%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
 |
A blog to connect Humanities Core concepts with my creative side |
| Homer presents Helen as the epitome of beauty. She is “the loveliest daughter Priam ever bred” (2.149), he describes, a “terrible beauty” (2.189). For Homer, she is beautiful to the point that the Trojans and Achaeans start a war over who possesses her, and make a prize out of her. Paris kidnaps Helen while Menelaus is away, and now both men are each prepared to possibly fight to his death for a chance to finally claim Helen as his wife. When Iris tells Helen of that, Homer says “out of the rooms [Helen] rushed, live tears welling” (3.170). Such aggressiveness from the men, and Helen’s quiet, yet emotional acceptance of the deal when she received Iris’s message reminded me of what Emma Watson had to say in her recent #HeforShe Campaign in the United Nations. She said “If men don’t have to control, women don’t have to be controlled” (Watson). The two men are fighting over control of who gets Helen. While it could be seen as a romantic gesture of desperate love, in reality, Helen should be the one making decisions on who she wants to go with. It is, after all, who she will have to live with for the rest of her life. Instead, the battle ends when Aphrodite helps Paris disappear so he can go back and make love to Helen; Paris’s disappearance means that Menelaus declares himself winner of the battle; therefore, demanding the Trojans hand back Helen, alongside all her riches, with the “roared assent” of his armies (3.540). Works Cited: Homer. The Iliad. Trans. Robert Fagles. NY: Penguin Books, 1990. Watson, Emma. "Emma Watson at the HeForShe Campaign 2014". np. Launch of the HeForShe Campaign. U.N. Headquarters. New York City, NY. 20 Sept. 2014. Address |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
