Elements of her putative biography come from ancient Greek and Roman authors such asHomer,Hesiod,Euripides,Virgil andOvid. In her youth, she was abducted byTheseus. A competition between her suitors for her hand in marriage saw Menelaus emerge victorious. All of her suitors were required to swear an oath (known as theOath ofTyndareus) promising to provide military assistance to the winning suitor, if Helen were ever stolen from him. The obligations of the oath precipitated the Trojan War. When she married Menelaus she was still very young. In most accounts, includingHomer's, Helen ultimately fell in love with Paris and willingly went to Troy with him, though there are also stories she was abducted.[6]
The legends of Helen during her time in Troy are contradictory: Homer depicts her ambivalently, both regretful of her choice and sly in her attempts to redeem her public image. Other accounts have a treacherous Helen who simulatedBacchic rites and rejoiced in the carnage she caused. In some versions, Helen does not arrive in Troy, but instead waits out the war inEgypt.[7] Ultimately, Paris was killed in action, and in Homer's account Helen was reunited with Menelaus, though other versions of the legend recount her ascending to Olympus instead. A cult associated with her developed in HellenisticLaconia, both at Sparta and elsewhere; atTherapne she shared a shrine with Menelaus. She was also worshipped inAttica and onRhodes.
Her beauty inspired artists of all times to represent her, frequently as the personification of ideal human beauty. Images of Helen start appearing in the 7th century BC. In classical Greece, her elopement—or abduction—was a popular motif. In medieval illustrations, this event was frequently portrayed as a seduction, whereas in Renaissance paintings it was usually depicted as a "rape" (i. e., aforced abduction) by Paris.[d]Christopher Marlowe's lines from his tragedyDoctor Faustus (1604) are frequently cited: "Was this the face that launched a thousand ships / And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?"[e]
The lyric poets Ibycus and Alcaeus consider her the cause of the war and associate her with infidelity. On other hand Sappho refers to Helen in her own poem not to criticize her as the cause of war, but to highlight the power of love that caused Spartan queen to abandon her first husband. In tragedies written by Euripides she is mostly presented as a willing participant in elopement with Paris, but she nevertheless shows remorse for her actions and reconciles with Menelaus after the Trojan war. In the "Encomium of Helen", the orator Gorgias undertakes to defend Helen for her marital "infidelity". In the introduction four factors are listed to which responsibility for her decision to follow Paris could be attributed: 1) the gods and fate, 2) violence, 3) persuasive speech and 4) love. Gorgias examines these four factors one by one and concludes that in all four cases Helen had to deal with forces much more powerful than a person's will, concluding that she is not responsible for her action.
The Love of Helen and Paris byJacques-Louis David (oil on canvas, 1788, Louvre, Paris)
Theetymology ofHelen's name continues to be a problem for scholars. In the 19th century,Georg Curtius relatedHelen (Ἑλένη) to the moon (Selene;Σελήνη). But two early dedications to Helen in the Laconian dialect of ancient Greek spell her name with an initialdigamma (Ϝ, probably pronounced like a w), which rules out any etymology originally starting with simple*s-.[8]
In the early 20th century, Émile Boisacq considered Ἑλένη to derive from the well-known nounἑλένη meaning "torch".[9] It has also been suggested that the λ ofἙλένη arose from an original ν, and thus the etymology of the name would be connected with the root ofVenus. Linda Lee Clader, however, says that none of the above suggestions offers much satisfaction.[10][h]
More recently,Otto Skutsch has advanced the theory that the name Helen might have two separate etymologies, which belong to different mythological figures respectively, namely*Sṷelenā (related toSanskritsvaraṇā "the shining one") and*Selenā, the first a Spartan goddess, connected to one or the other natural light phenomenon (especiallySt. Elmo's fire) and sister of theDioscuri, the other a vegetation goddess worshiped inTherapne as Ἑλένα Δενδρῖτις ("Helena of the Trees").[13]
Others have connected the name's etymology to a hypotheticalProto-Indo-Europeansun goddess, noting the name's connection to the word for "sun" in various Indo-European cultures[14] including the Greek proper word and god for the sun,Helios.[15][16][17][13] In particular, her marriage myth may be connected to a broader Indo-European "marriage drama" of the sun goddess, and she is related to thedivine twins, just as many of these goddesses are.[18]Martin L. West has thus proposed thatHelena ("mistress of sunlight") may be constructed on thePIE suffix-nā ("mistress of"), connoting a deity controlling a natural element.[19]
Map ofHomeric Greece; Menelaus and Helen reign over Laconia
Helen first appears in the poems ofHomer, after which she became a popular figure in Greek literature. These works are set in the final years of theAge of Heroes, a mythological era which features prominently in the canon of Greek myth. Because the Homeric poems are known to have been transmitted orally before being written down, some scholars speculate that such stories were passed down from earlierMycenaean Greek tradition, and that the Age of Heroes may itself reflect a mythologized memory of that era.[20]
Recent archaeological excavations inGreece suggest that modern-dayLaconia was a distinct territory in theLate Bronze Age, while the poets narrate that it was a rich kingdom. Archaeologists have unsuccessfully looked for a Mycenaean palatial complex buried beneath present-day Sparta.[21] Modern findings suggest the area aroundMenelaion in the southern part of theEurotas valley seems to have been the center of Mycenaean Laconia.[22]
