Trojan War

ODUMUNC 2023 Crisis Brief

The Gods of the Trojan War

Old Dominion University Model United Nations Society

Introduction

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged

against the city of Troy by the Achaeans

(Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her

husband Menelaus, king of Sparta.

The war is one of the most important events in

Greek mythology, narrated through many works

of Greek literature, most notably Homer's Iliad.

The core of the Iliad (Books II – XXIII)

describes a period of four days and two nights in

the tenth year of the decade-long siege of Troy;

the Odyssey describes the journey home of

Odysseus, one of the war's heroes.

Other parts of the war are described in a cycle of

epic poems, which have survived through

fragments. Episodes from the war provided

material for Greek tragedy and other works of

Greek literature, and for Roman poets including

Virgil and Ovid.

‘Trojan War’, Wikipedia, n.d.,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_War

The Gods of the Trojan War

Origins of the legend of the

Trojan War

The ancient Greeks believed that Troy was

located near the Dardanelles and that the Trojan

War was a historical event of the 13th or 12th

century BC, but by the mid-19th century AD,

both the war and the city were widely seen as

non-historical. In 1868, however, the German

archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann met Frank

Calvert, who convinced Schliemann that Troy

was at what is now Hisarlik in Turkey. On the

basis of excavations conducted by Schliemann

and others, this claim is now accepted by most

scholars.

Whether there is any historical reality behind the

Trojan War remains an open question. Many

scholars believe that there is a historical core to

the tale, though this may simply mean that the

Homeric stories are a fusion of various tales of

sieges and expeditions by Mycenaean Greeks

during the Bronze Age. Those who believe that

the stories of the Trojan War are derived from a

specific historical conflict usually date it to the

12th or 11th century BC, often preferring the

dates given by Eratosthenes, 1194–1184 BC,

which roughly correspond to archaeological

evidence of a catastrophic burning of Troy VII,

and the Late Bronze Age collapse.

The Classical legends of the Trojan War

developed continuously throughout Greek and

Latin literature. In Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey,

the earliest literary evidence available, the chief

stories have already taken shape, and individual

themes were elaborated later, especially in

Greek drama. The story of the Trojan origin,

through Aeneas, of Rome helped to inspire

Roman interest; Book II of Virgil’s Aeneid

contains the best-known account of the sack of

Troy.

The war

The Trojan War fought between the Greeks and

Troy originated in the following manner. King

Priam of Troy was wealthy and powerful; by his

wife Hecuba and by concubines he had 50 sons

and 12 daughters. But his son Paris was invited

to judge which of the goddesses Aphrodite,

Hera, and Athena was entitled to receive the

golden apple marked by the goddess Eris

(Discord) “for the most beautiful.” Aphrodite

promised Paris the most beautiful woman in the

world: he therefore awarded her the apple and

went to Greece, where he won the love of, and

eloped with, Helen, wife of Menelaus, the king

of Sparta.

Menelaus captures Helen in Troy, Ajax the Lesser drags

Cassandra from Palladium before eyes of Priam, fresco

from the Casa del Menandro, Pompeii

To recover Helen, the Greeks launched a great

expedition under the command of Menelaus’s

brother, Agamemnon, king of Árgos or

Mycenae. The Trojans refused to return Helen.

Small towns in or near the Troad were sacked by

the Greeks, but Troy, assisted by allies from

Asia Minor and Thrace, withstood a Greek siege

for 10 years.

The Gods of the Trojan War

The gods also took sides, notably Hera, Athena,

and Poseidon for the Greeks, and Aphrodite

(who had a son, Aeneas, by the Trojan Anchises,

grandson of Assaracus), Apollo, and Ares for the

Trojans. The Iliad, which is set in the 10th year

of the war, tells of the quarrel between

Agamemnon and Achilles, who was the finest

Greek warrior, and the consequent deaths in

battle of (among others) Achilles’ friend

Patroclus and Priam’s eldest son, Hector.

