I know I already technically started a post about this, but I didn't do much with it and I'm not really starting the actual Book 3 til now, so whatever.
It says that the Trojans came with long, intense cries, but the Achaeans came silent, prepared to defend each other to the death. For the record, I'm doing my nails while reading because for one, I can consentrate better when my hands are busy and I have something to ignore and two, my party is friday, today is wednesday, and it's bad for your nails for them to have nail polish on them all the time. If you buff them every so often between the color, it keeps them healthy and they're less likely to break (which hurts like a bitch) and also it makes for a more even coat. That said, I'm not a preppy little bitch. I do neon and bright color as well as dark purple and black. Never pink. Never french tips. That stuff is lame.
Anyway, back to the story thing. There was this thick cloud of dust that came around both sets of armies making it to where they couldn't see more than a couple feet in front of them. They'd been marching at top speed when it had hit them.
Now, Paris came forward challenging the best of the Achaeans to a one-on-one mortal combat. If you remember, Paris is the one who "won" Helen by Aphrodite's promise, Helen being Menelaus's wife, which was the whole cause of the Trojan War.
Menelaus recognized him, Atrides got all excited like "Oh damn. Somebody's gonna get their ass beat." and came to accept the challenge, as did Menelaus. "Time for revenge."
When Paris realized it was Atrides who was coming, he cowarded back into the crowd, afraid for his life.
Hector started taunting Paris. "It would've just been better had you not been born instead of having you strut around making a mockery out of our armies. I bet you just made us the laughing stock of our enemies. They think that YOU are the bravest that we could come up with simply because of your muscles. But you can't fight for shit. You're the one that took away Menelaus's wife. Yet you can't stand up to him? What good are your looks and this woman that Aphrodite gave to you when you're too much of a coward to fight for them? All the men of Troy are cowards otherwise they'd have stoned you to death long before now for everything you've done."
"You criticize fairly. I can't deny that. You're always angry. Your heart is hard. But, still, don't throw the gifts of the gods in my face. I didn't choose to be given what I've been given. What they choose to give of their own free will is what makes it a blessing. It's not because I deserve it or because I asked for it. It's because they are generous." See, that's why I like Paris. He'll take any amount of abuse, take responsibility for all of his actions, listen to people being harsh with him, yet he still gives a non-bias judgement of what they say and even if they're cruel to him, he's always kind to them. That said, he did still kidnap Helen and he's still a pussy ass chicken shit for taking her but playing dead while letting everyone around him fight for her. While I admire his character, that's the only part I don't like.
Paris continued. This part made me say "Awww" out loud. "If you really want me to fight to the finish, have all the armies sit in their places and pit me against Menelaus. We'll fight it out over Helen, and whoever proves to be the better man wins. The man can take Helen and her treasures fairly and lead her home. As for the rest, we'll seal in blood the binding pacts of friendship. And our people will live peacefully in Troy, and our enemies can go home to Argos."
So basically, he said he'll fight it out with Menelaus until they have a fair winner and the winner takes Helen but they promise to be friends and not enemies anymore. Then everyone can go home safely.
Hector was happy with that, made his troops come to a standstill, and when Agamemnon realized Hector needed to tell him something, he had his troops stop, too.
Sorry, guys, Harleigh came in and she wants to play and she's got serious seperation issues. This is Harleigh:
Okay, back to the story thing. All the battle people stopped fighting so that Hector could talk to Agamemnon. Hector announced to all of the troops Paris's challenge.
Menelaus wanted to speak to the crowds as well. "Hear me out, too. Granted, this is not as much vengence as I wanted. But I still intend for both groups to leave in peace, Trojans and Achaeans. Y'all have suffered enough over me because of Paris." So he agreed to Paris's challenge. He also said that they should make a sacrifice to the Sun, Earth, and to Zeus as a part of their oath.
So they decided, first, to give the sacrifices and make the oath, then to have Menelaus and Paris fight.
Iris, the messenger goddess, took the form of Hector's sister, and went to Helen to tell her of what was happening in the war. She told her of the compromise and of the current battle. All that had happened.
Iris filled Helen's heart with a longing for her home and her parents and for her earlier husband (Argos and Menelaus). Helen broke down in tears and, along with two of her women, took off running for the Scaean Gates. Can't say that I wouldn't have done the same thing. I mean, this girl is taken from her home and from her husband and brought back to this land she doesn't know and knows no one but her kidnapper. The man she loves comes to fight for her, while the man that took her also fights for her. There are two ways that this could end: she feels guilty that someone she doesn't know should die of love for her and that haunts her because she would feel like if he'd loved anyone else, he could've been happy OR he kills the man that she loves - the only one she's ever loved - her husband. And her husband would also die because he loved her and wanted to bring her home. He would fight for her. And while being in Troy and only knowing Paris as a kidnapper who forced her to be his wife terrifies her, she has equal hope of going home with her real husband. But she never meant for 10 years of warfare to break out over this. When you're in love, it makes everything you do seem crazy and irrational. But I'd feel the same as she does.