Helen and Menelaus had a daughter,Hermione. Hesiod says she was "a child unlooked for,"[23] and Homer writes she was Helen's first and only child.[24] Different sources say she was also the mother of one or more sons, namedAethiolas,Nicostratus,Megapenthes andPleisthenes. Still, according to others, these were instead illegitimate children of Menelaus and various lovers.[25][26]
According to other sources that also contradict Homer, Helen and Paris had three sons — Bunomus, Aganus, Idaeus — and a daughter whom Helen named after herself after winning the game contest against Paris.[27][28][29]Dictys Cretensis claims that the three sons died during the Trojan War when an earthquake caused the roof of the room where they slept to collapse, however he mentions among themCorythus instead of Aganus.[30] Her daughter by Paris was reportedly killed by her own grandmother,Hecuba, during the fall of Troy.[31][32]
In most sources, including theIliad and theOdyssey, Helen is the daughter ofZeus and ofLeda, the wife of the Spartan kingTyndareus.[33]Euripides' playHelen, written in the late 5th century BC, is the earliest source to report the most familiar account of Helen's birth: that, although her putative father was Tyndareus, she was actually Zeus' daughter. In the form of a swan, the king of gods was chased by an eagle, and sought refuge with Leda. The swan gained her affection, and the two mated. Leda then produced anegg, from which Helen emerged.[34] The FirstVatican Mythographer introduces the notion that two eggs came from the union: one containingCastor and Pollux; one with Helen andClytemnestra. Nevertheless, the same author earlier states that Helen, Castor and Pollux were produced from a single egg.[35]Fabius Planciades Fulgentius also states that Helen, Castor and Pollux are born from the same egg.[36]Pseudo-Apollodorus states that Leda had intercourse with both Zeus and Tyndareus the night she conceived Helen.[37]
On the other hand, in theCypria, part of theEpic Cycle, Helen was the daughter of Zeus and the goddessNemesis.[1] The date of theCypria is uncertain, but it is generally thought to preserve traditions that date back to at least the 7th century BC. In theCypria, Nemesis did not wish to mate with Zeus. She therefore changed shape into various animals as she attempted to flee Zeus, finally becoming a goose. Zeus also transformed himself into a goose and raped Nemesis, who produced an egg from which Helen was born.[38] Presumably, in theCypria, this egg was somehow transferred to Leda.[i] Later sources state either that it was brought to Leda by a shepherd who discovered it in a grove inAttica, or that it was dropped into her lap byHermes.[39]
Leda and the Swan byCesare da Sesto (c. 1506–1510,Wilton). The artist has been intrigued by the idea of Helen's unconventional birth; she and Clytemnestra are shown emerging from oneegg; Castor and Pollux from another.
Asclepiades of Tragilos andPseudo-Eratosthenes related a similar story, except that Zeus and Nemesis became swans instead of geese.[40]Timothy Gantz has suggested that the tradition that Zeus came to Leda in the form of a swan derives from the version in which Zeus and Nemesis transformed into birds.[41]
Pausanias states that in the middle of the 2nd century AD, the remains of an egg-shell, tied up in ribbons, were still suspended from the roof of a temple on the Spartan acropolis. People believed that this was "the famous egg that legend says Leda brought forth". Pausanias traveled to Sparta to visit the sanctuary, dedicated toHilaeira andPhoebe, in order to see the relic for himself.[42]
Pausanias also says that there was a local tradition that Helen's brothers, "theDioscuri" (i.e. Castor and Pollux), were born on the island ofPefnos, adding that the Spartan poetAlcman also said this,[43] while the poetLycophron's use of the adjective "Pephnaian" (Πεφναίας) in association with Helen, suggests that Lycophron may have known a tradition which held that Helen was also born on the island.[44]
Theseus pursuing a woman, probably Helen. Side A from an Attic red-figure bell-krater, c. 440–430 BC (Louvre, Paris).
TwoAthenians,Theseus andPirithous, thought that since they were sons of gods, they should have divine wives; they thus pledged to help each other abduct two daughters ofZeus. Theseus chose Helen, and Pirithous vowed to marryPersephone, the wife ofHades. Theseus took Helen and left her with his motherAethra or his associate Aphidnus atAphidnae orAthens. Theseus and Pirithous then traveled to theunderworld, the domain of Hades, to kidnap Persephone. Hades pretended to offer them hospitality and set a feast, but, as soon as the pair sat down, snakes coiled around their feet and held them there. Helen's abduction caused an invasion of Athens by Castor and Pollux, who captured Aethra in revenge, and returned their sister to Sparta.[45] InGoethe'sFaust, CentaurChiron is said to have aided the Dioscuri brothers in returning Helen home.
In most accounts of this event, Helen was quite young;Hellanicus of Lesbos said she was seven years old andDiodorus makes her ten years old.[46] On the other hand,Stesichorus said thatIphigenia was the daughter of Theseus and Helen, which implies that Helen was of childbearing age.[47] In most sources, Iphigenia is the daughter ofAgamemnon andClytemnestra, butDuris of Samos and other writers, such asAntoninus Liberalis, followed Stesichorus' account.[48]
Ovid'sHeroides give us an idea of how ancient and, in particular,Roman authors imagined Helen in her youth: she is presented as a young princess wrestling naked in thepalaestra, alluding to a part of girls' physical education in classical (not Mycenaean) Sparta.Sextus Propertius imagines Helen as a girl who practices arms and hunts with her brothers:[49]
[...] or like Helen, on the sands of Eurotas, between Castor and Pollux, one to be victor in boxing, the other with horses: with naked breasts she carried weapons, they say, and did not blush with her divine brothers there.
