1. The 10 years of fighting before Odysseus made his journey home
The Trojan War
The 10 years of fighting before Odysseus made his journey home

2. The Apple of Trouble
A Greek god and goddess were getting married. Their names were Peleus &Thetis
They did not invite Eris to their wedding.
She got mad and came anyway.
She threw a golden apple onto the
dinner table, and Paris was told to
decide who the prettiest goddess was.
The golden apple would belong to
this goddess.
Paris is the prince of a city called Troy.

3. All the goddess want the golden apple, so they promise to give Paris different things if he chooses to give her the apple.
Hera promised him power, Athena promised him money, and Aphrodite promised him the most beautiful woman in the world.
Paris decided he wanted the most beautiful woman, so he gave the apple to Aphrodite.
The beautiful woman’s name was Helen, and she lived in a country called Greece.

4. Paris Travels to Greece
Paris traveled from Troy to Greece to get Helen. However, Helen was already married to the king of Greece, named Menelaus.
When Menelaus left the house one day, Aphrodite talked Helen into leaving with Paris. Paris took Helen and all of Menelaus’s money back to Troy. Helen and Paris got married in Troy.

5. Helen of Troy Menelaus got very mad that Helen, his wife, was taken by
Paris, so he gathered many men to
sail to Troy to get his
wife back from Paris.
One of the men Menelaus
asked to help him was
named Odysseus.
Odysseus was king of a town
in Greece called Ithaca. He did
not want to go because he
just had a new baby son
named Telemachus.

6. How the Trojan War Began
Menelaus and his men sailed across the ocean from Greece to Troy. When they landed, he and Odysseus went to Priam, the king of Troy (Paris’s father), and asked for all of Menelaus’s money and his wife Helen back.
Priam said, “No,” so Menelaus and Odysseus declared war on the country of Troy to get back the money and the girl.

7. Map of Greece

8. How the Trojan War Ended
After 9 years, the war was still being fought. The Greeks and the Trojans continued fighting outside the walls of the city of Troy because the Greeks could not get inside the walls.
Odysseus finally thought of an idea to help the Greeks get inside the city of Troy.
Odysseus ordered the Greek soldiers to build a horse out of wood.
This horse was called the Trojan Horse.

9. The Trojan Horse Odysseus and his men built a hollow horse so some
of the Greek soldiers could
climb inside.
The Greeks who did not get
inside the horse sailed away
to fool the Trojans into
thinking they won the war.
One Greek soldier stayed
outside the horse to pretend he
brought the horse as a gift to the
Trojans.

10. The End of the Trojan War
The Trojans took the gift. They pulled on the ropes and rolled the horse inside the walls of Troy.
The Trojans celebrated and got drunk because they thought they won the war.
That night, when the Trojans went to sleep, the Greeks jumped out of the belly of the horse and killed all of the Trojans.

11. The Fall of Troy
While some of the soldiers killed all the people, other Greek soldiers burned the city.
Menelaus wanted to kill his wife since she left him for Paris, but when he saw her he remembered how beautiful she was, and he let her live.
The war lasted a total of 10 years.

12. How the Odyssey Begins
After all the Trojans were killed and the Greeks realized they won the war, the Greek soldiers left Troy to sail back home to Greece.
Odysseus and his men were on one of the ships sailing back to Greece. The name of Odysseus’s city in Greece was called Ithaca. He was the king of this city.
The Odyssey is the story of what happens to Odysseus and his men on their way home.