Page 17 - GALIET BEAUTY´S LURE: WAR Helen of Troy and Margareta of Germany IV

(Herodotus, Isocrates, Sappho), twenty-four festive, splendid and gracious (Berlin Papyrus 219),24 radiant and glorious (Catalogue of Women 5/39, Isocrates), it is her Homeric, terrible sublime physical beauty, in the Iliad, that spells doom for Troy, just as golden- haired Margareta’s ideological beauty spells death for Jews, gypsies, homosexuals and eventually, Europe itself. Golden- haired Margareta confounds Hitler and Nazi elders with the glories of German Romanticism and Classical Beauty, just as lovely-haired Helen dazzles Paris and Trojan elders with her terrible sublime physical majesty. In their majestic beauties, they dwarf the world. In Celan’s holocaust poetry, Margareta symbolizes Hitler’s yearning to bring back his ideal Grecian Beauty, the greatness and most sublime ideals of German Romanticism and Classicism,25 just as lovely-haired Helen, in Homer’s epic, emblemizes Menelaus’ volition to recover his Grecian physical beauty, against Paris’ obstinate will to keep her in Troy. Thus, Argives, Trojans and Nazi Germans are willing to war for Lady Beauty’s sake.
If the Judgment of Paris causes strife for feminine beauty’s sake, the Oath of Tyndareus facilitates it. In a cycle of stories, Menelaus and Agamemnon call Helen’s former suitors to recover honor and beautiful Helen by invoking the Oath of
24In the Berlin Papyrus p. 219, Helen is said to possess golden Aphrodite’s beauty and the radiance of the Graces. This suggests she possesses the Graces’ splendor, gaiety, and festivity.
25 This is affirmed by many texts studied for this paper. See Felstiner, John. Paul Celan: Poet, Survivor, Jew. 30-39. See Shirer, William. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. A History of Nazi Germany. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1960. See Glover, Jonathan. Humanity. A Moral History of the Twentieth Century. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000. See Cohen, Peter. Documentary: The ArchitectureofDoom. Sweden,1989.
· 17 ·