Which sides were the gods on in the trojan war

After his death, some sources say she was exiled to the island of Rhodes, where a vengeful war widow had her hanged. Little is known about the historical Homer.

Both began within the oral tradition, and were first transcribed decades or centuries after their composition. In the first century B. It follows a group of Trojans led by the hero Aeneas who leave their destroyed city to travel to Carthage before founding the city of Rome. Many portions of the Trojan War epics are difficult to read historically. Several of the main characters are direct offspring of the Greek gods Helen was fathered by Zeus, who disguised himself as a swan and raped her mother Leda , and much of the action is guided or interfered with by the various competing gods.

Lengthy sieges were recorded in the era, but the strongest cities could only hold out for a few months, not 10 full years. Major excavations at the site of Troy in under the direction of German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann revealed a small citadel mound and layers of debris 25 meters deep.

Recent excavations have shown an inhabited area 10 times the size of the citadel, making Troy a significant Bronze Age city. Layer VIIa of the excavations, dated to about B.

But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. The two most powerful city-states in ancient Greece, Athens and Sparta, went to war with each other from to B. The Peloponnesian War marked a significant power shift in ancient Greece, favoring Sparta, and also ushered in a period of regional decline that signaled the By the time the First Punic War broke out, Rome had become the dominant power throughout the Italian The term Ancient, or Archaic, Greece refers to the years B.

Whether it is the motivation of power, money, love or hate — the network of gods and goddess of the Green mythological world will give you the best picture of what it looks like to fail and succeed all at once. Zeus was not born the king of the gods. Instead, according to Greek myth, Zeus assumed this high-powered, all-mighty position by overthrowing his very own father, Cronus.

But neither was Cronus born the king of all gods. Cronus had overthrown his father, Uranus. Zeus married his sister, Hera. Marrying a sibling is not something that humans culturally do in typical settings, but in Greek mythology, the gods and goddesses married their siblings often.

The problem in this marriage was that Zeus was not faithful to Hera. He had many children with multiple goddesses. At the same time, Zeus believed that there were far too many humans populating the Earth — and so he devised a plan to get rid of some of them. His plan? Zeus invented a new goddess — the goddess of divine justice named Themis.

Themis was to deploy the plan of the Trojan War to decrease the number of people on the earth. Soon, Zeus learns of his fate, however. Another myth states that the son of Thetis, a sea nymph that Zeus fell in love with, would overthrow Zeus. Thetis married an old human king, named Peleus, and all of the gods and goddesses were invited to the wedding except Eris, who is the goddess of discord. It is at this point that Athena, Aphrodite and Hera find the golden apple and begin to fight over it.

None of the other gods and goddesses would rule who among the trio were the fairest because they were worried about backlash from Athena, Aphrodite and Hera. And so Zeus ordered his son Hermes to take the women to Paris, who would then be tasked with deciding who among the goddesses was the fairest of them all.

Upon seeing Paris, the trio of goddesses began to try to bribe him so that they would be named the fairest of all goddesses. Aphrodite offered Paris love — promising to make the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen, fall in love with him. Athena offered Paris the wisdom and skill of the most incredible warriors of the war so that he would always be victorious in battle.

Hera offered Paris the greatest political power possible, including his control over all of Asia. Throughout her lifetime, Helen had many suitors. However, her father never allowed her to marry one of them because he feared that one of her suitors would retaliate against him. She had two mothers and two fathers. According to myth, she was one of the daughters of the King of Sparta Tyndareus and Leda. Leda had two sets of twin daughters. Leda, according to myth, had been seduced by Zeus and had born a set of twins for both Zeus and Tyndareus.

Odysseus talked to Tyndareus because Odysseus really wanted to marry a woman named Penelope. So he asked that Tyndareus to require all of the suitors pursuing Helen to promise they would lay their lives on the line in order to defend and protect marriage with her, no matter who Tyndareus chose to be the husband of his daughter, Helen.

Eventally, Tyndareus chose a man named Menelaus because he was wealthy and powerful. But Menelaus had not gone to Tyndareus in person to ask to marry Helen. Instead, he sent his brother, Agamemon. If Menelaus was successful in earning the hand of marriage with Helen, he promised to give Aphrodite an oxen sacrifice of of these animals.

With Helen as his queen, Menelaus became a successor in the Spartan throne of Tyndareus. But before she is able to see him enter her palace, Cupid shoots an arrow at her. When she sees Paris, she immediately falls in love with him.

