- the iliad and the trojan war
- the trojan war
- the trojan war is one of the most important events on Greek mythology.
- during this war, the achaeans (greeks) battled the city of troy (now anatolia in turkey).
- how it all started
- the birth of paris
- queen hecuba of troy was pregnant with her youngest when she had a dream that she gave birth to a flaming torch which set all of troy on fire.
- startled by this, she told her husband king priam. they decided to consult their son, aesacus, the seer.
- "your newborn son will be the downfall of troy," aesacus said. "he must be killed to save our people."
- when paris, their youngest son, was born, the king and queen knew what they had to do, but they couldn't do it themselves.
- instead, king priam called upon his chief herdsman, agelaus, to do the deed.
- agelaus brought the baby to the desolate mount ida. he soon realized he couldn't bear to kill the child, and so he left tiny paris there in the wilderness.
- paris was meant to live
- that night, a bear saw little paris and took pity on him. she took him in for the night and kept him safe.
- the next day, agelaus came back for the body, but was surprised to see the baby safe and sound.
- he took this as a sign that paris was meant to live.
- and so, agelaus took the child and raised him as his own son.
- paris the fair
- paris grew up to be a handsome, strong and intelligent young man, beloved by women and men alike.
- he loved bullfighting, often pitting his own prized bull against many others.
- one day, he offered a challenge: his bull would fight anyone's bull to a battle. the winner would receive a golden crown.
- ares, the god of war, heard this challenge and transformed into a bull to face paris'.
- ares easily won, and paris proves how fair he was by readily awarding ares the golden crown.
- what paris did had appealed to the gods, thus he was chosen to be the judge of one of the most extraordinary contests ever waged.
- the wedding
- at olympus, the home of the gods, zeus was busy planning a wedding feast for thetis, a sea nymph and the goddess of water, and his beloved peleus the mortal.
- all the gods and goddesses were invited to the party. all, but eris. this was because wherever eris went, she brought only discord, chaos. and misery.
- but eris learned of the feast.
nov 25 2017 ∞
nov 28 2017 +