The Apple of Discord and Menelaos

In the book Iliad, I perceive King Menelaos, brother of King Agamemnon and son of Atreus, as a self-sacrificing and valiant lad. When Prince Alexandros abducted his wife Helen, Menelaos did not have any second thought to recuperate her. To stand up for the love of his life, he, together with Agamemnon, raised a fleet and chased after Alexandros all the way to Troy. He fought bravely any battle, wholly decisive to punish the captor.

The contemptibly imprudent Alexandros had never thought that his irrational audacity by capturing Menelaos’ woman would result in majestic siege and waging of wars. It was not peculiar to see Alexandros slinking back into the ranks while his heart was sinking after he saw Menelaos in his fine suit of armor. Hector believed that Alexandros was handsome, but a man without fortitude, and people often saw him as a contemptible public pest for being the cause of war in the City of Troy. Because of this, he was induced to settle the conflict in a duel, at which Menelaos also agreed to.

Helen’s compassion for her husband was apparent during the fight. She longed for her husband of the old days, for home and family. The duel had been almost a glorious victory for the strong fighter Menelaos, but Aphrodite disrupted by taking Alexandros in a mist to Helen’s chamber ruining the duel before the decision happens. Helen scolded Alexandros for boasting once the he was a better man in a fair fight. While Athena incapacitated Menelaos by having him shot by an arrow of Pandarus, which roused the hostilities among the Achaians and Trojans once more.

I could compare Menelaos with the leading figure in Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo – Crisostomo Ibarra who courageously struggled to retaliate against his country’s enemies even if he knew that it would take him long to accomplish it.

As Menelaos hoped to get Helen back, Crisostomo Ibarra also purposed to take up and save Maria Clara, his beloved woman, from the abuse and cruelty of the Spanish colonialists.

These zealous and altruistic men, Menelaos and Ibarra, were truly an epitome of cleverness and heroism.

References:
The Iliad, Homer, WHD Rouse
ECAST World Literature, Serrano & Lapid