What Caused The Trojan War

Throughout the Odyssey, Odysseus faces many obstacles. The three obstacles in the story where odyssey was the Lotus Eaters, Cyclops, and the Enchantress Circe. Odysseus face many problems which he never thought of it. He had to go through that to get his home and it was really hard for him. But even though it was hard he never give up. He believed in his strength instead of giving up.

The three people that shall be blamed for causing the Trojan War would be Helen; for being disloyal, Agamemnon for his selfishness and Paris for his ignorance. Helen is to blame for this tragedy because she betrayed her husband by choice. As mentioned in the text, as Helen was chosen to be with Paris, she then chose to flee with him back to Troy. However, after making that offensive decision, she further increased her sins by committing adultery. To further expand, she had many opportunities to run away and go back to Menelaus to end the war but she was determined not to. Her oblivious decisions caused this whole war. A huge role in this long lasting battle was played by Agamemnon’s selfishness. He was only looking for an excuse to go to

Paris is offered Helen by Aphrodite, and so he takes Helen as his wife from Menelaus. Paris may not have known that taking Helen would have resulted in the Trojan War; however, he still accepted Helen as a bribe, making him an extremely greedy person. After seeing all the bloodshed and lives at the hands of Paris, he should’ve realized that he needed to return Helen. Anyone with the lowest sense of morality would realize that the right thing to do is to return Helen. Paris was lucky enough to be saved by Aphrodite after he was nearly killed by Menelaus. In the last few lines of Book 3 it is clear how the people feel about Paris and what Paris needs to do:

They tried to stay quiet but the Cyclopes spotted them and asked what they were doing in his cave. He really didn’t care because he snatched two of his men up, smashed their heads, torn them limb by limb, ate them. Day by day he did this and when the Cyclopes was sleeping, Odysseus told his men that they needed to find a way to get out of there and so they did. When the Cyclopes awoke, Odysseus offered him some of his wine and he tried it and begged for more so Odysseus just kept giving it to him drink by drink until he was drunk. The Cyclopes asked Odysseus what his name was and Odysseus said “Nothing.” As soon he asked that, he fell over and slept peacefully. While he was sleeping Odysseus found a large branch and asked his strongest men to put the tip in the fire and when it was burning red, they shoved the hot part of the stick into the Cyclopes’ eye. The Cyclopes let out a loud roar that woke up his neighbors. They came running and asked if someone was killing him and the Cyclopes answered “Nothing is killing me!” So his neighbors left without second thought. When the Cyclopes let his herd of sheep out Odysseus and his men clang to the bottom of the sheep and left the island safely.

Barry Strauss organizes his summary of the Trojan War by referencing Homer 's the Iliad and the Odyssey and compares it to the historical contexts of what he thinks happened. Most scholars agree that the Trojan War dates back around 1200 B.C. during the Bronze Age. The most popular tale of how the Trojan War starts is when Paris, Prince of Troy, goes to visit Sparta to mend relations. In Sparta, Paris is welcomed by Menelaus, King of Sparta and his beautiful wife Helen. According to ancient sources, Menelaus went to Crete for business and foolishly left Helen all alone with Paris (Strauss, 15). Afterward, Helen is seduced by Paris and flees Sparta to accompany him back to Troy, along with bountiful treasures.

The Trojan war was a ten year siege on the city of the city of Troy at the hands of the Greek forces led by a psychopathic king, Agamemnon. This conflict, which took place about 1200 B.C has become one of the most well known Greek mythology events in history. In the 13th century B.C, Troy and Sparta had stopped their wars and become allies, this was until Paris the youngest prince of Troy seduced Helen, the Queen of Sparta and left with her back to Troy. When Menelaos (The King of Sparta) found out what had happened, he vowed

During that time, they dock on the island of Aeaea and Odysseus sends three of his men to investigate their surroundings. It is in an unfortunate event that they consumed some toxic lotus plants, and they failed to return as they were expected. One seeing their delayed return, Odysseus gets worried and decides to get his men himself. However, Eurylochus warns him of the potential danger of his plan of going to retrieve his men. He felt that there was a plan to trap Odysseus and so, he would be wise not oblige the enemy. Eurylochus insists and warns, “You will never return yourself, I swear, you’ll never bring back a single man alive. Quick, cut and run with the rest of us here- we can still escape the fatal day!” (10. 252-255). He goes against the warning given by Eurylochus and disembarks to retrieve his soldiers. However, on his way, he confirms Eurylochus’ fears as they encounter real danger and certain death. He is highly motivated to safely secure and save the livelihood of his soldiers. As a hero, Odysseus is courageous by facing eminent danger in the light of a warning. If he was not a hero, he would have cowardly held back and avoided the risk. He demonstrates that he is a good leader as he does not condone leaving any of his men behind in an area of potential

Odysseus and his men land on the shore of cyclops island. They get trapped in a cave by Polyphemus, the cyclops son of Poseidon. Odysseus tells the cyclops

In the cyclopes island Odysseus and his men wander into the cyclopes cave, once the cyclopes enters his cave he shut the only way out of his cave and spots odysseus and his men. The cyclops asks odysseus why he is here, odysseus responds him trying to convey the cyclopes to treat them like guests but odysseus insults poseidon the cyclops father the cyclopes get mad and eating too of odysseus men. The cyclops passes out and odysseus think of a way to get out. Odysseus blinded the cyclops and escaped by holding on to the sheep that the cyclops let out. Odysseus was the most heroic here because he was able to free the rest of his men and he stood claim while coming up with the plan to escape.

