Odyssey Notes, Trojan War

• War started over jealousy
• Greek gods were having a wedding party, but Eris, goddess of strife (displeasure), wasn’t invited
• Eris thought: I’ll show them
• She sends a golden apple rolling into party with a label: “to the fairest”
• Everyone thinks it belongs to them
• Three goddesses fight over the apple: Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite
• They want Zeus to decide who’s the fairest; he won’t
• Zeus sends Hermes to find a human to decide
• The goddesses try to bribe Paris, the man
• Athena offers: success in everything; best in war, best athlete, best artist
• Hera offers: power – the most powerful man on earth
• Aphrodite offers: the most beautiful woman on earth
• Paris chooses Aphrodite
• Problem is: the most beautiful woman is Helen
• Helen is married
• Paris thought: oh well – finds Helen (a Greek), and takes her back to Troy
• Helen’s husband = not happy, wants to start war
• Thus, the Trojan War begins
• Odysseus didn’t want to go to war
• O pretended to be crazy
• His plan didn’t work; had to go fight
• War lasted 10 years
• Troy was heavily armed; had walls around city
• O came up with plan: pretend to surrender
• Built giant horse as “gift” to people of Troy
• Other Greek ships sailed away
• Trojans thought Greeks went home
• Trojans took giant horse into city and celebrated
• Greeks came out of horse at night and sacked the city
• Greeks won the war
• Poseidon was originally on the Greeks’ side, but O made him mad – he had too much pride