When it was time for Helen to marry, many kings and princes from around the world came to seek her hand, bringing rich gifts with them or sent emissaries to do so on their behalf. During the contest, Castor and Pollux had a prominent role in dealing with the suitors, although the final decision was in the hands of Tyndareus.[50] Menelaus, her future husband, did not attend but sent his brother,Agamemnon, to represent him. He was chosen as he had the most wealth.[51]
Tyndareus was afraid to select a husband for his daughter, or send any of the suitors away, for fear of offending them and giving grounds for a quarrel.Odysseus was one of the suitors, but had brought no gifts because he believed he had little chance to win the contest. He thus promised to solve the problem, if Tyndareus in turn would support him in his courting ofPenelope, the daughter ofIcarius. Tyndareus readily agreed, and Odysseus proposed that, before the decision was made, all the suitors should swear a most solemn oath to defend the chosen husband against whoever should quarrel with him. After the suitors had sworn not to retaliate, Menelaus was chosen to be Helen's husband because he was the "greatest in possessions" and had offered the most gifts.[52] As a sign of the importance of the pact, Tyndareussacrificed a horse.[53] Helen and Menelaus became rulers of Sparta, after Tyndareus and Leda abdicated. Menelaus and Helen rule in Sparta for at least ten years; they have a daughter,Hermione, and (according to some myths) three sons:Aethiolas, Maraphius, andPleisthenes.
The marriage of Helen and Menelaus marks the beginning of the end of the age of heroes. Concluding the catalog of Helen's suitors, Hesiod reports Zeus' plan to obliterate the race of men and the heroes in particular. The Trojan War, caused by Helen's elopement with Paris, is going to be his means to this end.[54]
Maarten van Heemskerck painting of Paris and the Trojans fleeing Sparta with Helen among their spoils.[55] Walters Art Museum.
Paris, a Trojan prince, came to Sparta to claim Helen, in the guise of a supposed diplomatic mission. Before this journey, Paris had been appointed by Zeus tojudge the most beautiful goddess;Hera,Athena, orAphrodite. In order to earn his favour, Aphrodite promised Paris the most beautiful woman in the world. Swayed by Aphrodite's offer, Paris chose her as the most beautiful of the goddesses, earning the wrath ofAthena andHera.
Although Helen is sometimes depicted as being forcibly abducted by Paris, most Ancient Greek sources, followingHomer, believed that Helen fell in love with the Trojan prince, and went to Troy willingly.[56] InHomer, Helen herself says she followed Paris,[57] or that she was led to Troy by Aphrodite.[58] Herodotus, who says Paris "carried off" (ἁρπάσαντος) Helen,[59] states Paris "got her to fly" with him.[60] TheCypria simply mentions that after giving Helen gifts, "Aphrodite brings the Spartan queen together with the Prince of Troy."[61]Apollodorus says Paris persuaded Helen to leave with him,[62] andSappho argues that Helen willingly left behind Menelaus and their daughter,Hermione, to be with Paris:
Meeting between Paris and Helen. Antique fresco inPompeii, the House of the Golden Cupids
Some say a host of horsemen, others of infantry and others of ships, is the most beautiful thing on the dark earth but I say, it is what you love Full easy it is to make this understood of one and all: for she that far surpassed all mortals in beauty, Helen her most noble husband Deserted, and went sailing to Troy, with never a thought for her daughter and dear parents.
Dio Chrysostom gives a completely different account of the story, questioning Homer's credibility: after Agamemnon had married Helen's sister, Clytemnestra, Tyndareus sought Helen's hand for Menelaus for political reasons. However, Helen was sought by many suitors, who came from far and near, among them Paris who surpassed all the others and won the favor of Tyndareus and his sons. Thus he won her fairly and took her away to Troia, with the full consent of her natural protectors.[64]Cypria narrate that in just three days Paris and Helen reached Troy. Homer narrates that during a brief stop-over in the small island ofKranai, according toIliad, the two lovers consummated their passion. On the other hand,Cypria note that this happened the night before they left Sparta.[65]
In western painting, Helen's journey to Troy is usually depicted as a forced abduction.The Rape of Helen byFrancesco Primaticcio (c. 1530–1539,Bowes Museum) is representative of this tradition.
InGuido Reni's painting (1631, Louvre, Paris), however, Paris holds Helen by her wrist (as he already did in Genga's painting shown here on the left), and they leave together for Troia.
El Juicio de Paris byEnrique Simonet, c. 1904. This painting depicts Paris' judgement. He is inspecting Aphrodite, who is standing naked before him. Hera and Athena watch nearby.
In her bookHelen of Troy: Myth, Beauty, Devastation, Ruby Blondell posits, "Though [Helen's] departure is typically referred to as an 'abduction', none of our sources claims that Paris took Helen by force against her will. Her complicity is essential to her story".[67]
At least three Ancient Greek authors denied that Helen ever went to Troy; instead, they suggested, Helen stayed in Egypt during the Trojan War. Those three authors are Euripides, Stesichorus, and Herodotus.[68][69] In the version put forth by Euripides in his playHelen,Hera fashioned a likeness (eidolon, εἴδωλον) of Helen out of clouds at Zeus' request,Hermes took her to Egypt, and Helen never went to Troy, but instead spent the entire war inEgypt. Aneidolon is also present inStesichorus' account, but not in Herodotus' rationalizing version of the myth. In addition to these accounts,Lycophron (822) states thatHesiod was the first to mention Helen'seidolon.[70] This may mean Hesiod stated this in a literary work, or that the idea was widely known/circulated in early archaic Greece during the time of Hesiod and was consequently attributed to him.[70]
Herodotus adds weight to the "Egyptian" version of events by putting forward his own evidence—he traveled to Egypt and interviewed the priests of the temple (Foreign Aphrodite, ξείνη Ἀφροδίτη) atMemphis. According to these priests, Helen had arrived in Egypt shortly after leaving Sparta, because strong winds had blown Paris's ship off course. KingProteus of Egypt, appalled that Paris had seduced hishost's wife and plundered his host's home in Sparta, disallowed Paris from taking Helen to Troy. Paris returned to Troy without a new bride, but the Greeks refused to believe that Helen was in Egypt and not within Troy's walls. Thus, Helen waited in Memphis for ten years, while the Greeks and the Trojans fought. Following the conclusion of the Trojan War, Menelaus sailed to Memphis, where Proteus reunited him with Helen.[71]
^Hughes, Bettany (2006).Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore. Pimlico. pp. 157–158.ISBN9781446419144.According to Homer, once Helen has teamed up with the Trojan prince, she is never described as his whore or sex-slave, not even as his enthralled bride - but only as his legitimate, equal partner. She is first Menelaus' 'parakoitis' and then Paris' 'akoitis' - words which translate as bedmate, spouse or wife. Both the Spartan king and the Trojan prince are described as her 'posis', her consort. Helen is never given the title 'damar' - subservient wife.
