roidan

Paris (Orlando Bloom) Paris was the youngest son of Priam and Hecuba. When he was born, it was foretold that he would be the cause of the downfall of Troy, as told in a dream of Hecuba. He was sent out of Troy in hopes that the message would be false. He went to Mount Ida in order to be a shepherd. Eris, the goddess of strife, was not invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis. She came anyway, and she threw a golden apple into the middle of the wedding. Inscribed on the apple was a message. It read "To the fairest." Immediately, the apple was claimed by Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. They all asked Zeus to decide on who should receive the apple. Zeus knew how much trouble he would be in if he decided on one, because the other two would have grave revenge. So Zeus descended to Mount Ida where Paris was farming and asked him to be the Judge. Paris, being a mortal, could not decide. However, each of the three goddesses decided to make it easier for him. They would each offer him gifts, and he would get the gifts form the goddess he chose. Hera offered Paris power. She offered to give him all of Asia, and great power. He thought this offer was great, but he decided to hear the other offers first before deciding. Athena offered him great wisdom, and great luck in battle. He would be the best strategist in the world. He loved this idea, but he waited to hear Aphrodite's offer. Aphrodite offered him two things. The first was his body, and the second was the love of the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen. Since Paris's first love was women, he decided to pick Aphrodite's offer. Hera and Athena vowed vengeance. Paris soon went home to Troy after that, and with Aphrodite's help, he managed to send a fleet of ships, break into Menelaus's palace in Greece and kidnap Helen. He also took a lot of treasure with him. As Helen was the most beautiful woman in the world, all of her suitors were the most powerful people in Greece. In order for peace to be kept when Helen chose a suitor, all other suitors must vow to keep Helen as the wife of whom she chose. So when Helen chose Menelaus, all of the other suitors had to agree that if anyone tried to kidnap her, they would try to get her back. So, when Paris kidnapped her, all of Greece declared war on the city of Troy. These actions of Paris and Aphrodite started the Trojan war. Paris fights, but he is mostly out of legend until Hector is killed by Achilles. While Achilles and his allies bring Hector's body back into Troy for a funeral, Paris take a bow and arrows and shoots it at Achilles. Apollo guides his arrow so that it hits Achilles's foot, in the famous Achilles tendon. Achilles dies. Paris is soon killed afterwards in the war.

Helen (Diane Kruger) Helen (often called "Helen of Troy") was the daughter of Leda and Zeus, and was the sister of the Dioscuri and Clytemnestra. Since Zeus visited Leda in the form of a swan, Helen was often presented as being born from an egg. She was reputed to be the most beautiful woman in the world. When Helen was still a child, she was abducted by Theseus. Since she was not yet old enough to be married, he sent her to Aphidnae and left her in the care of his mother, Aethra. The Dioscuri rescued her and returned her to her home in Lacedaemon, taking Aethra prisoner at the same time. When Helen reached marriageable age, all the greatest men in Greece courted her. Her mother's husband, King Tyndareos of Lacedaemon, was concerned about the trouble that might be caused by the disappointed suitors. Acting on the advice of Odysseus, he got all the suitors to swear that they would support the marriage rights of the successful candidate. He then settled on Menelaus to be the husband of Helen. She lived happily with Menelaus for a number of years, and bore him a daughter, Hermione. After a decade or so of married life, Helen was abducted by -- or ran off with -- Paris, the son of King Priam of Troy. Menelaus called on the other suitors to fulfill their oaths and help him get her back. As a result, the Greek leaders mustered the greatest army of the time, placed it under the command of Agamemnon, and set off to wage what became known as the Trojan War. After the fall of Troy, Menelaus took Helen back to Lacedaemon, where they lived an apparently happy married life once more. After the end of their mortal existence, they continued to be together in Elysium. There were a number of different accounts of Helen's relationship with Paris. In some, she was truly in love with him, although her sympathies were mostly with the Greeks who beseiged Troy. In others, she was a beautiful and wanton woman who brought disaster upon those around her. In still other accounts, she never went to Troy at all: Hermes, acting on Zeus's orders, spirited her away to Egypt and fashioned a phantom out of clouds to accompany Paris; the real Helen was reunited with Menelaus after the Trojan War.

Hector (Eric Bana) Hector was the eldest son of Priam and Hecuba; he was the husband of Andromache and the father of Astyanax. Hector was the mightiest warrior on the side of Troy during the Trojan War, and he led many of the attacks against the Greek troops. He and Ajax fought to a draw in single combat, and he killed Patroclus, the close friend and companion of Achilles. He was eventually killed by Achilles, who was eager to avenge Patroclus' death. Achilles then desecrated Hector's corpse by dragging it behind his chariot before the walls of Troy, and refused to give up the body for burial. Achilles only allowed the body to receive funeral rites after King Priam came to his tent to plead for its return in person.