After Hector’s death the Trojans were joined by

two exotic allies, Penthesilea, queen of the

Amazons, and Memnon, king of the Ethiopians

and son of the dawn-goddess Eos. Achilles

killed both of these, but Paris then managed to

kill Achilles with an arrow. Before they could

take Troy, the Greeks had to steal from the

citadel the wooden image of Pallas Athena (the

Palladium) and fetch the arrows of Heracles and

the sick archer Philoctetes from Lemnos and

Achilles’ son Neoptolemus (Pyrrhus) from

Skyros; Odysseus and Diomedes achieved all

these. Finally, with Athena’s help, Epeius built a

huge wooden horse. Several Greek warriors hid

inside it; the rest of the Greek army sailed away

to Tenedos, a nearby island, pretending to

abandon the siege. Despite the warnings of

Priam’s daughter Cassandra, the Trojans were

persuaded by Sinon, a Greek who feigned

desertion, to take the horse inside the walls of

Troy as an offering to Athena; the priest

Laocoön, who tried to have the horse destroyed,

was killed by sea-serpents. At night the Greek

fleet returned, and the Greeks from the horse

opened the gates of Troy. In the total sack that

followed, Priam and his remaining sons were

slaughtered; the Trojan women passed into

slavery in various cities of Greece. The

adventurous homeward voyages of the Greek

leaders were told in two epics, the Returns

(Nostoi; lost) and Homer’s Odyssey.

‘Summary and Analysis: Greek Mythology The Trojan

War — The Preliminaries, The Course of the War, The Fall

of Troy, and The Returns’, Cliff Notes, n.d.,

https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/m/mythology/summ

The earliest known depiction of the Trojan

Horse. The Mykonos vase c. 670 BC.

The few Trojan survivors included Aeneas,

whose descendants continued to rule the

Trojans; later tradition took Aeneas’s Trojans to

Italy as the ancestors of the Romans.

Summary and Analysis: Greek

Mythology The Trojan War —

The Preliminaries, The Course

of the War, The Fall of Troy,

and The Returns

King Priam ruled in the wealthy, fortified city of

Troy. He was not only prosperous, but he had

fifty or more children, and it seemed as if good

fortune would bless him and his children for a

long time to come. However, his wife, Hecuba,

had a nightmare in which she gave birth to a

deadly firebrand. The seers interpreted this to

mean that her unborn child would destroy Troy

and its inhabitants. When the infant was born it

ary-and-analysis-greek-mythology/the-trojan-war-8212-

the-preliminaries-the-course-of-the-war-the-fall-of-troy-

and-the-returns

The Gods of the Trojan War

was exposed on Mount Ida, but a she-bear

nursed it and it survived, growing up as a

shepherd called Alexander, or Paris. Paris took

the nymph Oenone as a lover.

At the wedding of Peleus and Thetis the gods

were enjoying themselves when Eris, or Strife,

threw a golden apple into their midst with the

words, "For the fairest," attached. Hera, Athena,

and Aphrodite all claimed the apple and asked

Zeus to judge between them, but he wisely

refused, directing the three goddesses to a

shepherd on Mount Ida who could decide the

loveliest.

The goddesses approached Paris and each

offered Paris a bribe for selecting her. Hera

promised to make him a king who would rule

Asia and have great wealth. Athena offered to

give him wisdom and an invincible valor in

warfare. But Aphrodite won the apple by

promising Paris the most beautiful woman in the

world — the spectacular Helen. His choice was

imprudent to say the least, since he made

implacable enemies of Hera and Athena, both of

whom vowed to destroy him and Troy.

On learning that he would possess Helen, Paris

first went to Troy and established himself as a

true prince, the legitimate son of Priam and

Hecuba. He now had no further use for Oenone

and abandoned her. Then he sailed for Sparta,

where he seduced Helen during her husband's

absence and took her back to Troy with him.

Meanwhile Paris' sister Cassandra was faced

with trouble. Apollo gave her the gift of

prophecy while trying to make love to her, but

she had taken a vow of chastity and resisted him.

In anger Apollo turned his gift into a curse by

making it so that no one would believe her.

When Paris returned with Helen and stood

before Priam to get his father's acceptance

Cassandra came into the room, visualized all

that would occur because of Paris and his lust,

gave shrieks of despair, and railed at her

immoral brother. Thinking Cassandra mad,

Priam had his daughter locked in a palace cell.

