Troilus and Cressida Act 4

This act had a lot going on in it so I think for this blog I'm just going to go through the scenes and make comments on things throughout. This first thing that I found surprising was Diomedes equating Helen to a common tart and that she isn't worth all that much. This depiction of Helen is quite different from the stories that have been passed on about her from other places. I find it interesting Shakespeare is choosing to not fall into the main stream by saying Helen is the woman who launched a thousand ships. I also found the fact that they are trading Cressida without having to ask her or even mention it to her before the agreement is made. I found that part a little unnerving but it makes sense that women didn't have much say back then.

I found it very scandalous that Troilus and Cressida slept together before marriage. And of course her creepy uncle had to give her a hard time even though he is the one who set the whole thing up in the first place. Pandarus is kind of annoying and flip floppy. I'm also not sure what to make of Troilus and Cressida's relationship. It seems as if he's truly in love with her but several times scene five Troilus tells Cressida to be true and it almost seems as if he doesn't trust her with all those Grecian men. Although he does get extremely jealous when Diomedes is flirting with her so that throws a loop into their relationship dynamics. So I'm just not sure what I think about those two.

I found scene 7 to be hilarious with the encounter between Achilles and Hector. The two of them throwing insults at each other made me LOL. Like Achilles thinking he can point out exactly where he'll kill Hector is just so funny. I love it when men go chest to chest with each other because it seems so childish but it's still funny.

Question: In the 6th scene where Cressida enters into the Greek camp she is kissed by many people. When they say they kissed her is it on the lips or on the hand? I mean the hand would seem more resonable because it's not as intimate but Achilles says, "I'll take that winter from your LIPS, fair lady". So I'm just wondering was kissing on the lips not as intimate as it is today? Or are they actually kissing her hand.