Hey, welcome back. Today we're looking at Book 3 of The Iliad. And Book 3 is one of those very exciting sections where the action really begins to move. Let's start by talking about our characters. Although we get a few repeat characters, such as Agamemnon in this section, there are some characters that really get an opportunity to shine.
First, we have the character Paris. Now, if you remember from the backstory, Paris is... the one who started this war by stealing Helen from Menelaus.
In this book he's portrayed as a very self-centered pretty boy. He struts in front of the army thinking he looks really really good, but at the first glimpse of conflict he dashes away and hides. He runs away from his responsibilities multiple times in this book until his brother directs him back into the action.
He's conceited and vain and flashy, but very very superficial. There's not a lot of substance to his character. We also get to see Menelaus. Menelaus is the wronged husband. Because Paris stole his wife, he is on the warpath for revenge.
He's a much more active and powerful warrior than Paris. And we see him as vengeful and angry and intense in this section. We also get to see Helen herself, who is caught up in the middle of all this. Helen, whose beauty is the cause of all the conflict here, Ran away with Paris some time ago, but by this point we see her as someone who deeply regrets her past actions.
She's very self-deprecating and self-demeaning, going so far as to call herself names, recognizing the pain and the suffering that she's caused to everyone around her. She sees the way many characters are suffering and dying for her sake, and it brings her intense pain. But she also still feels helplessly trapped and somewhat manipulated. by Aphrodite. She ran away with Paris because he was so incredibly handsome, but now she has come to recognize how very shallow and empty he is.
He's all good looks, but no honor and character. We also meet some of Paris's family. We briefly meet Hector, who's going to be a very important character as the book goes on, and so far we only see him as an older brother with strong character, strong sense of honor and duty that he tries to pass on to Paris. But to his great frustration, Paris doesn't seem to learn the lessons. We also see King Priam.
King Priam is the king of Troy. And in this book, he's portrayed as an old man who is caught up in a conflict that he hates. He's deeply grieved because he sees his own sons going to their death in this battle. And throughout the book, we're going to see him emphasizing those themes of war, that war is ugly and costly.
This process is so painful for him that he has to step away and can't watch his sons fighting, knowing that they're going through their deaths. And yet he's also very gentle, kind, and forgiving towards Helen, who is part of the origin of all of this war. Nowhere does he blame her, but rather he is very gentle with her and kind.
He could be easily compared to other parents in the story who dread or suffer the loss of their children, such as Thetis, Achilles'mother. Among the gods, we briefly see Iris, who is a very flat character, she mostly serves the role of messenger for the gods. But we also get the much more complex and interesting Aphrodite. Aphrodite, the goddess of love, is very much on the side of the Trojans because Paris chose her as the winner of the beauty contest. And yet she treats the humans as her playthings.
She's seen in this book as very manipulative and vindictive, threatening Helen to get Helen to do what she wants, even though Helen no longer wants to be her puppet and plaything. She also clearly cheats in the battles to get what she wants. But that's not very much different from most of the other gods.
Now let's look at the action of this section. When we last left off, all the characters were lining up for battle, and the battle was about to begin. And here, as the armies are beginning to march forward, Paris rides to the front, so that he can strut around and look really good. Now closer, closing, front to front in the onset, till Paris sprang from the Trojan forward ranks, a challenger, lithe, magnificent as a god. The skin of a leopard slung across his shoulders, a reflex bow on his back, and a battle sword at hip.
And brandishing two sharp spears, tipped in bronze, he strode forth, challenging all the Argive best to fight him face-to-face in mortal combat. So he's looking really good, and he's acting really tough. But what happens next? Soon as the warrior Menelaus marked him, Paris parading there with his big loping strides, flaunting before the troops, Atrides, thrilled like a lion, lightning on some handsome carcass. Lucky to find an antlered stag or wild goat just as hunger strikes.