Her husband, Menelaus is nowhere to be found at the time. He is traveling to the Greek island of Crete, where he is to bury his uncle, named Crateus. But as Paris and Helen are falling in love at the promise of Aphrodite and the arrow of Cupid, love will not be easy for the new couple. Hera is extremely angry because Paris did not choose her as the fairest of all the goddeses, and so she sends a terrible storm that causes Helen and Paris to dock in Egypt.

There, the gods replaced Helen with clouds that looked like her—otherwise known as the cloud nymph Nephele. With Helen now a vision of clouds, Paris sailed to Troy alone. The resulting history of this famed Greek myth comes at the hands of the Greek Achaeans. Agamemnon asks other Greek heroes to accompany him in the quest to get Helen back. Among them are Ajax, Achilles, Nestor and Odysseus. They travel throughout the Greek world among a fleet of more than 1, ships, crossing vast stretches of ocean from the Aegean Sea all the way to Asia Minor—all in an effort to siege the city of Troy and to bring Helen back to her first husband.

The siege of Troy does not last just one day. It lasts 10 years total, peppered with battles that take on some of the most famous Greek heroes including Achilles and Hector, the prince of Troy. The year battle comes at great bloodshed and sorrow to all who are involved in this myth of epic proportions. When the Achaeans entered Troy, they did so at night while the population was sleeping and unsuspecting. Here were men lying quelled by bitter death All up and down the city in their blood.

The scene is as gruesome as it is unbearable and both the Achaeans and the Trojans fought viciously in order to win. Achilles called a council and demanded that Agamemnon give back the girl, Chryseis. Agamemnon angrily agreed, but he insisted on taking Achilles' own prize, the maid Briseis, in her place. It would have come to murder had not Athena intervened. Achilles then gave up Briseis, but in his wounded pride he decided to withdraw from the war.

Since the Greek victories up to that point had been due to Achilles' prowess, this was a calamity for the Greeks. Achilles told his mother Thetis to petition Zeus for Trojan victories, which she did.

Quick to see that Achilles and his band of Myrmidons had retired from the fighting, the Trojans made a spirited attack. Agamemnon then granted a truce in which it was agreed that Paris and Menelaus should fight in single combat for Helen. But the duel was inconclusive, for Aphrodite, seeing that Paris was losing, wrapped him in a magic cloud and took him back to Troy. Menelaus searched for Paris in the Trojan ranks, and Agamemnon demanded that the Trojans surrender Helen.

The Trojans were willing, which might have ended the war. But Hera wanted Troy devastated, so she dispatched Athena to break the truce. Athena then persuaded the Trojan archer Pandarus to fire an arrow at Menelaus. The shot grazed Menelaus, and the fighting resumed in an angry turmoil. The greater Ajax and Diomedes fought in an inspired manner, killing Trojans by the score. Diomedes slew Pandarus and wounded Aeneas.

Aphrodite came to rescue her son Aeneas, but Diomedes wounded her in the wrist, causing the goddess to flee. However, Apollo bore Aeneas from the field and Artemis cured him. Diomedes then encountered Hector, who was accompanied by the bloody Ares, god of battle.

Diomedes was intimidated and the Greeks drew back, but Athena gave Diomedes the courage to attack Ares. Injured, Ares bellowed in pain and fled to Olympus. Forced to retreat, Hector was advised to return to Troy and bid his mother Hecuba to offer her most beautiful robe with a plea for mercy to the hostile Athena. Yet this gesture failed to placate the goddess. After a poignant conversation with his wife Andromache and dandling his infant son Astyanax, Hector went back to the field and issued a challenge to duel to Achilles, who declined.

Ajax took up the challenge, and in the fight Ajax slightly bested Hector. The two warriors parted after exchanging gifts. Honoring his promise to Thetis, who had asked him to aid the Trojans, Zeus ordered the other gods from the battlefield. As a consequence the Greeks lost badly. Under Hector's pounding assault the Greeks were almost driven back to their ships by evening.

Disheartened, Agamemnon considered abandoning the siege of Troy. But Nestor, who was old and wise, recommended that he make peace with Achilles by giving him back Briseis and a pile of wealth to boot.