The Gods of the Trojan War

When Menelaus returned to Sparta and found his

wife Helen gone, he summoned the Greek

leaders to go with him to conquer Troy and

recover Helen. These leaders were pledged to

aid Menelaus, for as they had courted Helen too

they had taken an oath to avenge any dishonor

that fell upon her future husband because of her.

Thus Paris precipitated the Trojan War, which

would fulfill the prophetic dream his mother had

of giving birth to a firebrand that would destroy

Troy.

An oracle had said that the first to leap ashore on

Trojan territory would be the first to die.

Protesilaus took this burden on himself and was

greatly honored for it after being slain in a

skirmish with Hector, the Trojan prince. A

mighty warrior, Hector was the mainstay of

Troy in the ten years of fighting that followed.

Yet Hector bore the knowledge that both he and

his city were doomed. If his brother Troilus had

lived to be twenty Troy might have been spared,

but Achilles slew the boy in his teens. Troy had

one other defender of note, Aeneas, an ally from

a neighboring land. The Greek army, however,

was full of heroes. In addition to Agamemnon,

Menelaus, Nestor, Odysseus, and Achilles, there

were Diomedes and the two Ajaxes.

The gods took part in the war as well, affecting

the outcome of various battles. Apollo, Artemis,

Ares, and Aphrodite sided with the Trojans,

while Hera, Athena, Poseidon, Hermes, and

Hephaestus aided the Greeks. Zeus might

interfere on occasion, but he maintained

neutrality for the most part, being fully aware of

what would happen.

The Gods of the Trojan War

After nine years of fighting the Greeks had

managed to lay waste many kingdoms allied to

Troy in Asia Minor, but they had not made

much headway against Troy itself. There was

friction in the Greek camp. Odysseus still bore a

grudge against Palamedes, the man who had

ruthlessly shown his madness to be a hoax.

When Palamedes denounced Odysseus for an

unsuccessful foraging expedition, Odysseus

framed Palamedes, making him appear a traitor.

Palamedes was stoned to death as a result.

But then a more disastrous quarrel broke out,

this time between Agamemnon and Achilles.

Agamemnon had taken the daughter of a priest

of Apollo as a trophy of war, and when her

father came to ransom her Agamemnon sent him

off without her. The priest called upon Apollo to

avenge him, so Apollo sent a plague to the

Greeks that killed many. 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.

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.

Achilles and Ajax engaged in a game, c. 540–

530 BC, Vatican Museums

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.

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

The Gods of the Trojan War

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. Then Zeus directed Thetis to

bid Achilles accept the ransom offered by King

Priam for Hector's body. 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.

But when Memnon killed Achilles' friend

Antilochus, Achilles retaliated by killing

Memnon in a duel. 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

The Gods of the Trojan War

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.

Thetis gives her son Achilles weapons forged by

Hephaestus (detail of Attic black-figure, 575–

550 BC, Louvre, Paris)

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.

The death of Paris and possession of Heracles'

weapons did not change the stalemate, so

Calchas told the Greeks that only Helenus, the

Trojan seer and prince, knew how Troy's

downfall might be brought about. Odysseus

captured Helenus on Mount Ida. Helenus bore a

personal grudge against Troy, having fought for

Helen after Paris died and having lost her, and

he was willing to betray the city. First, the

Greeks had to bring Pelops' bones back to Asia

from Greece. Agamemnon accomplished this.

Second, they had to bring Achilles' son

Neoptolemus into the war, and a group of

Greeks went to Scyros to get him. Third, the

Greeks had to steal the Palladium, a sacred

image of Athena, from the goddess's temple in

Troy. Diomedes and Odysseus undertook the

dangerous mission. Once in Troy Odysseus was

recognized by Helen, who saw through his

disguise but did not give him away. The two

heroes seized the sacred image of Athena and

escaped unharmed.

If Odysseus claimed credit for the notion of the

huge wooden horse, Athena had given the idea

to another. Nevertheless, Odysseus helped the

plan succeed. A great horse of wood was

constructed under Greek supervision, one with a

hollow belly to hold several soldiers. One night

this horse was brought to the Trojan plain and

warriors climbed in under Odysseus' direction.

The rest of the Greeks burned their camps and

sailed off to wait behind the nearby island of

Tenedos.

