Paris sparked off the Trojan War when, aided by Aphrodite, he ran away with Helen, who was married to King Menelaus of Sparta. Many other Greek leaders who had originally hoped to marry Helen themselves had sworn an oath to her stepfather Tyndareos that they would fight anyone who tried to harm her marriage to Menelaus. They
Now were obliged to go to Troy to help Menelaus win back his wife. Achilles himself had not taken the oath, but because of Calchas’s prophecy, the Greeks needed him to go to Troy, too. Odysseus, king of Ithaca, having heard where Achilles was, went to Scyros to collect him. He tricked Achilles out of his disguise by lining up a row of ornaments together with a spear and a shield. Odysseus then played a war trumpet, which caused Achilles instinctively to reach for the weapons, revealing himself as a trained soldier.
Achilles eagerly responded to Odysseus’s request that he join the Greeks in their war against Troy. Still only 15, he became the leader of the Myrmidons, an army of soldiers from Phthia, who took 50 ships to Troy. His closest friend, Patroclus, also went with him to the war. Events before the Greeks landed at Troy demonstrated both Achilles’ valor and his hotheadedness. He attempted to save the life of Iphigeneia, daughter of the Greek leader Agamemnon, when Agamemnon was poised to sacrifice her to ensure favorable winds for the Greek ships. Iphigeneia, however, offered herself for sacrifice anyway, and the Greeks set sail, landing not in Troy but, by accident, in Mysia, where Achilles acted honorably for a second time. On Mysia, an army led by King Telephus attacked the Greeks and drove them back to their ships. Achilles, however, stood firm and inflicted a serious wound on Telephus. An oracle told Telephus that his wound could only be cured by the one who had caused it. He raced after the Greeks. Odysseus, guessing that the cause of the wound was Achilles’ spear, advised Achilles to rub rust from the weapon into the king’s body. In thanks, Telephus showed the Greeks the way to Troy. As their journey continued, however, the Greeks stopped at the island ofTenedos, where Achilles fell for Hemithea, the sister of King Tenes. Tenes tried to keep Achilles away from her, and in a fit of anger the young Greek killed him. This murder caused even more grief for Thetis, for it had been said that whoever killed Tenes would in turn be killed by his father, the sun god Apollo.
During the ten-year siege of Troy, the Greeks raided other settlements in the area for supplies, or attacked them because they supported the Trojans. Achilles and his men sacked the island of Lesbos and captured 12 nearby cities. The warrior also killed countless Trojans and their supporters, including King Priam’s son Troilus, and Cycnus, a son of Poseidon, whose body could withstand the blows of any weapons. Achilles killed Cycnus by strangling him with the straps of his own helmet. Besides fighting, Achilles managed to develop passionate feelings for Polyxena, a daughter of King Priam, even though she was a Trojan. He also kept a slave girl, Briseis, in his camp. He had captured her in Lyrnessus, one of the cities he had raided.
The Centaur Cheiron
A centaur was a creature that was human from the waist up, but with the body and legs of a horse. The centaurs, who were said to have been born out of a cloud, lived in the mountains of Thessaly in central Greece. They were mostly drunken and violent creatures, but one of them, Cheiron, was not like the rest. He was the son of Cronus, the ruler of the Titans, and he was renowned for his gentleness and wisdom. Cheiron was a master of healing. He knew all about medicinal herbs and potions— Asclepius, god of healing, gained his knowledge of medicine from Cheiron. Besides helping to raise Achilles, the great centaur also taught Jason, Actaeon, Patroclus, and Peleus, Achilles' father, among others. Cheiron's life ended after the hero Heracles accidentally shot him with a poisoned arrow. He was badly hurt and longed to die, but he could not because he was immortal. However, the Titan Prometheus offered to become immortal in his place, and Cheiron was finally allowed to die.
Left: A Roman fresco from c. 100 BCE—70 CE depicts the kindly centaur Cheiron teaching Achilles how to play the lyre.
Right: This illustration from a c. sixth-century-BCE kylix (wide-howled Greek cup) depicts Achilles (right) bandaging the arm of his friend Patroclus.
World History
