The Gods's Role In The Trojan War

In Homer’s epic poem the Iliad, gods and goddesses play an important role in influencing the lives of humans, and Athena is an important part of the war. The goddess Athena is written mostly as a mortal, where she signifies the personification of war. Both sides of the war know that with Athena, they will not lose. This is probably why she is the most significant minor character. Athena is the most significant minor character because she is brave, wise, and she is a warrior. Athena plays a significant role in the unfolding drama, because both the Greeks and the Trojans know that her favor, they cannot be defeated.

The Iliad during the Trojan war is a very interesting story that could cause debate upon fellow readers. It brings up a lot of questions and thoughts about the gods and greeks of this time period, such as what is more important to them, justice or mercy? Also, it highlights the view that they have on war and whether it is tragic or glorious to them. During the Iliad, justice and mercy both play very important roles throughout the multiple books and are seen by different characters during the war. Also, it shows what the gods are like and how they view themselves and humans.

Homer’s interpretation of The Trojan War stated that the war was provoked solely by Paris, who stole Helen from Greece. Prince Paris was invited to a dinner where the Greeks and the Trojans were celebrating their alliance with one another. Paris caught eyes with Helen and they were immediately in love with one another, and Paris abducted her and brought her back to Troy to become her husband. By describing the story in this manner, Homer writes to the conventions of the Bronze Age Era, prioritizing romanticism over political objectives.

Virgil first depicts humans as unthoughtful through the ignorance of the Trojans. In Virgil’s story, during the Trojan War, the Greeks have a plan to hide their men inside of a giant wooden horse to get inside the city of Troy. When this enormous gift shows up in Troy, few people are suspicious, and most people want to accept the gift. The men of Troy receive many warnings, but still end up taking the horse into the walls of their city. Laocoön, a Trojan priest, tries to assist the Trojans and tells them, “Men of Troy, what madness has come over you?/Can you believe the enemy had truly gone?/A gift from the Danaans, and no ruse?” (II. 59-61) This priest was the first to legitimately question the gift, and even after hearing this warning from someone so wise, the Trojans decided to accept the gift into their city. If the Trojans would have listened to the priest, they could have won the war and saved many lives. Instead of thinking through why their enemy would give them such a present, the men acted impulsively and completely misjudged the situation. Not only did the Trojans receive warnings about the horse from their own friends, but the blindly trusted a man they knew nothing about. As the Trojans were contemplating their decision, the Greeks sent a secret weapon to trick them. Sinon, a sneaky Greek, showed up to the gates of Troy ready to convince the Trojans to accept the Greek’s gift. Sinon is introduced as an unknown prisoner and this causes the Trojans to sympathize

The war began with a grand wedding between Peleus, the son of Aeacus, and Thetis, the sea-goddess. Eris, the goddess of discord, was not invited to the wedding. Enraged at this, she stormed into the wedding and threw a golden apple of discord on a table. The apple had the inscription “For the fairest” a quarrel soon arose between three powerful goddesses. The three goddesses; Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena all wanted the title of fairest. They wanted to Zeus to be the judge of this contest. Not wanting to be involved in the quarrel, Zeus sent Hermes to get Paris, the Trojan prince, so that he could judge the three ("History of the Trojan War").

The gods were inclined to use the Achaeans and Trojans as the pawns in their chess game of life, using their powers to help their favorites escape from danger. Or if they did not like them, they would hold them back, ultimately interfering with outcomes of the whole war (Book 1:508-510). The meanings of justice could then change, depending on the situation at hand. There were many situations where the Trojans or Achaeans did not fight necessarily for their own justice, but instead for a god’s justice against Zeus. Nevertheless, the warriors would still try to advance and reach justice, but at the end of the epic it was difficult to remember what exactly the whole war was about.

She talks Achilles into using his words to fight Agamemnon instead of his sword. To obey the gods Achilles verbally lashes him calling him a drunkard and a coward who stays behind the fight letting other men die while he reaps the glory because he feared death even though he will take the prize of any man that disagrees with him. He will not fight any more and that Agamemnon has brought the destruction of the Greek army on himself for failing to honor the best of the Greek warriors. He would give up Briseis because it was Agamemnon that gave her to him but if he touched anything else of his he would kill him. Achilles gave up Briseis to Agamemnon’s men telling them that one day they would need his help for their leader didn’t know how to see how his actions affected everyone. In the movie of Troy after taking the beach outside of the city of Troy Achilles is given Briseis as his prize of honor the leaders met together giving gifts to Agamemnon. Achilles spoke to the king telling him that he had won a victory that day. Agamemnon told him that he had won the beach of Troy from Prium that morning, that history remembers kings not warriors and even though he was there to fight for the continuation of his name his wouldn’t be the one who was remembered. Achilles tells him to be careful because he needs to win the war first. Agamemnon recounts that Achilles men had taken the temple of Apollo. Achilles tells him that he can take all of the gold for

The Trojans and Greeks fought a frivolous war that began with a golden apple and a trio of precarious goddesses. It initiated when Prince Paris was given an apple from the “evil goddess of Discord, Eris,” and told him to choose the fairest goddess between three. Paris ludicrously chose the goddess who offered him the most beautiful woman. This woman was Helen, queen of Sparta. But Paris stole her from her husband and refused to give her back to Menelaus.

This caused many grave tragedies for both sides of the war. The first instance where we saw the gods’ interfering is in the first book. Apollo sent a plague down to the Achaean camp to punish them for refusing to give Chryseis back to her father. This plague set off the feud between Achilles and Agamemnon, which lead to Achilles leaving the battle. Achilles anger gave rise to Zeus to interfering on behalf of the Trojans.