I'd also do the same thing that Menelaus is doing. Go after the son of a bitch that took away my lover and f***in' slaughter him. I understand how angry he is and you can see how much he misses her. That's another thing about love. Imagine going to bed every night, not having them beside you, and knowing that the only reason they aren't there is because they're being forced to share a bed with a stranger far away from their home. He probably couldn't sleep at night. He probably had nightmares about Helen every night. And her, too. You long to be with your soul mate. You know that you belong with them and that they make you happy and you could never picture your life without them. This is not a story of war. This is a story of anger and unfathomable fear and above all of love. When two people love each other that way, no one should ever get in the way. Not of soul mates. They always lose.
That's the same reason my dad failed at keeping me away from Nick. It's the same reason I'm the one he always goes back to. We belong together. It's just the way it is.
For the record, I take everything I read VERY personally. I want to be able to relate in ways that most people don't understand. That's why funny movies make me cry, scary movies make me laugh, and all sources of entertainment remind me of Nick. Anything with a story is something relatable. Homer wasn't an old, boring guy who wrote poetry about boring things in a boring way that was just a huge, thick boring book. It's beautiful and poetic and it means more than just facts and ignorance and boring blah-ness. If you read closely, pay attention, and analyze what you see, you'll have this picture in your head.
Picture this: shiney silver armour; blood guts and gore. Helmets and swords. Bows and arrows. Fear and abuse as well as love and longing. People pouring out their bodies' blood for this one relationship. People losing their lives and families losing their children or lovers over this one person. Yet they die with dignity. They consider Helen to be worth that. They consider her worth dying for. Most of these people didn't even know her. Most of them didn't know anything about her. All they knew was that she was the most beautiful, kind, loving person they'd ever heard of, and that she was worth all this war and all this time spent away from their own families. They wanted to bring her home. No matter how they were treated by their superiors. No matter how terrified they were at the thought of the possibility that every second could be their last. They didn't even know for sure that they would win. They knew that if they lost, this would all be for nothing. So many lives lost for no reason. All they could do was pray and fight. That didn't even guaruntee a fair fight because some were better fighters than others. Some by a landslide. These were intimidated by the brilliant fighters of the opposing side. Those were the ones who were chosen to lead. They were also protected by the others. The rest were mere pawns. Yet even knowing their place and knowing they were considered disposable, they fought their best. To the death.
Most didn't choose to be there. Most went because they had to. Not because they chose to. But they fought their best. And it all came down to this: Paris vs. Menelaus over Helen.
But you can't forget, this isn't over a possession. This is over true, genuine love. The kind of love that burns like a fire and can't be put out. The passionate kind of love that drives you completely, violently, viciously out of your mind. This is what they were fighting for. Paris knew that this love would never be requitted for him. He knew that her heart was with Menelaus. He knew she was homesick and that she didn't love him and that she wanted to go home. But love always hopes. He hoped that he'd at least grow on her. Aphrodite had promised her as his wife. Aphrodite was the mother of Cupid. He didn't know how she had planned to make it happen. He just had a lot of faith. He felt that since Aphrodite had willed him to be with her - even though the promise was made out of pure selfishness - that maybe things were supposed to be that way.
Just because we are further developed in society doesn't mean that we're further developed in mindset. These people knew right from wrong. They had feelings and thoughts and dreams and fears and they knew love and hate to the furthest extremities. They just went about it a bit differently according to the customs of their time. Granted I see the world differently than most people do, I also look further into it. There's always something deeper that causes what's set on the surface.
The troops were gathered at the Scaean Gates, which is where Helen was running to. My guess is that she was going to try to stop this somehow...she didn't know how, exactly, but she was gonna do anything she could to stop it. Love always protects. She wanted to protect Menelaus. And she pitied Paris.
They were still waiting on the lambs for sacrifice when Helen got there. Those who hadn't seen or known her before said she looked like a goddess. Then Priam of Troy called her over to sit in front of him. He told her that he didn't blame her for the war or for missing her country and her husband. "If we should blame anyone, it should be the gods." He pointed out one of the Achaeans in admiration and asked Helen his name.
