1) The goddess Thetis was prophesied to bear a son greater than his father, so Zeus arranged for her to marry the mortal Peleus. They had a son, Achilles, who was fated to die at Troy. 2) Paris, prince of Troy, was chosen to judge a beauty contest between Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. He chose Aphrodite, who rewarded him with Helen, wife of Menelaus. Paris took Helen to Troy, starting the Trojan War. 3) Agamemnon led the Greeks to retrieve Helen. However, to appease Artemis and get winds to sail, he sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia

1. The Iliad
Events leading up to the Trojan war

3. One strand of the
story begins with
the goddess Thetis

4. Thetis: Nereid
THETIS: Daughter of NEREUS and DORIS, and best
friend of EURYNOME, was doing well God-wise until an
oracle put out a prophecy which upset ZEUS and
POSEIDON, who both fancied her at the time. The
oracle said that THETIS would bear a son greater than
his father.

5. Thetis was the leader of the 50 Nereids
(sea-goddesses)

7. To avoid the
consequences of
the prophecy
they made sure
she was married
off to a
mortal, PELEUS, k
ing of Phthia.

8. Thetis could
change
shapes, so
Peleus had to
wrestle her

9. He succeeded, and the wedding was
planned

10. Poor Thetis. She
knew that marriage
to a mortal would
lead to
mortification.

11. The gods provided a magnificent wedding
for Thetis and Peleus

13. Eris, however, was not invited

15. Eris is Discord, and may be called strife and
quarrel as well. Eris has been said to be the
daughter of Nyx, but she has also been called
the sister of Ares and the nurse of War, since she
helps her brother in arms to accomplish his
bloody work.
And enjoying the groans of dying men, she fills
their hearts with hatred, so that they may slay
each other.

16. Uninvited, Eris shows up anyway
She tosses a golden apple
into the crowd.

18. The apple came with a note

19. Discord ensued!
The three most powerful goddesses,
Hera,
Athene
and
Aphrodite,
each claimed that the apple should be her prize.

20. Zeus was asked to choose

21. Zeus
wisely
declined

22. Who would be naïve enough to judge
among three powerful goddesses???

23. Thetis and Peleus at home

24. Previously,
in Troy…

25. Troy, a city in Asia, was located just across
the Hellespont from Europe

28. Priam was king, and Hekuba queen

30. When Hekuba was pregnant with her
second son, an oracle predicted that this
child would cause the destruction of Troy.

31. This child was named Paris/Alexandros

32. The infant was taken to Mt. Ida to die from
exposure

33. Nursed by a bear for 5 days, Paris
survived and was raised by shepherds
The young
Paris fell in
love with the
nymph
Oenone

34. Paris was the perfect
choice to judge the
beauty contest, for
Zeus desired to make
his daughter Helen
famous in both Europe
and Asia via an
infamous war.

37. Tyndareus and Leda were king and queen
of Sparta

38. Zeus took on the form of a swan and raped
Leda

39. “Leda and the Swan” has been a subject
for many artists

53. And a famous poem by Yeats
Leda And The Swan
Poem lyrics of Leda And The Swan by William Butler Yeats.
A sudden blow: the great wings beating still
Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed
By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,
He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.
How can those terrified vague fingers push
The feathered glory from her loosening thighs?
And how can body, laid in that white rush,
But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?
A shudder in the loins engenders there
The broken wall, the burning roof and tower
And Agamemnon dead.
Being so caught up,
So mastered by the brute blood of the air,
Did she put on his knowledge with his power
Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?

54. Leda gave birth to 2 eggs
One egg contained Helen and Polydeuces
(Pollux).
The other egg contained Clytemnestra and
Castor.
Castor and Pollux were known as the Dioscuri or
Gemini.

59. Already a beauty, at age 10 Helen was
kidnapped by Theseus

60. Helen was rescued and returned to Sparta
by her brothers

61. In the meantime, Helen’s sister
Clytemnestra had married twice
First to Tantalus, son of
Thyestes
Second, to
Agamemnon, who killed
Tantalus

62. After Helen was returned to Sparta, suitors
came from all over
Tyndareus was at a loss because he feared
reprisal from the unsuccessful.
It was, of course, the clever Odysseus who came
up with a strategy -- a strategy he offered to
share in exchange for Tyndareus’s
niece, Penelope.

64. Odysseus’ plan:
All the suitors were required to swear an oath to
stand behind whichever suitor Tyndareus
selected, and be ready at any time in the future
to defend the marriage.
The suitors so swore.

65. Odysseus courts Penelope

66. Tyndareus selected Menelaus
Not handsome or
glamorous, Mene
laus was rich and
powerful, largely
due to the
position of his
brother
Agamemnon.

