The Trojan War — The Great War

I. The Cause of the War

The Trojan War — the greatest conflict in Greek mythology — was sparked by a golden apple and a beauty contest among goddesses. At the wedding of Peleus and Thetis (parents of Achilles), the goddess of strife Eris threw a golden apple inscribed "To the Fairest" among the guests. Three goddesses claimed it: Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. Zeus appointed the Trojan prince Paris as judge.

Each goddess offered a bribe: Hera promised power over all Asia, Athena offered wisdom and victory in war, and Aphrodite promised the most beautiful woman in the world — Helen of Sparta, wife of King Menelaus. Paris chose Aphrodite, traveled to Sparta, and spirited Helen away to Troy. Menelaus called upon the oath that all of Helen's former suitors had sworn — to defend the marriage of whoever won her hand — and a thousand ships sailed for Troy.

II. The War

The siege of Troy lasted ten years. The Greek army, led by Agamemnon, included the greatest heroes of the age: Achilles, Odysseus, Ajax, Diomedes, and Patroclus. The Trojans, led by King Priam and his sons Hector and Paris, were aided by allies from across Asia Minor. The gods themselves took sides: Athena, Hera, and Poseidon supported the Greeks; Apollo, Aphrodite, and Ares supported the Trojans.

Homer's Iliad covers only a few weeks in the war's final year, focusing on the wrath of Achilles and the death of Hector. But the wider tradition encompasses countless episodes: the sacrifice of Iphigenia, the duel between Paris and Menelaus, the death of Patroclus, the fall of Ajax, and the intervention of the gods at every turn.

III. The Fall of Troy

The war ended not through force but through the cunning of Odysseus. He devised the Trojan Horse — an enormous wooden horse in which a select group of Greek warriors hid while the rest of the army pretended to sail away. The Trojans, believing the horse was a sacred offering, dragged it inside their walls. That night, the Greeks emerged, opened the gates for their returning army, and sacked the city. Troy was burned to the ground, its men killed, its women and children enslaved. The aftermath scattered the Greek heroes across the Mediterranean on their journeys home — none more famously than Odysseus, whose ten-year return voyage became the subject of Homer's Odyssey.