According to the legendary epic poem by Homer, the Trojan War was one of the most destructive in Greek history. It involved nearly every Greek state in a unified siege against the walled city of Troy, in Asia Minor, which would last for 10 years. But what started the war? According to Homer, it was when the young Trojan prince Paris abducted the Spartan queen, Helen, the woman with “the face that launched a thousand ships.” More than a personal insult to her husband Menelaus, it was a breach of the laws of hospitality. Was it love that drove him to commit such a crime? Lust? Or was Paris merely a tool to carry out the will of the gods?
What Did the Trojans Do to Offend the Greeks?
While being hosted at Sparta, the prince of Troy, Paris Alexandros, seduced Helen and whisked her away to Troy along with a sizable treasure. This was not simply a crime against the king, Menelaus, but against Zeus, who protected the guest-host relationship. Called xenia, which is roughly translated as “guest friendship,” the relationship was a reciprocal bond between a host and their guest solidified with the giving of gifts and feasting. This relationship was an integral part of life and diplomacy and was sacred to Zeus. It was for this reason that the Greeks went to war against Troy. It wasn’t only Paris who was guilty, but the entire city for condoning his actions. Menelaus himself stated that it was the breach of xenia that instigated the conflict.
“Lord Zeus, grant vengeance for the wrong goodly Alexandros first did to me, and subdue him by my hands so that any later men shudder to do wrong to their host, who would offer him friendship” (Home, The Iliad, 3.351-354).
In Book Three of The Iliad, the Greeks and Trojans made a truce and came to an agreement that Menelaus and Paris would duel in single combat to determine the outcome of the war. If the Greeks won, Troy would return Helen and the treasure taken from Sparta, along with paying reparations. If the Trojans won, then the Greeks would end their siege and return home. The terms were sealed with oaths and prayers to Zeus, and the battle began. But it was brief, as just when Paris was about to be defeated, he vanished in a thick cloud of mist. The Trojans couldn’t find Paris anywhere and the Greeks declared victory. Then, in a breach of the truce that mirrored Paris’ violation of xenia, a Trojan warrior named Pandaros fired an arrow at Menelaus and wounded him.
How Did the Judgment of Paris Lead to the Trojan War?
What the Greeks didn’t know was that the gods had intervened. Fearing for Paris’ life, Aphrodite whisked him off the battlefield and back to the palace. Zeus then held a meeting on Olympus to discuss whether the war should end then and there per the terms of the truce. But Hera wouldn’t hear of it. To sate her hatred of the Trojans, she demanded that the war continue. In exchange, she agreed that Zeus could destroy a city dear to her should the urge strike him. So he sent Athena down to the Trojans to make them break the agreement of the duel. In the guise of Laodocos, she convinced the warrior, Pandaros, to fire an arrow at Menelaus, reigniting the conflict.
Aphrodite’s love for Paris, as well as Athena and Hera’s hatred of the Trojans, stemmed from an event known as the “Judgment of Paris.” The Trojan prince was asked to pick which of the three goddesses was the most beautiful. They each offered him a prize. Hera offered dominion over the kingdoms of men; Athena offered him mastery of the battlefield; and Aphrodite offered him the most beautiful woman in the world as his bride. Paris preferred Aphrodite’s prize over the others, so he chose her as the most beautiful of the goddesses. The Iliad only briefly references this event, leaving it to other authors to provide the full context.
“All the others were pleased, except for Hera, Poseidon, and the bright-eyed maiden (Athena), but sacred Ilion and Priam and his people had before become hateful to them because of Alexander’s (Paris) folly, who insulted those goddesses when they came to his inner courtyard and he praised the one of them who fulfilled his grievous lust” (Homer, The Iliad, 24.25-30).
What Did Eris Do to Ignite the Trojan Conflict?
The beauty contest happened during the wedding of the goddess Thetis and the mortal hero Peleus. The goddess Themis revealed to Zeus that Thetis, who Zeus was in the process of courting, was fated to give birth to a son that would be greater than his father. Fearing being overthrown, Zeus gave Thetis in marriage to Peleus. This union produced Achilles, the greatest warrior of all the Greeks.
All the gods and goddesses were invited to the wedding except for Eris, the goddess of strife. Upset at her mistreatment, Eris took an apple from the garden of the Hesperides and wrote on it “to the fairest,” then threw it into the party. Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite all claimed it and they argued over who was most deserving of the title of “fairest.” To settle the argument, Zeus told Hermes to bring them to Mount Ida and have Paris judge.
What Did Zeus Do in the Trojan War?
