It started, we are told, when Eris was left out of the invitation list to the great party being thrown for the wedding of Peleus and Thetis. Everyone was invited except for her, and she seethed in anger and rage and hatred and jealousy. She wandered around, trying to think of a way that she could ruin the banquet. She would have done anything—destroy the Earth, release the Titans, burn everything to cinders—anything. But she feared the Keeper of Fire and especially Ares, the iron warrior god, so she stayed her hand and became craftier.
She took a beautiful golden apple and wrote upon it, “To the fairest of all,” and she tossed it into the wedding proceedings. Immediately, Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite all craved this beautiful golden apple that had appeared as if by magic. Each imagined she was the fairest, she was the best. So they began to fight bitterly amongst themselves as to who should have the apple and be deemed the fairest.
Zeus knew he had a problem on his hands, so he decided that Paris, the “splendid youth” who tended his herds on the hills Troy, would be the judge of who was fairest. Each of the goddesses offered Paris gifts if he would choose her. Athena offered him wisdom and skill in battle. Hera offered him political power and control of Asia. But Aphrodite offered him the most beautiful woman in the world—Helen—if he would give the apple to her. He could not resist. He gave Aphrodite the golden apple, and with Aphrodite’s help, he seduced Helen and abducted her away from her husband, Menelaus (King of Sparta), back to Troy.
Menelaus’s brother, Agamemnon (King of Mycenae), then waged war against Troy for 10 years for “the face that launched a thousand ships.” Many heroes died on all sides in brutal battles, including Paris. The city finally fell to the trick of the gift of the Trojan Horse, which contained hidden warriors. The Trojans welcomed the horse into their city, thinking it was a gift and a peace offering. The warriors then came out of the horse and the Trojans were slaughtered, except for some women and children. In addition, the temples to the gods were destroyed and they became furious. We are told that blood ran in torrents and drenched the Earth.
Few of the victorious warriors ever made it back home. Many died trying. Many settled on lonely and distant shores and formed new societies. Those who did make it home with their captured women found that the wives they had abandoned to go to war had plotted against them, and they met with a terrible fate.
But there was a shadowy figure behind it all. You see, Zeus, the king of the gods, had planned the whole thing. He felt that the Earth was overpopulated. He wanted Momus, the god of satire and mockery, to use the Trojan War as a way to help depopulate the Earth, and so mockery and rudeness began. Most especially, Zeus wanted his demi-god children destroyed (as he was not known to be faithful to his wife, Hera). He feared he would be overthrown by one of his sons since he, himself, had overthrown his own father.
So Zeus saw to it that Eris was not allowed to attend the wedding, and thus the above argument between the goddesses ensued. He knew that Eris, the goddess of strife and discord, would be furious. He knew all along the world would be thrown into turmoil, but he did not plan on how tumultuous things would get. Many battles occurred well beyond Troy in the aftermath from the great war. And through it all, Eris delighted in the death and destruction. As the sister of the murderous war god Ares, she walked through the battlefields, making the pain of the fallen heroes even worse whenever she could.
Or . . . you could say that the City of Troy was in a key position along the entrance to the Black Sea, and they controlled the commercial routes leading there, harassing the Greeks, who were desperate for the rich minerals from foreign shores that Greece so lacked. Finally, the conflicts grew into a bitter war that completely disrupted all of the trade routes. But once that happened, all of the surrounding civilizations that depended on the trade routes were also thrown into turmoil and economic stress. Many of the civilizations utterly collapsed. Egypt survived and new empires rose up to fill in the gap. And thus ended the Bronze Age.
Ages, they come and go, don’t they? And the more things change, the more they stay the same. I hear the wild rumors today . . . can you hear them? Listen. Listen carefully. I hear them on the wind . . . whispers of overpopulation . . .whispers of greed and embargos and sanctions . . . whispers of spoils of war, the helpless women and children . . . whispers of the Trojan Horse, a seemingly benevolent remedy, a gift for the current sickness that grips the mind, but which hides the killers within . . .
And I see even now the golden apple. “To the fairest of all . . .” And I see the people fighting bitterly over that poisoned fruit, designed by the hidden Evil One, who remains in the shadows as always. I hear the screams, “I am right! You are wrong!” caused by Momus, the god of satire and mockery. “I will destroy you for disrupting the narrow trade routes of information and education that I have so cleverly set up. I am better than . . .”