"I have lots of respect for you, though you make me afraid also. I wish I'd have died the day I came here...I left my husband, my family, my child - who's now fully grown - and my friends. I didn't die so all I've been able to do is sob day in and day out...I don't remember ever having been so depressed...but about your question. Yes, I know who he is. That's Atreus' son Agamemnon. Both a majestic king and a strong spearsmen. And he used to be my family..." She seriously, honest to God, called herself a whore. In. The. Book. And I quote "he used to be my kinsmen, whore that I am!" Holy cow batman.
She started to cry again. But Priam called out to Agamemnon. He complimented him on his army. Then he saw Odysseus and again turned to Helen inquiring about him.
"Who is that one? He's shorter than Agamemnon, but broader around the shoulders and through the chest. He's like a ram among sheep."
Helen saw him and turned back to Priam. "He is the great tactician Odysseus, son of Laertes. He's from Ithaca." She paused. Antenor picked up where Helen had left off. I don't know when he got there. It's just now mentioning him.
"I've met them. I know the ways of their strategies and traits - Menelaus and Odysseus both." He pointed Menelaus out to him and told him a little about both men.
I can imagine how Helen must've felt upon the mention of her husband's name...she was already depressed out of her mind to the point of contemplating suicide with only hope keeping her alive. Without having to see him, even knowing the country she was in wanted him dead. She hadn't heard his name mentioned but with anger. She couldn't even bring herself to say his name because for some reason, when you miss someone like that, just the sound of their name sends this ripping pain directly into your chest. It feels like there is something sitting inside your chest - inside your heart - attempting to literally, physically rip you apart from the inside out with rusted box cutters for fingers and it itself ways 10 tons. You can't breathe. So much emotional pain hitting you physically...it's like nothing you could ever understand until you've experienced it first hand...
Heartbreak is a monster with the claws of Freddie Krueger and fingers like scalpels. It feeds off of your pain and your regret and misery. It wants to make things for you worse and worse. It's like giving birth from your chest. If you think you've been in love, but losing them didn't hurt you like that, then you didn't truely genuinely love them the way you thought you did. Me and Nick were on and off for 3 years and it hurt me like that every single time. Don't tell me I don't know what love is. Don't tell me I don't know what pain is. And don't tell me that I'm wrong. Because if you think that this description is inacurate, chances are you either are looking at it from a statistic perspective instead of the way of the heart, or you've never been in love to the point where you'd kill yourself if you caused them pain. That's not being melodramatic. That's loving the way God loves. That's what I always modeled the relationship after: 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a
Look it up.
Priam then caught sight of Ajax and asked Helen about him. He seems genuinely curious and amused and like he admires certain qualities of these Achaeans. Like he doesn't see them as a threat. More like...role models.
"Who's that other Achaean? The strong, powerful-looking one that is taller than the rest of the Argives."
"That's the giant Ajax" If you remember, there was Ajax and Little Ajax, so when she says the giant Ajax, she doesn't mean he's a literal giant. She's giving the distinction. She pointed a few other of the men out, reminesced a bit over when she was with Menelaus, and then said she couldn't find Castor and Polydeuces, her blood brothers. Then she was saddened because she thought they hadn't come to fight for her (they had fought Menelaus for her when it had been appropriate, but now they should be fighting to bring her home).
In reality, they were dead. They had been for a while. She hadn't known.
Okay, I'm really confused now because the way they're wording this is like they're trying to make Menelaus and Atrides the same person...they're brothers, not the same person. But I'm really confused.
Okay. I was right. So that means that Agamemnon was fighting with Menelaus AS one, not that they are the same person. That's kinda unfair...I mean it's both of them against Paris.
A crier went and announced to Laomedon that he had to go and present the offering since they had just come back with the lambs and then they would be able to fight: Paris against Menelaus, Atrides.
OH!! OKAY!! I get it now, Atrides means "son of Atreus" so it applies to both Agamemnon AND Menelaus so what he was saying was that it was one-on-one between Menelaus and Paris. WOW that was confusing. Never give your kids the same name.
So everyone goes down to the plains for the sacrifice and fight.
What is Agamemnon's deal?! He laid down the original friggen terms and THEN said "And we want ransom in addition if we win since you kidnapped her from us." I mean damn, all this guy talks about is being paid ransom. Granted, he's looking out for his brother, but Menelaus didn't ask for ransom. Agamemnon wants the ransom for himself. Greedy jackass.
So they made their covenant.
But Zeus would not yet fulfill their prayers. And now Priam got up to address the people. "I'm going home. This battle is between Paris and Menelaus and Menelaus is a badass, so I don't wanna watch my kid die."
But FIRST...Odysseus was going up against Hector.
(to be continued...)
