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Greek Religion: Trojan War
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Homer lies at the foundation of the Greek tradition, and his prominence in the educational curriculum until the end of antiquity means that he is fundamental for Greek religious thought in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. The "Iliad" and the "odyssey" originated in the traditional ballad literature of the heroic age recited for entertainment. The Iliad is the story of the Trojan war: between the Greeks (under Agememnon, king of Mycenae) and the city of troy; the Odyssey relates the adventures of one of the heroes on his return from the war. The Homeric poems are a deliberate attempt to reproduce conditions of about 1200 BC at the final stage of Mycenaen civilization just before the Dorian invasions brought the interruption of a "dark age" to Greek cultural development. Homer himself may be dated somewhere around 800 BC. He marks the new intellectual beginnings that led to classical Greece.
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A corollary to the above is that many important books on Greek religion treat death as somewhat peripheral to their main study. This is perhaps in part because the negotiation of the passage of the recently departed to the underworld was, with the notable exception of the war dead, an essentially private affair. Funerary ritual, with which my book is primarily concerned... lay beyond the boundaries of what constituted religious practice in the strict sense of the word, i.e. practices that were intended to solicit the goodwill of the gods, be they the gods of the upper world or indeed the gods of the underworld. Since the sanctity of the gods and, by extension, that of their priesthood was imperiled by the pollution arising from the dead, the priesthood was required to absent itself from all contact with the dead. This left the bereaved without the consolation of religion and quite possibly without the support of a traditional form of words either. Even in the case of the Eleusinian Mysteries it is uncertain what special provisions, if any, might have been made at the moment of parting to guarantee that initiates achieved a blessed hereafter.
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The Trojan War provides the background for much of both Greek and Roman literature. When Paris handed Aphrodite the prize, the apple of discord, he started the series of events that led to the destruction of his homeland Troy, which, in turn, led to the flight of Aeneas and the founding of Troy. On the Greek side, the Trojan War led to the murder of his daughter Electra by Agamemnon, his own murder at the hands of his wife, Clytemnestra (Helen of Troy's sister), and her murder at the hands of her son.
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In Greek mythology, generally a sign of divinity or partial divinity was extreme beauty (usually accompanied by talent or ingenuity). Many of the beautiful female characters of Greek mythology (Helen of Troy, Aphrodite, etc.) are blonde - most likely because blond hair was (and is) less common, generally though of as more desirable, and usually gives an innocent and vary feminine look to a face. Male characters (Hercules, Paris, Ajax, etc.) are often times described as "buff", strong, and talented in the ways of war.
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You probably don't need to know Greek and Roman mythology. I mean, it's not very likely that you'll be in a life or death situation where you'll have to veer your spaceship away from the Titan(a) and King of the Gods(b) planets and back towards the Love(c), War(d), and Messenger(e) deities in order to find your way back to Earth. Nor will it make very much difference if you fail to recognize the mythological figures behind the name of your car (Saturn or Mercury). However, Greco-Roman mythology is pervasive in Western culture.
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In classical sculpture Ares was represented as a handsome man, often nude, but wearing a Greek helm, and holding a spear or sword. The god is usually difficult to identify because of his lack of distinctive attributes--an armed warrior statue could just as easily represent a mythical hero or historical warrior figure.
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Trojan War