     After two more stops Odysseus proves again that he is a real hero by out smarting the Cyclops and escaping the giant Laestrygonians. However, even hero's can't win all of the time and he losses many of his men to the Cyclops and the cannibal Laestrygonians. By the time he arrives at Circe's island his ship is the only ship left. Odysseus, being more cautious now, sends a group of men ahead to check out her house. The men called to Circe, and she came out of the house. She invited them in to share a meal. Unfortunately for them, Circe had mixed a magical drug into their food. This drug caused them to forget their native land, and turned

Odysseus's pride also prevents him from showing respect towards his men, by not heeding their advice and by not properly mourning their untimely deaths. At Alcinous' court, Odysseus recounts his experience with the Cyclops. The whole trouble with this one eyed monster begins when Odysseus decides to linger in the Cyclops's cave after eating his food, to see "what gifts he would give" (9.258). Instead of welcoming the Achaeans, the monster decides to eat the men who had rudely eaten his food. In sudden shock and horror, Odysseus and his men "wept and cried aloud" (9.331). Eventually, through a clever plan by Odysseus, he and his men escape, but almost die again because of his pride. Taunting back to the Cyclops, Odysseus reveals who he is, which allows the monster to almost collapse their ships, and also to issue a complaint to Poseidon that he should not let Odysseus return home. Poseidon hears this, and as a result, Odysseus and his crew are from then on beset by problem after problem. Had Odysseus listened to his crew who begged him to leave the cave before the Cyclops returned and also to not brag his identity to the monster, the men would have made it safely home. Even after witnessing the cannibalism of some of his crew, Odysseus is only "glad to escape our death / yet sick at heart for the comrades we had lost" (9.630). He does not appear to be too devastated by everything that has just happened to him, curse and all. Perhaps it is because he is surrounded by

First, Odysseus men came to Circe island and some of his men went off to hunt for food. To begin, One of his men come back and told Odysseus that everyone else was turned into an animal by a witch and one of them is the pig the men who stayed back were trying so hard to kill. Second, when Odysseus went back to his men he almost died from falling from the mountain that Circe house was on. Third, Odysseus boat was almost destroyed from the sand and erosion that happened to it, but that did not stop him, he fixed up his boat and went back to his journey. Finally, Odysseus did not back down from a witch that could have easily harmed him but he was not scared he wanted to keep his men safe.

Each of the goddesses promised to give Paris something in return for giving her the apple. Hera offered Paris power and the richest kingdom on earth. Athena promised to make him a great hero and to give him wealth. Finally, Aphrodite promised a marriage to the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen of Sparta (Joe "Trojan War"). Paris immediately chose Aphrodite to be the fairest, causing much discord for the others. He quickly set off to Sparta to fetch Helen; however, she was the wife of the Spartan king, Menelaus. When Paris reached Sparta, he saw that Menelaus was not there and he proceeded to abduct Helen. Menelaus was infuriated by this deviousness. He called upon all of Helen’s old suitors who had promised to keep her honor. These suitors did not truly want to go to war, in fact, Odysseus feigned insanity and

The Trojan War was during the Bronze Age in the 12th or 13th century BC. It was between Greece and Troy. The Trojan War mainly started when the Greeks brought a wooden horse over to Troy as a sign of “peace.” However, it was used to take over Troy since there were many armed men in the horse. A downfall the Trojans had that led up to this point in time was that they were foolish, “Four times did the Horse halt as they dragged it, before it passed through the gate, and each time their might have been heard a great clashing of arms within” (Church 9). In the Horse, there were sounds being made but the Trojans did not pay attention to these signs and Troy suffered as a result. Overall, the Trojan War was created due to many gods fighting over Helen and because of this Troy was taken over by Greece and Aeneas and his crew had to relocate and find a new safe place to live with the help of Venus and Apollo by their side.

Helen, the fairest woman on earth, was already married. Her husband, Menealus, was the king of Sparta. Paris, under Aphrodite's protection, sailed to Sparta, won Helen's love, and carried her off to Troy. Menelaus had to go to battle against Troy to defend his honor and retake Helen as his wife. Thus a combination of Eris's temper; Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite's jealousy; and Helen's beauty caused the war.