The Trojan War: Epic Conflict and Betrayal

1. The Trojan War

2. EXPOSITIONThe Trojan War takes place between Troy and Greece.

3. It all starts because of a beautiful woman named Helen.

4. In Greece, all the men are fighting over Helen.

5. ANALOGY This is very similar to the way Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio fight over Ms. Rubin.

6. Finally, after all the fighting, the men decide that Helen should be able to pick the man she wants to marry. Everyone makes a deal to defend and honor the man that she selects.

7. Helen decides to marry Menelaus.

8. SUBPLOTMeanwhile in another town, there is a huge party for all of the Gods and Goddesses.

9. The God of Discord throws a giant golden apple into the party. This apple says, “To the fairest of them all.”

10. EXTERNAL CONFLICTImmediately all of the Goddesses think the apple is specifically for them; they all start fighting.

11. Finally, three Goddesses ask Paris to settle the dispute. The Goddesses are Athena, Aphrodite, and Hera.

12. Each goddess tells Paris if he selects them, they will give him a special reward.

13. Athena, the Goddess of wisdom, tells Paris that she will make him the smartest individual in all the land if he selects her.

14. Hera is very strong; she tells Paris that she will make him the most powerful person in all the land if he selects her.

15. Finally there is Aphrodite; she tells Paris that if he selects her, she will make sure he can marry the most beautiful woman in all the land.

16. What did Paris pick? That’s right. He wants to marry the most beautiful woman in all the land.(Ms. Rubin hehe just kidding). It’s Helen!

17. INITIAL INCIDENTSo off Paris went and took Helen away from Menelaus.

18. Now Menelaus is not okay with this. He goes to all of his friends and says, “You all promised to defend me. You said if anyone got in the way of Helen’s decision you’d stand by my side.”

19. All the men nod and agree. So off they go to get Helen back. This is what started the Trojan War, a fight over a girl.

20. Agamemnon, Menelaus’ brother, led the troops to Troy. However, on the way over, he upset a God very much.

21. It’s important to acknowledge that in Ancient Greece, there are multiple Gods and Goddess who run the world. If you upset them, it’s very bad.

22. Agamemnon upset this God so much, he decided to stop the wind so the ship full of men couldn’t go anywhere.

23. All the men were annoyed at Agamemnon so he asked the God what he could do to make it up to him. He told Agamemnon it was very simple.

24. All he had to do was sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia.

25. As you can imagine, Agamemnon’s wife, Clytemnestra is not happy about this. However, she’ll get her revenge later.

26. DRAMATIC IRONYNow Agamemnon knew that Iphigenia would not agree to meet him if he was going to kill her, so he made up a lie.

27. Achilles is the strongest and most beautiful man in all of Greece. Agamemnon decided to tell Iphigenia that Achilles wanted to marry her and be her *bae.*bae is youthful lingo to show Ms. Rubin is hip and can relate to you

28. Iphigenia was so excited and rushed to go meet her father. When she got there, Agamemnon felt a little bad about lying. He decided to tell her the truth.

29. “Um Iphigenia, I was asked to sacrifice you to the Gods. I tricked you. My bad.”

30. Iphigenia was upset that she wasn’t going to marry Achilles, but she understood that sometimes you need to do what the Gods say.

31. To Agamemnon’s surprise, Iphigenia said that he could sacrifice her.

32. SITUATIONAL IRONYAgamemnon was scared but he lifted up the knife to kill his daughter. As soon as he did that, she randomly turned into a deer.

33. The God was just testing Agamemnon to see if he would obey them.

34. Now the men were able to set sail and continue on their journey to Troy.

35. During the journey, Achilles gets in a huge fight with Agamemnon. This is due to a silly fight over another girl.

36. Achilles tells all the men that he refuses to fight. This reaction manages to scare all of the men because Achilles is the strongest guy they have.

37. Here is a little background on Achilles.

38. When Achilles was a baby, he was dipped in a special potion. This potion has the power to protect Achilles from any harm.

39. However, the only part of Achilles that was not dipped in the potion was his heel. That’s where he was held to be dipped, so it never got covered.

40. DENOTATIONYou might have heard the phrase Achilles Heel. That means someone’s weakness.

41. Ms. Rubin’s Achilles Heel is chocolate.

42. Yours is complaining about homework Oh snap!

43. Anyway, back to the story. Now you can imagine how awful that would be if your strongest team member refused to help in battle.

44. All the men were very discouraged, so Achilles’ best friend, Patroclus decided to give them men some confidence.

45. DRAMATIC IRONYHe put on all of Achilles’ clothing and pretended to be him. Now all the men thought Achilles was going to fight.

46. ANTAGONISTIt’s important to know that Troy’s strongest team member is a man named Hector.

47. Now Hector sees Patroclus dressed up like Achilles and kills him. He assumes he’s killing Achilles himself.

48. Achilles gets word of this and his blood begins to boil. Not only is his best friend dead, but his anger makes him eager to fight.

49. Achilles immediately kills Hector. He does this because he is so upset that he killed his best friend.

50. Achilles also decides to tie up Hector’s dead body on a chariot and drive it all around Troy.