Who Really Launched 1000 Ships?
Nemesis speaks: The Greek poet Stesichorus [fragment 192: the Palinode (D. Page, Poetae Melici Graeci)] once wrote about the goddess responsible for the Trojan War: “So once, when Tyndareus made sacrifices to all the gods, he forgot one only, the giver of blessings, Aphrodite. And she in anger with the daughters of Tyndareus made them twice married and three times married and brides who deserted their husbands.” The three goddesses (Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite) asked Zeus to present the apple of discord — a beautiful gold sphere — to the one who deserved the title kallista ‘most beautiful’. I know some of the other gods were surprised Zeus couldn’t bring himself to admit the obvious, but I understood. How could he choose an adopted daughter over the product of his own body
