To avoid going to Trojan War, Odysseus feigned madness but swerved his plow when his son was put in the way.
According to Greek mythology, there was a great war between the Greeks and Trojans. Some scholars say such a war occurred around 1184 It is the setting for Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. The cause was the abduction of Helen, queen of Sparta, by Paris, prince of Troy. Menelaus, king of Sparta, then sent a call to troops and leaders in other Greek city states to help him avenge the injustice. Palamedes was sent to ask Odysseus, king of Ithaca to join the fight. Odysseus did not want to fight and pretended to be mad, sowing his fields with salt instead of grain. Palamedes then put Odysseus' infant son Telemachus in the way of the plow. Odysseus swerved (shown in this 1918 illustration), thus showing that he was not really insane. Odysseus did go to war lasted supposedly 10 years, with the Greeks winning and bringing Helen back to Sparta. Odysseus returned home 20 years after he had left.
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