The Iliad and The Odyssey

Epic

Iliad & Odyssey

Iliad = Achilles

Odyssey = Odysseus

The Trojan War

It started with a Party

• Zeus throws a wedding party on Mount Olympus and invites all the gods except Eris, the goddess of discord
• She crashes the party and brings a golden apple addressed to the most beautiful goddess
• This starts a fight over who should get the apple
• They narrow it down to Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite...

They choose a mortal named paris to decide

• Hera, the goddess of marriage offers him fame and power if he picks her
• Athena, the goddess of cleverness and battle, offers him wisdom and knowledge
• Aphrodite, the goddess of lust and desire offers Paris the most beautiful woman in the world

the start of a war

• Paris chooses Aphrodite (because he's an idiot)
• Aphrodite promises him Helen of Sparta (the most beautiful woman), but Paris has to go get her
• Helen's already married to Menelaus, the King of Sparta, who fought and won Helen in a competition
• All of Helen's other suitors made an oath to help protect Helen from abduction (the Oath of Tyndareus
• So when Paris takes Helen back to Troy, they MUST help Menelaus

the iliad starts...

• At the beginning of the 10th year of the war between the Greeks and Trojans
• For NINE YEARS, the Greeks have been in Troy, fighting to get Helen back