#oenone

8:59 AM EDT May 25, 2026:

Pink Floyd - "Oenone" From the bootleg Omay Yad (1972)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

One of the first Floyd bootlegs, and the first source for Zabriskie Point outtakes.

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“I wish I had a wild beast's savage heart; then I would tear your flesh in pieces and lap up your blood, so much harm have you done me at the prompting of your wicked folly! You wretched creature! Where is that fair-crowned Cythereia of yours now? Where is unwearied Zeus? Can he have forgotten his son-in-law?”

But Oenone is also an Oread. Being abandoned by your only love is one thing, but to even have his actions result in her *trees*, her *forest* being cut down, has to have cut into her very being.

- Œnone, Alfred Tennyson (1842):

"O mother, hear me yet before I die.

They came, they cut away my tallest pines,

my dark tall pines, that plumed the craggy ledge

high over the blue gorge, and all between

the snowy peak and snow-white cataract

foster'd the callow eaglet – from beneath

whose thick mysterious boughs in the dark morn

the panther's roar came muffled, while I sat

low down in the valley. Never, never more

shall lone Œnone see the morning mist

sweep thro' them, never see them overlaid

with narrow moon-lit strips of silver cloud,

between the loud stream and the trembling stars."

The mythological Judgment of Paris, from the perspective of Paris' wife, Oenone.

He went from living Mount to living in Troy.

He went from being an enslaved shepherd to a free prince.

He went known primarily as the "arrogant" shepherd and became known primarily as the prince who loved erotic pleasures/beauty.

Oenone, being a minor nymph and someone described as performing field tasks, is strongly associated with the idyllic. But Helen, being a queen and someone whose chosen suitor would become the king of Sparta, is strongly associated with status. In this sense, Oenone is much more symbolically suited as the wife of a shepherd than of a prince, and, in turn, Helen is more suited to a prince than to a shepherd. Therefore, Paris abandoning Oenone for Helen is equivalent to Paris abandoning servitude for royalty. It is also the equivalent from Paris, seeing love in nature amidst his difficult situation as an enslaved man, to Paris seduced by luxury and the beauty of a life of high status.

Oenone, while described as someone who worked in the fields with her husband, indicates Paris's former role: manual labor in the fields. Helen, while described as someone of immense beauty and accused of being lustful, indicates Paris's later reputation: a handsome man who commits acts considered illicit at the time for erotic reasons. Therefore, each of his wives corresponds to the identity/fame of Paris in each of the scenarios.

Paris, as an enslaved man, shouldn't have had a nymph wife, since nymphs are still goddesses, even if most of them are minor goddesses. His wife, then, was a subtle suggestion of his true identity: someone who is royalty by blood. The fact that Oenone is described as prophetic, in my view, only emphatizes this: it's easier to believe that she would get involved with an enslaved man when she knows that, deep down, this man is "noble by birth". After all, we're talking about Ancient Greece, where there was a genuine belief that some were born better than others because of their blood. Would Oenone "lower" herself not just to the level of a human, but a human who is considered inferior by other humans (that is, an enslaved person) if she didn't know?

Paris was already considered "arrogant" on Mount Ida because people judged him to be too confident and daring for his status as an enslaved shepherd. His marriage to Oenone reinforced this too. In turn, Paris remained considered arrogant for "stealing" another man's wife, especially his host's. His illicit affair with Helen reinforced this said arrogance. Each of his wives, then, represents an "excess" that he committed at different stages of his life: Oenone is the excess of an enslaved man not submitting "enough", Helen is the excess of an adulterous man in becoming involved with a married woman/of a guest in betraying his host. The idea of ​​"excess" also reinforces the fact that Paris is generally used as an example of the Orientalist trope of Ancient Greece's "barbarian". The negatively stereotyped barbarian man is excessive: he is lustful, he is obsessed with money, he is very vain, he has no morals, he is a seductive man who use his "exoticism", etc., etc.

Paris's act of not believing Oenone's prophecies, when he tells her them before he is called to judge (depending on the version, she tells him when it is late. I'm talking about when she tells him early), represents that he cannot see himself involved in something so big/having more, even though he desires to have more, because that's how he was taught. But in the case of the tradition where Paris participates in the Judgment of the Goddesses before being discovered (and therefore, while he is still an enslaved shepherd and does not know that he is a prince by birth), then his choosing a wife who is the most beautiful woman of all perhaps represents Paris's desire for more. Coming from an enslaved man, this desire would already be a transgression in itself, regardless of the woman's civil status. But after he is discovered to be a prince, the desire for more ceases to be a transgression. Hence, the transgression becomes something else: the woman is married. Paris is, therefore, always a transgressor of social morals.

In conclusion, his choices of wives and his behavior towards them represent Paris's various transgressions: he was an enslaved man who did not fully submit to the living conditions imposed upon him (an enslaved human with a divine wife), he was an enslaved man who wanted more (he chooses the most beautiful woman before discovering his true identity), he was an enslaved prince (Oenone knew of his origin and, therefore, her union with him was an indication of this), he was a freed slave (he abandons Mount Ida and, along with it, Oenone), he was a man with a predilection for eroticism instead of other aspects considered more masculine (he prefers to spend time with Helen than to fight for her), he was an adulterer when the norm demanded that he respect other people's marriages (something directly linked to Helen), he was a bad guest when the norm demanded that he respect the authority of the host (something directly linked to Helen), he completely abandoned his son with Oenone in the versions where he is the father of a child with her (when the norm was for a man to care about having children who were heirs and of a good lineage. Since Corythus is a boy, he is an heir, and since his mother is a goddess, the lineage is good), etc etc.

I'm most likely seeing too much, perhaps these authors didn't intentionally think all of this (although I believe that, at least in part, they did. I genuinely believe, for example, that it's intentional that Paris became involved with Oenone to indicate his hidden status). Also, it's noteworthy that I need to select specific traditions/views for the interpretation to work (for example, it doesn't work as well if I use the idea that Paris judged the goddesses post-discovery). It is also important to emphasize that I am primarily talking about an external analysis (that is, viewing the characters as non-existent people, as tropes, as part of symbolic narratives. I am not talking about the moral responsibility or lack thereof of the characters, I'm only talking about symbolic social aspects). But it's a thought I enjoy entertaining.

Notes:

This is not me saying that minor nymphs are never depicted in relationships with kings/princes. That would, of course, be an exaggeration. But I am referring to the characterization of Oenone (not just a nymph, but a pastoral nymph) as an example of common characteristics of idyllic poetry. The relationship between Paris and Oenone is quite similar to elements frequently present in the idyllic poetry of Ancient Greece.

Also notably, I am referring to the mythological tradition in which the Judgment of the Goddesses takes place before he is discovered, and therefore he is not a shepherd after the discovery. In other words, I'm using the interpretation that Paris actually abandons shepherding completely instead of, for example, being like Ganymede (who work in the fields as royalty simultaneously).