Thursday, August 16, 2018

Iliad II paris' bueaty gets helens treasures and venus blessing


Thy father's grief, and ruin of thy race;

This deed recalls thee to the proffer'd fight;

Or hast thou injured whom thou dar'st not right?

Soon to thy cost the field would make thee know

Thou keep'st the consort of a braver foe.

Thy graceful form instilling soft desire,

Thy curling tresses, and thy silver lyre,

Beauty and youth; in vain to these you trust,

When youth and beauty shall be laid in dust:

Troy yet may wake, and one avenging blow

Crush the dire author of his country's woe."

His silence here, with blushes, Paris breaks:

"'Tis just, my brother, what your anger speaks:

 

n    Note Paris blushes rather than gruels and calls the other side brothers. 

n     

But who like thee can boast a soul sedate,

So firmly proof to all the shocks of fate?

Thy force, like steel, a temper'd hardness shows,

Still edged to wound, and still untired with blows,

Like steel, uplifted by some strenuous swain,

With falling woods to strew the wasted plain.

Thy gifts I praise; nor thou despise the charms

 

n    Paris is of a sedate soul and charming, here his qualities of beauty are espoused. 

n     

With which a lover golden Venus arms;

Soft moving speech, and pleasing outward show,

No wish can gain them, but the gods bestow.

Yet, would'st thou have the proffer'd combat stand,

The Greeks and Trojans seat on either hand;

Then let a midway space our hosts divide,

And, on that stage of war, the cause be tried:

By Paris there the Spartan king be fought,

For beauteous Helen and the wealth she brought;

And who his rival can in arms subdue,

His be the fair, and his the treasure too.

Thus with a lasting league your toils may cease,

And Troy possess her fertile fields in peace;

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Thus may the Greeks review their native shore,

Much famed for generous steeds, for beauty more."

 

n    Here beauty is installed as mightier than savagery.  The gifts of Helen lie with Paris and his beautiful wars, her treasure are with the beauty of troy. Paris’ rival needs to be subdued with arms, Paris is in the love embrace of Venus and Helens blessed etheric arms.  Helen gifts are at the disposal of beauty and thus she is at the disposal of Paris and away from the war like kings of Greece and sparta. 

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