The next morning the Trojans found the Greeks

gone and the huge, mysterious horse sitting

before Troy. They also discovered a Greek

named Sinon, whom they took captive.

Odysseus had primed Sinon with plausible

stories about the Greek departure, the wooden

horse, and his own presence there. Sinon told

Priam and the others that Athena had deserted

the Greeks because of the theft of the Palladium.

Without her help they were lost and had best

depart. The Trojans needed no further proof:

they drew the gigantic horse inside their city

gates to honor Athena.

That night the soldiers crept from the horse,

killed the sentries, and opened the gates to let

the Greek army in. The Greeks set fires

throughout the city, began massacring the

inhabitants, and looted. The Trojan resistance

was ineffectual. King Priam was killed by

Neoptolemus. And by morning all but a few

Trojans were dead. Of Trojan males only

The Gods of the Trojan War

Aeneas, with his father and son, had escaped the

slaughter. Hector's young son Astyanax was

thrown from the walls of the city. The women

who were left went into concubinage as spoils of

war. And the princess Polyxena, whom Achilles

had loved, was sacrificed brutally upon the tomb

of the dead hero. Troy was devastated. Hera and

Athena had their revenge upon Paris and his

city.

Having accomplished their aim in sacking Troy,

the Greeks now had to face the problem of

getting back to their various kingdoms. This was

a problem, for the gods had scores to settle with

many Greeks. Soon after the Greeks set sail a

fierce storm arose that blew much of the Greek

fleet far off course.

Of those who went by ship Agamemnon was

one of the few that escaped the storm and

reached home easily. But immediately upon his

return Agamemnon's wife, Clytemnestra, and

her lover, Aegisthus, slew him and his followers,

including Cassandra, at the banquet table.

Clytemnestra had never forgiven her husband

for sacrificing Iphigenia.

Menelaus had resolved to kill Helen when he

found her in Troy, but on seeing her naked he

lost his determination and took her again as his

wife. After offending Athena, Menelaus and

Helen were caught in the storm, lost most of

their ships, and were blown to Crete and Egypt.

Unable to return to Sparta because of adverse

winds, Menelaus began trading. Eight years later

he wrested the secret of getting home from the

prophetic sea god Proteus, master of changes.

And having propitiated Athena, Menelaus was

able to sail to Sparta with Helen, returning a rich

man. When the two of them died they went to

the Isles of the Blessed, being favored relations

of Zeus.

The lesser Ajax, who had raped Cassandra in the

temple of Athena while plundering Troy, was

shipwrecked on his way home. Scrambling onto

the rocks, he rejoiced at having escaped the

vengeance of the gods. But Poseidon split the

rock to which he clung and drowned him.

Athena then exacted an annual tribute of two

maidens from Ajax's fellow Locrians to be sent

to Troy.

Bitterly resentful of the Greeks, Nauplius caused

many of their ships to smash on the Euboean

coast by lighting a deceptive beacon.

Philoctetes, who still nursed a grudge against the

Greeks for their shabby treatment of him, did not

return to Greece but sailed to Italy, where he

founded two cities.

Of all the Greeks only the wise Nestor sailed

swiftly home and enjoyed the fruits of old age in

peace, surrounded by stalwart sons. His virtues

of prudence and piety had enabled him to live to

see three generations of heroes.

Roles of the Gods

• Aphrodite favored the Trojans, defended

Paris.

• Apollo favored the Trojans, plagued the

Greek camp.

• Ares favored the Trojans, emboldened

Trojan warriors on the battlefield.

• Artemis favored the Trojans, emboldened

Trojan warriors on the battlefield.

• Scamander, the river god who was insulted

by Achilles, and tried to kill the hero for

throwing dead bodies in his river.

• Athena favored the Greeks, provided aid

on the battlefield.

• Hephaestus favored the Greeks., and

mostly forged various weapons and armor

for Greek heroes, Achilles in particular.

• Hera favored the Greeks, provided aid on

the battlefield.

• Hermes favored the Greeks, provided aid

on the battlefield.

The Gods of the Trojan War

• Poseidon favored the Greeks, provided aid

on the battlefield.

• Zeus uncommitted until informed by the

Fates that Troy would fall. When he learned

this, he forbade the gods from taking part in

delaying that fate.

