How Does Helen Respond To Paris In The Iliad

Anger can always incite irrational actions. The sight of Helen seeking shelter at the altar, causes Aeneas to remember the crimes she committed driving him to furious anger. This anger drives him to contemplate an ignoble and uncharacteristic act of revenge by murdering Helen as she sought protection from the gods. Despite being depicted as a virtuous hero, Aeneas’ strong, visceral reaction to seeing Helen shows that he is subject to the same passionate feelings all humans feel, especially when something raises his anger.

This section starts when Anaxandra arrives at Menelaus’s country of Amyklai. Since she is pretending to be the princess Callisto, everyone is treating her like royalty. Although she enjoyed all the attention, she also felt really guilty for taking her former friend, Callisto’s name. No one questioned Anaxandra except for the queen, Helen. Helen is a beautiful but stuck up queen that does whatever she wants. Even the gods can’t punish her because her father is Zeus. Menelaus and his daughter, Hermione always defend Anaxandra but Helen always treats her like slave anyway. Some of Helen’s have warned Anaxandra to stay away from Helen. One day a prince from Troy randomly arrived at Amyklai. He brought gives and claimed he wanted to worship Apollo at the altar Menelaus had. Menelaus thought nothing of it and let the prince, Paris, and his men in. After greeting Menelaus Paris turned to Helen and there was an immediate connection. Anaxandra and Hermione sensed it but Menelaus didn’t. After the party for Paris’s arrival was over, everyone went to sleep. Hermione and Anaxandra stayed up though; they were talking about their suspicions about Paris. In the middle of their conversation they saw Helen sneaking down the hallway and entering Paris’s room. They were shocked at first but they realized that this was bound to happen. Soon almost everyone knew of the affair

Paris is the son of Priam and the brother of Hector. Paris is one of the strongest warriors in the Trojan army but is often acts cowardly and self-centered. One of the parts in the book he is with his wife when he was supposed to be fighting and makes his other warriors do the fighting for him he doesn’t do it himself so I consider him cowardly and self-centered and lazy. “ Rage—Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus’ son

Having no other option Menelaos goes to the house of Theoklymenos to beg for food.  He is turned away and Helen enters the scene having just returned from the oracle.  They meet each other and it is not 'love at first sight' as Helen was promised.  Nevertheless Menelaos soon believes that his new-found wife is the real Helen..  She has remained loyal to him unlike his deceitful apparition.  He wants to take her away and she disobediently refuses.  Helen comes up with a plan of her own to reunite the two, a unique twist in the typical hero-rescues-damsel story.  The roles have been changed and Helen is in charge.  She, like Thenoe, is not an obedient female-she is loyal.  Helen then turns to Theoklymenos and play-acts as if her husband has died.  She feigns obedience to her (soon-to-be) husband to lure him into allowing the plan to work.

A major difference between the two relationships is whether or not an outside force is pushing the relationship. In book three lines 486 to 489, Aphrodite forces Helen to go back to the bedroom with Paris. Initially, Helen does not want to go stating that it would be “disgraceful to share that coward’s bed once more” (, 476). Helen very clearly does not want to go back and be with Paris, but cannot go against Aphrodite’s wishes which is shown as “she [goes] along, in silence” (, 488). Hector, on the other hand, makes the choice to go back and see his wife in book six. Unlike Helen going along is silence, Andromache “came running up to meet him” (V, 466). Andromache’s eagerness, as shown by her running, supports the idea that her relationship with Hector is not forced. This is a huge difference from Helen’s reluctance of being with Paris due to it being forced by Aphrodite.

Even as his wife Andromache pleads “Pity me, please! Take your stand on the rampart here before you orphan your son and make your wife a widow” (Iliad VI. 511-512) to persuade him to stay at home, he chooses kleos over his family. Hector is described by Helen far differently than she speaks of her own husband.  “But come in, rest on this seat with me, dear brother, you are the one hit hardest by the fighting, Hector, you more than all – and all for me, slut that I am, and this blind mad Paris” (Iliad VI. 421-423).  Helen embraces Hector for his bravery and honor, and asks even that he rest from battle.  Her polar opinion between the two brothers serves as an important facet for dissecting the importance of kleos even within a family. Homer shows Helen’s shame and contempt for her husband as he does nothing to defend her or his home against her love for Hector as he fights so gloriously for Troy.

