Helen In The Iliad Research Paper

Many people thought that it was just a myth and that the city of Troy itself never existed.

Troy existed in the Bronze Age, and is most commonly known from the ancient Greek epic tales, most particularly the Iliad by Homer, where it is widely known as the setting for the Trojan War. In the epic, it is said that the cause of the Trojan War, and eventual fall of Troy, was because of the courtship of Helen. Helen was stunningly beautiful, many princes wanted her as their wife. Her step dad feared that the rejection would cause argument and violence which he did not want, for that he made sure every Helen wanting man would make an oath to protect her. Her chosen groom was Menelaus, the king of Sparta. When Helen and Paris met they were in love and was secretly together. When he set off with her to Troy. The men who were protecting her were to send 1,000 ships to Troy to collect Helen and kill Paris by the king’s word.

In the first few pages the Greek hero Achilles quarrels with the chief king, Agamemnon, over a female slave whom the Greek soldiers had awarded to Achilles as a prize of honour in recognition of his exploits. Agamemnon seizes the woman. Achilles withdraws from fighting in a rage, and remains withdrawn for the bulk of the poem, during which time the Trojans, led by Hector--Trojan King Priam's son--almost burn the beached Greek ships and drive the invaders into the sea. Hector kills Achilles' close friend, Patroclus, prompting Achilles to resume fighting. The Greeks drive the Trojans back to their citadel. Achilles kills Hector. He abuses the corpse but, in the final pages of the poem, returns it to Priam for funeral honours. The Iliad ends there, before Achilles dies from an arrow shot into his heel, before the Greeks enter Troy by means of a hollow wooden horse and destroy the