The Crazy Story of the Trojan War

Once upon a time…

A man named King Priam’s wife (Queen Hecuba) is pregnant.

Around 1200 BCEClose to when King Tut assumed power in Egypt

But she had a weird dream…

Queen Hecuba had a dream she gave birth to a blazing bundle with serpents coming out of it instead of giving birth to a baby.

“Kill him!!”

The prophets said “Kill that baby!! He will be responsible for the ruin of Troy!!”

“Heck NO!”

King Priam said, “Im not going to kill my own son.” He abandoned him instead.

Cattleman to the rescue

Priam’s cattleman was supposed to put the baby in the woods and leave him, but the cattleman came back and decided to raise him as his own son.

Paris (the baby) grew up

He grew to be strong, handsome, etc., and Zeus took a liking to him. Zeus asked Paris to do him a favor.

“You’re the judge!”

Paris had to judge a beauty contest for Zeus. Zeus just didn’t want to do it.

Eris, goddess of strife and discord, threw an apple into a wedding celebration she wasn’t invited to.

It was labeled “For the Fairest”

Zeus would get in trouble…

The contest was between Zeus’ wife, his daughter, and his daughter-in-law. Obviously it was a lose-lose situation if he judged it.

Aphrodite bribes best

Hera promised Paris power

Athena promised him wealth

Aphrodite promised him the most beautiful woman in the world

________ won!

“You deserve a real woman….”

Aphrodite offered to make Helen of Troy fall in love with Paris.

It didn’t matter that she was already married to Menelaus, king of Sparta.

“I’m off to get me a wife.”

Paris made friends with Menelaus. When Menelaus was burying his dead father, Paris stole his wife, Helen.

DON’T MESS WITH THE SPARTANS

“Let’s get some gold while we’re at it.”

He also took a bunch of Menelaus’ gold too, and then went home (back to Troy)

“That’s cool.”

When he gets back everyone sees that he has brought a beautiful woman and a bunch of gold, so they’re happy.

They don’t seem to mind how he got it.

Menelaus gets angry

Menelaus gets pretty mad (understandably). He gets an army together and lays siege to Troy.

Asks all of Helen’s old suitors to help him defeat Troy- oath to protect Helen

Hmmm…

What do you think about:Priam (would you have killed your son, or let your whole kingdom be destroyed)?

Paris (What type of person does he seem like)?

The gods and their interaction with menHow do the gods act in this story?

Part Two: The Soap Opera Continues

When we last left our heroes…Helen fell in love with Paris and went to Troy with him

Menelaus (Helen’s husband) gathered a huge army and set sail for Troy

9 years of fighting later…

Enter Achilles: Wrath!

The greatest warrior in Greece. He is said to be a demi-god, son of Thetis, a nymph, and Peleus, a Greek King.

His mother dipped him in the River Styx to make him impervious to wounds, except where she held him, at the back of his ankle.

He fights for the Greeks with his dear friend, Patroclus.

Enter Hector: Revenge and Murder

Paris’s brother, Hector is both brave and noble. He fights for the Trojans and saves Paris’s life many times.

He fights Patroclus, Achilles’s best friend, and kills him.

Hector versus Achilles

Achilles, seeking revenge for the death of his friend, challenges Hector to fight just outside the walls of Troy.

Achilles kills Hector, and refuses to take the body back to Hector’s parents, Priam and Hecuba.

OdysseusTalented Greek warrior who fights with Achilles against Troy

Comes up with the idea that finally conquers the great walls of Troy

The Odyssey, another epic poem by Homer, describes Odysseus’s long journey home after the Trojan War.

The Wooden HorseThe Trojans and the Greeks had been fighting for 9 years, and it was a stalemate

The only way for the Greeks to win would be to take Troy by surprise and somehow get inside the city gates.

Odysseus developed the strategy of the wooden horse. It would be hollow and big enough to fit a squad of men inside. The rest of the army would pack and pretend to leave, while leaving the horse as a “peace offering”. In the night, the Greeks who were inside the horse inside the walls would launch a surprise attack on Troy from inside, and Troy would fall.

The Fall of Troy

Odysseus’s plan worked perfectly! The Trojans thought the Greeks were leaving. They opened the gates and brought the horse in. They rejoiced and begun to feast and celebrate- the long war was over at last! At midnight, as the city slept, Odysseus and his men left the belly of the horse and opened the walls to the rest of the Greek army, who had returned and were waiting.

By morning, King Priam and all the Trojans were dead, and the city was destroyed.

Helen survived, and went back to Greece with Menelaus.