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 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.
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.
The Greek chieftains assembled at Aulis under the leadership of Agamemnon, the brother of Menelaus. Most of the warriors were glad to go, eager to burn and sack Troy. But two heroes were reluctant. An oracle told Odysseus that he would be twenty years from home if he went, so he feigned madness when the Greek leaders came for him. Palamedes exposed the ruse, and Odysseus had to go. Since Troy could not be taken without the help of Achilles, the Greeks went to Scyros to fetch him. Achilles was practically invulnerable as a fighter, for his mother, the nymph Thetis, had dipped him in the River Styx at birth, rendering him immortal everywhere but in his heel, where she had held him. Tutored by Chiron, he became an incredibly swift and fearsome warrior. Knowing he would have a short but glorious life if he went to Troy, Thetis disguised her valiant son in women's clothing at the Scyrian court. However, Odysseus discovered Achilles by a trick, and he too consented to go.
At first the Greeks sailed to Mysia, and believing it to be Troy they made war. The Mysian king, Telephus, was wounded in the battle by Achilles. Learning of their error, the Greeks sailed back to Aulis. Since an oracle had said that Troy could not be taken without Telephus' advice, Achilles was obliged to heal his victim. The renegade Trojan prophet, Calchas, had sided with the Greeks, and when unfavorable winds prevented the Greeks from sailing, Calchas declared that the goddess Artemis wanted the sacrifice of a virgin. Agamemnon's daughter Iphigenia was chosen and sent for under the pretext that she would marry Achilles. Yet she willingly allowed herself to be sacrificed for the Greek cause. Some say, though, that Artemis put a deer in her place and carried her off to the land of the Taurians. In any case the Greek expedition was able to reach Troy.