But above all the others, Zeus can be blamed for starting the Trojan War. His will was absolute. He was both the arbiter of fate and the means by which fate was fulfilled. The opening lines of the epic make clear that all that happened within the narrative was by the will of Zeus.
“Sing, goddess, the destructive wrath of Achilles son of Peleus, which laid countless agonies on the Achaeans, and sent the noble souls of many heroes down to Hades, and made them carrion for the dogs and birds, and fulfilled the will of Zeus” (Homer, The Iliad, 1.1-5).
It is clear in the epic that Zeus had decreed that Troy would be destroyed, and nothing the mortals on either side did could affect the outcome. The fate of Troy was determined long ago, likely before Paris’ transgression against the laws of hospitality. The Greeks seemed to believe that the gods were on their side for this reason, and both Agamemnon and Menelaus were confident that Zeus would punish the Trojans for Paris’ flagrant disregard for xenia.
Yet Zeus himself didn’t seem bothered by it in the slightest. Zeus repeatedly stated his great love for the Trojans. During Menelaus and Paris’ duel, Zeus agreed that the Greeks had won and seemed ready to end the war, allowing Paris to escape the consequences of violating xenia. Then he allowed Hera and Athena to break the terms of the truce, of which he was supposed to be the protector and enforcer.
In The Iliad, except for the singular passage that seems to relate to the Judgment of Paris and his abduction of Helen, there is no definitive reason for why Troy must fall. Yet there was one epic that reconciled this. In The Cypria, a lost epic surviving only in fragments and references that was written after The Iliad and thought to be a prequel to Homer’s poems, Zeus planned with Themis to bring about the Trojan War. Scholars of The Iliad wrote that this plan was formed to reduce the population of humans, and so lessen the burden on the Earth. This is confirmed by Euripides’ plays Orestes and Helen. Given the popularity of Euripides’ plays, it is surprising that virtually no later authors reference this cause for the war.
Why Did the Greeks Attack Troy?
According to 5th century BCE historian, Herodotus, when Paris abducted Helen and a sizable amount of treasure from the Spartans, strong winds blew him off course while he was sailing home and landed him in Egypt. Some of Paris’ men turned on him and fled to the temple of Heracles, where they revealed to a priest what he had done to Helen and Menelaus. Paris was brought before the pharaoh, Proteus, who seized Helen and the treasure, promising to safeguard them until Menelaus came to retrieve them. He then sent the Trojans on their way.
The Greeks, however, never went to Egypt. They sailed directly for Troy, and once there, they demanded the return of Helen and the treasure. The Trojans explained what happened, saying that neither were in their city and were waiting in Egypt. The Greeks didn’t believe them and instead attacked the city.
In the archaeological record, there are texts from the Hittite kingdom of Hatti which detail a correspondence between the king of Hatti and the king of the Ahhiyawans, which scholars believe was the Hittite way of writing Achaeans, the name given to the Greeks in The Iliad. In the texts, the Hittite king discussed a conflict with the Ahhiyawan king over the city of Wilusa, which scholars generally agree was ancient Troy.
In the 13th century BCE, Wilusa was attacked and occupied by a pirate named Piyamaradu, who had close ties with the Ahhiyawan king. The Hittite king considered Piyamaradu an agent of the Ahhiyawan king, and he asked his counterpart to tell the pirate that the two kings had made peace and it would not be right to cause more conflict. It is not clear that this relates to the Trojan War as written by Homer, but it does make clear that the Greeks and the Trojans came into conflict in the 13th century BCE. Plus, it was likely instigated by the Greeks who wanted to expand their sphere of influence in Anatolia.
Within The Iliad, the characters are unaware of what happened at Thetis and Peleus’ wedding. Not even Paris nor Helen acknowledged the event. Instead, as far as the mortals knew, it was Paris’ abduction of Helen that incited the war. The Greeks believed that the gods were on their side, yet they could not fathom the true motivations of the gods. Time and again the gods act against the morals that mortal characters have attributed to them. Paris bears personal responsibility for abducting Helen and Menelaus’ fortune since he was not coerced into his actions. Yet the will of Zeus is inevitable. Zeus devised the Trojan War, married Thetis to Peleus, and chose Paris to judge the contest between the goddesses. So while Paris is guilty, he was merely an instrument of Zeus’ will.
Selected References
A. Maria van Erp Taalman Kip. (2000) “The Gods of the “Iliad” and the Fate of Troy,” Mnemosyne, 53(4), 385–402.
Reeves, J. D. (1966) “The Cause of the Trojan War: A Forgotten Myth Revived,” The Classical Journal, 61(5), 211–214.
Bryce, T. R. (2002) “The Trojan War: Is There Truth Behind the Legend?” Near Eastern Archaeology, 65(3), 182–195.
