Have an exam in my upper level Latin class (translating Aeneid) so haven’t had as much time to read/write up blog entries. In this class though I did just go through where Aeneas finds Helen hiding in the sanctuary from both the angry Greeks and angry Trojans who blame her for the war. Its an interesting
passage:
Iamque adeo super unus eram, cum limina Vestae
seruantem et tacitam secreta in sede latentem
Tyndarida aspicio;…
illa sibi infestos euersa ob Pergama Teucros
et Danaum poenam et deserti coniugis iras
praemetuens, Troiae et patriae communis Erinys,
abdideratsese atque aris inuisa sedebat…
occiderit ferro Priamus? Troia arserit igni?
Dardanium totiens sudarit sanguine litus?
non ita.
And now indeed only I survived, when I saw Helen at the threshold of Vestae Serving and silent having hid lurking in the shrine…
She, fearing for herself beforehand the hostile Trojans, on account of destroyed Pergama
and the punishments of the Greeks, and the wrath of her deserted husband,
a common curse of Troy and her homeland,
she hid herself and sat hidden in the shrines…
Must Priam fall by the sword? Must Troy burn by fire?
Must Dardanian shores perspire in blood so many times?
Not thus.
(Aeneid II.567-568,571-574,581-583)
So, I'm thinking... should we pity Helen at this point? Or blame her for the fall of Troy? For the deaths of so many Greeks?
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