The Iliad and the Trojan War

The Iliad

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The Iliad starts nine years into the Trojan War

The Trojan War took place in Troy which is in the
northwest corner of what we now call the Republic
of Turkey
Many things had to happen to get this big war
under way

The Start of it All

Three
generations of
misery and
bloodshed
started
because a
wedding
planner failed
to invite an
important
goddess

Peleus and Thetis Wedding

Peleus was a mortal man.
Thetis was a sea nymph and the daughter
of Zeus.
Peleus had been on many adventures and
had already been married, but things went
sour when he accidentally killed his fatherin-law.
He saw Thetis, fell in love with her, and
tried to kidnap her.
She managed to fight him off with a snake
until he eventually won her over.

The Big
Affair
Peleus and
Thetis
Wedding
With Zeus consent, all the famous
mortals, gods, and goddess attended
Eris, the goddess of strife was not invited
Eris was insulted and snuck into the
wedding reception

To the
fairest

A Golden Apple

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Eris tossed a golden apple onto the

dance floor.
On the apple were the words, To the
fairest.
The golden apple was a serious party
killer. Who was the most beautiful?

Who is the fairest of them all?

The competition was between:
Athena Zeus daughter and a real
daddys girl
Hera Zeus wife and Queen of the
Gods
Aphrodite The Goddess of Love
They asked Zeus, as the King of the
Gods, to award the prize, but he was
no fool

The Judgment of Paris

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Zeus gave the task to Paris, son of Priam, the

King of Troy.
Zeus knew that Troy was fated to be destroyed
because of an old run-in with Apollo and Poseidon.
Paris was the torch to set the whole city on fire.

Paris Ill-fated Choice

Athena offered him
victory in war
Hera offered him
power over nations
Aphrodite offered
him the most
beautiful woman in
the world

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What would you

choose?

Helen of Troy
Paris accepted
Aphrodites offer
He then learned that
the most beautiful girl
in the world was
ALREADY MARRIED
She was Helen,
daughter of Leda and
Zeus
She was married to
Menelaus, king of
Sparta
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The Kidnapping of Helen

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Paris already had a

wife named
Oenone who
warned him not to
go through with the
kidnapping
He didnt listen
He sailed off to
Sparta to be guest
at the palace of
Menelaus

The Kidnapping of Helen

Troy was already
doomed before this
whole incident
Zeus was the
Protector of
Hospitality
Kidnapping your hosts
wife isnt exactly
hospitable
If Troy wasnt in
trouble before, they
certainly were now!

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In Sparta, Paris either

forcefully carried Helen
away from Troy or he
seduced her and she left
with him on her own

Troy in Trouble

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When Menelaus
discovered that his wife
was kidnapped, he ran to
his big brother
Agamemnon who agreed
to get help wage war to get
Helen back
Helen is known as the
face that launched a
thousand ships

Clever Odysseus!
Odysseus tried to get out of joining
Agamemnon and Menelaus in their fight for
Helen by pretending to be crazy.
Thetis (whose wedding started all this) tried
to get her son Achilles out of fighting, too.

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The Sacrifice of Iphigenia

Agamemnon finally got his
army together, but they
couldnt set sail against
strong winds on the
Aegean Sea.
The prophet Calchas told
him that the winds were
from Artemis, and to
appease Artemis,
Agamemnon would have to
sacrifice his daughter
Iphigenia
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Agamemnon sent a message to his wife, Clytemnestra,

saying that he had arranged for Iphigenia to marry Achilles in
Aulis, but when she arrived on her wedding day, her father
sacrificed her on the altar like an animal.

Now the War Can Begin!

Images Used:
Map of Turkey http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/time-zone/europe/turkey/map.htm 14 June
2007
Peleus and Thetis http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/M/Erika.D.Mitchell-Deluca-1/PeleusandThetis.html 14
June 2007
Phoenix Art Museum (Wedding of Peleus and Thetis, Joachim Wtewael, 1602)
http://www.phxart.org/pastexhibitions/copper.asp
14 June 2007
Dead White Males http://deadwhitemales.net/?p=53 14 June 2007
Fruit in Mythology http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Fi-Go/Fruit-in-Mythology.html 14 June 2007
Paris, Greek Mythology Link
http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/000Images/pim/parisjudgement1125.JPG 14 June 2007
Trojan War http://www.crystalinks.com/trojanwar.html 14 June 2007
Helen information (Helen of Troy by Evelyn De Morgan) http://www.search.com/reference/Helen 14
June 2007
Helen of Troy http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Mythology/Helen.html 14 June 2007
Troy http://www.waltm.net/troy.htm 14 June 2007
Book 4 http://library.thinkquest.org/04oct/00018/Cosmic%20Odyssey/synopsis/book4.html 14 June
2007
The Penelope Tradition http://mkatz.web.wesleyan.edu/Penelope/stamnos.jpg 14 June 2007
Themes from the Iliad and Ovid Metamorphosis
http://users.adelphia.net/~bnbhelm/project2/Achilles%20hiding.jpg
14 June 2007
The Green Flower Gang The University of Warwick http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/jackcole/ 14 June
2007
Discovery Channel (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2006/08/28/homer_his_zoom0.html?
category=human&guid=20060828100030 14 June 2007