With
the help of Aphrodite, Paris managed to take Helena to Troy and started
with this the Trojan War. But the suitors of Helena had made a promise to
the king, so her husband Menelaos gathered all the allies and left to
Troy. All the heroes were all there: the famous Nestor with his sons
Thrasymedes and Antilochos,
Diomedes the son of Tydeus, the king of Crete
Idomeneus, Palamedes from Euboea, the king of Salamis Aias and, of course,
the brother of Menelaos, the powerful Agamemnon who took the guidance of
this army.
The
first stop was at Odysseus’ place in Ithaca, but when they arrived they
found an empty house. His wife Penelope and his son Telemach told them
that he had lost his mind and that he was now on the beach ploughing the
beach with a donkey and sowing salt. After receiving these bad news they
wanted to go back the way they came, but Nestor had an idea. They went to
the beach and made the son of Odysseus lay in front of the plough.
Odysseus could not continue pretending to be crazy and stopped the plough
not to kill his son. Now that he was exposed, he had to remember his
promise and join them in the war.
Now
there was just one
colleague missing before they could go to take the wall of
Troy. Exactly, the most famous hero of the Greek mythology,
Achilles.
Achilles was the son of the nymph Thetis and Peleus. His mother wanted to
make him immortal and had a kind of oven for this purpose. But right when
she had put Achilles inside and was holding him just from the ankle, Peleus entered the room and, thinking that she was trying to harm him,
took him out of her hands and threw him in the water. Because of this,
Achilles was immortal… well, all his body except of his ankle, which would
be his perdition.
Besides, his parents got foretold by the Oracle
that their son would either stay unknown and live many years, or become
the most famous hero and die young. For this reason they sent him to the
island of Skyros to meet the king Lykomedes, where he will life dressed up
as a woman.
Now Menelaos and his army were
looking for him. Odysseus and Diomedes arrived to Skyros one day and
started to spread out lots of fine jewelry and a couple of glittering
weapons. When everybody was around looking at the presents, Odysseus gave
the alarm that the enemies were coming. At this point, while all women ran
away, Achilles grab the weapons and got ready to fight the enemies...
Wrong move. Once discovered, he went to Aulis to meet the rest: thousands
of men and 1186 ships ready to fight in the name of the so-called Achier
army.
The army set off and arrived to
Mysien, the land of the Teuthranians and the king Telephos, son of
Heracles. Unfortunately, they thought they had found Troy and started a
bitter fight that caused the first victims. When they realized it was a
mistake, they ended the battle and left with their fleet to conquer Troy.
But then a wild storm broke and took everything out of control bringing
the vessels back to the departure coast.
For the second
attempt they had to wait quite long and Agamemnon sacrificed her daughter
Iphigenia to the Gods to get good wind for the army and help to find the
coast of Troy. The first nine years were an endless row of massacres,
attacks, retreats and memorial services for the death. For a while,
Achilles stood outside the doors of the city and the citizens were so
afraid that none of them dared to leave Troy. Another time, it was the
great Trojan hero Hector and his men that made the Greeks go back to their
ships. And so they were continuously back and forth.
Gods / Heroes / The Danaids / Europa / The Atriden / Trojan War / The Oracle
