Dateline Troy Part 1

Dateline Troy Part 1 Journal for Latin 3 5/23/2007

What I Learned

The story of the Trojan War starts when the king and queen of Troy were having a baby, named Paris. Priests told the king to kill the baby, but he could not bring himself to do so. He gave the baby to a peasant to be exposed. The peasant did as he said, but it was raised by a bear. Taking it as a sign of the gods, he raised the baby in secret.

The baby grew up to be strong and also fair-minded. Zeus picked him to select who would receive a golden apple which should go to the “fairest.” Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite all wanted it very bad. Aphrodite promised him any women he wanted. He choose Helen. However, she was already married to Menelaus.

They ran off together, and this made Menelaus mad when he returned home to find his wife missing. He then remembered a pact where all of Helen’s suitors promised to get her back if she was ever stolen.

Diomedes, Idomeneus, Ajax, and Palamedes left immediately for Troy. Odysseys was perfectly content staying home, but was tricked into leaving. Achilles was found and prophesied into joining the group.

From every corner of Greece came a thousand ships. 100 bulls were sacrificed to Zeus for good luck. But Aphrodite, wanting to protect Paris, who gave her the apple, pushed the ships off-course. One third of the men died in the obstacles she left behind.

Personal Response

I like the format and storytelling used by the author. This telling includes only one story path. Most accounts list all of the different versions of the story. I find this just makes everything more confusing.

Also the new clippings are a cool addition. They kind of revealed what the story is on that page, because the news headlines relate to what that page is about. We naturally read headlines first. This kind of spoiled the story on that page for me.

These prophesies always seem to come true in myths, and the problem is always caused by someone ignoring them. Maybe these stories were propaganda to honor the prophesies (and donate $$ to the temples)

Which brings me to my next point; charitable organizations were ruled by money in those times too. Anything has a price for it to be hushed up. Does no one have integrity?

Paris’ apple selection brings me to an important life lesson: never get involved with gods. You will end up angering one of them and they will become angry at you. And you don’t want that!

But didn’t Paris have any choice to decline the gods. The story said that the refused to let him decline. Catch-22? What could he have done?