Showing posts with label Greek. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Greek. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

The Face That Launched a Thousand Ships V2

When Paris returned from a war, he was greeted with a crowd and was crowned prince of Troy by his father, the king. Later, Paris was sent by his father to a war with Tyre. On his way back to Troy, he traveled through Greece. The king of Greece, Menelaus, greeted them graciously.

Menelaus’ wife Helen was the most beautiful woman in the world. As soon as Paris saw her, he fell in love with her. Before, Paris had chosen Aphrodite as the most beautiful of goddesses, and as a reward for choosing her, she made Helen fall in love with Paris. Paris was very brave, and during the night, Paris and Helen snuck out of Menelaus’ palace and hurried to Troy.

The next day, when Menelaus found his wife missing, he was furious at Paris and Troy. He demanded his wife back or else he would declare war on Troy. But the Trojans refused to give Helen back to him. Menelaus then started attacking Troy, but with no success. Thus started the Trojan War.

Agamemnon, the king of the wealthy city Mycenæ was very powerful and organized. When he saw his brother Menelaus suffering a humiliating defeat from the Trojans, he called together all the armies of Greece. He promised all of them great rewards if they helped him defeat Troy and save his brother’s armies. Achilles and Odysseus were among the leaders of the Greek army.


One by one the allies of Troy were defeated by the powerful Greek army. But for nine years the Greek armies fought the city of Troy, but could not defeat it. During these nine years, heroes on both sides such as Achilles and Hector died in battle. But on the ninth year came THE PLAGUE. The plague killed more people then the Trojans ever did during the war. But then, Odysseus came up with a plan that would end the Trojan War once and for all.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

The Defeat of Cyrus

When king Darius II of Persia died, both of his sons, Artaxerxes and Cyrus, wanted to be king. But Artaxerxes made himself king by force. Cyrus decided that he would raise an army and demand Artaxerxes to step off the throne.

Cyrus couldn't find enough Persian soldiers, so he hired eleven thousand Greek soldiers. In the middle of the battle, Cyrus was killed and the Persians on his side surrendered. But the Greeks continued fighting. Artaxerxes sent a message telling them that Cyrus was dead and gave their leaders an invitation to their council.

When the Greek leaders arrived, they were killed and a message was sent to the Greeks. It told them that their leaders were dead so they now had to fight in the Persian army. The Greeks were both enraged and grief-stricken when they heard this. The Greeks thought that they were going to die and they would never see Greece again. They wouldn't eat their supper and couldn't sleep because they were so sorrowful.

However, Xenophon was thinking of a way that the army could return to Greece. He was a pupil of Socrates, a famous philosopher. While everyone else was in despair, he found a way that they might get back to Greece. They could appoint a leader and retreat to the ocean.