As this book starts, we see the Trojans being compared to
wild and unruly birds, which is a stark contrast to the Greeks, who are
disciplined as they silently march across the plane. But before we can see
these two forces clash, Paris challenge his wife’s previous husband Menelaus to
a duel where the winner takes all, including Helen and all her dowry.
The anticipation and tension are high, as we are about to
witness fight that will decide the outcome of the whole of the war. However,
Homer quickly diffuses this sense of excitement as Paris, almost immediately
after seeing Menelaus leap down from his chariot in full armour, runs back to
the safety of the Trojan lines. The cowardice of Paris becomes so obvious that
it is comical, the image of Paris running away 'like a man who catches sight of
a snake in a wooded ravine' invokes an image of a man who has bitten off far
more than he can chew.
Hector, the ever-supportive brother, then hurls abuse at
Paris for his embarrassing display of weakness in the face of the enemy. Homer, perhaps, uses this short moment between the brothers to heighten the contrast between
Hector, the protector of Ilium and noble warrior, and Paris, who is
apprehensive in the face of any physical exertion that could damage his dashing
looks. However, Hector does pointedly mention that Paris did in fact defy
Menelaus before, when he took Helen from Sparta and returned to Troy with her.
So, perhaps, Paris just picks and chooses when he will be brave, which we can see
unfold when he takes a second go at challenging Menelaus to a duel.
But Homer once again leaves us on the edge of our seats and
cuts to the rather dull and uneventful teichoscopia (‘view from the wall’), in which Helen points out all the Greek leaders to Priam. It seems highly unlikely
that Priam does not know any of the Greek leaders after they have been camped
outside his city walls and trying to kill his sons for nearly ten years, so
Homer may have been using this scene for two reasons: to introduce the Greek
leaders to the reader, as they have not been so closely acquainted with them at
this point, and to increase the anticipation for the forthcoming duel between
Paris and Menelaus.
Although it is rather anti-climactic, the teichoscopia
shows us some interesting facts about the Greeks. We see that the Greeks are
physically monumental, or, like Odysseus, they are so good at fighting that it
does not matter that they are short and stocky. Another interesting insight
that we gain here is about Agamemnon because Helen classes him as a 'good ruler
and mighty spearman too'. This does not comply with the rather poor sequence of
decisions that he made in Book one (causing a plague was not his finest moment), nor
does it follow Achilles’ accusations of him being cowardly in battle. Perhaps, then, Paris
and Agamemnon have something in common: they both pick and chose when to
be great.
Just as soon as he squashed it, Homer builds the suspense
back up with a rather ominous and passive aggressive series of oaths and
sacrifices by Agamemnon. He kindly requests that Zeus pours 'the brains of
whichever party breaks this treaty […] onto the ground', he also throws in
their wives and children’s brains into the mix for good measure. Despite the
politeness that Agamemnon used to ask for these violent oaths to be sealed,
Zeus does not answer the Greeks’ prayers, and, again, Homer is toying with the
reader and formulating an uneasy situation where all we know is that there will
be an unfathomable amount of brains poured onto the Trojan Plane.
Homer, then, chooses finally to deliver the excitement of the
duel to us. Paris acts exactly as we would expect. The first mistake he makes
is that he brings a bow to a duel, the second is that he wears hand-me-down
armour (maybe Priam and Hecabe were trying to save a few pennies, or maybe
Paris didn’t get his armour into the laundry in time for it to be done for his
duel, who knows). At this point, it does not take an ancient Greek warrior to
know that Paris is in some serious trouble, because compared to the crazed and
suitably equipped Menalaus, Paris is like an animal about to be slaughtered.
Yet, there is a collective gasp as Homer inserts another
plot twist into the book, as Aphrodite snaps the ox-leather helmet strap with which Menelaus was choking Paris’ throat, causing Paris to be whisked out of
harms way and laid down in his 'perfumed, fragrant bedroom' safe and sound.
Meanwhile
Aphrodite searches for Helen, and commands her to go to her husband and tend to
him as he almost broke a sweat and actually fought someone in a war. Helen is
not too impressed and tells the goddess to go and be Paris’ mistress and leave
her alone. Enraged, Aphrodite scares Helen into submission, and the power of
the gods is reasserted over the rebellious Helen.
Helen enters the bedroom and sees Paris reclined on his bed,
exhausted by his rather pathetic efforts, and verbally attacks him. She does
not hold back on the insults, and says she hoped he had died at the hands of
Menelaus. From this the reader can see that Helen is in a rather horrible
situation, where the husband who she hates cannot even have the decency just to die in battle and let the whole war be over. But we see that Paris’ dashing
looks and persuasive, yet compete untrue, speech gets the better of Helen and
sways her towards going to bed with Paris, ready to face another day in the
tumultuous and eventful life of a Homeric epic.
In Book three, Homer leaves us with the image of a powerful
and enraged Menelaus hunting through the ranks of soldiers, looking for Paris,
his prey, with an alarmingly strong urge to kill.
SG
In Book 3, for
one of the first times in the poem, we see the Achaeans described from the
Trojan perspective. The Achaeans are seen as men of great bravery and noble
opponents to the Trojans.
After meeting the major Achaean players in the first
two books, the audience is finally properly introduced to some significant
characters from the Trojan side. Priam, Hector, Paris, and Helen of Troy
(formerly, of course, queen of Sparta) all make their first appearances in Book
3, and their personalities begin to emerge.
Helen is depicted
as a sympathetic character. As she is informed of the duel, she is shown as a
passive witness to the men who fight for her hand. Helen comes from the same
region as Menelaus, and the thought that she might have a homecoming excites her.
