The Iliad - Book 3 - Helen's two husbands duel for her
- Reading time: about 41 minutes
- Paris: The pretty-boy Trojan who kidnapped Helen from Greek Menelaus and started the whole war.
- Aphrodite: The Romans called her Venus, the goddess of beauty. See the painting of her by Botticelli.
- Menelaus: a Greek, brother of Agamemnon, whose wife, Helen, was stolen.
- Hector: the Trojan leader, son of Priam.
- First Paris comes out from Troy to
parade around, showing off before the Achaeans,
challenging the Greeks to a duel--until he sees
Menelaus. Then he runs off a coward. Hector berates
his brother, and Menelaus and Paris battle in a duel.
Just when Paris is being dragged off, Aphrodite hides
him in a mist and brings him back to Troy, where he
searches for Helen to go to bed with her. What a guy!
- What place does lover-boy Paris have in this masculine world of warfare? How sincere do you find Paris to be when he is reprimanded by his brother? Examine the key passages: 15-29, 34-92, 498-529.We see Paris, Hector, and Priam as examples of Trojans. How do you feel about them individually and as a group? Should they defeat the Achaeans? Is Homer laying a base in their characters why they will be defeated? [Discuss Iliad Bk03 Q01]
- Picture of Helen
- In Helen, we see what started the war: "Is this the face that launched a thousand ships?" She is both incredibly beautiful, all agree (187-190), and at the same time, just a woman. But yet, like so many wars, she is the cause. She call herself a whore (218), yet is that all she is? For example, how does Priam regard her and how does she respond to Priam? (194-219)
- What do you see in Helen? How are
Helen and Achilles alike? [Discuss Iliad Bk03 Q02]