He rips it, bolts it down, even with running dogs and lusty hunters rushing him. So Menelaus, thrilled at heart, princely Paris there right before his eyes. The outlaw, the adulterer, now for revenge, he thought.
And down he leapt from his chariot, fully armed and hit the ground. So Menelaus sees Paris parading out there. and he thinks, this is my chance, now I'll fight him.
But what happens when Paris sees Menelaus? Soon as magnificent Paris marked Atreides, shining among the champions, Paris'spirits shook. Back into his friendly ranks, he cringed from death as one who trips on a snake in a hilltop hollow recoils suddenly, trembling, grips his knees, and pallor takes his cheeks, and back he shrinks. So he dissolved again in the proud Trojan lines. Dreading Atreides, magnificent, brave Paris.
You can hear the sarcasm there, magnificent, brave Paris, it calls him, as he hides behind people to get away from Menelaus. So, again, Paris is all appearance. He has no strength on the inside.
As soon as Hector sees him, though, he berates him and says, Paris, you've said over and over again that you would fight Menelaus one-on-one, no problem. And here, as soon as you see him, you run and hide. You're embarrassing. Why, the long-haired Achaeans must be roaring with laughter. Not only that, but all of this is your fault, remember.
He says, you, cursed to your father, your city, and all your people, a joy to our enemies, rank disgrace to yourself. So you are a disgrace to all of us. And remember, this whole battle is your fault.
And you're not willing to stand up and fight it. Paris, listening to his older brother, comes around and he says, You're- right, Hector. I should fight my own battles.
And so he agrees, along with Hector, to go forward and challenge Menelaus to a one-on-one duel. This challenge pleases Hector, and he brings Paris up to the front of the line. They have a little parlay, and they all speak, and they say, hey, let's do a one-on-one duel instead of this massive battle where we all die.
And Menelaus, who is the one aggrieved here, He agrees to this because it will save so many lives. The Achaean and the Trojan forces both exulted, hoping this would end the agonies of war. The people are excited because finally here's an opportunity not to die.
Here's an opportunity to end this in a way that doesn't cost countless lives. Meanwhile, we cut back to the city where Helen is in her room doing some weaving and Iris from the gods comes down to her. pretending to be one of her sisters-in-law, and nudges her and says, Hey, hey, guess what? There's going to be these two guys who are fighting over you down there, and whichever one wins gets to take you away as wife.
Paris versus Menelaus, one-on-one battle. And Helen, hearing this, experiences deep grief. She remembers her lost husband and the relationship that she used to have with him.
And so she runs up to the wall to watch what's going on. As she arrives, the old men, who are no longer able to fight, who are sitting up on the wall and watching, turn and they see Helen coming, and they say about her, Who on earth could blame them? Ah, no wonder the men of Troy and the Argives under arms have suffered years of agony, all for her, for such a woman.
Beauty. Terrible beauty. A deathless goddess, so she strikes our eyes. But still, ravishing as she is, let her go home.
in the long ships and not be left behind for us and our children down the years an irresistible sorrow. So they see her and they're like, wow, I understand why. Why everyone's fighting over her because she's just so beautiful, but she's also a plague to us.
She's also an irresistible sorrow to us, bringing us great pain and suffering. But Priam, seeing her, welcomes her over. He's gentle and kind with her, even though she is the cause of all of his grief here. And he asks her to sit down and says, look down at the field and tell me who all of these people are. And so Helen looks down and she's able to see all the different Greek.
leaders, the Greek heroes, and she's able to point out who each one is. We get another short hero lineup here with some commentary from Helen. The first one that the king points out, though, is Agamemnon, who is, of course, the great leader of the Greeks. And Helen, as she sees this, recognizes her old brother-in-law, Menelaus's brother. And she says to Priam, I revere you so, dear father.
Dread you too. If only death had pleased me then. Grim death.
That day I followed your son to Troy, forsaking my marriage bed, my kinsman, and my child. My favorite, now full-grown, and the lovely comradeship of women my own age. Death never came, so now I can only waste away in tears. But about your question, yes, I have the answer.