• Demeter, uncommitted.

• Hades, uncommitted.

• Persephone, uncommitted.

The Gods described

Aphrodite favored the Trojans, defended Paris.

Aphrodite is an ancient Greek goddess

associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure,

passion, and procreation. She was syncretized

with the Roman goddess Venus. Aphrodite's

major symbols include myrtles, roses, doves,

sparrows, and swans.

In Homer's Iliad she is the daughter of Zeus and

Dione. Aphrodite had many other epithets, each

emphasizing a different aspect of the same

goddess, or used by a different local cult. Thus

she was also known as Cytherea (Lady of

Cythera) and Cypris (Lady of Cyprus), because

both locations claimed to be the place of her

birth.

Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus, god of

fire, blacksmiths and metalworking. Aphrodite

was frequently unfaithful to him and had many

lovers; in the Odyssey, she is caught in the act of

adultery with Ares, the god of war. Aphrodite

was also the surrogate mother and lover of the

mortal shepherd Adonis, who was killed by a

wild boar. Along with Athena and Hera,

Aphrodite was one of the three goddesses whose

feud resulted in the beginning of the Trojan War

and she plays a major role throughout the Iliad.

Aphrodite has been featured in Western art as a

symbol of female beauty and has appeared in

numerous works of Western literature.

Apollo favored the Trojans, plagued the Greek

camp.

The Gods of the Trojan War

Apollo was recognized as a god of archery,

music and dance, truth and prophecy, healing

and diseases, the Sun and light, poetry, and

more. One of the most important and complex of

the Greek gods, he is the son of Zeus and Leto,

and the twin brother of Artemis, goddess of the

hunt. Seen as the most beautiful god and the

ideal of the kouros (ephebe, or a beardless,

athletic youth), Apollo is considered to be the

most Greek of all the gods.

As the patron deity of Delphi, Apollo is an

oracular god—the prophetic deity of the Delphic

Oracle. Apollo is the god who affords help and

wards off evil; various epithets call him the

"averter of evil". Medicine and healing are

associated with Apollo, whether through the god

himself or mediated through his son Asclepius.

Apollo delivered people from epidemics, yet he

is also a god who could bring ill-health and

deadly plague with his arrows.

The invention of archery itself is credited to

Apollo and his sister Artemis. Apollo is usually

described as carrying a silver or golden bow and

a quiver of silver or golden arrows. Apollo's

capacity to make youths grow is one of the best

attested facets of his panhellenic cult persona.

Apollo is an important pastoral deity, and was

the patron of herdsmen and shepherds.

Protection of herds, flocks and crops from

diseases, pests and predators were his primary

duties. On the other hand, Apollo also

encouraged founding new towns and

establishment of civil constitution. He is

associated with dominion over colonists. He was

the giver of laws, and his oracles were consulted

before setting laws in a city.

As the god of music, Apollo presides over all

music, songs, dance and poetry. He is the

inventor of string-music. The lyre is a common

attribute of Apollo.

Ares favored the Trojans, emboldened Trojan

warriors on the battlefield.

Ares is the Greek god of war and courage. He is

one of the Twelve Olympians, and the son of

Zeus and Hera. The Greeks were ambivalent

towards him. He embodies the physical valor

necessary for success in war but can also

personify sheer brutality and bloodlust, in

contrast to his sister, the armored Athena, whose

martial functions include military strategy and

generalship. An association with Ares endows

places, objects, and other deities with a savage,

dangerous, or militarized quality.

In the Trojan War, Aphrodite, protector of Troy,

persuades Ares to take the Trojan's side. The

Trojans lose, while Ares' sister Athena helps the

Greeks to victory. Most famously, when the

craftsman-god Hephaestus discovers his wife

Aphrodite is having an affair with Ares, he traps

the lovers in a net and exposes them to the

ridicule of the other gods.

The Gods of the Trojan War

Ares' nearest counterpart in Roman religion is

Mars, who was given a more important and

dignified place in ancient Roman religion as

ancestral protector of the Roman people and

state. During the Hellenization of Latin

literature, the myths of Ares were reinterpreted

by Roman writers under the name of Mars, and

in later Western art and literature, the mythology

of the two figures became virtually

indistinguishable.

