Page 24 - GALIET BEAUTY´S LURE: WAR Helen of Troy and Margareta of Germany IV

Like many Nazi officials, King Priam does not question Paris’ irrational decision at all.36 Instead, King Priam blindly seconds Paris’ motion, while disregarding, for the second time, the crucial counsel of prudent Antenor and the seasoned, chief elders to let Helen opportunely depart before further calamities and deaths occur.37 King Priam’s governance fails. He is an incompetent king in mindlessly seconding Paris’ motion, and in trusting divine fate over the wise counsel of the elders, particularly when Hera and Athena support the Argives. King Priam, no longer equal of the gods in counsel, foolishly acquiesces to go on fighting soon after the dead are cremated until the bleak hour “the divinity chooses between Argives or Trojans (us).”38
Troy is fated to fight and to succumb if the Gods will it. Troy is fated because King Priam believes in the power of fate, over wise counsel. By believing in fate, he is not responsible for the judicious governance of Troy. Thus, King Priam is the fate of Troy in its former glory and future fall, just as “Hitler is [was] the fate of Germany,”39 in its Romantic, Neo-Classical climb and plunge. The chief elders, too, sadly fail. They dangerously conform and obey, just as Helen’s former suitors who swore Tyndareus’ Oath, or the Nazi officials
36 Il.,7.350-370.
37 The first time was when the wise elders thought it best to return Helen while murmuring at the Wall in Book 3 to each other: “Terrible is the likeness of her face to immortal goddesses/Still, though she be such, let her go away in the ships, lest/She be left behind, a grief to us and to our children.” Il.3.158-160.
38 Il.,7.376-377.
39 These words were said by Field Marshal Walther Von Brauchitsch, Commander in Chief of the German Army, 1938-41. Shirer, William. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. A History of Nazi Germany. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1960. vii.
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