She deeply regrets the cost of the conflict being fought over her, slandering
herself and wishing she had died before running away with Paris.
She wonders if her brothers do not appear with the Achaean army because they are
ashamed of her. While they probably would have been, the audience is aware that
actually they are dead, but Helen doesn’t know this yet.
When Aphrodite – disguised as an old woman – tries to
persuade Helen to return to Paris, Helen recognizes
her easily (by her youthful bosom – it would appear that even at crucial
moments, such as this, there are certain things Aphrodite is not willing to give
up...) and resists Aphrodite urging her
to join Paris in his bedroom. Helen does not seem to like Paris much at that
particular moment, criticizing him for his cowardice, among other things.
However, Aphrodite has the power and intimidation to bend Helen to her will and
make her continue to love Paris. This situation echoes the story of Dido's love
for Aeneas in the epic the Aeneid, written by Virgil later as a sort of sequel
to the Iliad. Viewing divine intervention as an explanation for human
mysteries, readers recognize Helen's feelings for Paris as deeply conflicted—she
both loves and despises him at the same time and can’t determine which side of
her feelings is more powerful or justified.
Hector is another character whose personality is delved
into in this book. He denounces Paris for being more beautiful than brave and,
similarly to Helen, attacks his manliness and (lack of) courage. Hector’s
criticism here displays the divide between wartime and peacetime behaviors.
Hector’s decision to step forward into enemy fire to call a truce is a heroic
act, and Homer begins to portray Hector as one model of the hero, a man who
always defends his kin.
While on the wall
with her father-in-law, Helen is urged by the Trojan elders to give them the
‘who’s-who’ on the best of the Greek army. Among others, Ajax and Idomeneus are
two of the warriors who are picked out by Helen, and she and Priam alike note
the strength and special qualities of each man. Ajax is considered the second greatest
warrior after Achilles. The warriors are remembered by Helen from her time with
Menelaus back in Sparta.
ZK
Paris of Troy is a Trojan prince. His father, Priam, is the
ruler of Troy and his brother, Hector, is considered to be the defender of the
city and is favoured by the Trojan people. The whole battle between the Greeks
and the Trojans originated as a result of Paris’ actions which he undertook
during Menelaus’ party. During the party Paris meet the beautiful and illusive (sic? --ed) Helen of Sparta and the pair fell in love. This led to the two of them fleeing
from Greece back to Troy.
After finding out about Paris’ betrayal the Greeks
launched an invasion against the Trojans which has been taking place for the
past 9 years and is still taking place during the events of the Iliad. Paris is
portrayed as being very feeble and materialistic when placed alongside his brother.
He has little desire to fight the strongest Greeks and, when he sees the great
and powerful Menelaus on the battlefield, he proceeds to flee with fear, but is
stopped by his brother's heckling. Despite this mockery, Paris manages to
victimize himself while simultaneously setting himself up for the greatest
embarrassment of his life after he accepts the duel against Menelaus that was
proposed by his brother. It is such a failure that he is saved and whisked away
to Helen by Aphrodite, saving him from certain death.
Back in his bed chamber
things were not looking any better: he gets a mountain of verbal abuse from
Helen who claims that she wished she never run away and that she wants Paris
dead… and he just takes it. The man is clearly a weak willed, materialistic, self-obsessed
and lustrous (sic? --ed) prince who goes against the heroic code that Homer illustrates
through book 3. In the eyes of the Trojans all he is good at is wearing a
leopard-skin cape to war and stealing women from their husbands.
Menelaus is the king of Mycenaean Sparta and the husband of
Helen of Sparta//Helen of Troy. He is considered a central
figure in the Trojan War, leading the Spartan contingent of the Greek army,
under his elder brother Agamemnon. He called for the invasion of Troy in order
to get back his wife, Helen of Troy, and he is very determined to achieve this
goal. When he sees Paris on the battlefield his spite towards the young man is
emphasized by Homer as he was described as being “as delighted as a lion that
comes across a great carcass” and, then, is said to have “immediately lept
from his chariot to the ground” indicating his blood-lust for his enemy. This lust
for revenge and built-up anger at Paris is further emphasized during the duel
between the two: he “began to drag him back into Greek lines” and “balanced his
long-shadowed spear and hurled it” are just two places where Menelaus’ anger is
displayed in book 3. He was described by Priam as being well-spoken and keeping
to the point yet addressing the issue at hand with few words.
The Trojan Elders are not too important within the book. They
simply emphasize to the reader how they and the Trojans want to get rid of
Helen so that the feud can come to an end. However, Priam is very important
within this section as the teichoscopia originates as a result of his desire to
know the name of all the Greek warriors, a request that Helen fulfills. During
Helen's revelation the audience find out that the ruler has encountered many of
the Greeks in the past and formed great friendships with some of them.
Effectively, the Trojan elders and Priam illustrate the old ways of Troy as
well as the desire for the feud to end.
Agamemnon, son of Atreus, is described by Helen in this
book. He is portrayed with characteristics with which the reader is unfamiliar, since these characteristics have not been portrayed in the previous two books. Helen describes
him as being a “good ruler and mighty spearman” -- a statement Achilles would
happily dispute. It is then implied by Priam that the two men fought together in
battle against the Amazons.
Described by Helen as “quick-thinking”, the son of Laertes was
bought up on the rugged island of Ithaca which meant that he has become the
master of manoeuvres and strategies. Priam hosted him and Menelaus. He
described Odysseus as not being too confident at speaking at first, but then
emphasizes that that was just a mere illusion and the man was a man of words who
knew how to use them to his advantage.
WW
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