He happened to be brother to Agamemnon, the greatest king among the Greeks, and the two of them visited all the Greek chieftains and convinced them to take part in a great expedition which they were preparing to avenge the wrong. According to Homer, after Paris carried off Helen, her husband Menelaus was understandably upset. A later legend traced its origin to the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, when Eris threw down among the assembled gods a golden apple inscribed, "For the fairest." The quarrel that ensued between Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite for the prize of beauty was decided by the Trojan prince Paris in favor of Aphrodite, who in return secured for him the possession of Helen, while Hera and Athena became, from that time onward, the implacable enemies of the whole Trojan race. In Homer it is simply the rape of Helen which is the occasion of the war. The account that follows highlights the important incidents of the war in Homer's version, and in other versions where they are relevant for our class. The incidents he relates, whether narrated in depth or only touched upon, were elaborated or developed by the post-Homeric poets, partly by connecting them with other popular traditions, and partly by the addition of further details of their own. The kernel of the story is contained in Homer's two epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. In the ancient world, the legend underwent many changes and amplifications. But at the close of the 19th century archaeologists led by Heinrich Schliemann found the remains of a great citadel that existed on the Western shore of Asia Minor, the traditional location of Troy, and which appeared to be overrun in a great war around the year 1250 B.C.E., a time which is compatible with the traditional story of the Trojan War. Until about a 100 years ago, we were quite sure that the Trojan War was purely legend, and that asking when it happened would be like asking when Atlantis sank.
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