1. WELCOME TO AN UNFORGETTABLE ADVENTURE
Warning: Proceed with extreme caution –
you are about to enter the world of The Odyssey

2. The adventure begins with The Trojan War.
Sometimes we forget how wars begin,
so let’s review.
The main characters are:
Menelaus
Paris
Helen

3. These three were trapped in a love triangle
Helen of Troy
Paris
Menelaus

4. How did they weave their tangled web?
According to legend, the events that led to the Trojan War started at a royal wedding. Peleus, king of the Myrmidons (a race of people created from ants!), was marrying a sea nymph named Thetis.
Many gods attended the wedding, but Eris, daughter of Zeus, king of the gods, wasn't invited because she was the goddess of discord and was bound to cause trouble.

5. Revenge and “The Apple of Discord”
Angry at being excluded, Eris decided to disrupt the wedding banquet. She threw a golden apple marked "for the fairest" among the guests. The goddesses Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite were there, and each thought that she was the fairest of them all. They bickered for a while about who deserved the apple, then asked Zeus to decide the matter. Zeus didn't want to get involved, so he sent them to a prince named Paris, the son of King Priam of Troy in Anatolia (modern-day Turkey).

6. The goddesses tried to rig the contest by bribing Paris.
The Judgment of Paris
by Ludovico David

7. Athena: Goddess of Wisdom & War
Athena promised to help Paris lead Troy to victory in a war against the Greeks.

8. Hera: Goddess of Marriage & Childbirth
Hera promised to make Paris the king of all Europe and Asia.

9. Aphrodite: Goddess of Love & Beauty
Aphrodite promised to give Paris the most beautiful woman in the world.

10. Aphrodite sent him to Sparta to collect his prize.
The beautiful woman sounded better to Paris than power and glory, so he awarded the Apple of Discord to Aphrodite.
His prize was Helen, a
half-mortal
daughter of Zeus.
Aphrodite sent him
to Sparta to collect
his prize.
There was just one
problem. The most
beautiful woman in
the world was already
married

12. Helen was already married to Menelaus, the
brother of the king of Mycenea, Agamemnon.
When Paris showed up in Sparta, Menelaus and Helen welcomed him as a guest.

13. Then Menelaus left Sparta for a while
Then Menelaus left Sparta for a while. When he returned , Helen was gone. She had eloped with Paris.
Menelaus was furious. Determined to win his wife back, he summoned the princes who had promised to protect Helen. His brother Agamemnon led the expedition.

14. Odysseus – King of Ithaca
Odysseus did not want to go to war but he had been a suitor to Helen and made the oath to protect her. In order to avoid going, he pretended to be insane. When Menelaus sent Palamedes to get him, he hitched together an ox and a donkey to one plow and began madly plowing his fields with salt. Palamedes saw through the ruse and threw his newborn son, Telemachus in front of the plow. Odysseus stopped working and revealed his sanity.

15. Agamemnon’s Mistake
Right before the army was set to sail for Troy, Agamemnon killed an animal sacred to the Goddess Artemis and boasted that he was as skilled a hunter as she. As punishment, Artemis calmed the winds so the ships could not sail to Troy.

16. The Price
Finally, the prophet Calches said that the wrath of the goddess could only be taken away by the sacrifice of Agamemnon's daughter Iphigenia.
Agamemnon did sacrifice Iphigenia - Her death appeased Artemis, and the Greek army (1,000 ships) set out for Troy.

17. That’s why Helen of Troy is often referred
to as
“The Face That Launched A Thousand Ships”

18. The Greeks besieged Troy for ten years.
According to legend, the gods took great
interest in the war.
Hera and Athena still resented Paris for
not giving them the Apple of Discord, so
they helped the Greek side.
Aphrodite assisted the Trojans.

19. Trojan War
In the 10th year, it looked as if the Trojans would win the war. The Greeks were ready to give up and go home. Before they threw in the towel though, one of their greatest heroes was making one final plan. The King of Ithaca, Odysseus, came up with a fool-proof plan to get the Greeks into Troy.

20. The Trojan Horse The Greeks built an immense wooden horse and
Odysseus, Menelaus, and other warriors hid inside.
After leaving the horse at the gates of Troy, the
Greek army sailed away. The Trojans thought the
Greeks had given up and had left the horse as a gift.

21. The soldiers in the horse slipped out and opened
The horse was brought inside the walls of Troy and the Trojans celebrated their victory. That night, while the Trojans were sleeping, the Greek ships quietly returned.
The soldiers in the horse slipped out and opened
the city gates, and the Greek army quietly
entered Troy.

22. They started fires all over the city. The Trojans
awoke to find their city burning.
When they tried to flee, they were massacred
by Greek soldiers.

23. During the sack of Troy, Odysseus found Helen
and took her to her husband, Menelaus. He
told Menelaus that Helen had helped him
steal a sacred Trojan statue, the Palladium.
Pleased to hear that Helen was still loyal to
the Greeks, Menelaus returned with her to
Sparta (it took them seven years to get home)
where, it seems, they lived happily ever after.

24. Now it was time for Odysseus and the
other Greeks to return to their kingdoms
across the sea.
Trojan War = 10 years
Odysseus’ journey home = 10 years
Here begins the tale of The Odyssey, Odysseus’ 10 year journey home,
as sung by the blind minstrel Homer.

25. Slide show created from work
Now, lets embark on Odysseus’
exciting adventures . . .
Proceed with caution!!
Slide show created from work
by Susie Weigel
Auburn High School
English Teacher