Achilles and Patroclus thus join the war. However, cunning Odysseus soon tricks Achilles into revealing his identity.

Now, she hides Achilles and his companion Patroclus on an island. Since then, Thetis has kept him safe and concealed so that he might live a long life instead of dying a glorious warrior. At birth, his mother bathed him in the Styx, a river of the Underworld, to protect him from death in battle. All of Greece declares war on Troy, sailing to sack the city.Īchilles, the son of the nymph Thetis, has been in hiding much of his life. When Menelaus discovers this, he calls upon his brother Agamemnon, the High King of Greece, for aid.

Helen leaves with Paris, abandoning her husband and infant child. While Menelaus is hunting, Paris pledges his love to Helen, promising her a better life. When Paris arrives in Sparta, King Menelaus welcomes him graciously. Helen is married to King Menelaus of Sparta, but Paris is determined to have her for himself. Soon, Paris learns about Princess Helen, the most beautiful woman in Greece, and perhaps the whole world. Aphrodite promises Paris a wife as beautiful as herself if he grants her the apple. The goddesses decide that the handsome and selfish Trojan prince Paris will determine which of them is the fairest.Įach goddess promises him special favors for choosing her. Three goddesses try to claim the apple because they all believe that they’re the fairest: Hera, the queen of the gods Athene, the goddess of wisdom and Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty. In an act of revenge, Eris leaves behind a golden apple, saying that it should belong to the fairest goddess. Eris, the goddess of discord, isn’t invited to a wedding between King Peleus and Thetis, a sea nymph. Patroclus must don Achilles’ armor.A fight between the gods serves as a catalyst for the Trojan War. When Achilles is enraged by Agamemnon, he nurses his anger like a “red rose” in his breast (22).Īchilles’s armor symbolizes Achilles’s responsibilities to his society. The Greeks destroy Troy by setting the entire city ablaze, representing the fall of Troy and Greek victory. After characters die, their bodies are burned, symbolizing the destruction of their lives. This snapping represents how she will break her feminine duty of marriage. When Helen first sees Paris and is still married to Menelaus, she is weaving and snaps her thread (12).

The women of the text weave cloaks for their warriors. Thread and loom weaving represent feminine duty. The warriors see “red rain” falling in the battlefield, symbolizing the blood shed which occurs during the Trojan war (52).

The black ships before troy