Artemis favored the Trojans, emboldened

Trojan warriors on the battlefield.

Artemis is the goddess of the hunt, the

wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation,

childbirth, care of children, and chastity. She

would often roam the forests of Greece, attended

by her large entourage, mostly made up of

nymphs, some mortals, and hunters. The

goddess Diana is her Roman equivalent.

In Greek tradition, Artemis is the daughter of the

sky god and king of gods Zeus and Leto, and the

twin sister of Apollo. In most accounts, the

twins are the products of an extramarital liaison.

For this, Zeus' wife Hera forbade Leto from

giving birth anywhere on land. Only the island

of Delos gave refuge to Leto, allowing her to

give birth to her children. Usually, Artemis is

the twin to be born first, who then proceeds to

assist Leto in the birth of the second child,

Apollo. Like her brother, she was a kourotrophic

(child-nurturing) deity, that is the patron and

protector of young children, especially young

girls, and women, and was believed to both

bring disease upon women and children and

relieve them of it. Artemis was worshipped as

one of the primary goddesses of childbirth and

midwifery along with Eileithyia and Hera. Much

like Athena and Hestia, Artemis preferred to

remain a maiden goddess and was sworn never

to marry, and was thus one of the three Greek

virgin goddesses, over whom the goddess of

love and lust, Aphrodite, had no power

whatsoever.

In myth and literature, Artemis is presented as a

hunting goddess of the woods, surrounded by

her followers, who is not to be crossed.

In the Epic tradition, Artemis halted the winds

blowing the Greek ships during the Trojan War,

stranding the Greek fleet in Aulis, after King

Agamemnon, the leader of the expedition, shot

and killed her sacred deer. Artemis demanded

the sacrifice of Iphigenia, Agamemnon's young

daughter, as compensation for her slain deer. In

most versions, when Iphigenia is led to the altar

to be offered as a sacrifice, Artemis pities her

and takes her away, leaving another deer in her

place. In the war that followed, Artemis along

with her twin brother and mother supported the

Trojans against the Greeks, and challenged Hera

into battle.

Artemis was one of the most widely venerated

of the Ancient Greek deities, her worship spread

The Gods of the Trojan War

throughout ancient Greece, with her multiple

temples, altars, shrines, and local veneration

found everywhere in the ancient world. Her

great temple at Ephesus was one of the Seven

Wonders of the Ancient World, before it was

burnt to the ground. Artemis' symbols included a

bow and arrow, a quiver, and hunting knives,

and the deer and the cypress were sacred to her.

Scamander, the river god, got involved through

direct response or for personal gain, rather than

allegiance or belief in one of the two sides.

Insulted by Achilles, he tried to kill the hero for

throwing so many dead bodies in his river.

Scamander fought on the side of the Trojans

during the Trojan War (Iliad XX, 73/74; XXI),

after the Greek hero Achilles insulted him.

Scamander was also said to have attempted to

kill Achilles three times, and the hero was only

saved due to the intervention of Hera, Athena

and Hephaestus. In this context, he is the

personification of the Scamander River that

flowed from Mount Ida across the plain beneath

the city of Troy, joining the Hellespont north of

the city. The Achaeans, according to Homer, had

set up their camp near its mouth, and their

battles with the Trojans were fought on the plain

of Scamander.

According to Homer, he was called Xanthos by

gods and Scamander by men, which might

indicate that the former name refers to the god

and the latter one to the river itself.

Athena favored the Greeks, provided aid on the

battlefield,

Athena is an ancient Greek goddess associated

with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft. Athena

was regarded as the patron and protectress of

various cities across Greece, particularly the city

of Athens, from which she most likely received

The Gods of the Trojan War

her name. The Parthenon on the Acropolis of

Athens is dedicated to her. Her major symbols

include owls, olive trees, snakes, and the

Gorgoneion. In art, she is generally depicted

wearing a helmet and holding a spear.

In Greek mythology, Athena was believed to

have been born from the forehead of her father

Zeus. Athena was the patron goddess of heroic

endeavor; she was believed to have aided the

heroes Perseus, Heracles, Bellerophon, and

Jason. Along with Aphrodite and Hera, Athena

was one of the three goddesses whose feud

resulted in the beginning of the Trojan War.

