I did fall into conversation with one woman on the tram - or rather, two of us were on the tram together, and talking about the Seven Types show, and she was listening with such interest that it became a three-way conversation. She was a very lovely woman, too - on her way to her work helping a couple of school students who had particular difficulty fitting in to the school system.
Paris... well, strike one against him is that when he was in the midst of a duel (single combat, which was intended to end the war), the goddess Aphrodite, fearing that he would be beaten, whisked him up and dumped him in his wife's bedroom to distract him from the fight via sexual pleasures. (Compare Uriah, who famously declined such distraction, though in his case the string-puller was only a king.) But when the goddess has just exerted her power, what can you do? I would argue this doesn't make Paris a coward, just a realist.
Also: Achilles, the big strength of the Greeks team, spends most of the poem sulking and refusing to fight because the woman he wanted as war prize has instead been given to Agamemnon, for internal army political reasons. Is this not a more paltry reason than Paris's for avoiding the manly art of getting stuck into the other side? If Achilles is not called coward for combat-avoidance, why should Paris be?
(Paris does return to the fight, though not to the single combat. Achilles returns to the fight, too, though after a longer period of avoidance.)
Strike two is that Paris' older brother Hector, the best fighter on their side, and the hero of the whole Iliad, roundly rebukes him (in Book 13) for not being a manly warrior type, saying that he is a pretty boy, and pointing out that many of their comrades have already died fighting. But Paris replies that he has indeed been fighting, that he is not a coward, and that he's ready right then to follow Hector into battle. Hector accepts this, and off they go, into the thick of things.
Strike three is that Paris' preferred weapon is the bow, which was thought, by the person I was arguing with, to have been shown in the Iliad as a low-grade weapon, compared to the manly spear or hand-to-hand fighting. And I'll have to stop there and marshall a few thoughts. :)
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2017-05-20 01:51 am (UTC)Paris... well, strike one against him is that when he was in the midst of a duel (single combat, which was intended to end the war), the goddess Aphrodite, fearing that he would be beaten, whisked him up and dumped him in his wife's bedroom to distract him from the fight via sexual pleasures. (Compare Uriah, who famously declined such distraction, though in his case the string-puller was only a king.) But when the goddess has just exerted her power, what can you do? I would argue this doesn't make Paris a coward, just a realist.
Also: Achilles, the big strength of the Greeks team, spends most of the poem sulking and refusing to fight because the woman he wanted as war prize has instead been given to Agamemnon, for internal army political reasons. Is this not a more paltry reason than Paris's for avoiding the manly art of getting stuck into the other side? If Achilles is not called coward for combat-avoidance, why should Paris be?
(Paris does return to the fight, though not to the single combat. Achilles returns to the fight, too, though after a longer period of avoidance.)
Strike two is that Paris' older brother Hector, the best fighter on their side, and the hero of the whole Iliad, roundly rebukes him (in Book 13) for not being a manly warrior type, saying that he is a pretty boy, and pointing out that many of their comrades have already died fighting. But Paris replies that he has indeed been fighting, that he is not a coward, and that he's ready right then to follow Hector into battle. Hector accepts this, and off they go, into the thick of things.
Strike three is that Paris' preferred weapon is the bow, which was thought, by the person I was arguing with, to have been shown in the Iliad as a low-grade weapon, compared to the manly spear or hand-to-hand fighting. And I'll have to stop there and marshall a few thoughts. :)