Odysseus, dressed as a beggar went to Troy to gather information. While there, Helen saw and recognized Odysseus. To learn if it was truly Odysseus, she bathed him to remove his beggar’s clothes. To have called a guard would be an easy way to arrest Odysseus, but she didn’t. Instead, she learned what would happen while also giving Odysseus information about the Trojan side of the war. If Helen did not like Menelaus and wished the Trojans to win, many situations could have happened to allow Helen to betray Menelaus. Helen sincerely liked Menelaus and her abduction by Paris was not with her consent. In addition, when Helen puts a drug in everyone’s wine to prevent sadness the only reason for this action could be to prevent the pain of past events from resurfacing. The book specifically says, “she cast a medicine of Heartsease, free of gall, to make one forget all sorrows.” This action was done out of care for her husband. Helen seems a loyal wife, but the Helen in Trojan Women, not so

Helen puts men under the influence and rejoins the group as if she has done nothing to change them. She forces the men’s hands all for the hero of the moment, Telemachus. Penelope is the “widow” of Odysseus. After his “death”, suitors fill the halls of her palace in hopes of becoming her husband and ultimately the new king of Ithaca. Penelope does not want to remarry because she still has a great love for Odysseus.

The three people that shall be blamed for causing the Trojan War would be Helen; for being disloyal, Agamemnon for his selfishness and Paris for his ignorance. Helen is to blame for this tragedy because she betrayed her husband by choice. As mentioned in the text, as Helen was chosen to be with Paris, she then chose to flee with him back to Troy. However, after making that offensive decision, she further increased her sins by committing adultery. To further expand, she had many opportunities to run away and go back to Menelaus to end the war but she was determined not to. Her oblivious decisions caused this whole war. A huge role in this long lasting battle was played by Agamemnon’s selfishness. He was only looking for an excuse to go to

Helen displays her flirtatious attitude to Hector, however it could also be inferred that she is unsatisfied with Paris and Menelaus. During her argument with Aphrodite, she claims she does not want to be looked at poorly by the Trojans for serving Paris is bed. This shows a sudden desire to be socially accepted and looked beyond just her beauty or as a nuisance by the Trojans.

Some of the women Odysseus meets are manipulative, seductive and driven by their own desires resulting in having more harm than help. Helen, the wife of Menelaus and the root of the Trojan war, distracts and seduces Odysseus. After fighting in the Trojan war, Odysseus visits Menelaus and Helen on his journey home. As they recall how the war went from their own perspectives Helen adds that “[she] alone, spotted him for the man he was, kept questioning him—the crafty one kept dodging. But after [she] rubbed him down, with oil, given him clothes to wear and sworn a binding oath not to reveal him as Odysseus to the Trojans…then at last he revealed to [her], step by step, the whole Achaean strategy” (4, 281-297).

Helen and Aphrodite fight about Paris, how Helen feels disgraced and shamed to be seen around him. She claims the women would scorn her for sleeping with someone as pathetic as Paris, as he does not stand and fight and he is seen as the lesser prince if considered a prince at all. Aphrodite, who cherishes and favors Paris, claims he is honorable and manly, but only because he chose her as the most beautiful. Nonetheless, when it came down to it, Aphrodite would not leave Olympia to be with Paris either, he was simply not worth it. Through the rest of The Iliad, many characters point out how selfish and unmanly/unhonorable Paris is, and how he should be more like Hector and stand and fight.

The fact that he is so dedicated to the good of the people to not concern himself with his health, while may be ill-advised it shows that he is devoted to his job. On the other hand Paris is portrayed as more of a lover since book three when he was not only whisked away from the fight with Menelaus but also a favourite of Aphrodite While love is important, if you do not have a good balance of love and ability to fight you will not be able to become an honourable man. Hector find the proper balance but Paris still thinks that he can succeed with only love.

By taking the wife of Menelaus, he had dishonored him. While his brother is described as a great warrior, Paris is a described by Homer as a pretty boy that has success with women due to his charm. However, none of those traits seem to matter because he shies away from battle and he is mainly the object of disdain. In chapter 3, Paris didn’t have the courage to fight Menelaos for his own wrong doing. In chapter 6, as Hector arrives back to the city to make a sacrifice he sees Paris whom is not involved in the fighting. Another character that is depicted as dishonorable is seen in Book 2. Agamemnon decides to test the desire and courage of his soldiers by suggesting a retreat. The results were definitely counter to what Agamemnon intended, his troops quickly prepared their ships to depart. Odysseus quickly rallies the troops and reminds them of Calchas prophecy. However, one soldier Thersites whom is described as deformed and ugly (perhaps a metaphor because of his dishonor) argues that the war isn’t worth fighting. Odysseus quickly scolds Thersites and infers that Thersites has no honor because he does not wish to continue to fight. Odysseus then goes on to hit Thersites with a scepter and the Achaeans agree to fight again.

The Iliad and The Odyssey are tales written by Homer centered on the drama of the Trojan War. First poem deals with the time during the end of the war, while the latter, which occurs roughly ten years later, explains the disastrous journey of Odysseus fighting his way back home. The character of women in the Odyssey is to exhibit the many and diverse roles that women play in the lives of men. These functions vary from characters such as the goddess ' that help them to the nymphs who trick them. Women in the Iliad exhibit their significance in the lives of the ancient Greeks because they are so prominent in a world so dominated with military relations.