|
She was Helen, a half-mortal daughter of Zeus. Many powerful men had wanted to marry her, and her step-father, King Tyndareus of Sparta, was afraid this would lead to war. He was also afraid that someone would try to kidnap her (in fact, she had already been abducted by Theseus, the king of Athens, but her brothers had rescued her and brought her home).
Tyndareus convinced Helen's suitors to swear an oath that they would protect her and her husband, whoever he might be. Then Helen married Menelaus, the brother of Agamemnon, the king of Mycenae. After Tyndareus's death Helen's husband became the king of Sparta.
When Paris showed up in Sparta, Menelaus and Helen welcomed him as a guest. 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, and they agreed to help him attack Troy. Menelaus's brother Agamemnon was the leader of the expedition.
Another member of the expedition was the hero Achilles, son of Peleus and Thetis, at whose wedding the trouble had started. When Achilles was a baby Thetis had dipped him in the River Styx. This made him invulnerable; no weapon could pierce his skin. He just had one weak spot - his heel. Thetis had held him by the heel when she dipped him, so Achilles could still be injured there.
At first the Greek army couldn't set sail because there was no wind. Agamemnon solved that problem by sacrificing his daughter, Iphigenia, to the goddess Artemis. Then the winds turned favorable and one thousand Greek ships set sail for Troy.
|