In, “This was just, and the Trojans would have agreed if Athena, at Hera's prompting, had not interfered. Hera was determined that the war should not end until Troy was ruined. Athena, sweeping down to the battlefield, persuaded the foolish heart of Pandarus, a Trojan, to break the truce and shoot an arrow at Menelaus,” Mythology page 192, it is perspicuous that these two goddesses are meddling in the affairs of mortals. They want Troy demolished, Paris dead, and Aphrodite defeated, and the way the go about this is through humans. Athena coaxes Pandarus to loose his arrow at the Spartan king, knowing the Greeks will be peeved at this and resume the battle. During the onslaught, Olympians are wounded alongside men. Aphrodite is hurt by Diomedes, brave because of Hera, and the Greek’s spear, guided by Athena, also strikes Ares. Such actions prompted by these two goddesses are clear evidence that the Olympians are involved in the Trojan War. In addition, the consequences of the behavior of Eris show this particular type of violence. Sly and sneaky, the goddess of discord was not invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, and was naturally angered by this. She flung an apple, marked For The Fairest, into the party. The events that occurred afterward would become legendary. Olympus became divided over Troy,

The Trojan War is described as one of histories most legendary battles. This battle is told to have lasted ten years, resulting in the eventual collapse of Troy, under the siege of Greek forces. Modern knowledge of the Trojan War has survived mainly through the account given in Homer’s Illiad, and while having proved to be a rich source of inspiration for other writers, artists, and even filmmakers in recent history, much speculation still exists surrounding his account. I will analyze modern interpretations of the Trojan War and examine both speculation and support for Homer’s account. Concluding with sufficient evidence that has been collected surrounding this epic battle, proving Homer’s account of a massive battle between these two powerful city states to not be just a tale of myth and legend, but actual history.

Hera offered him a kingship, Aphrodite offered marriage to Helen, and Athena offered him victory in war. Helen was the most beautiful women, so he chose Aphrodite. Helen was married to the king of Sparta. Paris and Aphrodite went to Sparta, and kidnapped her. This kidnapping started the Trojan War because the king wanted Helen back, so he declared war on Troy. Hera and Athena were on the side with the Greeks, and Aphrodite on the Trojans. Ares was Athena’s half-brother. They were war gods, but Ares was more violent while Athena involved skills over violence. They were enemies because they both fought during the Trojan War, Athena with the Greeks, and Ares with the Trojans. While in battle, Athena wounded him. Ares ran back to Zeus, and he healed him. Since that day forward, Ares and Athena have been enemies, and helped opposing sides in the Trojan war. Athena gave the idea of building the Trojan horse to Odyssey. It was a huge wooden horse that could secretly hold soldiers inside of it. The gift was from Athena, and the Greeks left it outside of Troy, and they pretended to sail home. At night, the Greeks slipped out of the horse, and attack Troy. From this attack, the Greeks were able to win the Trojan War. Athena was able to help the Greeks

The Iliad takes us way back to when war was part of peoples everyday life and explained what life was like during the Trojan War. This book seems to celebrate war a lot. Another main aspect of everyday life would have been the gods. The gods had a huge influence on everything during the war. These gods would pick theirs sides while helping who they wanted to help. Their voices were always heard and listened to. One section in the Iliad that shows how important the gods roles were was in Book 2 (p. 20). In that section Agamemnon had a dream, from Zeus, that he should attack the Trojans and take their city. Fighting proves ones honor and integrity, but if warfare is avoided then it shows laziness, and ignoble fear.

The suspected start of the war- over the abduction of Helen, Queen of Sparta- was caused entirely by a godly conflict over who was the most beautiful- Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. Paris, son of King Priam of Troy, was selected to judge. He chose Aphrodite, who in turn gave him Helen, who was her equivalent in beauty amongst humans. In both versions, Paris is portrayed as a wife stealing, thief in the night. His brother Hector and he were on a peace mission in Sparta on behalf of Troy visiting the king, Menelaus, when Paris ran off with Menelaus' wife, Helen. This action divides the Gods who constantly meddle with the mortal's lives. Naturally, Aphrodite is on the Trojans' side, as was her lover and God of War, Ares, and Apollo. Although Zeus, King of Gods, tried to be neutral, he was pro-Trojan. Hera, Queen of Gods, and Athena help the Greeks because they were mad that Paris chose Aphrodite. Poseidon, God of the Sea and Zeus' brother, also sided with the Greeks whenever Zeus was not looking. An example of this constant intrusiveness of the Gods in the Iliad was when King "Menelaus hurls his spear, lightly wounding Paris. Paris' helmet strap becomes caught at his chin and Menelaus has nearly dragged him away before Aphrodite intervenes, breaking the strap. She then wraps Paris in a mist, sets him in his own perfumed bedchamber, and hurries to catch Helen" (Bloom 13). Of

The Iliad is set during the Trojan War, but the conflict in this story isn't between the Akhaians and the Trojans, but between Agamemnon, the leader of the Greek army, and Akhilleus, the army's finest warrior. The entire fight was caused by their stubbornness and pride. It all started when they sacked a nearby city and took several women as prizes. One of the women, Khryseis, was given to Agamemnon. Her father, Khryses, wanted her back and offered an enormous amount to him just to get his daughter back. But since Agamemnon saw her as a prize to him for