^Interchangeable usage of the termsrape andelope often lends ambiguity to the legend.[example needed]
^The meeting with Helen inMarlowe's play and the ensuingtemptation are not unambiguously positive, since they are closely followed byFaust's death and descent to Hell.
^The name of Helen as worshipped atSparta andTherapne began with adigamma. On the other hand, atCorinth, there is evidence of Helen without a digamma. Skutsch (Helen, 189 f. andpassim) suggests that we have to make do "with two different names, two different mythological Helens".
^CompareProto-Indo-European*sa(e)wol, whence Greekhelios, Latinsol, Sanskritsuryah, ultimately from*sawel "to shine". The relation with Selene is quite possible.
^If the name has anIndo-European etymology, it is possibly a suffixed form of aProto-Indo-European root*wel- "to turn, roll"[11] (or from that root's sense "to cover, enclose" – compare the theonymsVaruna,Veles),[citation needed] or of*sel- "to flow, run".[citation needed] The latter possibility would allow comparison to theVedic SanskritSaraṇyū, a character who is abducted inRigveda 10.17.2. This parallel is suggestive of aProto-Indo-European abduction myth.Saraṇyū means "swift" and is derived from the adjectivesaraṇa ("running, swift"), the feminine of which issaraṇā; this is in every sound cognate withἙλένα, the form of her name that has no initialdigamma.[f] The possible connection of Helen's name to ἑλένη ("torch"), as noted above, may also support the relationship of her name to Vedicsvaranā ("the shining one").[g][12]
^In the 5th century comedy "Nemesis" byCratinus, Leda was told to sit on an egg so that it would hatch, and this is no doubt the egg that was produced by Nemesis (Cratinus fr. 115PCG; Gantz,Early Greek Myth,ibid).
When he discovered that his wife was missing, Menelaus called upon all the other suitors to fulfill their oaths, thus beginning the Trojan War.
The Greek fleet gathered inAulis, but the ships could not sail for lack of wind.Artemis was enraged by a sacrilege, and only the sacrifice of Agamemnon's daughter,Iphigenia, could appease her. In EuripidesIphigenia in Aulis, Clytemnestra, Iphigenia's mother and Helen's sister, begs her husband to reconsider his decision, calling Helen a "wicked woman". Clytemnestra tries to warn Agamemnon that sacrificing Iphigenia for Helen's sake is, "buying what we most detest with what we hold most dear".[72][73]
Helen on the Ramparts of Troy was a popular theme in late 19th-century art – seen here a depiction byFrederick Leighton.
In a similar fashion to Leighton,Gustave Moreau depicts an expressionless Helen; a blank or anguished face.
Paul Dujardin after Gustave Moreau,Hélène, photogravure, 1880
Before the opening of hostilities, the Greeks dispatched a delegation to the Trojans under Odysseus and Menelaus; they endeavored without success to persuadePriam to hand Helen back. A popular theme,The Request of Helen (Helenes Apaitesis, Ἑλένης Ἀπαίτησις), was the subject of a drama bySophocles, now lost.[a][74]
Homer paints a poignant, lonely picture of Helen in Troy. She is filled with self-loathing and regret for what she has caused; by the end of the war, the Trojans have come to hate her. WhenHector dies, she is the third mourner at his funeral, and she says that, of all the Trojans, Hector andPriam alone were always kind to her:[75][76]
Wherefore I wail alike for thee and for my hapless self with grief at heart; for no longer have I anyone beside in broad Troy that is gentle to me or kind; but all men shudder at me.[77]
These bitter words reveal that Helen gradually realized Paris' weaknesses, and decided to ally herself with Hector. There is an affectionate relationship between the two, and Helen has harsh words for Paris when she compares the two brothers:[76][78]
Howbeit, seeing the gods thus ordained these ills, would that I had been wife to a better man, that could feel the indignation of his fellows and their many revilings. [...] But come now, enter in, and sit thee upon this chair, my brother, since above all others has trouble encompassed thy heart because of shameless me, and the folly of Alexander.[79][75]
After Paris was killed in combat, there was some dispute among the Trojans about which of Priam's surviving sons she should remarry:Helenus orDeiphobus, but she was given to the latter.