67. Menelaus, Clytemnestra, Helen, Ag
amemnon

68. Menelaus and Helen married and had a
daughter, Hermione

69. The plan was for Hermione to marry
Orestes, the son of Agamemnon and
Clytemnestra

70. This marriage would unite Mycenae, ruled
by Agamemnon, and Sparta, ruled by
Menelaus
However, many plans were delayed or ruined
entirely by
The JUDGEMENT OF PARIS

71. When Zeus named Paris as the
arbiter of the apple, each of the three
goddesses came to Paris with a bribe

74. Hera offered him wealth and dominion
over Europe and Asia

75. Athene promised Paris that he would be
the bravest of mortals and skilled in every
craft

76. Aphrodite offered him the most beautiful
woman in the world

78. Paris chose
Aphrodite, and in
return she helped
effect the
abduction of Helen

81. Meanwhile, Paris had gone to Troy to
participate in athletic contests.

82. Paris defeated everyone, including all the
princes of Troy

83. Angered, Prince
Deiphobus drew
his sword to kill
the “commoner”

84. Trojan princess Cassandra, who had the gift of a
seer, revealed that the man hugging the altar of Zeus
was their brother and a prince of Troy

85. Paris was welcomed back into the
family
He soon set sail for
Sparta to claim his
prize.

86. Some say
Helen went
willingly with
Paris; others
say she went
unwillingly.

88. Paris brought Helen to Troy

89. Awed by her beauty and her status, the
Trojans welcomed her—even Priam

91. As soon as Helen left Sparta, the Greeks
hyped out
Menelaus, who had been amusing himself with
a nymph in Crete, came rushing back to Sparta.
Agamemnon was furious at the dishonor done
to his family.
Couriers were sent throughout Greece to
remind former suitors of their oath.

93. Menelaus and
Odysseus went to Troy
to demand, ransom, or
steal Helen back

95. But to no avail

96. Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, even
snuck into Troy to check things out.

97. But Helen could not be retrieved.
Warriors throughout the Hellenistic world were
called upon to wage war

98. Some, like Odysseus, were reluctant to go
Happily married to Penelope, with an infant son
named Telemachos and with a prophecy that he
would not return from Troy until 20 years had
passed, Odysseus feigned madness to escape
the call.

100. Odysseus went
down to the
shore and
ploughed the
beach each day

101. But Odysseus was needed for his skills as a
rhetorician and a strategist
So Palimedes was sent to bring Odysseus in. He
did so by throwing the infant Telemachos under
the plow. Odysseus’ scheme was to appear mad
by plowing the sand on the beach.

102. Odysseus’
sanity was
revealed when
he stopped
the oxen and
rescued his
son.

104. Thetis and Peleus had a son, Achilles

105. He was raised by Phoinix, and educated by
the Centaur Chiron

108. Only 15, Achilles was the best warrior in all
of Greece
Achilles had been
trained in the arts of
war and medicine by
the centaur Chiron

109. To save her son from death at Troy, Thetis
hid him among the women of king
Lycomedes

110. Achilles had an affair with
Deidamea, Lycomedes’ daughter, who bore
him a son Neoptalmos

111. The clever
Odysseus was
sent to
uncover
Achilles, who
was dressed
as one of the
women of the
harem.

112. Disguised as a merchant, Odysseus
included a wonderful sword in his bag of
ladies’ goods
When one of the
“girls” fondled the
sword, Odysseus
knew “she” was
Achilles.

113. Achilles, leading the Myrmidons, went willingly
to Aulis, where Agamemnon had gathered all of
the Greek warriors

114. It took two years for all the forces to
assemble at Aulis
In the
meantime, Agamemno
n, hunting for food for
the
troops, accidentally
killed a stag sacred to
the goddess Artemis

115. Outraged, Artemis kept the winds from
blowing, so the restless troops were stuck
in Aulis.

116. Agamemnon, the
commander-in-
chief, asked the seer
Calchas what was
wrong.

117. Calchas told Agamemnon of Artemis’ anger, and her
demand of a human sacrifice—Agamemnon’s
daughter Iphigenia

118. Iphigenia was sent for

119. Agamemnon’s ruse was that he had
arranged a marriage between Iphigenia
and Achilles
Thrilled, Clytemnestra
sent her child to Aulis.
When the marriage was
discovered to be a
hoax, both Clytemnestra
and Achilles were royally
pissed at Agamemnon.

124. Iphigenia willingly
accepted death

128. Agamemnon performed the sacrifice

129. The rites completed, the winds blew and
over 1,000 ships sailed for Troy