Oddly enough, Greece’s greatest hero, Achilles, was discovered in Lycomedes’s court dressed as a woman! Thetis, the mother of Achilles, was reluctant to send her only child into battle, so she dressed him up as a lady of Lycomedes’s court. By using his cunning, Odysseus uncovered Achilles’s true identity and he was forced to join the Greek fleet.
(Achilles)

The Greek heroes assembled in Sparta and were about to set sail for Troy when a terrifying storm rolled in from the sea. The winds howled and torrential rains drenched the land. Calchas, the Greek prophet, told Agamemnon that the goddess of the hunt, Artemis, was angry with the Greeks. A hare had been killed, angering Artemis. In order to appease the goddess and end the storm, Agamemnon had to sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia, to Artemis.

Agamemnon lured his daughter to her death by telling her that she was to marry Achilles, the great Greek hero. When Iphigenia arrived for her wedding, she received a terrible shock. Her father sacrificed her to Artemis, who in turn made the weather favorable for sailing. After the awful deed was done, the Greeks set sail for Troy.

In Troy, King Priam was getting on in years. Because he was so old, he could not prepare to do battle with the mighty Greeks. No matter though, because he and his wife Queen Hecuba had parented many children, including Hector, the greatest of the Trojan heroes. Hector was such a great hero that his face has been found on ancient Trojan coins in recent excavations. In the Iliad, Hector is the only Trojan hero of noteworthy militant skill. During the Trojan War, the Trojans were aided by many of their allies, including the Amazons, an army made up entirely of women.