According to Greek mythology, the war broke out when Paris, son of King Priam of Troy, with the help of the goddess Aphrodite, kidnapped Helen, the beautiful wife of King Menelaus of Sparta, from the Spartan court. Paris also robbed the Spartan treasury. In doing so, he trampled on the sacred laws of hospitality, for he was received in Sparta with great hospitality and full honours.
The outraged Greeks, determined to recapture Helen, gathered an army, reportedly ten times the size of Troy's, under the command of Menelaus' brother Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, and marched on Troy. Troy was besieged and attacked for 10 years and finally, tired of the long war, the Greeks (Achaeans) decided to take the city by trickery. They left a wooden horse on the walls of Troy and sailed away. The Trojans dragged the horse into the city and began to celebrate their victory. When they were tired of feasting and fell asleep, the warriors who had been hiding inside got out of the wooden horse and opened the gates of the city to let in the Greek troops, who returned under cover of darkness. Troy was taken, and King Menelaus of Sparta, having seen his wife, whose beauty had not changed with the passing of time, forgave her infidelity and took her as his wife to the court of Sparta.
