Insane in the membrane

Sardanapalus struck me more as insane rather than an effeminate hero because he reminded me of the third Lord of the Rings movie. The movie borrows his story for the Denethor, a good guy we’re supposed to empathize with, but he’s crazy like Sardanapalus. 

Sardanapalus does not realize all the people who care for him (his brother, his wife) until it’s too late, and only mentally ill people cannot read emotions and human activity. Denethor does the same by sending his son on a suicide mission. He also does not heed the call for bravery and valor from his human subjects until the Euphrates, an inanimate object, breaks the city walls. Again, the guy is not connecting with people at all. He burns himself, like Denethor, too, which is the most painful and irrational way, so to say, of committing suicide, even if it is glorious. Perhaps being crazy is part of the distortion to norms that an effeminate hero brings about, but his insanity superseded all of his “girly man” stuff that preceded.