Troy: The Greek Myths Reimagined (Stephen Fry's Great Mythology #3)

by Stephen Fry

Zeus likes to think himself a wise and benign onlooker, a disinterested spectator far above the fray. He accepts the role of referee and grand arbiter. He has instructed the other Olympians not to interfere, but he will turn a blind eye when they do. He will not be above being persuaded to make interventions himself. His own mortal daughter Helen is, of course, the proschema, the casus belli, the flame that has lit the fuse; this might be thought to lead him to side with the Trojans, but Zeus has skin in the Achaean game too. His beloved son Heracles was responsible for installing Tyndareus on the throne of Sparta117 and for the sacking of Laomedon’s Troy. Another son, Aeacus, is the grandfather of three of the Greek alliance’s most important warriors—Ajax, Teucer, and Achilles. Zeus has lost count of how many other of his descendants are numbered among the Greek (and indeed Trojan) forces. But he believes himself to be magnificently neutral.