While walking home and listening to Chopin the other day, my thoughts started wandering as they always do, and I found myself thinking about the Iliad. One of my favorite pieces of literature, the Iliad embodies so many conflicting human emotions that great minds come back again and again to see what hidden tidbits of wisdom they can take from it.
One particular subject that has always captured my attention was Paris – the man who stole Helen from the Achaians and started the 10-year war. I have often wondered how this man, who was deemed a wretch even by his fellow Trojans for bringing the wrath of the Greeks against them, was able to bring down the mighty Achilles whom even Hector the great could not defeat.
I decided to remove the OIympians from the picture and tried to envision Paris through the lens of an atheist. That was when it hit me – Paris was the greatest warrior of them all.
Allow me to elaborate.
The Trojan War has its roots in a conflict among the Gods. When Hera, Athena and Aphrodite asked Zeus to choose which one of them was the most beautiful, Zeus asked Paris to be the judge of this competition. Of course, being the Greek Gods, they could not play fair. Each of the Goddesses offered Paris an incentive should he choose her – Athena offered him unmatched wisdom and military knowledge, Hera offered him a position as one of the greatest rulers of the Earth and Aphrodite offered him the most beautiful woman on the planet. Paris chose Aphrodite, incurring the wrath of the other two Goddesses and of the entire Greek populous.
Now, take the Goddesses as symbols and what I gather is this – Paris could have been extremely wise in both philosophy and military combat and would have emerged as a world leader had he not fallen in love. It was because he fell in love that he could not harness his other talents. Had he not set eyes on Helen, he would have been wiser than Odysseus and more fearsome than Achilles or Hector. I guess you could take this further and conclude that even the mightiest warrior cannot defeat the whims of the heart.
Anyway, this insight made sense but I was a little hesitant about jumping on board with it. Then I realized Paris alone was able to bring down Achilles. Now granted, it was Apollo who guided Paris’ arrow but again, if we take Apollo to be an allegory and not a literal deity, it ties the entire theory nicely.
I am probably not the first one to stumble on to this conclusion, but I did do it independently. I always knew that there was more to Paris than how he came off to others. You only ever see Paris through the eyes of other characters after all.
Anyway, it is late and I have class early tomorrow. Time to grab whatever little sleep I can.
