What I noticed about book six this time around was how bizarre and hopeless Helenus’ idea to pray to Athena was. I mean, we’ve just seen in Book 5 Athena how greatly Athena is helping Diomedes. Does Helenus *know that* and think for that very reason they should attempt to propitiate her? Or does he have no idea?
Additionally, it’s interesting how curt Athena’s reply to her offering is. We’re told *three times*, around ten lines each, what the ceremony is like (Helenus tells Hector, Hector tells Hecabe, and the narrator tells us) and Athena gives her response in one line, 311 — no.
And a point of fact I hadn’t noticed before: that the garment that they sacrifice to Athena is actually one that has been given to Hecabe by Alexandros, which he obtained during the same trip on which he abducted Helen. If Hecabe had chosen a different garment, one wonders, would Athena have answered differently?
But I think the answer is no, and that what we’re intended to see here is how doomed the Trojans are: praying to the wrong god about the wrong thing with the wrong offering.
Maybe that ties into your Gluakos-Diomedes point about being hateful to the gods?
Finally, as you remark on “Structure and Stories” this book is uniquely filled with women. We get all the female “stars” (Hecabe, Andromache, Helen) as well as a bunch of handmaidens and a ceremony to a female goddess conducted by “women of honor.” And then we see both Paris and Hector with respect to their women: Hector twice turning down mother and wife’s suggestions that he rest, Paris being cajoled by Helen to get back into the fight. You couldn’t have scenes such as these on the Greek side, where there are no such women, nor would it be so poignant from the point of view of the victors.
What I noticed about book six this time around was how bizarre and hopeless Helenus’ idea to pray to Athena was. I mean, we’ve just seen in Book 5 Athena how greatly Athena is helping Diomedes. Does Helenus *know that* and think for that very reason they should attempt to propitiate her? Or does he have no idea?
Additionally, it’s interesting how curt Athena’s reply to her offering is. We’re told *three times*, around ten lines each, what the ceremony is like (Helenus tells Hector, Hector tells Hecabe, and the narrator tells us) and Athena gives her response in one line, 311 — no.
And a point of fact I hadn’t noticed before: that the garment that they sacrifice to Athena is actually one that has been given to Hecabe by Alexandros, which he obtained during the same trip on which he abducted Helen. If Hecabe had chosen a different garment, one wonders, would Athena have answered differently?
But I think the answer is no, and that what we’re intended to see here is how doomed the Trojans are: praying to the wrong god about the wrong thing with the wrong offering.
Maybe that ties into your Gluakos-Diomedes point about being hateful to the gods?
Finally, as you remark on “Structure and Stories” this book is uniquely filled with women. We get all the female “stars” (Hecabe, Andromache, Helen) as well as a bunch of handmaidens and a ceremony to a female goddess conducted by “women of honor.” And then we see both Paris and Hector with respect to their women: Hector twice turning down mother and wife’s suggestions that he rest, Paris being cajoled by Helen to get back into the fight. You couldn’t have scenes such as these on the Greek side, where there are no such women, nor would it be so poignant from the point of view of the victors.