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WELCOME TO AN UNFORGETTABLE ADVENTURE Warning: Proceed with extreme caution you are about to enter the world of The Odyssey

The adventure begins with The Trojan War. Sometimes we forget how wars begin, so lets review. The main characters are:MenelausParisHelen

These three were trapped in a love triangle

Helen of TroyParis MenelausAccording to legend, the events that led to the Trojan War started at a royal wedding. Peleus, king of the Myrmidons (a race of people created from ants!), was marrying a sea nymph named Thetis.

Many gods attended the wedding, but Eris, daughter of Zeus, king of the gods, wasn't invited because she was the goddess of discord and was bound to cause trouble.

How did they weave their tangled web?

Revenge and The Apple of Discord

Angry at being excluded, Eris decided to disrupt the wedding banquet. She threw a golden apple marked "for the fairest" among the guests. The goddesses Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite were there, and each thought that she was the fairest of them all. They bickered for a while about who deserved the apple, then asked Zeus to decide the matter. Zeus didn't want to get involved, so he sent them to a prince named Paris, the son of King Priam of Troy in Anatolia (modern-day Turkey).

The goddesses tried to rig the contest by bribing Paris.

The Judgment of Parisby Ludovico DavidAthena: Goddess of Wisdom & WarAthena promised to help Paris lead Troy to victory in a war against the Greeks.

Hera: Goddess of Marriage & ChildbirthHera promised to make Paris the king of all Europe and Asia.

Aphrodite: Goddess of Love & BeautyAphrodite promised to give Paris the most beautiful woman in the world.

The beautiful woman sounded better to Paris than power and glory, so he awarded the Apple of Discord to Aphrodite.

There was just one problem. The most beautiful woman in the world was already married. . . .

Aphrodite sent him to Sparta to collect his prize.His prize was Helen, a half-mortal daughter of Zeus.

When Paris showed up in Sparta, Menelaus and Helen welcomed him as a guest. Helen was already married to Menelaus, the brother of the king of Mycenea, Agamemnon.

Then Menelaus left Sparta for a while. When he returned , Helen was gone. She had eloped with Paris.

Menelaus was furious. Determined to win his wife back, he summoned the princes who had promised to protect Helen. His brother Agamemnon led the expedition.Odysseus King of IthacaOdysseus did not want to go to war but he had been a suitor to Helen and made the oath to protect her. In order to avoid going, he pretended to be insane. When Menelaus sent Palamedes to get him, he hitched together an ox and a donkey to one plow and began madly plowing his fields with salt. Palamedes saw through the ruse and threw his newborn son, Telemachus in front of the plow. Odysseus stopped working and revealed his sanity.Agamemnons MistakeRight before the army was set to sail for Troy, Agamemnon killed an animal sacred to the Goddess Artemis and boasted that he was as skilled a hunter as she. As punishment, Artemis calmed the winds so the ships could not sail to Troy.

The PriceFinally, the prophetCalchessaid that the wrath of the goddess could only be taken away by the sacrifice of Agamemnon's daughterIphigenia.

Agamemnon did sacrifice Iphigenia - Her death appeased Artemis, and the Greek army (1,000 ships) set out for Troy.Thats why Helen of Troy is often referred to as The Face That Launched A Thousand Ships

The Greeks besieged Troy for ten years. According to legend, the gods took great interest in the war. Hera and Athena still resented Paris for not giving them the Apple of Discord, so they helped the Greek side.

Aphrodite assisted the Trojans.

Trojan WarIn the 10th year, it looked as if the Trojans would win the war. The Greeks were ready to give up and go home. Before they threw in the towel though, one of their greatest heroes was making one final plan. The King of Ithaca, Odysseus, came up with a fool-proof plan to get the Greeks into Troy.

The Greeks built an immense wooden horse and Odysseus, Menelaus, and other warriors hid inside. After leaving the horse at the gates of Troy, the Greek army sailed away. The Trojans thought the Greeks had given up and had left the horse as a gift.

The Trojan HorseThe horse was brought inside the walls of Troy and the Trojans celebrated their victory. That night, while the Trojans were sleeping, the Greek ships quietly returned.

The soldiers in the horse slipped out and opened the city gates, and the Greek army quietly entered Troy.

They started fires all over the city. The Trojans awoke to find their city burning.

When they tried to flee, they were massacred by Greek soldiers.

During the sack of Troy, Odysseus found Helen and took her to her husband, Menelaus. He told Menelaus that Helen had helped him steal a sacred Trojan statue, the Palladium. Pleased to hear that Helen was still loyal to the Greeks, Menelaus returned with her to Sparta (it took them seven years to get home)where, it seems, they lived happily ever after.

Now it was time for Odysseus and the other Greeks to return to their kingdoms across the sea. Here begins the tale of The Odyssey, Odysseus 10 year journey home,as sung by the blind minstrel Homer.

Trojan War = 10 yearsOdysseus journey home = 10 yearsNow, lets embark on Odysseus exciting adventures . . .Proceed with caution!!

Slide show created from workby Susie WeigelAuburn High SchoolEnglish Teacher