During the fall of Troy, Helen's role is ambiguous. InVirgil'sAeneid, Deiphobus gives an account of Helen's treacherous stance: when theTrojan Horse was admitted into the city, she feignedBacchic rites, leading a chorus of Trojan women, and, holding a torch among them, she signaled to the Greeks from the city's central tower. In theOdyssey, however, Homer narrates a different story: Helen circled the Horse three times, and she imitated the voices of the Greek women left behind at home—she thus tortured the men inside (including Odysseus and Menelaus) with the memory of their loved ones, and brought them to the brink of destruction.[80]
After the deaths of Hector and Paris, Helen became the paramour of their younger brother, Deiphobus; but when the sack of Troy began, she hid her new husband's sword, and left him to the mercy of Menelaus and Odysseus. InAeneid,Aeneas meets the mutilated Deiphobus inHades; his wounds serve as a testimony to his ignominious end, abetted by Helen's final act of treachery.[81]
However, Helen's portraits in Troy seem to contradict each other. From one side, we read about the treacherous Helen who simulated Bacchic rites and rejoiced over the carnage of Trojans. On the other hand, there is another Helen, lonely and helpless; desperate to find sanctuary, while Troy is on fire. Stesichorus narrates that both Greeks and Trojans gathered to stone her to death.[82] When Menelaus finally found her, he raised his sword to kill her. He had demanded that only he should slay his unfaithful wife; but, when he was ready to do so, she dropped her robe from her shoulders, and the sight of her beauty caused him to let the sword drop from his hand.[b]Electra wails:[83]
Alas for my troubles! Can it be that her beauty has blunted their swords?
Helen returned toSparta and lived with Menelaus, where she was encountered by Telemachus in Book 4 ofThe Odyssey. As depicted in that account, she and Menelaus were seemingly reconciled and had a harmonious married life—he holding no grudge at her having run away with a lover and she feeling no restraint in telling anecdotes of her life inside besieged Troy.
According to another version, used byEuripides in his playOrestes, Helen had been saved byApollo from Orestes[84] and was taken up toMount Olympus almost immediately after Menelaus' return. She was then made a sea goddess, who watches over sailors alongside her brothers,Castor and Pollux.[85] A curious fate is recounted byPausanias the geographer (3.19.11–13), which has Helen share the afterlife with Achilles.[86]
Pausanias recorded a different version of Helen's ultimate fate. According to him, when Menelaus died, his sons kicked Helen out of the palace, so she went toRhodes, where an old friend of hers,Polyxo the wife ofTlepolemus, ruled. Tlepolemus had perished during the Trojan War leaving Polyxo a widow with a young child, so unbeknownst to Helen, Polyxo deeply resented her now. She pretended to receive Helen warmly, but when the queen of Sparta relaxed in a bath, she sent handmaidens dressed up asFuries to seize Helen and hang her from a tree. Thereafter the Rhodians worshipped her as Helen of the Tree (Helene Dendritis).[87] There are other traditions concerning the punishment of Helen. For example, she is offered as a sacrifice to the gods in Tauris byIphigeneia, orThetis, enraged when Achilles dies because of Helen, kills her on her return journey.[88]
Tlepolemus was a son ofHeracles and Astyoche. Astyoche was a daughter of Phylas, King of Ephyra who was killed by Heracles. Tlepolemus was killed bySarpedon on the first day of fighting in theIliad. Nicostratus was a son of Menelaus by his concubine Pieris, an Aetolian slave.Megapenthes was a son of Menelaus by his concubine Tereis, with no further origin.
InEuripides's tragedyThe Trojan Women, Helen is shunned by the women who survived the war and is to be taken back to Greece to face a death sentence. This version is contradicted by two of Euripides' other tragedies,Electra, which predates The Trojan Women, andHelen, as Helen is described as being in Egypt during the events of the Trojan War in each.
Zeuxis et les Filles de Crotone (François-André Vincent, 1789, Paris, Louvre). The scene tells the story of the painter Zeuxis who was commissioned to produce a picture of Helen for the temple of Hera atAgrigentum,Sicily. To realize his task, Zeuxis chose the five most beautiful maidens in the region.[89]Helen (first from left) and Paris (right), ancient painting from the Black Room inPompeii. Helen is depicted here with red hair.
From Antiquity, depicting Helen would be a remarkable challenge. The story ofZeuxis deals with this exact question: how would an artist immortalize ideal beauty?[90] He eventually selected the best features from five virgins. The ancient world starts to paint Helen's picture or inscribe her form on stone, clay and bronze by the 7th century BC.[91] Homer attributes her with white skin,[92] whileSappho describes her as "xanthe",[93] which is translated as "golden" and is used towards individuals with light hair, which includes blond, red and brown hair,[94][95] andEuripides says she had "gold [xanthes] curls".[96][97] Her eyes were described as "κυάνεος" (kuaneos), which is usually translated as "dark"[98] or "dark-blue".[99] However, scholarly interpretation holds that "κυάνεος" likely denoted brown eyes, contrasting with "γλαυκός" (glaukos), the term used for gray or blue eyes.[100] A later Latin account, probably from the fifth century CE,falsely attributed toDares Phrygius, describes Helen as "She was beautiful, ingenuous, and charming. Her legs were the best; her mouth the cutest. There was a beauty-mark between her eyebrows".[101] Bettany Hughes notes that Helen and other Homeric heroes tend to be described and depicted by ancient Greeks as beingxanthos ("golden-haired"), and she argues that such look was linked with the connections of ancient heroes and heroines to the gods, as light-haired individuals were less common in ancient Mediterranean than dark-haired ones.[102]
Helen is frequently depicted on Athenian vases as being threatened by Menelaus and fleeing from him. This is not the case, however, in Laconic art: on anArchaicstele depicting Helen's recovery after the fall of Troy, Menelaus is armed with a sword but Helen faces him boldly, looking directly into his eyes; and in other works of Peloponnesian art, Helen is shown carrying a wreath, while Menelaus holds his sword aloft vertically. In contrast, on Athenian vases of c. 550–470, Menelaus threateningly points his sword at her.[103]
Antique fresco depicting Helen and Menelaus, from the Casa dell'Efebo,Pompeii
The abduction by Paris was another popular motif inancient Greek vase-painting; definitely more popular than the kidnapping by Theseus. In a famous representation by the Athenian vase painterMakron, Helen follows Paris like a bride following a bridegroom, her wrist grasped by Paris' hand.[104] TheEtruscans, who had a sophisticated knowledge of Greek mythology, demonstrated a particular interest in the theme of the delivery of Helen's egg, which is depicted in relief mirrors.[105]
InRenaissance painting, Helen's departure from Sparta is usually depicted as a scene of forcible removal (rape) by Paris. This is not, however, the case with certain secular medieval illustrations. Artists of the 1460s and 1470s were influenced byGuido delle Colonne'sHistoria destructionis Troiae, where Helen's abduction was portrayed as a scene of seduction. In theFlorentine Picture Chronicle Paris and Helen are shown departing arm in arm, while their marriage was depicted into Franco-Flemish tapestry.[106]
InChristopher Marlowe'sDoctor Faustus (1604),Faustconjures theshade of Helen. Upon seeing Helen, Faustus speaks the famous line: "Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships, / And burnt the topless towers of Ilium." (Act V, Scene I.) Helen is also conjured by Faust inGoethe'sFaust.
