Page 23 - GALIET BEAUTY´S LURE: WAR Helen of Troy and Margareta of Germany IV

single combat in the fields of Troy, negligent Paris endorses, and King Priam blindly seconds, Troy’s wreckage and demise.
In their blind obstinacies to keep her, Prince Paris and King Priam become Troy’s Architects of Death. They concede to war in their neglect to return Helen amiably, or when she is won, thus breaking their oath with the Argives. They do not govern well. Recklessly, King Priam blindly seconds Paris’ motion not to return Argive Helen, negating twice the wise counsel of the chief elders to do otherwise in Book 3 and 7, knowing well that it is for Paris’s sake for whom “this strife has arisen,”35 and knowing well that Helen signifies calamity for Troy, as the wise elders foretold earlier at the famed wall. Thus, King Priam, having urged Trojans, Dardanians, and his companions of arms to remain watchful, approves of the war to go on until divine will chooses its victor,
“Priam, son of Dardanos, equal of the gods in counsel,
who in kind intention toward all stood forth and addressed them: ‘Trojans and Dardanians and companions in arms: hear me while I speak forth what the heart within my breast urges.
Take now your supper about the city, as you did before this, And remember your duty of the watch, and be each man wakeful; And at dawn let Idaios go to the hollow ships, and speak with The sons of Atreus, Menelaos and Agamemnon, giving
The word of Alexandros, for whose sake this strife has arisen We shall fight again until the divinity
Chooses between us, and gives victory to one or the other.’”
35 Il.,7.376, and 366-378.
Il.,7.366-378.
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