(Extract from: The Soldiers of Ares)
Over a century ago the great Trojan War took place between two huge armies The Greek Empire and The kingdom of Troy. The Greek empire was actually a large alliance formed by various different kingdoms and all the kings led by the king of Argos, called Agamemnon. The large continent where the kingdoms resided was called Greece, and hence the alliance was named the Greek Alliance. Troy, on the other hand, was a large and powerful kingdom to the west of the Greek continent and was led by King Priam, and the people of Troy were called Trojans.
Now the spark for the war began when Paris, Priam’s son paid a visit to Menelaus, the king of Sparta. Menelaus was married to Helen, a girl who was said to rival the goddess Aphrodite herself in beauty. Paris fell in love immediately with Helen the moment he laid eyes on her. But he couldn’t do anything as she was married to Menelaus. During Paris’s visit to Sparta, Menelaus got news that his uncle had died, and he went immediately to attend his funeral leaving his wife Helen to be host to the prince of Troy. Paris on the other hand decided to use this situation to his advantage, and with the help of goddess Aphrodite who he was favoured by, seduced Helen, and even convinced her to run away to Troy with him. They left before Menelaus returned. When Menelaus finally came back he was shocked at the betrayal of Paris. To betray one’s host was the highest order of disrespect in Greece and Menelaus, consumed by rage, went to his brother for help. His brother was none other than Agamemnon, the leader of the Greek alliance. On hearing his brother’s story he summoned the other kings of Greece for their assistance. Soon, a huge army was formed, and over one thousand two hundred Greek warships set sail for Troy to defend the honour of the Spartan king and make Troy pay for this betrayal.
Once the Greek soldiers reached Troy, Agamemnon met with King Priam and demanded that Helen be returned. He also demanded that Paris must also be given to the Greeks as a prisoner, so that he may be punished for his actions. Priam refused to do so and Agamemnon declared that the entire city of Troy was to pay for this decision. Agamemnon knew that Priam would not accept these conditions and was pleased to go to war against Troy. The reason for this was Troy was said to be impenetrable. A wall surrounded the city called the Trojan wall, which was over fifty foot tall and indestructible to all forms of attack. This wall had made the city impenetrable for hundreds of years and whoever managed to seize Troy would become a legend. Agamemnon wanted to be that legend and he was willing to start a war and sacrifice countless lives to do so. And so the Great War began, and both sides were too evenly matched in strength.
The Olympian gods could no longer stand by and watch as the war unfolded, and they began to choose sides. But Emperor Zeus would not let the war consume the entire world, and he ordered the Olympians not to directly get involved in the war, but they were allowed to support either side in any other way they pleased. It was also decided that God-king Zeus himself would favour neither side in the war and would instead act as judge.
And so the gods began to choose sides. On the Trojan side were Aphrodite the goddess of love, the sibling gods Apollo of the light, and Artemis of the hunt, and the war god Ares. Ares had first favoured the Greeks, but the beautiful Aphrodite convinced him to quickly change sides. The Greeks on the other hand were favoured by Athena, the goddess of wisdom, the smith god Hephaestus, Hera wife of Zeus and the queen of the gods, and also Admiral Poseidon, the god of the sea. The other gods chose to stay neutral, although Hermes acted as the official messenger to both sides and as a personal ambassador of Lord Zeus.
But even with the gods involved, the two sides were still too evenly matched, and the war went on for ten long years. During this time, many powerful warriors emerged who became heroes to their respective sides; the most famous of these being Achilles of the Greeks, and Hector of Troy. These two were the strongest warriors on either side and their skills were evenly matched. But on the tenth year of the war something unexpected happened. Achilles, had a quarrel with Agamemnon and refused to go into battle for the Greeks. This greatly shifted the tides of the war in the favour of Troy, as Hector began to slaughter the Greek forces unopposed.
With Achilles out of the battle and the Trojans were gaining control of the war Patroclus, who was Achilles’ cousin, and his best friend tried to reason with him to re-join the war. But Achilles in his stubbornness refused. That’s when Patroclus decided to take matters into his own hands. He stole his best friend’s armour and led his men into battle, pretending to be Achilles. The plan was going well, with the Trojans thinking Achilles had returned, lost their moral to fight, and began to flee. That was until Hector came into the battle. Hector challenged Patroclus to a duel, thinking that he was Achilles. But even with the great warrior’s armour, Patroclus was still no match for Hector and he fell on the battlefield. Only after ripping through the armour and killing his foe did Hector realise what he had done. News of his friend’s murder and how it came to be reached Achilles, and he went into an uncontrollable rage. It was also at this time Achilles’s mother requested armour for her son to the smith god Hephaestus to replace the one broken by Hector. Thus, the ‘Armour of Styx’ was forged and given to Achilles. Legend also says he was given a powerful shield as well. With his new armour and shield, and unimaginable rage he went ahead to slaughter hundreds of Trojans. He then went forth to the gates of Troy and challenged Hector to one-on-one combat to the death, which Hector had no choice but to accept.
The war itself was stopped for the next day as everyone gathered at the gates of Troy to witness the two mighty warriors fight. When Achilles came he refused to wear his helmet so that Hector could be sure that he would be facing the real Achilles this time. What followed was said to be one of the greatest battles in history. Hector was a great swordsman and he fought well. But armed with his indestructible armour and with anger boiling within him Achilles was unstoppable. The fight went on for hours, but in the end Hector fell and Achilles emerged victorious. When Achilles stood over Hector’s lifeless body, the only wound that could be seen on him was a scar above his right eye, a scar that he still had. But Achilles was not done with Hector, even in death. His anger still blazed within him and his revenge was not complete. He tied Hector’s corpse to the back of a chariot and dragged it across the battlefield to further desecrate the once great warrior. Hector’s father Priam and his brother Paris watched helpless along with the rest of Troy as the body of their fallen Hero was humiliated. Achilles even refused to return Hector’s body to Troy so that he may not even be given a proper funeral.
With Hector gone and Achilles back in full force, the moral of the Trojans fell greatly and it was not long before the Greeks took over the entire battlefield. The Trojans retreated and hid behind their walls, only counterattacking from within. The Greeks were faced with a new problem now, though the battle field was theirs they still had no method of getting past the Trojan wall. Luckily they had a brilliant strategist on their side. He was one of the greatest Greek heroes and said to be the greatest tactician to fight in the war, and his name was Odysseus. Now, it was Odysseus who came up with a plan to take down the Trojan wall from the inside. After a week of relentless attacks on the wall the Greeks decided to pack up and leave. So when the Trojans went to check the next day they found all the Greeks and their ships gone. But on the seashore the Greeks had left a huge wooden horse encrusted with gold, diamonds and other precious gems as an offering to Admiral Poseidon for his support in the war, as horses were Poseidon’s sacred animal. The Trojans on the other hand decided to claim the horse for themselves as the spoils of war. They quickly moved the wooden horse within the gates before Poseidon’s men came to claim it. All this was happening according to Odysseus’s plans. He knew the Trojans would claim the horse for themselves, so he built it in such a way that few warriors could fit within it. Legend says that the horse could only fit seven warriors and so the Greeks had to send their strongest seven into Troy. They say this is how the Omega seven came to be formed. Once inside the seven warriors waited till night to exit the horse. They then went ahead to take out the remaining guards and open the gates of Troy. The rest of the Greek army had not left either. They merely circled back at night and waited for the Omega seven to open the gates .Once the gates were open the Greeks stormed into Troy, led by Agamemnon and laid siege to the entire city in one night. When morning came the Greeks had finally won the ten year long war.