InPre-Raphaelite art, Helen is often shown with shining curly hair and ringlets. Other painters of the same period depict Helen on the ramparts of Troy, and focus on her expression: her face is expressionless, blank, inscrutable.[107] InGustave Moreau's painting, Helen will finally become faceless; a blankeidolon in the middle of Troy's ruins.
The major centers of Helen's cult were in Laconia. At Sparta, the urban sanctuary of Helen was located near the Platanistas, so called for the plane trees planted there. Ancient sources associate Helen with gymnastic exercises or/and choral dances of maidens near theEvrotas River. This practice is referenced in the closing lines ofLysistrata, where Helen is said to be the "pure and proper" leader of the dancing Spartan women.Theocritus conjures the songepithalamium Spartan women sung at Platanistas commemorating the marriage of Helen and Menelaus:[108]
We first a crown of low-growing lotus having woven will place it on a shady plane-tree. First from a silver oil-flask soft oil drawing we will let it drip beneath the shady plane-tree. Letters will be carved in the bark, so that someone passing by may read in Doric: "Reverence me. I am Helen's tree."
Helen's worship was also present on the opposite bank of Eurotas atTherapne, where she shared a shrine with Menelaus and the Dioscuri. The shrine has been known as theMenelaion (the shrine of Menelaus), and it was believed to be the spot where Helen was buried alongside Menelaus. Despite its name, both the shrine and the cult originally belonged to Helen; Menelaus was added later as her husband.[109] In addition, there was a festival at the town, which was called Meneleaeia (Μενελάεια) in honour of Menelaus and Helen.[110]Isocrates writes that at Therapne Helen and Menelaus were worshiped as gods, and not as heroes. Clader argues that, if indeed Helen was worshiped as a goddess at Therapne, then her powers should be largely concerned with fertility,[111] or as asolar deity.[112] There is also evidence for Helen's cult in Hellenistic Sparta: rules for those sacrificing and holding feasts in their honor are extant.[113]
Helen was also worshiped in Attica along with her brothers, and onRhodes as HelenDendritis (Helen of the Trees, Έλένα Δενδρῖτις); she was a vegetation or afertility goddess.[c]Martin P. Nilsson has argued that the cult in Rhodes has its roots to theMinoan, pre-Greek era, when Helen was allegedly worshiped as a vegetation goddess.[114]Claude Calame and other scholars try to analyze the affinity between the cults of Helen andArtemis Orthia, pointing out the resemblance of theterracotta female figurines offered to both deities.[115]
Helen frequently appeared inAthenian comedies of the fifth century BC as acaricature ofPericles's mistressAspasia.[116] InHellenistic times, she was associated with themoon[116] due to the similarity of her name to the Greek word Σελήνη (Selēnē), meaning "Moon, goddess of the moon".[116] OnePythagorean source claimed that Helen had originally come from acolony on the moon,[116] where people were larger, stronger, and "fifteen times" more beautiful than ordinary mortals.[116] She is one of the eponymous women the tragedyThe Trojan Women produced in 415 BC by the Greek playwrightEuripides.
Dio Chrysostom absolved[where?] Helen of guilt for the Trojan War by making Paris her first, original husband and claiming that the Greeks started the war out of jealousy.[116]Virgil, in hisAeneid, makesAeneas the one to spare Helen's life, rather than Menelaus,[116] and instead portrays the act as a lofty example of self-control.[116] Meanwhile, Virgil also makes Helen more vicious by having her betray her own husband Deiphobos and give him over to Menelaus as a peace offering.[116] ThesatiristLucian of Samosata features Helen in his famousDialogues of the Dead, in which he portrays her deceased spirit as aged and withered.[116]
During theRenaissance, the French poetPierre de Ronsard wrote 142 sonnets addressed to a woman named Hélène de Surgères,[116] in which he declared her to be the "true", French Helen, rather than the "lie" of the Greeks.[116]
Helen appears in various versions of theFaust myth, includingChristopher Marlowe's 1604 playThe Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, in which Faustus famously marvels, "Was this the face that launched a thousand ships / And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?" upon seeing a demon impersonating Helen.[118] The line, which is frequently quoted out of context,[118][116] is a paraphrase of a statement from Lucian'sDialogues of the Dead.[119][118] It is debated whether the phrase conveys astonishment at Helen's beauty,[118] or disappointment that she is not more beautiful.[118] Helen appears in Marlowe's play as a voiceless image conjured byMephistopheles. Helen first appears displayed to scholars as a vision to admire. Her second appearance is when Faustus calls for her in despair.[120] Not speaking herself, Faustus shows she is an object of desire and destruction. She walks about to parade her beauty silently, tempting Faustus.[120] In connection to the myth of Helen of Troy, Helen is often blamed with causing the Trojan War; Marlowe's portrayal of Helen may function as a test of Faustus’ damnation. It is undetermined if the Helen inDoctor Faustus is the real Helen or merely a disguised entity that mimicks her beauty, blurring the lines of blame for Faustus' temptation.[121] Marlowe's portrayal of Helen blurs the line between a beautiful, angel-like figure and an evil, dangerously tempting figure, allowing her to be ambiguous in regard to her role in Faustus' damned fate.[122][123]
In 1803, when French zoologistFrançois Marie Daudin was to name a new species of beautifully colored snake, thetrinket snake (Coelognathus helena), he chose thespecific namehelena in reference to Helen of Troy.[124]
Helen of Troy byEvelyn De Morgan (1898, London); Helen admiringly displays a lock of her hair, as she gazes into a mirror decorated with the nude Aphrodite.
In 1881,Oscar Wilde published a poem entitled "The New Helen",[116] in which he declared his friendLillie Langtry to be thereincarnation of Helen of Troy.[116] Wilde portrays this new Helen as the antithesis of the Virgin Mary,[116] but endows her with the characteristics ofJesus Christ himself.[116] The Irish poetWilliam Butler Yeats compared Helen to his muse,Maude Gonne, in his poems "No Second Troy" (1916)[125] and "A Man Young and Old" (1928).[126] The anthologyThe Dark Tower byC. S. Lewis includes a fragment entitled "After Ten Years". In Egypt after the Trojan War, Menelaus is allowed to choose between the real, disappointing Helen and an ideal Helen conjured by Egyptian magicians.
The EnglishPre-Raphaelite painterEvelyn De Morgan portrayed a sexually assertive Helen in her 1898 paintingHelen of Troy.[116]Salvador Dalí was obsessed with Helen of Troy from childhood[116] and saw his wifeGala Dalí and the surrealist characterGradiva as the embodiments of Helen.[116] He dedicates his autobiographyDiary of a Genius to "my genius Gala Gradiva, Helen of Troy, Saint Helen, Gala Galatea Placida."[116]
In 1928,Richard Strauss wrote the German operaDie ägyptische Helena (The Egyptian Helena), which is the story of Helen and Menelaus's troubles when they are marooned on a mythical island.[127]
The 1938 short story, "Helen O'Loy", written byLester del Rey, details the creation of a synthetic woman by two mechanics. The title is wordplay that combines "Helen of Troy" with "alloy".
The 1971 filmThe Trojan Women was an adaptation of the play by Euripides in whichIrene Papas portrayed (a non-blonde) Helen of Troy.
In the 1998 TV seriesHercules, Helen appears as a supporting character at Prometheus Academy as a student. Helen is caring and enthusiastic. She was the most popular girl in the academy and Adonis' girlfriend. Helen tries her best to keep Adonis from behaving stupidly, but mostly fails. She likes Hercules, but as a friend. She is a princess as in the myth but is not a half-sister of Hercules in the series. She was voiced byJodi Benson.
A 2003 television version of Helen's life up to the fall of Troy,Helen of Troy, in which she was played bySienna Guillory. In this version, Helen is depicted as unhappy in her marriage and willingly runs away with Paris, with whom she has fallen in love, but still returns to Menelaus after Paris dies and Troy falls.
Helen was portrayed byDiane Kruger in the 2004 filmTroy. In this adaptation, as in the 2003 television version, she is unhappily married to Menelaus and willingly leaves with Paris, whom she loves. However, in this version she does not return to Sparta with Menelaus (who is killed by Hector), but escapes Troy with Paris and other survivors when the city falls.
Inspired by the line, "Was this the face that launched a thousand ships...?" fromMarlowe'sFaustus,Isaac Asimov jocularly coined the unit "millihelen" to mean the amount of beauty that can launch one ship.[128] Canadian novelist and poetMargaret Atwood re-envisioned the myth of Helen in modern, feminist guise in her poem "Helen of Troy Does Countertop Dancing".[129]
In theLegends of Tomorrow episode "Helen Hunt", Helen is portrayed by Israeli-American model and actressBar Paly. In the episode, Helen is an anachronism appearing in 1930s Hollywood. She lands a job as an actress and unintentionally starts a war between two film studios. The Legends travel to the 1930s and try to get Helen back to the Bronze Age. She regretfully goes along, telling the team she wishes to stay away due to men constantly fighting and dying over her. After analyzing historical records of Helen's impact on history,Zari Tomaz finds the best time to take her away from the fighting of her time and takes her toThemyscira.[130] Helen reappears in the season three finale, "The Good, the Bad and the Cuddly", as an Amazon warrior who assists the Legends in defeating the demon Mallus's army.[131]
^Ancient writers do not agree on whether the embassy was dispatched before the gathering of the Greek army in Aulis or after it reached Tenedos or Troia. In Herodotus' account the Trojans swore to the Greek envoys that Helen was in Egypt, not in Troy; but the Greeks did not believe them, and laid siege to the city, until they took it. Cypria. fr. 1. Herodotus.Histories. II, 118: 2–4. Homer.Iliad. III, 205. Pseudo-Appolodorus.Epitome. 28–29.
^According to the ancient writers, it was the sight of Helen's face or breasts that made Menelaus drop his sword. See,inter alia, Aristophanes,Lysistrata,155;Little Iliad, fr. 13 EGF. * Maguire,Helen of Troy, 52
^A shared cult of Helen and her brothers in Attica is alluded to in Euripides,Helen,1666–1669. See also Edmunds,Helen's Divine Origins, 26–29. Concerning Helen Dendritis, Gumpert (Grafting Helen, 96), and Skutsch (Helen, 109) support that she was a vegetation goddess. Meagher (The Meaning of Helen, 43 f.) argues that her cult in Rhodes reflects an ancient fertility ritual associated with Helen not only on Rhodes but also at Dendra, near Sparta. Edmunds (Helen's Divine Origins, 18) notes that it is unclear what an ancient tree cult might be.
^abSmith, William, ed. (1870).A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 2. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company. p. 370. ark:/13960/t9f47mp93.
^The most complete accounts of this narrative are given by Apollodorus, Diodorus 4.63.1–3, and Plutarch,Theseus 31–34. For a collection of ancient sources narrating Helen's abduction by Theseus, see Hughes,Helen, 357; Mills,Theseus, 7–8
^Ovid,Heroides, 16.149–152; Propertius,3.14 * Cairns,Sextus Propertius, 421–422; Hughes,Helen of Troy, 60; Pomeroy,Spartan Women, 28: "In the Roman period, because Sparta was a destination for tourists, the characteristics that made Sparta distinctive were emphasized. The athleticism of women was exaggerated."
^In the HesiodicCatalogue of Women fr. 198.7–8, and 199.0–1, they are the recipients of the bridal presents. For further details, seeA Catalog within a Catalog, 133–135
^Hesiod,Catalogs of Women and Eoiae, fr. 204; Hyginus,Fables,78; Pausanias, 3.20.9; Apollodorus, 3.10.9 * Cingano,A Catalog within a Catalog, 128; Hughes,Helen of Troy, 76
^Cypria, fr. 1; Hesiod,Catalogs of Women and Eoiae, fr. 204.96–101 * Edmunds,Helen's Divine Origins, 7–8
^Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert (1940). "ξανθός". In Jones, Henry Stuart; McKenzie, Roderick (eds.).A Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
^Hughes, Bettany (2006).Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore. Pimlico. pp. 127, 190 note 10.ISBN9781446419144.
^Dares of Phrygia.History of the Fall of Troy 12. A short prose work which purports to be a first hand account of the Trojan War by Dares, a Trojan priest of Hephaestus in theIliad.
^Hughes, Bettany (2006).Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore. Pimlico. pp. 127–128.ISBN9781446419144.
^Isocrates,Helen, 63; Clader,Helen, 70; Jackson,The Transformations of Helen, 52. For a criticism of the theory that Helen was worshiped as a goddess in Therapne, see Edmunds,Helen's Divine Origins, 20–24.
^Euripides,Helen, translated by Robert E. Meagher, University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst 1986.
^Pausanias,Description of Greece, III,15.3, and19.9; Allan,Introduction, 14 ff.; Calame,Choruses of Young Women, 192–197; Pomeroy,Spartan Women, 114–118.
^Cited by Gumpert,Grafting Helen, 96, Edmunds,Helen's Divine Origins, 15–18, and Skutsch,Helen, 109. See critical remarks on this theory by Edmunds,Helen's Divine Origins, 16.
^Calame,Choruses of Young Women, 201; Eaverly,Archaic Greek Equestrian Sculpture, 9; Pomeroy,Spartan Women, 162 f.
^abCasson, Lionel (1962).Selected Satires of Lucian, Edited and Translated by Lionel Casson. New York City, New York: W. W. Norton and Company.
^abMarlowe, Christopher; Kastan, David Scott (2005).Doctor Faustus: a two-text edition (A-text, 1604; B-text, 1616) contexts and sources criticism (4. Aufl ed.). New York: Norton.ISBN978-0-393-97754-7.
^Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011).The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp.ISBN978-1-4214-0135-5. ("Helena", p. 120).
Blondell, Ruby (2023).Helen of Troy in Hollywood. Princeton: Princeton University Press.ISBN9780691229621.
Cairns, Francis (2006). "A Lighter Shade of Praise".Sextus Propertius. Cambridge University Press.ISBN0-521-86457-7.
Calame, Claude (2001). "Chorus and Ritual".Choruses of Young Women in Ancient Greece (translated by Derek Collins and Janice Orion). Rowman & Littlefield.ISBN0-7425-1525-7.
Chantraine, Pierre (2000). "Ἐλένη".Dictionnaire Étymologique de la Langue Gercque (in French). Klincksieck.ISBN2-252-03277-4.
Cingano, Ettore (2005). "A Catalog within a Catalog: Helen's Suitors in the Hesiodic Catalog of Women". In Hunter, Richard L. (ed.).The Hesiodic Catalog of Women. Cambridge University Press.ISBN0-521-83684-0.
Cyrino, Monica S. (2006)."Helen of Troy". In Winkler, Martin M. (ed.).Troy: from Homer's Iliad to Hollywood. Cambridge University Press.ISBN1-4051-3182-9.
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![The Rape of Helen by Tintoretto (1578–1579, Museo del Prado, Madrid); Helen languishes in the corner of a land-sea battle scene.[66]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aTintoretto_Rape_of_Helen.jpg)
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