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Conflicts among goddesses occurs and they make Trojan prince Paris choose out of Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite to give a golden apple to. The prince chooses Aphrodite, who promises him the fairest maiden in the world, Helen of Troy.
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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. 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.
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Raising the ire of the gods seems to have come naturally to the descendants of Tantalus. The Greek troops heading for Troy, under the lead of Agamemnon, waited at Aulis for a wind that just wouldn't come. Eventually, a seer named Calchas deduced the problem: Artemis was offended by a boast Agamemnon made about his hunting skills. To appease Artemis, Agamemnon had to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia.
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Well-matched forces dragged the Trojan War on and on. It was in its tenth year when the climactic and most dramatic events finally took place. First, a sacrilegious Agamemnon, leader of all the Achaeans (Greeks), captured a priestess of Apollo. When the Greek leader refused to return the priestess to her father, a plague struck the Achaeans. This plague may have been bubonic since it was connected with the mouse-aspect of Apollo
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Achilles had a dear friend and companion at Troy named Patroclus. Patroclus tried to persuade Achilles to fight because Achilles was so capable a warrior that he could turn the tide of battle. He asked Achilles to let him lead Achilles' troops, the Myrmidons. Achilles agreed and even lent Patroclus his armor.
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Soon after, Achilles was killed, wounded in the one spot where legend tells us he was not immortal--his heel. Paris is said to have hit that one spot with his arrow, but Paris wasn't that good a marksman. He could only have hit it with divine guidance--in this case, with the help of Apollo.
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After the death of Achilles, Calchas uttered yet another prophecy. He told the Achaeans they needed the bow and arrows of Hercules to defeat the Trojans and end the war. Philoctetes had said bow and poisoned arrows. Before he joined the Greek battle, he was healed. Philoctetes shot one of Hercules' arrows at Paris. There was barely a scratch. But ironically, that scratch was enough to kill the Trojan prince
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Odysseus soon devised a way to end the Trojan War--the erection of a giant wooden horse filled with Achaean men to be left at the gates of Troy. During the night, the Achaeans stationed inside the horse opened the trap door, crept down, opened the gates, and let in their countrymen who had only pretended to slip away. The Achaeans then torched Troy, killing the men and taking the women prisoner.
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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
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So ended the Trojan War and so began the Achaean leaders' torturous and mostly deadly trips home.