That man is Atreus'son Agamemnon, lord of empires. Both a mighty king and a strong spearman too. He used to be my kinsman. Whore that I am.
There was a world. Or was it all a dream? She's deeply grieved and broken over what she's done.
What she left behind. How she could just leave behind her home and her family. All the good things in her life to chase after Paris.
Who again, we've seen, is very shallow. And now she's looking down at her old world there on the field. But he guides her along and points out the other heroes, and she explains who each of them is. The only two she doesn't see are her own brothers, who the narrator tells us are already dead.
But at this point, a messenger comes up from the battlefield to get Priam, because he's supposed to go down to the field now. They're going to have a ceremony with sacrifices where they all get together, and they all make these offerings and pray to Zeus before they have this one-on-one duel. And they want the king of Troy, as the representative of leadership on the Trojan side, to come down and join them for this. Priam hears this, not with joy, although it may mean the end of the war, but with a kind of horror, knowing that his own son is going to go to battle against Menelaus. And he heads down to the battlefield, they have this ceremony, they offer these sacrifices, they pray to Zeus that the best man will win, and things will...
End the war and peace will come. At this point, instead of staying to watch the fight, Priam gets back on his chariot and he says, Here are me Trojans, Achaeans geared for combat. Home I go to windy Ilium.
Straight home now. This is more than I can bear, I tell you, to watch my son do battle with Menelaus, loved by the war god, right before my eyes. Zeus knows no doubt and every immortal too.
which fighter is doomed to end all this in death. So he can't bring himself to watch his son fight with Menelaus, knowing that there's a really good chance that Menelaus will come out the victor. He doesn't have loads of confidence in Paris, which maybe we shouldn't either. And so all the men pray that finally this will be the end of the war.
Please let the war end. So the two men walk out into the field together, getting ready to fight. They both have their spears.
Paris throws first, and Menelaus blocks with his shield. The spear point just bounces off the shield. And then Menelaus grabs his spear and begins to go for him. But before he attacks, as he is throwing his spear, he says a prayer to Zeus.
Zeus, king, give me revenge! He wronged me first! Illustrious Paris, crush him under my hand! So even among the men to come, a man may shrink from wounding the host who showers him with kindness. Shaking his spear, he hurled, and its long shadow flew, and the shaft hit Paris'round shield, hit full center.
Straight through the gleaming hide the heavy weapon drove, ripping down and in through the breastplate, finally worked, tearing the war shirt close by Paris'flank. It jabbed, but the Trojan swerved aside and dodged Black Death. So, the spear goes right through Paris'shield, in through his armor, and just...
barely misses his actual flesh, but does some pretty heavy damage to his armor. So now Menelaus drew his sword, and with silver studs... and hoisting the weapon high, brought it crashing down on the helmet ridge.
But the blade smashed where it struck. Jagged shatters flying, it dropped from Atreides'hand. And the hero cried out, scanning the blank skies.
Father Zeus, no god's more deadly than you. Here I thought I'd punish Paris for all his outrage. Now my sword is shattered, right in my hands. Look! My spear flew from my grip for nothing!
I never hit him! Menelaus is enraged. He throws his spear without effect. He smashes Paris over the head with his sword, but instead of killing Paris, it just shatters his sword.
Now, how's Paris doing at this moment? Not well, right? He's just been hit hard with a very heavy spear, which is now still sticking out through his shield and partially into his armor. And then he got brained by this sword and got a sword broken over his head.
Yes, he's not literally wounded yet, but he's definitely stunned and down. But notice Menelaus'rage. He's asking Zeus, please let me get revenge. Please let me get this guy.
And yet nothing works. It's incredibly frustrating. Lunging at Paris, he grabbed his horsehair crest, swung him around, started to drag him into Argive lines. And now the braided chin strap holding his helmet tight. was gouging his soft throat.
