Page 41 - GALIET BEAUTY´S LURE: WAR Helen of Troy and Margareta of Germany IV

Homeric Grecian arguments, Gorgia’s fabled Encomium of Helen reveals Helen’s godlike, immortal beauty, and absolves Helen of every unjust charge in the burning of Troy: she is either caught in the net of fate, or love, or speech, or abducted by force.74 Thus, Propertius, too, understands how her irresistible beauty can set Troy on fire. “Paris is wise to comply,” says Propertius, and “Menelaus to demand [in demanding] her.”75
Not only her beauty justifies Achilles’ death, but also, King Priam feels compelled to approve the war for it.76 Helen’s paralyzing beauty is so irresistible that Menelaus, overcome by love, drops his sword, when he sees Helen seeking refuge at Aphrodite’s temple (Ibycus),77 and when ready to kill Helen, he stops in stupor when he sees Helen’s beautiful naked bosom.78 With the exception of Greek tragedians, there is a tendency to sublimate beauty to altitudes that justify the spilling of blood for her sake. No longer does the universal human heart weeps for Troy’s fall (except for tragedians), but it prefers to glorify Helen’s beauty at the cost of wounds, and the spears and arrows of the inhuman, conjoining it with divine will. It speaks of justifying might and cruelty for beauty’s sake. It is a cruel,
74 Gorgias. “Encomium of Helen.” (4) The Older Sophists: a complete translation. Trans. Kennedy. Ed. Sprague. University of South Carolina Press, 1972. 50-51.
75 Propertius. Loeb Classical Library. Ed. and Trans. Goold. London: Harvard University Press, 1990. 2.3 and 3.14.
76 Propertius. Loeb Classical Library. Ed. and Trans. Goold. London: Harvard University Press, 1990. 2.3 and 3.14.
77 Alcaeus, Sappho, Stesichorus, Ibycus. Greek Lyric Vol. I-3. Lyric Fragments. Loeb Classical Library. Ed. and Trans. Campbell. London: Harvard University Press, 1982- 1991. 263. See Scholiast on Euripides, Andromache, Ibycus.
78 March, Jenny. “Menelaos.” Cassell Dictionary of Classical Mythology. UK: Cassell, 1998. 253. Also Apollodorus 3.10.8-3.9.1.
· 41 ·