Women played important roles in the Trojan war which occurred about 1200 BC. They participated as goddesses, warriors, queens, wives, mistresses, prostitutes, sacrifice victims, and servants. The war was particularly romantic because of the central role of Helen. The birth of Helen involved a story about her mother Leda. The war also involved a contest, called the Judgement of Paris between Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. This contest was one of the events that lead to the Trojan War. Although we focus mainly on the male figures in the Trojan War, female figures also played vital roles which were determining factors in the war. Three of the most important women in the Trojan saga were Helen, wife of Menelaus. Aphrodite, goddess of love, beauty and pleasure and Chryseis, the daughter of Chryses.
Helen of Troy was perhaps the central figure in the Trojan War. She was believed to have been the daughter of Zeus and Leda, and was the sister of Clytemnestra, Castor, and Polydeuces. She was said to have been the most beautiful of women in the world and she was married to king Menelaus of Sparta. She changed the course of events in Greek mythology/history, because after Paris of troy seduced her and took her back to Troy, king Menelaus sent the Achaean expedition to reclaim her and bring her back to Sparta, thus beginning the Trojan War. Therefore is it evident that the beauty of a woman was powerful enough to start a war between two powerful cities.
Another central female figure who had a strong impact in the Trojan war was goddess Aphrodite. After being rewarded the golden apple by Paris and being deemed the fairest of the goddesses, she made Helen of Troy the most beautiful woman, and ensured that she and Paris would fall in love and live together as husband and wife. The other two goddesses were enraged and, as a direct result, sided with the Greeks in the Trojan War. Aphrodite plays an important and active role throughout the entirety of Homer's Iliad. Aphrodite charges into battle to rescue her son Aeneas from the Greek hero Diomedes. Diomedes recognizes Aphrodite as a "weakling" goddess and, thrusting his spear, nicks her wrist through her "ambrosial robe". Aphrodite borrows Ares's chariot to ride back to Mount Olympus. Zeus chides her for putting herself in danger, reminding her that "her specialty is love, not war." Thus it is evident that Aphrodite played a vital role in the Trojan War, by being the cause of Helen falling in love with Paris and by joining the battlefield.
Chryseis, who was taken as a slave by the Greek king Agamemnon, is demanded back by her father, a priest of Apollo. After Agamemnon refuses, the god Apollo sends a plague upon the Greeks in punishment for their disrespect of his priest, and Agamemnon takes Briseis, Achilles’ girl, to replace the woman he is forced to give up. Achilles is enraged at Agamemnon’s insult to his honor and leaves the war. And yet, in spite of their central place in the opening of the Iliad and the unfolding of its plot, Chryseis is shipped off the scene back to her father halfway through the first book of the Iliad; Briseis is taken to Agamemnon as his slave, then, later, when Achilles returns to the war, is carted back to him like a shipment of war booty. What’s notable about this story that starts with the exchange of two captive women is just how much it focuses on the men, Achilles and Agamemnon: their wounded pride, their battle prizes, their quarrels, their war. These maidens with minor roles in the poem actually play much larger roles within the scope of the epic.
As you can see, female figures, as much as the male figures had significant and decisive roles in the Trojan War. Although we focus mainly on the male figures in the Trojan War, female figures also played vital roles which were determining factors in the war. Three of the most important women in the Trojan saga such as Helen, wife of Menelaus. Aphrodite, goddess of love, beauty and pleasure and Chryseis, the daughter of Chryses influenced and changed the course of events and provided more drama and tale than a war in a battlefield.