living outside his father's city and working as a shepherd, because there had been a prophecy that he would destroy his father's kingdom.

As it turned out, the prophecy was well-founded. The three goddesses did not really want an impartial solution to the matter of who was most beautiful; each of them simply wanted to win the contest. Their next move was to offer bribes to the judge. Hera offered him political power over Europe and Asia, Athena offered to make him the bravest and wisest warrior in the world, and Aphrodite offered him the most beautiful woman in the world, who was Helen, the wife of Menelaos. Paris rejected political power and honor as a warrior and chose success in love. Accounts differ about whether Paris kidnapped Helen or persuaded her to go with him.

Political Background of the Trojan War.

Menelaos and Agamemnon -- Leaders of the Greek army at Troy

At the time of the Trojan War, Greece consisted of a group of separate city states with separate governments. However, the leaders of these cities formed an alliance to get Helen back. This alliance accepted the common leadership of Menelaus and his brother Agamemnon. The Greeks sent a large expedition across the Aegean sea to Troy, and besieged the city for ten years &endash; it was on a height, on top of a great hill, and thus was very hard to capture.

The Sacrifice of Iphigeneia.

Homer -- blind Greek poet, composed around 750 BC

Aeschylus -- Greek dramatist, wrote around 460 BC

Achilles -- noblest Greek warrior at Troy

Many different Greek writers told different stories about the long war at Troy. The most famous of these are those found in Homer's epics, the Odyssey and the Iliad. However, stories about Troy continued to be told long after Homer. The expedition against Troy was certainly justified in some respects by the kidnapping of Helen. However, some of the stories told about the war make it clear that the Greeks in some respects defied the gods in their pursuit of vengeance against the kidnappers. A story told by Aeschylus places Greek impiety right at the beginning of the expedition. According to this story, the expedition on its way to Troy was becalmed at Euboea, and was unable to advance further because there were no winds. Upon consulting the gods, the expedition leaders learned that Artemis, the goddess of hunting, demanded that Agamamnon to sacrifice his daughter Iphigeneia to atone for some impiety that had already been performed by the Greek forces. It was the anger of Artemis that prevented the wind from blowing.

Iphigeneia, a young girl of marriagable age, was, naturally enough, not part of the military expedition against Troy. After much soul searching and anguish, Agamemnon accepted the demand of Artemis. To lure his daughter to this sacrifice, he sent a message to his home, announcing that before the fleet would depart, the marriage of his daughter and Achilles would be celebrated at Aulis. Clytemnestra and her daughter came to Aulis, thinking to participate in a wedding ceremnoy. Instead, Iphigeneia was sacrificed to Artemis. The wind changed, and the fleet was able to continue. According to Aeschylus' Agamemnon, the incident was a factor in Clytemnestra's desire to kill Agamenon on his return.

The Capture of Troy

1184 B. C. -- traditional date for the fall of Troy. Archaeologists today believe it fell c. 1200-1300 B. C.

In the tenth year of the war, on the advice of Odysseus, the Greeks built a large wooden horse, filled it with armed men and pretended to sail away. The Trojans, thinking the horse was an offering to the gods that would bring them luck, took it into their citadel. At night, the Greek warriors climbed out of the horse, opened the gates to their fellow soldiers who had snuck back, and together they captured the city. The Greeks burned Troy and took Helen back home again to her husband.

After the Trojan war was over, many Greek leaders had a difficult time trying to get home. The voyage across the Aegean Sea was treacherous, and many of the leaders had offended the gods in one way or another while capturing and pillaging Troy. They suffered for their sins on the homeward journey. Some died in trying to get home. Some, like Agamemnon, were killed by conspirators after they got home.