Troy, Achilles, the Gods, Honor and Rage

As we've discussed, the Greeks do not turn to their gods for moral guidance because, quite simply, the Greek gods are immoral, like humans, and human suffering is in fact caused by divine folly.  The best example of this is also the most relevant to The Iliad, as it explains both Achilles' birth and the Trojan war.

Zeus is, as you know, a horn-dog, a consummate skirt-chaser, and his cheatin' ways constantly causes his wife, Hera, much grief and jealousy.

Aside from simple jealousy, however, Zeus' sexual dalliances dishonor his wife.

For example, Zeus is hot for the minor sea goddess Thetis.  This of course inspires Hera's jealousy, but the other gods are also afraid that if Zeus and Thetis get it on and have a child, this child will be too powerful (as the son of the powerful Zeus).  Therefore it's arranged that Thetis will marry a mortal, Peleus, king of the Myrmidons.  As it turns out, the child of this marriage will be Achilles, half god, half mortal, and to further ensure that this child, Achilles, is not too powerful, he is fated to die young.

But that's getting ahead of the story; first Thetis and Peleus must marry, and because Thetis is a goddess, all the other gods must be invited.

But they don't invite Eris, the goddess of strife and discord, because, uh, she's the goddess of strife and discord, and that beatch gets craaaaazy at parties and will make all kinds of problems.  Just imagine Lindsey Lohan at your wedding, hammered out of her skull, slamming speedballs and champagne and looking to bang your father, or the priest, or both...and you get a pretty good picture of Eris and why she's not invited.  Or just watch Bridesmaids, but without the happy ending.

Anyway, not being invited dishonors Eris.

And so Eris ain't taking your shit lying down!  No sir!  And thus, in revenge, she rolls a golden apple into the reception as a gift "to the fairest."  And so Hera, Athena and Aphrodite all scramble for the apple like rednecks for the last Keystone Light.  "It's mine!" "No, mine." "Step off, bitches; this apple is miiiiiiine!" Etc.

So the gods decide that a mortal must decide who, in fact, is the fairest.  That mortal is the pretty boy prince of Troy, Orlando Bloom, oh, no, wait, I mean Paris, who had recently proved himself a fair judge.

Hera tries to bribe Paris with control of Europe and Asia.

Athena offers him wisdom and military might.

Aphrodite offers him the hottest chick in the world, and, according to some authors, she also strips naked for him, which, if you don't know, can be a fairly powerful rhetorical trope.

Paris is no fool and chooses what any man would choose.  That is to say, Paris is a fool.  And so he chooses what any man would choose.  He chooses Aphrodite.

And thus dishonors Hera and Athena. Doh!

That hottest woman turns out to be Helen, the oops already married wife of Menelaus.  Helen is also Zeus's daughter, created when Zeus came to Leda, Helen and Clytemnestra's mother, as a swan, thus dishonoring his own wife, Hera, and giving Hera cause to punish the beautiful Helen.

Moral: whatever riches the gods bestow on a mortal will one day be that mortal's undoing; this is the lesson of hubris.  And, in this case, it will be the undoing of thousands of other innocent bystanders caught up in this era's world war.

Now, why all these other countries must enter this war over this one sordid love affair is another important tale, but told while reading The Odyssey.