Paris was choking, strangling. So Paris is lying there on the ground, having been hit twice now, without actually receiving a wound. And so these helmets have these huge horsehair crests that come out the back of them.
He grabs him by that crest and starts just dragging him along behind. And so the strap is choking Paris out. And now he'd have hauled him off in one undying glory, but Aphrodite, here comes Aphrodite, Zeus's daughter, quick to the mark, snapped the rawhide strap, cut from the bludgeoned ox, and the helmet came off empty in Menelaus'fist.
So Aphrodite snaps the strap so that the helmet comes off in his hand. Whirling it around, the fighter sent it flying into his archives, scrambling fast to retrieve it. Back to his man he sprang, enraged with brazen spear, mad for the kill.
But Aphrodite snatched Paris away. Easy work for a god. Wrapped him in swirls of mist and set him down in his bedroom filled with scent. So the helmet comes off in Menelaus'hand, he throws it away, he grabs his spear, and he's about to just completely impale Paris when all of a sudden, poof, Paris disappears.
Aphrodite snatches him up and she puts him in his bedroom back at home. Then off she went herself to summon Helen and found her there on the steep jutting tower with a troop of Trojan women. Clustered around her, the goddess reached and tugged at her fragrant robe, whispering low, for all the world like an old crone, the old weaver who, when they lived in Lacedaemon, wove her fine woolens, and Helen held her dear.
Like her to the life, immortal love invited, Quick, Paris is calling for you, come back home. There he is in the bedroom, the bed with inlaid rings, he's glistening in all his beauty and his robes. You never dream he's come from fighting a man.
You'd think he's off to dance or slipped away from dancing, stretching out at ease. And so not only did she snatch Paris out of the fight, which we know will have huge consequences. This was supposed to be the one-on-one duel that stopped the war from happening, that ended things in peace, stopped the fighting. But he got snatched out right in the middle, right when he was losing.
And not only that, but she puts him back in her bedroom and then sends Helen off to make out with him. How does Helen respond to being called and told to go make out with pretty boy Paris? The answer is not well. She's not really happy with the role she's being forced into here. And at this point, she's been fooled enough by Aphrodite that she can see through Aphrodite's disguise.
She knew the goddess at once, the long live neck, the smooth full breast, and the fire of those eyes. And she was amazed. She burst out with her name. Maddening one, my goddess, oh what now?
Lusting to lure me to my ruin yet again? And a moment later she says, but why now? Because Menelaus has beaten your handsome Paris and hateful as I am, he longs to take me home?
Is that why you beckon me here beside me now with all the immortal cunning in your heart? Well you go to him yourself, you hover beside him. Abandon the gods high road and be immortal. Never set foot again on Mount Olympus, never. suffer for Paris, protect Paris for eternity until he makes you his wedded wife, that or his slave, not I.
I'll never go back again. It would be wrong. ...disgraceful to share that coward's bed once more.
The women of Troy would scorn me down the years. Oh, the torment, never-ending heartbreak. Helen is sick of being manipulated by Aphrodite.
She's sick of being carted off to make out with this pretty boy. She's no longer interested in that. She sees his cowardice and the shamefulness of the way he always runs away from battle.
And how many people suffer because he's not willing to stand up and be responsible. And she wants no part of that anymore. But Aphrodite's not going to take that from a mere mortal.
Aphrodite says, don't provoke me, wretched headstrong girl. Or in my immortal rage, I may just toss you over, hate you as I adore you now, but with a vengeance. I might make you the butt of hard, withering hate from both sides at once, Trojans and Achaeans. Then your fate can tread you down to...
So she threatened, and Helen, the daughter of mighty Zeus, was terrified. Shrouding herself in the glinting silver robe, she went along in silence. None of her women saw her go.
The goddess led the way. So Helen once again is cowed into doing Aphrodite's bidding. Aphrodite, manipulative and threatening.
