Who started the Trojan War? This question has led to numerous debates among historians. There is no concrete answer to this question, because Greek plays blame different individuals. Aeschylus’ Agamemnon suggests that the curse on the house of Atreus should be blamed for the suffering brought on by the Trojan War, while Euripides’ The Women of Troy implies that Helen is to blame, whereas I will argue that it is the Gods’ fault.
In the play Agamemnon there are two parties debating who to blame for the Trojan War: the Chorus and Clytemnestra. After the Trojan War ended and Agamemnon returned home, the Chorus, which is made up of old men, start to talk about who started the Trojan War. The Chorus blames Helen for the death of countless lives. …show more content…
At first she tells Hecabe that, “The gods have hated us, since the day when Paris / Was spared at his birth, to live and destroy his country / For the sake of accursed Helen” (109), proving that at the beginning of the play Andromache blamed Paris for the war. She believed that the hatred the gods had towards Troy was because Paris was spared. Helen then was kidnapped by Paris and the war started. Towards the end of the play Andromache’s belief changes and she says: “Helen, / Tyndareos’s daughter! You were never daughter of Zeus / You had many fathers; the Avenging Curse was one, / Hate was the next, then Murder, Death, and every plague” (115). She calls her a plague, murder, and death, clearly Andromache now blames Helen for all that she has …show more content…
She was mad that she was not invited to a wedding. This led to her causing mayhem at said wedding. What she did to cause this conflict is offer an apple to the other gods. She said that this apple would go to the most beautiful goddess. Three goddesses thought they were the most beautiful and this resulted in a huge argument. So what Zeus did was ask Paris to pick one of the goddesses as the most beautiful. Each goddess offered different goods to get him to pick them: “Hera offered domination over all the world; Athena offered a glorious military career; but Aphrodite offered the best prize, the most beautiful women in the world” (Powell, Barry. Chapter 19: The Trojan War). This woman was Helen, who was already married, and this is what caused the war. Thus the gods were to blame for the Trojan War since it was Eris that started this mess with Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, which eventually led to the war. There are some that believe that the gods would not stoop so low as to fight over which goddess is the most beautiful but the gods are not perfect as seen in countless stories. Gods have fought over other petty arguments like when Athena fought with a mortal about which was the better weaver and when she lost she turned her into a spider, thus proving that the gods are able to fight about this
In the play Agamemnon there are two parties debating who to blame for the Trojan War: the Chorus and Clytemnestra. After the Trojan War ended and Agamemnon returned home, the Chorus, which is made up of old men, start to talk about who started the Trojan War. The Chorus blames Helen for the death of countless lives. …show more content…
At first she tells Hecabe that, “The gods have hated us, since the day when Paris / Was spared at his birth, to live and destroy his country / For the sake of accursed Helen” (109), proving that at the beginning of the play Andromache blamed Paris for the war. She believed that the hatred the gods had towards Troy was because Paris was spared. Helen then was kidnapped by Paris and the war started. Towards the end of the play Andromache’s belief changes and she says: “Helen, / Tyndareos’s daughter! You were never daughter of Zeus / You had many fathers; the Avenging Curse was one, / Hate was the next, then Murder, Death, and every plague” (115). She calls her a plague, murder, and death, clearly Andromache now blames Helen for all that she has …show more content…
She was mad that she was not invited to a wedding. This led to her causing mayhem at said wedding. What she did to cause this conflict is offer an apple to the other gods. She said that this apple would go to the most beautiful goddess. Three goddesses thought they were the most beautiful and this resulted in a huge argument. So what Zeus did was ask Paris to pick one of the goddesses as the most beautiful. Each goddess offered different goods to get him to pick them: “Hera offered domination over all the world; Athena offered a glorious military career; but Aphrodite offered the best prize, the most beautiful women in the world” (Powell, Barry. Chapter 19: The Trojan War). This woman was Helen, who was already married, and this is what caused the war. Thus the gods were to blame for the Trojan War since it was Eris that started this mess with Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, which eventually led to the war. There are some that believe that the gods would not stoop so low as to fight over which goddess is the most beautiful but the gods are not perfect as seen in countless stories. Gods have fought over other petty arguments like when Athena fought with a mortal about which was the better weaver and when she lost she turned her into a spider, thus proving that the gods are able to fight about this