Helen of troy essay sample

1. WHY DOES PROTAGONIST (Helen of Troy) considered main cause of Trojan War?

In Greek legend, the Trojan War was fought between the Greeks and the city of Troy. The direct cause of this war was the beauty of Helen of Troy, daughter of the Greek god Zeus and Leda, the Queen of Sparta. Helen was much coveted by all of the men in Troy, so when she chose a husband, the King of Sparta made all men swear that they would accept Helen’s choice of a husband and that they would also defend her if anyone tried to take her away from that man. The ten year conflict, known forever as the Trojan War, began when three goddesses Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite asken the Trojan prince, PAris, to chose the most beautiful goddess between the three. Each goddess tried to influence the prince, and in the end, he chose Aphrodite because she promised him his choice of the most beautiful women. Paris then travelled to Sparta, where he stayed with Helen and her husband, King Menelaus of Sparta. Helen, the most beautiful woman known to man was Paris’s object of desire and he asked Aphrodite for her. helen, soon fell under the influence of Aphrodite and agreed to elope with Paris to Troy.

Menelaus, extremely angered by the course of actions called upon the Greeks to help him return his wife back to Sparta, since the Trojans refused to return Helen. The Greek warriors assembled 1, 000 ships and sailed off to Troy. For nine years, the battle was indecisive but in the tenth year Paris and Menelaus agreed to have their warriors face each other in a single combat with Helen as the judge. Although the Greeks claimed victory in thr Trojan War, Aphrodite helped Paris escape the enraged Menelaus by sweeping Paris away in a cloud. Menelaus was reunited with Helen and the two returned to Greece, to the displeasure of the native Greeks. yet the two were still able to live a very royal lifestyle and had one daughter. The mythologycal story is that, in the marriage of Pelleus and Tetis (achilles´ parents), which a lot of gods and heroes attended, there was one goddess who wasn´t invited, Eris, the goddess of strife (she wasn´t invited because Zeus wanted things to go all right in the wedding). Eris gets mad when she finds out and, in a simple way to exact revenge, throws anonimously a golden apple in the garden where the party was happening, inscribed with the words “ for the fairest”.