Trojan War

Trojan War

The culminating event of the mythical history of Greece was the great war in which Agamemnon , king of Mycenae , and Menelaos , king of Sparta led a great army against Troy , a rich and powerful city in the north-western corner of Asia Minor , and finally conquered it after besieging it for ten years

The conflict was provoked by the abduction of Helen , the wife of Menelaos , who was carried off to Asia by Paris , the son of Priam , king of Troy and this episode was itself an element in a divine

plan that had been devised to rid the earth of an excess of human beings

Whether we view the Trojan War through Helen 's eyes or through the eyes of the tradition , it is the same story , in which Helen was and remains the major scandal . Troy 's official recognition of her marriage to Paris is the cause of the war

Menelaos and Agamemnon mount an expedition against Troy , but make a false start . Menelaos was informed of his wife 's abduction by the goddess Iris , and hurried back to Greece to consult with his brother Agamemnon about raising an army to recover Helen from Troy . Since all the former suitors of Helen were bound by oath to support her husband in such circumstances , most of the leading rulers and heroes of Greece would be obliged to fight as his allies . When the Greeks first set out for Troy , they were so ignorant of the geography of the area that they landed in the neighboring territory of Mysia and ravaged it in the belief that it was Troy . On discovering that his kingdom was under attack , Telephones , son of Herakles and Auge , the ruler of the Mysians hastily assembled an army and pursued the Greeks back to their ships killing many of them , including Thersandros , son of Polyneikes , the leader of the Boeotian contingent

The Greeks make a successful crossing after the sacrifice of Iphigeneia As the Greek force was preparing to sail from Aulis for a second time the fleet was detained in port as the result of an act of impiety committed by Agamemnon

The Greek landing at Troy . On seeing the invasion-force sailing in from the sea , the Trojans attempted to prevent the Greeks from landing by pelting their ships with stones . After the death of Protesilaos Achilles jumped ashore at the head of his Thessalian followers , the Myrmidons , and confronted Kyknos , son of Poseidon , the most formidable of the many warriors who were opposing the Greek landing . The Trojans were so dismayed by the death of Kyknos that they retreated towards the safety of their city , and all the remaining Greeks now jumped out of their ships and pursued the fleeing enemy across the plain , covering it with dead bodies . As a result of these events , the invaders established a firm grounding on the plain and penned the Trojans behind their city walls . The long siege commenced

Leading figures in the conflict . Priam and...