It all started at the wedding of the sea-nymph Thetis to the Hero Peleus . The goddess of discord Eris was outraged for not having been invited and malignantly threw an apple on the table where Hera, Aphrodite and Athena were sitting. The Apple thrown had a label: “ to the most beautiful goddess”…
As it could be expected, the 3 goddesses were soon into a terrible row and Zeus thought that he could end this bitter conflict by requesting a naive outsider to be the judge and therefore he asked Paris, the young prince of Troy.
Of course for Paris and for the whole innocent people of Troy it would be the start of the end.
The Judgement of Paris
Aphrodite corrupted the young prince Paris by promising him the love of Helen “ the face that launched a thousand ships “ , the most beautiful mortal, famous in the whole Hellenistic world for her beauty. Both ignoring the fact that the stunning Helen was already married to no less than the powerful king of Sparta, Menelaus.
Despite the chilling reality, the unconscious Troy chose Aphrodite as the most beautiful goddess, thus provoking the resentment of both Hera and Athena.
Helen, the stunning queen of Sparta, after drinking a love potion made by Aphrodite, felt passionately in love with the young prince Paris. They escaped together to Troy.
The Face That Launched a Thousand Ships
This scandalous outrage made to the king of Sparta provoked the fury of the whole Greece. All the cities states were linked either by family ties or by diplomatic agreements.
A coalition « The Achaeans « was rapidly set up under the leadership of the king of Mycenae Agamemnon, the brother of Helen‘s husband Menelaus. Some were very reluctant to join such as the king of Ithaca Odysseus but also the most famous hero of the Trojan war : the young, glorious Achilles.
Odysseus, who was initially reluctant to join the Achaean armies , had to tricked the non-less reluctant Achilles to join the Greek armies.
The Sacrifice of Iphigenia
After Agamemnon infuriated the goddess Artemis, Odysseus had to trick the wife of Agamemnon. He was obeying Agamemnon’s orders to take his daughter to a supposedly mariage with the glorious Achilles, while in fact Iphigenia was to be sacrificed to atone for her father’s offence so the Greek armies would have the winds to sail to Troy.
Only Achilles, tried to save Iphigenia. It was Artemis who finally rescued secretly Iphigenia.