BOOK THREE
The armies approach:
"The Trojans came on with clamour and shouting, like wildfowl,
as when the clamour of cranes goes high to the heavens."
"But the Achaian men went silently, breathing valour,
stubbornly minded each in his heart to stand by the others."
Alexandros (a/k/a Paris) is a real chickenshit when he tries to hide back in the crowd after he sees Menalaos slavering for him. Hektor appropriately shames him for being a week-kneed pretty boy.
"Evil Paris, beautiful, woman-crazy, cajoling,
better had you never been born, or killed unwedded."
What I find interesting is Paris’ come back to Hektor’s declamations. Paris responds by saying, in effect: I may be a pretty boy, but that is what the God’s gave me and you shouldn’t disparage what the God’s give. Or as the poet wrote:
"Yet do not bring up against me the sweet favours of golden Aphrodite.
Never to be cast away are the gifts of the gods, magnificent,
which they give of their own will, no man could have them for wanting them."
The goddess Isis comes to Helen while she is weaving "a great web" in her chambers, a folding robe into which she is embroidering the exploits of the Trojans and the Achaians. The weaver is a mythic archetype that seems to span all ages and civilizations. Mortal Arachne challenged Minerva to a weaving contest and was turned into a spider for her troubles. (Something like Thamarys the Thracian?) Eve was the weaver whilst Adam tilled the earth. The oreget weaves in the Temple to honor the Devine Feminine. The Norns (The Wyrd Sisters) are another archetypal example. Wikipedia has an interesting synopsis of this mythic archetype.
The Weaver -- Temperance, i.e. the balanced management of Life taking all things in moderation, is the means of maintaining steady progress during humanity's long Search through Limitations of material existence for eventual Transformation into Divine Beings of Light.
The armies approach:
"The Trojans came on with clamour and shouting, like wildfowl,
as when the clamour of cranes goes high to the heavens."
"But the Achaian men went silently, breathing valour,
stubbornly minded each in his heart to stand by the others."
Alexandros (a/k/a Paris) is a real chickenshit when he tries to hide back in the crowd after he sees Menalaos slavering for him. Hektor appropriately shames him for being a week-kneed pretty boy.
"Evil Paris, beautiful, woman-crazy, cajoling,
better had you never been born, or killed unwedded."
What I find interesting is Paris’ come back to Hektor’s declamations. Paris responds by saying, in effect: I may be a pretty boy, but that is what the God’s gave me and you shouldn’t disparage what the God’s give. Or as the poet wrote:
"Yet do not bring up against me the sweet favours of golden Aphrodite.
Never to be cast away are the gifts of the gods, magnificent,
which they give of their own will, no man could have them for wanting them."
The goddess Isis comes to Helen while she is weaving "a great web" in her chambers, a folding robe into which she is embroidering the exploits of the Trojans and the Achaians. The weaver is a mythic archetype that seems to span all ages and civilizations. Mortal Arachne challenged Minerva to a weaving contest and was turned into a spider for her troubles. (Something like Thamarys the Thracian?) Eve was the weaver whilst Adam tilled the earth. The oreget weaves in the Temple to honor the Devine Feminine. The Norns (The Wyrd Sisters) are another archetypal example. Wikipedia has an interesting synopsis of this mythic archetype.
The Weaver -- Temperance, i.e. the balanced management of Life taking all things in moderation, is the means of maintaining steady progress during humanity's long Search through Limitations of material existence for eventual Transformation into Divine Beings of Light.
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