My fascination with Greek mythology started with the Percy Jackson & The Olympians series (PJO), like it’s a rite of passage for many people stepping in this space and then I read as many books as I could on the topic. If you have read any of the PJO books, you might have had the same experience as me, infuriation at the gods and pity for their clueless kids. The more I think about the books I read, and the more I learn about International Law (IL), the more I see reflections of Greek mythology on IL. Homer’s epics echo more than fantasy, the unfairness of the Gods parallel them to IL and states in more ways than one. This write-up explores international law not through its workings and formalities, but through the lens of gods, heroes, and stories in myth.

The Glory of War

Pride can be deadlier than any sword, and a glorious representation is The Song of Achilles. Thetis warns her son that the Trojan War will kill him, and yet Achilles still walks toward death, for glory. He chooses reputation over life. International law warns of atrocities and reports scream of scary statistics, but these voices are ignored. This mirrors how states invoke the doctrine of necessity or the rhetoric of self-defense today just to legally justify violence, not out of concern for genuine protection. Similarly, the misuse of UN Charter’s Article 51’s self-defense provisions is a shield for Glory and power that still outweighs humanity. The Trojan War itself begins with ego, not justice. Paris steals Helen for desire, Menelaus, her husband, demands revenge for pride, and Agamemnon, Menelaus’ brother, sees it as a chance of expansion and seizes it for power. A quarrel spirals into a massive war because no leader wants to back down. How many died for Helen’s face? How many today for oil, land, or ‘national dignity’? The Greeks didn’t care about Helen. Yet they fought, because they were bound by pacts and too afraid to miss out.  This is reflective of the principle of collective defense through mechanisms like NATO’s Article 5. IL is full of treaties and alliances yet can’t seem to stop conceiving wars born out of personal greed and hatred. Isn’t this the same logic that pushed the U.S. and the whole of Europe into World War I? Or Russia into Ukraine, dragging NATO, the EU, and others into the conflict?

The Selectiveness of War

One of the most frustrating things about Percy Jackson is how he struggles alone and is bullied, until suddenly Poseidon, his father, claims him, only when his own status is at risk. States and institutions often act the same way, turning away from suffering until it threatens their own interests. Citizens here become children, only acknowledged when convenient. Greek myths are filled with this selective logic. Demigods are sacrificed again and again for their parents’ honor. Apollo waits until the very end of the Trojan War to intervene and help Paris kill Achilles when millions have already died by then. Similarly, his sister, Artemis, demanded the sacrifice of Iphigenia before the Greek fleet could sail for Troy. In the Arab Spring, some governments like Libya under the doctrine of responsibility to protect (R2P), received urgent support, while others like Syria, Bahrain, or Yemen saw absent international responses, often dictated by the interests of major powers. Don’t global powers push for nuclear treaties and pro-peace pacts like the Non-Proliferation Treaty while at the same time being the one to override them, highlighting their hypocrisy. As the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross stated in  recent interview: “When the rules of war are applied selectively, they lose their protective power”.

The Forgottens of War

The mighty Achilles is immortalized for his strength and even his death. From him we inherit the phrase “Achilles’ heel.” Patroclus, remembered by some as Achilles’ lover, sacrificed himself in the Trojan War; his story was forgotten until Madeline Miller reclaimed it in The Song of Achilles. But regardless, who remembers the women, the queer soldiers, the marginalized communities? Millions perished for a single man’s pride, without recognition, without glory. Cassandra, the Trojan princess cursed to utter true prophecies that no one believed, was reduced to spoils of war, taken as Agamemnon’s concubine, raped and killed. It is to realise that until the 1990s, rape and sexual violence were not even recognized as crimes under IL. It only changed with the creation of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and Rwanda (ICTR) where, in Prosecutor v. Akayesu, it held that rape could constitute an act of genocide.

Likewise, Polyxena, another princess, was offered in sacrifice at Achilles’ tomb, her voice silenced so the dead hero might be honored. These women, victims transformed into property and were erased among the countless concubines, refugees, enslaved women, and wartime captives marked as nothing more than “collateral.” Even today, despite the Women, Peace and Security agenda, women rarely find space in IL discourse, but ICC attempts a course correction through one of its most unique features which is the inclusion of Office of Public Counsel for Victims (OPCV) by allowing them formal participation through legal representatives as enabled by the Rome Statute, especially article 68(3). Truth commissions, established under transitional justice frameworks, have also provided recognition.

Conclusion

The gods may have vanished into myth, but their logic lives on in international law. We see not just the stories of gods and heroes, but patterns of law that shape our world: pride that glorifies war, selective intervention that is inconsistent, and the continued marginalization. It transcends mere stories and forces us to look at IL and appreciate its power and vulnerability. It is a realization to break the patterns and a call towards a more inclusive and less selective law.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
– George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905

---

Purvi is a first year law student at Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Punjab.

---

Picture Credit: Bookerie