The war lasted ten years, the first nine years were indecisive. Homer used the Trojan War as the basis for the Iliad . The heroes of the Trojan War were Hector and Aeneas ,his brother. Hector was a great warrior and was always in front leading and urging his men on. The Greeks were the ones who wanted to fight because they knew they were stronger and because of Paris. Their greatest warrior was Achilles. It was Agamemnon and his brother Menelaus who took command of the expedition to save Helen. Odysseus, the smartest of the Greeks, didn't want to go to war to save Helen. He even pretended he was crazy. However, his madness was proven false. When he was tilling the fields the Greeks placed his baby son in front of the plow to test him and see if he would avoid hitting his son. He did turn the plow. This proved he was sane, so he had to go join the Greeks in the battle to save Helen.
Several gods and goddesses got involved in the war for lots of reasons. One reason was because before the war Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite asked Paris, who was appointed by Zeus, to pick the most beautiful of the three of them. Paris picked Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, and gave her the prize of a the golden apple. This made Hera, Zeus's wife, and Athena, goddess of wisdom and war angry. So when the war began, they chose to help the Greeks, while Aphrodite helped the Trojans, not just because of Paris, but because her son was Aeneas, a Trojan. She also convinced Ares ,God of War, to side with the Trojans. Apollo, was with both the Greeks and the Trojans, but at different times.
Achilles refused to fight the Trojans, because he was made to give up his girlfriend but his squire and friend Patroclus was disgusted with all the deaths of his friends that he begged Achilles to let him fight as him be disguised in his armor. Achilles agreed and Patroclus wore his armor and led Achilles" men. The Trojans didn't know it was Patroclus and ran in fear.