Achilles (Brad Pitt) Achilles was the son of the mortal Peleus and the Nereid Thetis. He was the mightiest of the Greeks who fought in the Trojan War, and was the hero of Homer's Iliad. Thetis attempted unsuccessfully to make her son immortal. There are two versions of the story. In the earlier version, Thetis anointed the infant with ambrosia and then placed him upon a fire to burn away his mortal portions; she was interrupted by Peleus, whereupon she abandoned both father and son in a rage. Peleus placed the child in the care of the Centaur Chiron, who raised and educated the boy. In the later version, she held the young Achilles by the heel and dipped him in the river Styx; everything the sacred waters touched became invulnerable, but the heel remained dry and therefore unprotected. When Achilles was a boy, the seer Calchas prophesied that the city of Troy could not be taken without his help. Thetis knew that, if her son went to Troy, he would die an early death, so she sent him to the court of Lycomedes, in Scyros; there he was hidden, disguised as a young girl. During his stay he had an affair with Lycomedes' daughter, Deidameia, and she had a son, Pyrrhus (or Neoptolemus), by him. Achilles' disguise was finally penetrated by Odysseus, who placed arms and armor amidst a display of women's finery and seized upon Achilles when he was the only "maiden" to be fascinated by the swords and shields. Achilles then went willingly with Odysseus to Troy, leading a host of his father's Myrmidons and accompanied by his tutor Phoenix and his close friend Patroclus. At Troy, Achilles distinguished himself as an undefeatable warrior. Among his other exploits, he captured twenty-three towns in Trojan territory, including the town of Lyrnessos, where he took the woman Briseis as a war-prize. Later on Agamemnon, the leader of the Greeks, was forced by an oracle of Apollo to give up his own war-prize, the woman Chryseis, and took Briseis away from Achilles as compensation for his loss. This action sparked the central plot of the Iliad, for Achilles became enraged and refused to fight for the Greeks any further. The war went badly, and the Greeks offered handsome reparations to their greatest warrior; Achilles still refused to fight in person, but he agreed to allow his friend Patroclus to fight in his place, wearing his armor. The next day Patroclus was killed and stripped of the armor by the Trojan hero Hector, who mistook him for Achilles. Achilles was overwhelmed with grief for his friend and rage at Hector. His mother obtained magnificent new armor for him from Hephaestus, and he returned to the fighting and killed Hector. He desecrated the body, dragging it behind his chariot before the walls of Troy, and refused to allow it to receive funeral rites. When Priam, the king of Troy and Hector's father, came secretly into the Greek camp to plead for the body, Achilles finally relented; in one of the most moving scenes of the Iliad, he received Priam graciously and allowed him to take the body away. After the death of Hector, Achilles' days were numbered. He continued fighting heroically, killing many of the Trojans and their allies, including Memnon and the Amazon warrior Penthesilia. Finally Priam's son Paris (or Alexander), aided by Apollo, wounded Achilles in the heel with an arrow; Achilles died of the wound. After his death, it was decided to award Achilles' divinely-wrought armor to the bravest of the Greeks. Odysseus and Ajax competed for the prize, with each man making a speech explaining why he deserved the honor; Odysseus won, and Ajax then went mad and committed suicide. During his lifetime, Achilles is also said to have had a number of romantic episodes. He reportedly fell in love with Penthesilia, the Amazon maiden whom he killed in battle, and it is claimed that he married Medea

wah bro east mercy.... thanks for your kind words and advice wish u all the best over on your side bwilly, try the sailfin first...coz sailfins are more hardy and if u find it doing well, u can consider adding other tangs like achilles who is more picky and sensitive

actually who deserves to be the american idol... not jasmine, her vocal range loses to the other 3 not fantasia, coz although she has a good range and can reach the notes very well, the tone of her voice itself borders on the point of irritating, like simon said at one point, sounds like donald duck, cartoon character voice... a tie between latoya and diana for me... but ultimately i prefer diana has the enthusiasm and is a raw diamond, whereas latoya's performances are polished to the point of boring, never fails to disappoint, but she never surprises us with anything further week by week... and add the fact that latoya is alittle over the prime age for a new star, commercial opinions will point in the favour of diana who is still young and very mouldable but of coz diana should lose a few pounds...i always see her double chin when she smiles but ultimately it is the public who votes, not the recording companies..hehe

My Helfrichi Firefish, hope it swims in the open as often as last time, pic taken in feb, added some finishing touches

yeah, they are quite cooperative in this aspect...hehe i think they hide from you, coz they are not used to you standing in front of the tank often and pointing something at them... i feed my fishes 5 times a day, if i am not around, my maid does it. so in a way i guess the fishes have gotten very used to the sight of a human figure appearing before the tank... in fact, they probably think that i am going to feed them even when i am holding my camera, that's why they so excited...hehe swimming fast is one thing, but definitely at some point, they will rest or hover...and that's the best chance of getting a good shot

yeah lor.. wanna improve this tank further, add some more equipment before i go on to an sps dedicated tank.

the crowning glory of the tank so far

that one still air castles mah.... if wanna do, should be up next few months lah...still haven't decide yet...

SOHO you can start drooling with envy kidding lah...dun have to envy...u have a big tank for me to envy

thanks astro

FINALLY CAUGHT BOTH THE BLACK CAPS IN THE SAME PHOTO!!!!! NO KIDDING!! BOTH ARE ALIVE..... pardon my caps....this is the first time i *shout* in here..please bear with me for this outburst... the blackcap above is the one who is always bold and swim out for me to take pics...the one below is the supershy one

tat's all

i simply love the way the tentacles wrap around her...or she wraps herself around the tentacles....hehe

the ever curious Mrs Percula