![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() She's without feelings," says the Greek king Menelaus of his famous wife Helen. "She can do anything at all, or have the most tragic things happen to her, and not be disturbed in the slightest. ![]() They feel deeply, but there's a callousness to them as well. These two are unlike any of Homer's other characters they're more beautiful, more constantly aware of their own place in myth - and they revel in their power to make things turn around them. The long ordeal suffered by the Trojans and the Greeks in Homer's Iliad is brought about entirely by the fascination exerted by two demigods, Helen of Troy and Achilles. The closest mortals get is loving the offspring of gods, and that, too, has a high, horrible price. They can be momentarily fascinated by mortals, but for any deeper emotions, the mortals in question must be fundamentally changed, raised to godhood in order to be loved. They get abducted, metamorphosed, deceived, torn to pieces, and they can't retaliate in any way - not only because they lack the power, but also because they lack the emotional parity: the gods of Greek mythology have only the simplest, most childish passions. It's a truism of Homeric studies that mortals pay a high, horrible price for their dealings with the gods. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |