A simile Homer uses twice, the first time to describe Paris, the second time to describe Hektor. In what ways in its immediate context is each use of this simile appropriate to the character and the situation it is illuminating?

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5. ‘As when come stalled horse who has fed full at the manger breaks his halter and gallops thudding across the plain, eager for his usual bathe in the lovely flow of a river, and glorying as he runs. He holds his head high, and the mane streams back along his shoulders: sure of his own magnificence, his legs carry him lightly to the haunts where the mares are at pasture.’ (Iliad 6. 502-511 and 15. 263-270)

A simile Homer uses twice, the first time to describe Paris, the second time to describe Hektor. In what ways in its immediate context is each use of this simile appropriate to the character and the situation it is illuminating? Consider more generally the differences between Hektor and Paris as individuals and then come back to consider why Homer might have chosen to link them in this intriguing way.

In Homer’s ‘The Iliad’ the presence of the simile used to describe the Trojan Princes,

Paris in Book six and Hektor in Book fifteen, draws the readers mind to the sharp contrast

between both the temperament and mannerisms of the brothers. Its use in relation to

the two brothers, consequently enables one’s mind to question why Homer would

categorise two such dissimilar persons in exactly the same way. To assume that it is due

simply to their blood-bond is entirely too obvious an assumption when considering the

diversity and mystique found within Homer’s works. It is clear throughout the poem,

when comparing Paris and Hektor, that the ideals, morals and attitudes of one brother is

an almost complete contradiction to that of the other brother. Where Hektor is the

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Warrior, forever bound by the ‘hero’s code’; by duty and honor, Paris is the Lover, bound

only by his own wants and needs, by his vanity and his love for Helen. These differences

in personal values are arguable the main sources of the tension and resentment that

flourishes between the brothers throughout the progress of ‘The Iliad’.

Paris is the beautiful, charming, often womanizing, Trojan Prince; he is the son of Priam,

King of Troy, and brother to Hektor, heroic warrior Prince of Troy. Paris is essentially

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