Even though Helen no longer wants to be a part of this, even though Helen sees how much damage she's already done and feels immense regret and guilt, she feels trapped. And so when she sees Paris, she has this outburst against him. She talks about how embarrassing and cowardly he is, how ridiculous it is that he's run away from battle. But she also shows how mixed her emotions are.
She doesn't want him to run and die at the hands of Menelaus. But Paris is like, no, stop chiding me. Let's just...
Go lose ourselves in love. And so he leads her off to bed, while meanwhile in the field, Menelaus is looking all around, where is Paris? Stomping around like a wild beast.
And all of the people sitting there watching, now they've seen Paris disappear in the middle of this battle. And it says, not a single Trojan, none of their famous allies could point out Paris to battle-hungry Menelaus. Not that they would hide him out of friendship, even if someone saw him. All of them hated him like death. Black death.
Paris is a kind of plague for them. He is getting them all killed, and he doesn't seem to care. He's off enjoying himself while the rest of them are out here on the brink of death. And Agamemnon says, hey, we all saw the battle.
It sure looked like Menelaus just won there. I know that Paris vanished at the last second, but we can call this one, I think, for Menelaus. So go get Helen, go get all of her stuff, bring her out right now. And that's how Book 3 ends.
Now let's talk about a few key features in Book 3. One of the best features of Book 3 is all of the characterization that comes through in the action. And I mostly talked about that as I was going through. There are also some key themes that we see throughout the story, particularly the way the gods interact with the humans.
Aphrodite's interference in this book demonstrates something about fate. Although the characters do their best to try to work out their lives, they strive after certain goals. For instance, the armies who are trying to have peace here. The gods meddling can completely sabotage all of the humans best efforts. Menelaus tries his best to end Paris's life, but both of his attempts, his spear thrust, and his sword stroke, are failures.
In spite of the fact that he asked the gods for help, he's not given the victory. Instead, a god swoops in and cheats. The manipulation that Aphrodite has on Helen also indicates the same sort of theme. Sometimes there are things in life that we cannot control, and we struggle against our fate. We struggle against the universe sometimes, which leaves the human beings in this book sometimes feeling pretty powerless against fate.
Helen feels she has no control over her life. She made a mistake in the past and it will never let her go. She can't even start doing right now because she's still being manipulated by the gods.
Struggling against fate is going to show up again and again in this book. We also continue the theme of the ugliness and costliness of war. Although there's not a lot of death in this particular book, we see the grieving father figure in Priam.
that reminds us that war is painful and costly. This book also has the poetic feature of the epic simile. One good example is near the beginning. It says, Like a lion lighting on some handsome carcass, Lucky to find an antlered stag or wild goat, Just as hunger strikes, he rips it, bolts it down, Even with running dogs and lusty hunters rushing him, So Menelaus thrilled at heart, Princely Paris there right before his eye.
This lion celebrating in the kill. Menelaus is celebrating the fact that Paris is right there and he's finally going to get a chance for revenge. Finally, I want to make one comment on the names as we go through this book. There are some challenges in reading the Iliad because there are so many different names for the same character.
The Greeks are primarily called the Achaeans, but sometimes we call them the Argives. And there are different subgroups of the Greek army that sometimes their name comes out. But I also want to mention particularly that characters are sometimes recognized by their parents.
For instance, Agamemnon and Menelaus are both sons of Atreus. And so from time to time, the book will refer to them as Atreides, adding that Aedes at the end of the father's name makes a special name for the son. Atreides can refer to both Agamemnon and Menelaus, since they are both sons of Atreus.
Later on when Diomedes really gets into the action, he will be frequently referred to as Tidides, because his father is Tidius. You can think about what your own father's name is and take the first part of the name and add ides to the end and get an example of your own Greek father name. Mine would be Grides. So we'll continue next time in Book 4 and see what the repercussions are of this failed duel. Thanks for watching.
You can click to subscribe or to watch another video, and I'll see you next time. Bye-bye.