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  Eris’s apple results in the world’s first beauty contest. Troy is located in Asia while Greece is in Europe. While Asia succumbs to the passion embodied in Aphrodite, Europe chooses Athena and Hera, who embody skill and domestication.

  Priam

  Troy was named after its king, Tros. It was Tros’s son Ganymede whom Zeus claimed as a lover, and in lieu of whom gifted many magnificent horses to the city.

  Tros had another son, Ilus, after whom Troy was also known as Ilium. Ilus had a son called Laomedon who, unwittingly, became an employer of the gods. Poseidon, to be precise.

  The sea god had once dared to raise his voice against Zeus, and an angry Zeus had stripped Poseidon of his divine powers and cast him down to earth to serve as Laomedon’s servant.

  Unaware that he was addressing a god, Laomedon, observing his prodigious strength, asked Poseidon to build great walls around Troy. Since walls built by gods can never be breached, Zeus sent his son Aeacus, father of Telamon and Peleus, to assist Poseidon. While the portion of the wall built by Aeacus could be breached, the Fates decreed that only the sons of Aeacus would be able to do so, none other.

  After the stipulated duration of punishment, when it was time to return, Poseidon refused to leave without collecting wages due to him. Laomedon, in keeping with habit, always looking for an excuse to pay less or not pay at all, argued that the walls around Troy were not entirely built by Poseidon; he had had Aeacus’s help. He did not realize he was bargaining with a god, who expected full payment. Troy would pay a terrible price for their king’s cupidity.

  A furious Poseidon sent a sea monster to torment Troy. It would not go away until the king offered as sacrifice his favourite child, his daughter Hesione.

  That was the time when Heracles was passing by Troy. He was returning home after the Argo had sailed on without him while he was looking for Hylas. With him were Telamon and Peleus, sons of Aeacus.

  Laomedon begged the mighty Heracles to rescue his daughter. In exchange, Heracles demanded the celestial horses that Zeus had given Troy as payment for Ganymede. Laomedon agreed, but once Poseidon’s sea monster had been defeated and Hesione had been rescued, he went back on his word.

  So Heracles attacked Troy and with Telamon’s help breached the great walls around the city. Heracles then proceeded to kill Laomedon and all his sons. Only one son, Laomedon’s youngest, Podarces, was spared, for whom Hesione paid a huge ransom. Later he came to be known as Priam, the ransomed one.

  Telamon claimed Hesione as his prize for breaching the walls of Troy and took her with him to Greece, where she lived as his concubine.

  Zeus sends Aeacus to build part of the Trojan wall so that it is not eternally impregnable. Thus he introduces a flaw in perfection. This idea is found in Hindu mythology too: since no one is granted the boon of immortality, the asuras who invoke Brahma always ask for boons that make them near-invincible. But there is always a loophole that the devas then exploit and kill the asura.

  Non-payment of dues inevitably results in the wrath of the gods. Similar themes are found in Hindu mythology. Harischandra angers Varuna when he refuses to sacrifice his son even though Varuna has cured him of dropsy. Repaying deva-rina, or debt to the gods, is a key theme in Hindu rituals.

  Zeus makes Ganymede immortal by casting him in the sky as the constellation Aquarius, the cup-bearer of the zodiac. Ganymede is also the name of one of Jupiter’s moons, alongside Io, Europa and Leda.

  The story of the building of the Trojan wall by two Olympians (Apollo joins Poseidon in many versions of the tale) and a mortal (Aeacus) comes from the Greek poet Pindar who lived 2500 years ago.

  The story of Heracles saving Hesione from a sea monster mirrors the story of Perseus saving Andromeda from another sea monster. Hesione’s father offends Poseidon, the sea god, while Andromeda’s mother upsets the Nereids, the sea nymphs.

  In his many adventures, Heracles often demands payment for his services, diminishing his stature as a hero. That he fails to get his due in many cases contributes to his frustration.

  Heracles wanted to breach the famous Trojan walls himself but could not. When he learned that Telamon had done so, he became angry and wanted to kill Telamon. But Telamon, anticipating Heracles’ insecurity, built an altar using stones from the broken wall to honour Heracles, pleasing the hero immensely; thus Heracles forgot all about his desire to hurt Telamon.

  House of Priam

  Paris

  Priam married Hecabe and she bore him fifty children, amongst them Hector, Paris, Deiphobus, Helenus, Troilus, Polyxena, Laodice and Polydorus.

  At the time of Paris’s birth, it had been foretold that he would cause the fall of Troy. And so his father Priam ordered his men to leave him in the forest at the mercy of the wild animals. But a shepherd took pity on the infant and took him home and raised him as his own.

  Paris grew up to be a very handsome and talented young man, so much so that when he participated in the Trojan games, he earned the love of the king, who was overjoyed to learn that the lad was actually his own son.

  Soon after this, Priam ordered an expedition to Greece to bring back his sister Hesione, who was being forced to serve Telamon as his concubine in Salamis. Telamon, however, refused to let her go. This Greek refusal to let the Trojan princess go would eventually play a key role in igniting the Trojan War.

  Paris, who was part of this expedition, decided to take a detour to Sparta, eager to meet the woman described to him by Aphrodite. There he learned that she was married to another. But neither that, nor the existence of his own wife, Oenone, a nymph whom he had married when he lived as a shepherd, unaware of his royal origins, mattered at that moment. For Helen truly was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Helen too fell in love with the handsome Trojan prince as soon as she saw him and agreed to elope with him to Troy, leaving her husband behind.

  At first the news of their elopement upset the Trojans for they feared a war with the Greeks. But when they saw Helen, the people adored her and agreed that her place was in Troy.

  In some versions of the tale, Hera and Athena hide the real Helen and replace her with a phantom Helen. Thus, the Helen who leaves with Paris is a pseudo-Helen. A similar theme is found in a version of the Ramayana where the Sita whom Ravana kidnaps is a pseudo-Sita, a phantom, while the real Sita is protected by Agni, the fire god. However, where Ravana forcibly abducts Sita, Helen willingly elopes with Paris. And so equating Helen with Sita is a false equivalence.

  Priam, king of Troy, and his queen, Hecabe, have fifty children, of whom twelve are daughters. Dhritarashtra, king of Hastinapur, and his queen, Gandhari, have a hundred sons, and one daughter. In both epics, the father of the enemy is seen as highly fertile.

  Paris is also known as Alexander. Unlike his ancestors who went back on their word in matters of wages, Paris is known to be fair in his judgement and true to his word. But all his integrity vanishes when he succumbs to Aphrodite’s enchantment.

  Gigantic male statues used as columns are often called telamons.

  Telamon fathers Ajax on his Greek wife Periboea and Teucer on his Trojan concubine, Hesione. The two half-brothers fight on the Greek side.

  Menelaus

  On learning of Helen’s elopement, every Greek king rushed to Sparta, determined to help Menelaus retrieve his wife from Troy. They came because they were all in love with Helen, and also because they were bound by an oath sworn long ago at the time of Helen’s marriage.

  For the Greeks, Helen had not eloped. She had been abducted, and so had to be rescued. Bound by their oath to her husband, and love for her, the kings of Greece rallied around Menelaus.

  Menelaus was a simple man who knew that he was no leader. So he appointed his more capable and more ambitious brother, Agamemnon, as the commander of this Greek enterprise.

  Hindu mythology speaks of the swayamvara, or a girl’s groom-selection ritual, which was popular in warrior communities. Men would gather in the girl’s father’s house, show their skill