Odessey Adventure-Helen of Troy(part 1)
We dip into mythology and find how Odessy was connected to Helen.It start as this, the handsome Prince of Troy, was asked
to judge a divine beauty contest and he chose Aphrodite the Goddess of Love as
the winner. As a reward, Aphrodite promised him the love of the most beautiful
woman in the world, none other than Helen. Unfortunately, Helen was married to
the King of Sparta. The scene was set for the great war between the Greeks and
the Trojans.
A long time ago, in the age of heroes, when gods and goddesses still took a
close interest in human affairs, a great wedding was planned between a famous
warrior called Peleus and a lovely Thetis. All the
kings and queens of the day were invited to the wedding feast, as well as all the
immortal(Gods) ones who lived on Mount Olympus . But no
invitation was sent to Eris, the goddess of strife. Now strife is when people
argue, and it was generally thought as a bad idea to invite strife to a wedding
party. Eris was extremely
annoyed about being overlooked, and as revenge, she decided to play a evil
trick on the wedding guests. Just as the celebrations were at their height, she
appeared in the banqueting hall dressed as a serving girl. A silver plate was
in her hands, and on it was an apple on which she had written the words, “For
the Fairest of them all”. This she placed on the table where the three
loveliest goddesses were sitting . Their names were Hera, Athene and Aphrodite.
Immediately that they saw the words on the apple, a quarrel broke out between
the three goddesses.
Hera said to the others, “I am the Queen of all the
immortal gods, and it follows that I must be far fairer than either of you two.
So therefore the apple belongs to me”
“My dear Hera,” said Athene, “You might be Queen, but I
am the goddess of wisdom, and therefore I know absolutely everything that is
worth knowing. You must believe me when I say that you are quite mistaken.
Wisdom is beauty, and beauty is wisdom. They are one and the same thing. So
therefore the apple belongs to me.”
“Darlings,” purred Aphrodite. “It’s quite obvious that
the apple belongs to me. I possess the power of love because, to put it quite
simply, I am so much more beautiful than anybody else.”
The goddesses carried on arguing continuously for years
after the wedding was over – for time means nothing to the immortal ones. The
king of all the gods, mighty, thundering Zeus, became quite fed up with
listening to their bickering. When, at length, he was at his wits’ end he
suggested to the three lovely goddesses that they resolve the question once and
for all with a beauty contest. And that is exactly what they did.
The three goddesses agreed on one thing: that the most
handsome and fashionably dressed mortal who walked on the face of the earth was
Paris, Prince of Troy. They decided to surprise him. One day when Paris was out
hunting on the foothills of Mount Ida, he discovered three lovely goddesses
standing beneath a tree. In all his life he had never seen such dazzling
beauty. For a moment, he stood amazed. Then Hermes, who was the winged
messenger of the gods, flew up to Paris and spoke to him as follows:
“ Hail Paris! Prince of Magnificent Troy. Lord Zeus, the
King of all the gods, sends you his greetings. He wishes to bestow upon you a
great honour. He asks that you give this apple to the fairest goddess of them
all.”
Paris, who normally had a keen eye for beauty, found it
hard to choose. Each goddess was so beautiful. Hera had the most lovely milky
white skin ever seen. Athene had the most dazzling, dancing eyes. And Aphrodite
had the most charming smile. Which should he pick?
At length, seeing that he was at a loss, Hera said to
him:
“Prince Paris. Give the apple to me, and I will give you
the gift of great power.”
Athene, not to be outdone by this offer, said, “Prince
Paris, Give the apple to me, and I will give you the gift of great wisdom.”
But Aphrodite laughed and said. “Paris my dear, Don’t you
listen to those two silly goddesses. What fun would you have with power or
wisdom? Give the apple to me, and I will give you a gift that is much more to
your liking. I shall give you the love of the most beautiful woman on earth.”
Now Paris no longer found the choice so hard to make. He
had long been in love with the most beautiful woman on earth, whose name was
Helen. It so happened, that Helen was married to King Menelaus, and Paris had
thought up until that moment, that the possibility of his winning her love was
beyond all hope, but now he understood that his chances could be greatly
improved.
And so Paris gave the apple to Aphrodite. She giggled
with delight, but the other two goddesses were furious and flew directly back
to Mount Olympus in a great huff, where they complained long and bitterly to
Zeus about the unfairness of the competition. Zeus had a dark feeling that
there was trouble in store for humankind.
Paris set sail for the land of Sparta where Menelaus was
king and lived with his beautiful queen Helen. Menelaus welcomed the famous
prince into his palace, and while the two sat talking about the affairs of the
world, Queen Helen came down from her perfumed room, looking as lovely as a
goddess. The maid-servants brought her a seat and covered it with a soft
lambswool rug, and she sat before her silver work box. But before she began to
embroider, she glanced over at the visiting Prince, and questioned her husband:
“Shall I guess the name of this Prince who has come to
visit us? Let us see if I am right or wrong? I have heard tell of a prince from
far-off Troy who is famous the world over for his looks and fashionable style.
Is it he, Paris, Prince of Troy who has come to stay with us?”
“My dear wife,” said Menelaus, “As always, you are quite
right. It is indeed, Paris, Prince of Troy who is paying us the honour of his
visit.”
And Paris acknowledged Queen Helen with a nod of his
head.
At dinner that night, Helen added a special potion into
the wine, so that anyone who drank it would forget all his cares, and be happy
for the rest of the evening. They feasted and made merry and while Menelaus was
busy laughing and joking with one of his generals, Paris spoke softly to Helen.
“Most beautiful queen,” he said, “I beg you, meet me tonight
in the orchard beneath the palace walls and we shall sail away together in my
ship, and head directly for Troy the most magnificent city in all the world.”
And because the goddess of love, Aphrodite, had wished it
so, Helen could not help herself, and agreed to his suggestion.
When King Menelaus awoke in the morning, and he
discovered that his guest and his wife had run away together, he flew into a
rage, kicking the furniture and punching the walls of his chamber. He swore
before all the Gods that that his revenge would be truly terrible. And so he
went to see his elder brother, King Agamemnon of Argos, and spoke to him as
follows:
“My dear brother. The honour of our family has been
besmirched by this foreign peacock, this perfumed playboy, this prancing Prince
of Troy. Let us gather together all the Kings of Greece and combine our armies
into the greatest force that has ever been seen since the dawn of history, and
let us sail to the far off city of Troy, and teach Prince Paris some manners.”
But Agamemnon was wise and he knew that it is always a
terrible mistake to rush headlong into conflict. He suggested first that they
send an ambassador to Troy to request the return of Queen Helen, whom he was
sure had been abducted against her will. He knew that Paris’ father, King Priam
of Troy was a good man, and he was sure that he would order his son to release
her. And so they sent a message to Troy in the name of peace and
reconciliation, but Helen did not wish to go home, and Prince Paris refused to
return the lovely Queen to her husband, saying that they had been brought
together by the Goddess of Love, Aphrodite herself.
And so that meant War. King Agamemnon, the brother of the
wronged Menelaus, summoned all the Kings of Greece and prepared a navy of a
thousand ships, the greatest military force to ever set sail. And that is the
story of how the great war between the Greeks and the Trojans was started by
Prince Paris and Queen Helen.
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