Paris the Warrior?

Edit: I forgot to mention that Menelaus was the king of the Spartans. Remember Thermopylae? Yeah, those Spartans.

45.4 "'My good brother' answered Hector 'you fight bravely, and no man with any justice can make light of your doings in battle. But you are careless and willfully remiss.'"

It seems that, despite his flaws, Paris was actually a good warrior. He may not have been able to stand up to Menelaus, but Menelaus was one of the best. Yet another reason why Troy is a bad movie.

Confusions

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the Greek morality and mentality, or mores, are very strange to both the Christian and the American way of thinking. Sometimes this difference amounts to no great significance, such as the lengthy and seemingly unnecessary genealogies in Book 2. Homer spends nearly half the book describing who was at Troy and who their ancestors were. The only other place I can think of this occurring is in the Bible, but the Israelites had very good reason to keep track of genealogy. I really do not understand why he would spend so much time on this and how it could possibly be of interest to the people listening to the poem being sung.

Another, much more striking difference is exhibited in the description of a battle scene.

The Trojans and Achaeans had struck a temporary truce and had sworn to Zeus that they would not fight or kill each other. During this lull, some Trojan took it upon himself to shoot Menelaus. This was an act of treachery and deceit and it broke an oath to the highest god. However, the Achaean response is [26.1] "Some Trojan or Lycean archer has wounded him with an arrow to our dismay and his own great glory."

Apparently glory has nothing to do with honor, piety or justice. It would be like saying that John Wilkes Booth has great glory. Infamy, yes; glory, no. I wonder if Homeric Greek has a word for infamy or if there is simply no distinction between good and bad fame.

Mental Imagery

Homer has a hilarious habit of using the most over-detailed similes. For instance:

"The Trojans advanced as a flight of wild fowl or cranes that scream overhead when rain and winter drive them over the flowing waters of Oceanus to bring death and destruction to the Pygmies, and they wrangle in the air as they fly."

I grant that this does convey a very, extremely specific mental image, but it seems a little much. It also probably comes across a little better in Greek.