Achilles received the deputation from Agamemnon courteously, but refused the offer. His pride was at stake, and he would only fight if he or his Myrmidons were threatened. The situation seemed hopeless. Yet that night Odysseus and Diomedes made a raid on the Trojan camp, killing many, including King Rhesus, and stealing some horses. The next day the Greeks were forced back to the beach, and Agamemnon, Odysseus, and Diomedes were wounded. Hera resolved to turn the tide of battle.

Using Aphrodite's magic girdle, she seduced Zeus into making love to her and forgetting about the war. While Zeus was engaged Poseidon entered the fray and made the Trojans retreat.

Ajax hurled a boulder at Hector and felled him, whereupon the Trojans ran madly for the city. Zeus recovered from his infatuation, saw the rout, threatened to beat Hera, and ordered Poseidon from the field. Apollo came to Hector's aid, breathing vigor into him.

Once again the Trojans gained the upper hand. With Hector in the forefront the Trojans smashed down the protective barricades the Greeks had built to protect their ships. Greatly alarmed, Achilles' companion Patroclus tried to persuade his friend to fight, but still Achilles declined. Patroclus then borrowed Achilles' armor and entered the battle. Thinking that Achilles was now fighting, the Trojans panicked as Patroclus slaughtered them right and left.

He made his way to the walls of Troy, but Apollo dazed him as he tried to scale them. Hector found Patroclus then and slew him, stripping him of his splendid armor. When Achilles received news of Patroclus' death he threw himself on the ground in a frenzy of grief and had to be restrained. His mother, Thetis, brought him new armor fashioned by Hephaestus, but she warned him that if he killed Hector he himself would perish soon after.

Nevertheless, Achilles was determined to slay Hector and a host of Trojans besides. The next morning he made a formal reconciliation with Agamemnon and began fighting immediately. The clash of arms that day was terrible. While Hector and Aeneas killed many Greeks they could not stop Achilles in his furor of bloodletting. In fact, both Aeneas and Hector had to be rescued with divine help. Achilles filled the Scamander River so full of bodies in his dreadful onslaught that the waters over-flowed and nearly drowned him.

The gods, too, engaged in battle among themselves, as Athena felled Ares, Hera boxed Artemis' ears, and Poseidon provoked Apollo.

Eventually Achilles encountered Hector outside the walls of Troy. Hector ran from his opponent in a lapse of courage, circling the city three times. But Athena duped him into making a stand, and Achilles' lance caught him in the throat. Although Hector had pleaded with Achilles to let his parents ransom his body as he died, Achilles denied him jeeringly. Then Achilles took Hector's corpse, tied it behind his chariot, and dragged it back to the Greek camp as Hector's wife watched from the walls of Troy.

Since Patroclus' ghost demanded burial, Achilles prepared a glorious funeral. He cut the throats of twelve Trojan nobles as a sacrifice on Patroclus' pyre, and funeral contests in athletics followed. For eleven days Achilles dragged Hector's body around the pyre, yet Apollo preserved the corpse from corruption.

Zeus also sent Hermes to Priam, and Hermes guided the old king with his ransom through the Greek lines to Achilles' camp. Achilles treated Priam with courtesy, for Priam reminded him of his own aged father, Peleus. Achilles took Hector's weight in gold and gave Priam the body, which Priam took back to Troy.

During the next eleven days there was a truce as the Trojans mourned for the dead Hector, whom they cremated and buried. Achilles managed to kill the Amazon Queen, Penthesileia, in the battles that followed. And when the Trojans brought in Ethiopian reinforcements under Prince Memnon, things went hard with the Greeks, for many were slain.

However, Achilles' life was drawing to a close, as he well knew. One day in battle Paris shot at Achilles, and the arrow, guided by Apollo, struck him in the right heel, the only place where he was vulnerable. The Greeks had a difficult time retrieving his corpse from the field. Only the efforts of Ajax and Odysseus saved Achilles' body from the Trojans. The hero was given a magnificent funeral. There arose a dispute as to whether Ajax or Odysseus should receive Achilles' resplendent armor.

The Greek commanders voted on it and awarded the armor to Odysseus. Dishonored and furious, Ajax resolved to kill a number of Greek leaders, including Odysseus. But Athena visited him with madness, and that night Ajax butchered a number of cattle under the delusion that they were the men who had slighted him. When Athena removed his frenzy Ajax saw his irremediable folly and committed suicide out of shame. With their two most valiant warriors dead the Greeks became anxious about ever taking Troy.

Force of arms had been unsuccessful, so they turned to oracles increasingly. Calchas told them they needed the bow and arrows of Heracles to win the war.