Almost every single book or post on the Trojan War blames Helen
for causing the war between the Greeks and the Trojans. They call her 'the face
that launched a thousand ships'. I do not disagree that she played a major part but I strongly believe that if it had not been for that nincompoop Paris then none
of this would have ever happened.
Even when Paris was born to King Priam and his wife Hecuba of Troy,
the soothsayers and priestesses of Apollo pleaded the king to kill the child as
he would bring about the destruction of Troy. Priam did order his general to
kill the child but the general was too soft and couldn't commit the act of such
cruelty. "So lived Paris, to become handsome and intelligent" as
quoted in one of the translations of Homer's scripts. I can believe the
handsome part, but intelligent !!! This guy caused a war with thousands of
casualties because of his stubbornness, how does that reflect his intelligence
!!!
Well, in his youth, Paris was invited to attend the marriage of Peleus
and Thetis. All the gods were invited to this wedding except the goddess of strife - Eris
(clearly no one wanted any quarrels during the ceremony). But obviously Eris
became angry when she got to know that she was the only one not invited (I mean
who wouldn't). She devised a plan and threw into the dining hall a Golden Apple
(often referred to as the Apple Of Discord) on which was scribed "Kallisti" (meaning 'for the fairest' in English). Soon Hera, Athena and
Aphrodite began a dispute as to which of them the apple should belong. Zeus decided that Paris
would call the decision (as Zeus didn't want to be the one to choose among the goddesses and face the other two's wrath). Paris quickly and foolishly agreed without once giving a thought to what the outcome might be. Like the
Indian Police officials, he demanded to know from each of the Goddesses what she
would offer in return, if he would choose her as the fairest. Athena promised battle wisdom,
Hera promised rule over Asia and Aphrodite promised him the most beautiful
girl. Now, like most of us, (the engineering students with very less girl population in the college) he chose love over power and so declared Aphrodite
as the fairest.
 |
| The Apple Of Discord |
Blessed with Aphrodite's boon, this punk thought why don't I go
and woo someone else's wife (as if there a shortage of fair, good looking single girls then !!!). So he rode to Sparta on the
false pretense of 'diplomatic talks'; there he seduced Helen and then
took her away (whether forcefully or willingly is still being debated). This angered
Menelaus who was the King of Sparta and the husband of Helen (Duhh...every
husband would be angry). So Menelaus then called his friends (actually suitors
in Helen's wedding) and together they amassed 100,000 soldiers to fight Troy
and rescue Helen. Now, if you are charging at me armed with an AK-47 and I am
actually unarmed and holding some stuff that I stole of yours, the wise thing to do
would be to hand back your stuff and maybe try and make some settlement.
Unfortunately this idea was unacceptable to the stupid Prince Paris and even stupider King
Priam. It was as if they wanted Troy to be destroyed. The only guy in the Trojan royal family who had some sense was Paris'
brother Hector; he actually opposed this unlawful and childish behavior but was subdued by King Priam - 'Troy's Gates have never
been breached'. ( Dude, there is a first time for everything... why do you want
to defend your son when he has done something wrong and especially when your
opponent has an army of about three times your army size ).
- Agamemnon's army fights the Trojan army.
- Achilles kills Hector.
- They are unable to breach the Trojan wall so make a wooden horse
to fool the Trojans
- This fools the Trojan army easily coz losing armies generally
submit their retreat by creating structures and monuments for the winning party
(sarcasm alert)
- The Greek armies after entering loot, plunder and burn the Trojan city to
ashes.
And all this carnage and massacre because one royal brat couldn’t control his feelings for
a beautiful girl !!!
Very nice write up. If u pick up mytho,u wud realise,thr is always a female behind an epic n the males r evn more stupid to go after it,be it Paris or Ravana:).
ReplyDeleteBeautiful dames are meant to be appreciated ,but fm a distance ;)
Warfare is a fascinating subject. Despite the dubious morality of using violence to achieve personal or political aims. It remains that conflict has been used to do just that throughout recorded history.
ReplyDeleteYour article is very well done, a good read.