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The Trojan War
Paris & the
Golden Apple
Almost all the gods were invited to a big
wedding; except Eris, the disagreeable
goddess of discord. Feeling slighted,
she tossed a golden apple, inscribed
with the phrase “For the Fairest”
amongst the goddesses. Hera, Athena,
and Aphrodite fight bitterly over the
apple. Zeus appoints Paris, a Trojan
prince and reputed to be the most
handsome man, to decide. The
goddesses try bribing him to choose
her. Hera promises world dominion,
Athena promises victory in all battles.
Aphrodite offers the least; she promises
him the most beautiful woman: Helen.
Guess what he chose. . .
The Greeks: Helen & Menelaus
The Greeks: Agamemnon
 Becomes commander of
Greeks in the Trojan War
after the abduction of sisterin-law Helen
 Gathers Helen’s suitors &
their men to sail from
Greece to Troy (hence Helen is “the
face that launched 1000 ships”)
 Breaks through the Trojan
barrier protecting the Helen
 Considered the Greek
equivalent of Hector
The Trojans: King Priam &
Queen Hecuba
The Trojans: Hector
• Oldest child of Priam and
Hecuba
• Trojan prince and one of
the greatest fighters in the
Trojan War
• Leader of the Trojans and
their allies in the defense
of Troy
• Favorite of Apollo
• Killed by Achilles after he
had killed Patroclus,
Achilles’ squire and best
friend.
The Trojans:
Cassandra
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Cassandra was the daughter of King
Priam and Queen Hecuba.
The god Apollo became infatuated with
Cassandra’s beauty, and granted her
the gift of prophecy. But Cassandra
rebuffed his advances, and instead of
just killing her or taking the gift from
Cassandra, he put a slight wrinkle in
her gift: she would still have the ability
of 100% crystal clear foresight, but no
mortal would ever believe her
prophecies.
The worst part, of course, was that
Cassandra knew that war was coming
to Troy. But no one believed her. She
knew that horrible death and calamity
would befall her friends and family.
She knew that Troy would be sacked
by the Greek invaders.
She knew that she would eventually be
raped by the conquering Greek hero
Ajax, and that she would be murdered
by King Agamemnon’s jealous wife.
The Greeks: Achilles
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Achilles was the son of the
nymph Thetis and Peleus, the
king of the Myrmidons.
Thetis tried to make him
immortal by dipping him in
the river Styx. However, he
was left vulnerable at the part
of the body she held him by,
his heel.
Greek Hero of the Trojan
War.
Greatest warrior of Homer’s
Iliad.
Achilles Cont...
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Killed Hector,
Prince of Troy.
As predicted by
Hector with his
dying breath,
Achilles was
killed by Paris
with an arrow. In
some versions, the
god Apollo guided
Paris' arrow.
Achilles killing Hector
The Greeks: Pyrrhus
(aka Neoptolemus)
• Son of
Achilles
• Escapes
from wooden
horse
• Kills King
Priam of Troy
to avenge his
father’s
death
The Greeks:
Odysseus
• Came from a long line of thieves,
tricksters, and scoundrels
• Was the only one of Helen’s
suitors to not bring her gifts (he
thought she was a gold-digger)
• He, instead, choses Helen’s
cousin, Penelope
• Originally he feigned madness to
escape going to war when called
by Agamemnon
• Known for his cleverness; his
most ingenious plan -- to build a
wooden horse
• Earns Poseidon’s wrath for
blinding one of his sons (a
cyclops. Poseidon vows to make
the trip long and costly. After
being gone in the war 10 years, it
takes another 10 years for him to
get home
Odysseus’ wife Penelope & son
Telemachus
The Oedipal Saga
Who’s your mama & daddy?
The House of Thebes: King Laius
• Received an oracle from
Delphi which told him he
must not have a child
with his wife or the child
would kill him and marry
her.
Queen Jocasta
• Oedipus’s biological
mother
• Knowing the curse, she
and Laius give the baby
to shepherds to leave
on a mountaintop. They
don’t and give him to the
childless King and
Queen of Corinth who
raise him as their own.
• She believes her baby
died on the mountaintop
OEDIPUS
• Son of King Laius & Jocasta of
Thebes.
• Raised as a Prince of Corinth.
• At a party a drunken guest says
Oedipus is not the King of
Corinth’s son. Oedipus goes to the
Oracle of Delphi to find out the
truth. He’s told the curse, and
fearing he kill his parents (the King
& Queen of Corinth) he flees to
Thebes
• Oedipus kills his biological father
in on the way to Thebes
• After arriving in Thebes, he finds
the city under attack from the
Sphinx. He solves riddle of the
Sphinx & was named king.
• Oedipus married Jocasta, his
mother, and had four children.
The End of Oedipus
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After many years of peace
and prosperity, Thebes is
attacked by a plague
Nothing seems to help
alleviate the plague, so
Oedipus sends his brotherin-law Creon to the Oracle
to ask for a solution
Teiresias says that one who
is guilty of Laius’s death
must pay for the plague to
be lifted
It comes to be known that
Oedipus was the killer
Jocasta, upon hearing the
news, hangs herself
Oedipus blinds himself with
Jocasta’s brooch and is
exiled
Teiresias
• Teiresias was the blind
prophet who revealed the
truth of the crimes of
Oedipus.
• According to Ovid, the
Roman poet, he spent part
of his life as a man and
seven years of it as a
woman so he knew the act
of love from both points of
view.
• He died when he was
struck by an arrow of
Apollo.
• Antigone is the daughter of
King Oedipus and his wife
Jocasta.
• Antigone is the half-sister of
her father, Oedipus, and the
granddaughter of her
mother, Jocasta.
• Her older brothers begin a
war to secure the throne left
by their father Oedipus’
death. Both brothers are
killed in battle. Eteocles
receives a burial. Their
uncle Creon refuses to allow
Polyneices to be buried.
This is against the laws of
the gods.
Antigone
The End of House of Laius
• Antigone buries
Polyneices, against her
uncle’s orders
• Creon sentences her to
death by entombing in a
cave
• Both Antigone and he
fiance, Creon’s son,
Haemon, die in the cave.
• Creon realizes his error
and tries to save them.
It’s too late.