Continuing forward with my study of the Iliad, there's another comparison to be made with a story from the Bible.
Book Three of the Iliad starts with Paris coming out onto the field of battle, gorgeous as a god. Menelaus, the king of Sparta fighting for the Greeks, scares Paris back behind Trojan lines.
Hector, seeing this, taunts Paris with these lines:
“Unhappy Paris! but to women brave!
So fairly form’d, and only to deceive!
Oh, hadst thou died when first thou saw’st the light,
Or died at least before thy nuptial rite!
A better fate than vainly thus to boast,
And fly, the scandal of thy Trojan host.
Gods! how the scornful Greeks exult to see
Their fears of danger undeceived in thee!...
Beauty and youth; in vain to these you trust,
When youth and beauty shall be laid in dust:
Troy yet may wake, and one avenging blow
Crush the dire author of his country’s woe.”
Paris then challenges Menelaus to a duel to end the war, and they agree. The two warriors fight. Technically, Memelaus wins, and Paris is beaten, but before Menelaus can finish the fight, the goddess Aphrodite snatches Paris away to safety, back to his comfortable bedroom, where he and Helen make love.
Paris portrays himself as a victim of the gods, and truly this seems to be the case - the very reason he won Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world, was because he was recruited as a judge of beauty for three different goddesses - Juno, Athena, and Aphrodite - and he chose Aphrodite.
Aphrodite gave him Helen, who was already married to Agamemnon. Thus the war between the Greeks and the Trojans began.
Definitely a lover, not a fighter, that Paris guy.
David and Goliath
In 1 Samuel 17, we see a similar standoff. The Israelites and the Phillistines were at war, camped in the Valley of Elah. The Philistines chose a champion to challenge another warrior to a fight that would end the entire war. They chose Goliath, a giant of a man.
Every day, Goliath marched out to challenge Israel, but no one would face him.
David's brothers were off to war with the Phillistines, and David, the youngest, stayed home to take care of his father's flocks. One day he brought them food, and saw Goliath's challenge:
And David left his carriage in the hand of the keeper of the carriage,
and ran into the army, and came and saluted his brethren.
And as he talked with them,
behold, there came up the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name,
out of the armies of the Philistines, and spake according to the same words:
and David heard them.
And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him, and were sore afraid.
And the men of Israel said,
Have ye seen this man that is come up? surely to defy Israel is he come up:
and it shall be, that the man who killeth him,
the king will enrich him with great riches, and will give him his daughter,
and make his father’s house free in Israel.
And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying,
What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine,
and taketh away the reproach from Israel?
for who is this uncircumcised Philistine,
that he should defy the armies of the living God?
His brothers accused him of greed, of wanting the reward. The king heard of him, and questioned him. He said that the Lord had already helped him kill a lion and a bear; he could kill Goliath with God's help. King Saul offered him some armor to protect him in a fight. David refused it. He went to meet Goliath with only a slingshot and some stones, and the Lord.
Goliath laughed at David, and so did the Philistines. When Goliath moved to kill him, David put a rock in his slingshot and slung it straight at his head, knocking him out. From there, he drew Goliath's sword and killed him. The Philistines saw this and ran away.
There's an interesting comparison to be made here between Paris and David, in what they expected from Deity. Paris knew the gods were capricious, and he was their victim, because he couldn't know what they would want. Therefore, he went along with every whim Fate offered him, regardless of the consequences to himself or others.
David, on the other hand, knew God as much as any human being could know God, and knew that He was faithful and was determined to worship Him, whatever the cost. Thus, he was confident in the goodness of his cause, and that God would help him survive, if that was His will.
In a certain sense, there was that same surrender to Divine will. But Paris was lost in the demands of the moment, and never gave concern for honor or anything larger than him that might help others. His surrender to the will of the gods forced him to take all the pleasures he could in the moment, for he could lose them at any time.
David knew that his surrender would be for the best good of all, even if it meant his death. God's view were higher than his, and he trusted in the Lord to do what was best for all.
Two very similar scenarios, but two very different mindsets.