She plays an active role in the Iliad, in which she

assists the Achaeans and, in the Odyssey, she is

the divine counselor to Odysseus.

Demeter, uncommitted.

Demeter is the Olympian goddess of the harvest

and agriculture, presiding over crops, grains,

food, and the fertility of the earth. Although she

is mostly known as a grain goddess, she also

appeared as a goddess of health, birth, and

marriage, and had connections to the

Underworld.

In Greek tradition, Demeter is the second child

of the Titans Rhea and Cronus, and sister to

Hestia, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus. Like

her other siblings but Zeus, she was swallowed

by her father as an infant and rescued by Zeus.

Through her brother Zeus, she became the

mother of Persephone, a fertility goddess.

One of the most notable Homeric Hymns, the

Homeric Hymn to Demeter, tells the story of

Persephone's abduction by Hades and Demeter's

search for her. When Hades, the King of the

Underworld, wished to make Persephone his

wife, he abducted her from a field while she was

picking flowers, with Zeus' leave. Demeter

searched everywhere to find her missing

daughter to no avail until she was informed that

Hades had taken her to the Underworld. In

response, Demeter neglected her duties as

goddess of agriculture, plunging the earth into a

deadly famine where nothing would grow,

causing mortals to die. Zeus ordered Hades to

return Persephone to her mother to avert the

disaster. However, because Persephone had

eaten food from the Underworld, she could not

stay with Demeter forever but had to divide the

year between her mother and her husband,

explaining the seasonal cycle, as Demeter does

not let plants grow while Persephone is gone.

Though Demeter is often described simply as the

goddess of the harvest, she presided also over

the sacred law, and the cycle of life and death.

She and her daughter Persephone were the

central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries, a

religious tradition that predated the Olympian

pantheon and which may have its roots in the

Mycenaean period c. 1400–1200 BC.

The Gods of the Trojan War

Hephaestus favored the Greeks, provided aid on

the battlefield. He mostly forged various

weapons and armor for Greek heroes, Achilles

in particular.

Hephaestus is the Greek god of blacksmiths,

metalworking, carpenters, craftsmen, artisans,

sculptors, metallurgy, fire (compare, however,

with Hestia), and volcanoes. Hephaestus's

Roman counterpart is Vulcan. In Greek

mythology, Hephaestus was either the son of

Zeus and Hera or he was Hera's parthenogenous

child. He was cast off Mount Olympus by his

mother Hera because of his lameness, the result

of a congenital impairment; or in another

account, by Zeus for protecting Hera from his

advances.

As a smithing god, Hephaestus made all the

weapons of the gods in Olympus. He served as

the blacksmith of the gods, and was worshipped

in the manufacturing and industrial centers of

Greece, particularly Athens. The cult of

Hephaestus was based in Lemnos. Hephaestus's

symbols are a smith's hammer, anvil, and a pair

of tongs.

Hades: uncommitted.

Hades is the god of the dead and the king of the

underworld, with which his name became

synonymous. Hades was the eldest son of

Cronus and Rhea, although this also made him

the last son to be regurgitated by his father. He

and his brothers, Zeus and Poseidon, defeated

their father's generation of gods, the Titans, and

claimed rulership over the cosmos. Hades

received the underworld, Zeus the sky, and

Poseidon the sea, with the solid earth, long the

province of Gaia, available to all three

concurrently. In artistic depictions, Hades is

typically portrayed holding a bident and wearing

his helm with Cerberus, the three-headed guard

dog of the underworld, standing to his side.

The Gods of the Trojan War

Hera favored the Greeks, provided aid on the

battlefield.

In ancient Greek religion, Hera is the goddess of

marriage, women and family, and the protector

of women during childbirth. In Greek

mythology, she is queen of the twelve

Olympians and Mount Olympus, sister and wife

of Zeus, and daughter of the Titans Cronus and

Rhea. One of her defining characteristics in

myth is her jealous and vengeful nature in

dealing with any who offend her, especially

Zeus' numerous adulterous lovers and

illegitimate offspring.

