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Eris, the goddess of Discord, was the only god uninvited. She threw a golden into the wedding that said " For the Fairest ". Aphrodite, Athena, and Hera all wanted the apple, but Zues would not choose between them.
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a contest between the three most beautiful goddesses of Olympos--Aphrodite, Hera and Athena--for the prize of a golden apple addressed to "the fairest". The story begins at the Wedding of Peleus and Thetis to which all of the gods were invited, all except Eris, the goddess of discord.
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The most beautiful woman in the world was Helen, wife of King Menelaus of Sparta. Paris came to visit and fell in love with Helen when he saw her. She left with him in the middle of the night, and they returned to Troy.
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Menelaus was the overlord of Greece. When the Trojans would not return Helen, Agamemnon, the brother of Menelaus and king of Mycenae, told him to call all the kings of Greece to Aulis to get ready for war against Troy. Many kings did not want to come, including Odysseus.
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Agamemnon sent Palamedes to bring Odysseus to Aulis. Odysseus pretended to be insane, driving his oxen on the seashore, plowing the sand, and throwing salt on the ground. Palamedes threw Odysseus's son under the feet of the oxen and Odysseus had to stop.
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Achilles was the son of Thetis and Peleus. His mother tried to protect him from a prophecy of early death by dipping him into the River Styx, which would make him invulnerable. However, she held him by the heel so his heel was unprotected. She sent him to hide in the court of the king of Scyros, where he was disguised as a girl and married the princess Deidamia. Odysseus disguised himself as a traveling merchant, and tempted Achilles into revealing himself using a beautiful sword.
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In Aulis, the wind was coming from the wrong direction. The prophet Calchas told Agamemnon the gods wanted him to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia in order to get a fair wind. When Agamemnon ordered Iphigenia killed, his wife Clytemnestra swore vengeance.
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The Trojan princes argued over what they should do. Priam's son Hector said war was inevitable. Antenor thought Hector just wanted revenge against the Greeks. Aeneas thought Troy would win because a prophecy foretold success for him. Priam said there was no choice
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Cassandra, Priam's daughter, was a priestess of Apollo with a gift of prophecy. She was cursed by Apollo so that no one would ever believe what she said. She predicted that Hector would die and Troy would burn.
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The Greeks Laodamia and Protesilaus were married. Protesilaus joined the war against Troy but left a sculpture of himself to keep his wife company. One night she dreamed that she was with him as they approached Troy. He was the "foremost man" to leap from his ship onto the shore, and was killed. Laodamia knew this was a vision of the future. She prayed to Zeus, and he granted her three hours with her husband before he died, by making the statue come to life. Then Laodamia herself died
