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.
– Homer
The Iliad, Book 3, lines 43-52. Hector rebukes his younger brother Paris for his cowardice and lack of honor after he backs away from combat with Menelaus and hides within the Trojan ranks. Hector says that Paris is an embarrassment to his family and to Troy. The man who later kills Achilles by shooting an arrow through his heel is portrayed by Homer as weak, cowardly, and a womanizer who doesn’t pull his weight on the battlefield.