Iliad
Book 3
Hector speaking to Paris
At one glance
Hector raked his brother with insults, stinging taunts:
“Paris, appalling Paris! Our prince of beauty-
mad for women, you lure them all to ruin!
Would to god you’d never been born, died unwed.
That’s all I’d ask. Better that way by far
than to have you strutting here, an outrage-
a mockery in the eyes of all our enemies. Why,
the long-haired Achaeans must be roaring with laughter!
They thought you the bravest champion we could field,
and just because of the handsome luster on your limbs,
but you have no pith, no fighting strength inside you.
What?-is this the man who mustered the oarsmen once,
who braved the seas in his racing deep-sea ships,
trafficked with outlanders, carried off a woman
far from her distant shores, a great beauty
wed to a land of rugged spearmen?
Hector Blames Paris.
19th.century
Gaspare Landi
Italian
1756-1830.
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