Mary Beard

The way the Greeks and Romans think about themselves...

goes back to what they think about the Trojan War.

I mean, it's both a kind of almost cosmic clash, which ends up slightly indirectly with the foundation of Rome because Aeneas, one of the Trojan warriors, flees and founds the Roman race in Italy.

The Trojan War is the place where Greeks and Romans start to debate about the morality of war, what the cost of war is, whether we think heroism is being a warrior or not.

And for me, that's why the stories of the Trojan War are so interesting.

Here we've got this semi-cosmic conflict.

How did it begin?

Well, it began with a wedding party from hell, really.

But the goddess Thetis is getting married to a mortal man called Peleus.

Now, these in the end are going to be the parents of Achilles, but Achilles hasn't been born yet.

Great hero of the Greek side.

Now, they made a terrible error.

We all know about this.

They didn't.

There was somebody they should have invited, but they didn't.

And they should have invited the goddess Discord, conflict, Eris in Greek.

So like a sort of mad grey ant, Eris turns up anyway, determined to have her say.

And she throws into this divine wedding party, really, a golden apple, which says on it, to the most fair, written on this apple.

It could be to the best, to the finest.

Caliste is the word in Greek, which can mean beautiful, but can mean morally good, too.