Her iconography usually presents her as a

dignified, matronly figure, upright or enthroned,

crowned with a polos or diadem, sometimes

veiled as a married woman. She is the patron

goddess of lawful marriage. She presides over

weddings, blesses and legalizes marital unions,

and protects women from harm during

childbirth. Her sacred animals include the cow,

cuckoo and the peacock. She is sometimes

shown holding a pomegranate, as an emblem of

immortality. Her Roman counterpart is Juno.

Persephone, uncommitted.

Persephone, also called Kore or Cora, is the

daughter of Zeus and Demeter. She became the

queen of the underworld after her abduction by

and marriage to her uncle Hades, the king of the

underworld.

The myth of her abduction, her sojourn in the

underworld, and her temporary return to the

surface represents her functions as the

embodiment of spring and the personification of

vegetation, especially grain crops, which

disappear into the earth when sown, sprout from

the earth in spring, and are harvested when fully

grown. In Classical Greek art, Persephone is

invariably portrayed robed, often carrying a

sheaf of grain. She may appear as a mystical

divinity with a scepter and a little box, but she

was mostly represented in the process of being

carried off by Hades.

The Gods of the Trojan War

Persephone as a vegetation goddess and her

mother Demeter were the central figures of the

Eleusinian Mysteries, which promised the

initiated a happy afterlife. The origins of her cult

are uncertain, but it was based on ancient

agrarian cults of agricultural communities. In

Athens, the mysteries celebrated in the month of

Anthesterion were dedicated to her.

Poseidon favored the Greeks, provided aid on

the battlefield.

Poseidon was one of the Twelve Olympians in

ancient Greek religion and myth, god of the sea,

storms, earthquakes and horses. In pre-Olympian

Bronze Age Greece, he was venerated as a chief

deity at Pylos and Thebes. He also had the cult

title "earth shaker". He is often regarded as the

tamer or father of horses, and with a strike of his

trident, he created springs which are related to

the word horse. His Roman equivalent is

Neptune.

Poseidon was the protector of seafarers, and of

many Hellenic cities and colonies. Homer and

Hesiod suggest that Poseidon became lord of the

sea when, following the overthrow of his father

Cronus, the world was divided by lot among

Cronus' three sons; Zeus was given the sky,

Hades the underworld, and Poseidon the sea,

with the Earth and Mount Olympus belonging to

all three. In Homer's Iliad, Poseidon supports the

Greeks against the Trojans during the Trojan

War and in the Odyssey, during the sea-voyage

from Troy back home to Ithaca,

Zeus remained uncommitted until informed by

the Fates that Troy would fall. When he learned

this, he forbade the gods from taking part in

delaying that fate.

Zeus is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek

religion, who rules as king of the gods on Mount

Olympus. His name is cognate with the first

element of his Roman equivalent Jupiter.

In most traditions, he is married to Hera, by

whom he is usually said to have fathered Ares,

Eileithyia, Hebe, and Hephaestus.

The Gods of the Trojan War

At the oracle of Dodona, his consort was said to

be Dione, by whom the Iliad states that he

fathered Aphrodite. Zeus' first wife was Metis,

by whom he had Athena. Zeus was also

infamous for his erotic escapades. These resulted

in many divine and heroic offspring, including

Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Persephone,

Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen of Troy,

Minos, and the Muses.

He was respected as an all-father who was chief

of the gods, and assigned roles to the others.

Even the gods who are not his natural children

address him as Father, and all the gods rise in his

presence.

Sources

‘Summary and Analysis: Greek Mythology The Trojan War — The Preliminaries, The Course of the

War, The Fall of Troy, and The Returns’, Cliff Notes, n.d.,

https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/m/mythology/summary-and-analysis-greek-mythology/the-trojan-

war-8212-the-preliminaries-the-course-of-the-war-the-fall-of-troy-and-the-returns

‘The Trojan War’, Britannica, 2019, https://www.britannica.com/place/Troy-ancient-city-Turkey/The-

Trojan-War

‘Trojan War’, Wikipedia, n.d., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_War

‘The Trojan War: Understanding a Mythical War of History: Everything You Need to Know About the

Trojan War’, Greek Gods and Goddesses, 2019, https://greekgodsandgoddesses.net/myths/trojan-war/

Wikipedia: source for character descriptions.