Learn more by checking out Greek Heroes by Rick Riordan, in stores now: But basically, three goddess ladies couldn’t decide who was prettiest - and that started a ten year, deadly war. (Which was brand new at the time, hence the name “Trojan Horse.”)Įssentially, it was a huge bloody mess, and you can read more about it in lots of texts about Greek mythology, including Homer’s Illiad. Thus the ten-year war was launched, in which lots of Greek heroes died - including Paris himself, along with other names you might recongize, like Achilles, Ajax, and Hector - and was ultimately won by the Greeks when the Trojans fell for the old Trojan Horse ruse. Obviously, Menelaus and his people were kind of PO’ed about this, and though waging a war would be the best way to resolve this marital discord. She was so pleased with his choice, that she made Helen - the most beautiful human woman - fall in love with Paris, even though she was already married to a king, LOL. (Really.) Fed up with their stupid argument (and who can blame him), Zeus gave hottie human dude Paris a golden apple, and told him to give the apple to whichever of the goddesses he thought was the hottest. Of course, that didn’t happen until AFTER the gods meddled - all because Athena, Hera and Aphrodite were arguing over who was the prettiest. As the story goes, the Spartans waged war on the city of Troy after Paris stole Helen away from her Spartan king husband Menelaus.
Perhaps one of the most famous events in Greek mythology, the Trojan War spanned approximately ten years. (Details on that later in this post, so keep reading!) For now, here’s today’s lesson.
This is also posted on our Facebook page and Tumblr for those who want to share and reblog it.Today, we continue our week-long celebration of the release of Percy Jackson’s Greek Heroes by Rick Riordan, a companion novel to the Percy Jackson series - which this year is marking 10 years in print! Each day this week, we’re bringing you a little more in-depth information about Greek mythology - and a unique chance to win a Percy Jackson prize pack. This took forever for me to transcribe so if anything is wrong please tell me as I want to be as accurate as possible. Just before they hit the volcano steam plum they slipped into the shadows.
The torch and sword symbol of Bellona on her forearm grew painfully hot, as if it was being seared into her skin for the first time. "Do it!" She tightened her grip on his hand. She could accept death if she had to, but if the Athena Parthenos was destroyed their quest would fail. Zap us out of here or we're gonna get flattened into an Athena Parthenos omelet."
"I can't no strength.”Ĭoach Hedge bleated, "News flash kid, goats can't fly. His dark feathery hair whipped around his face like a raven shot out of the sky. "That's Vesuvius below us," Reyna shouted over the wind.
They plummeted toward the volcano, as their largest piece of largest piece of luggage, the forty foot tall Athena Parthenos, trailed after them, leashed to a harness on Nico's back like a very ineffective parachute. If they got separated now they were dead. She held tight and grabbed Coach Hedge by the shirt collar as he started to tumble away. "WAH," Nico flailed almost slipping out of Reyna's grip. Gravity took hold and she began to fall."NICO!" She yelled. Then she realized that she was suspended in mid air. Shadow travel left her groggy and nauseous as if she'd been dragged from the cold waters of aįrigidarium into the sauna of a Roman bath house. Reyna's disorientation took a moment to subside. A thousand feet below her, a half wide caldera yawned at the top of the mountain, white steam pluming from the center. To the west, along the crescent of the gulf of naples, the lights of sleeping cities glittered in the predawn gloom. Her first view of southern Italy was from 5,000 feet in the air. Rick Riordan Reads Blood of Olympus Previewĭying via volcano was not on Reyna's bucket list.