Everything about Helen Of Troy totally explained
» This article is about the mythological figure Helen of Troy. For other uses, see Helen (disambiguation) and Helen of Troy (disambiguation).
In
Greek mythology,
Helen (in
Greek,
Ἑλένη –
Helénē), better known as
Helen of Sparta or
Helen of Troy, was daughter of
Zeus and
Leda, wife of king
Menelaus of
Sparta and sister of
Castor,
Polydeuces and
Clytemnestra. Her abduction by
Paris brought about the
Trojan War. Helen was described by
Christopher Marlowe as having "the face that launched a thousand ships."
Etymology
Helen or
Helene is probably derived from the Greek word meaning "torch" or "
corposant" or might be related to "selene" meaning "moon".
If it has an
Indo-European etymology, it's possibly a suffixed form of a
root *
wel- "to turn, roll" or "to cover, enclose" (compare
Varuna,
Veles), or of
*sel- "to flow, run". The latter possibility would allow comparison to
Vedic Saraṇyū, who is abducted in
RV 10.17.2, a parallel suggestive of a
Proto-Indo-Asian abduction myth.
The name is in any case unrelated to
Hellenes, as is sometimes claimed ("Hellenes" being from the root
*sed- "to sit, settle").
Life of Helen
Birth
In most sources, including the
Iliad and the
Odyssey, Helen is the daughter of Zeus and Leda.
Euripides' play
Helen, written in the late 5th century BC, is the earliest source to report the most familiar account of Helen's birth: that Zeus, in the form of a swan, was chased by an eagle, and sought refuge with Leda. The swan gained her affection, and the two mated. Leda then produced an egg, from which Helen was born.
On the other hand, in the
Cypria, one of the
Cyclic Epics, Helen was the daughter of Zeus and the goddess
Nemesis. The date of the
Cypria is uncertain, but it's generally thought to preserve traditions that date back to at least the 7th century BC. In the
Cypria, Nemesis didn't 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 mated with Nemesis, who produced an egg from which Helen was born. Presumably in the
Cypria this egg was given to Leda; in the 5th century comedy
Nemesis by
Cratinus, Leda was told to sit on an egg so that it would hatch, and this is no doubt the egg produced by Nemesis.
Asclepiades and
Pseudo-Eratosthenes related a similar story, except that Zeus and Nemesis became swans instead of geese.
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.
Abduction by Theseus
Two
Athenians,
Theseus and
Pirithous, pledged to wed daughters of
Zeus. Theseus chose Helen, and Pirithous vowed to marry
Persephone, the wife of
Hades. Theseus and Pirithous kidnapped Helen and left her with Theseus' mother,
Aethra, while they travelled to the
underworld, the domain of Hades, to kidnap Persephone. Hades pretended to offer them hospitality and set a feast. As soon as the pair sat down, snakes coiled around their feet and held them there. Helen was subsequently rescued by her brothers,
Castor and Pollux, who returned her to Sparta.
In most accounts of this event, Helen was quite young;
Hellanicus of Lesbos said she was seven years old and
Diodorus makes her ten years old. On the other hand,
Stesichorus said that
Iphigeneia was the daughter of Theseus and Helen, which obviously implies that Helen was of childbearing age. In most sources, of course, Iphigeneia is the daughter of
Agamemnon and
Clytemnestra, but
Duris of Samos and other writers followed Stesichorus' account.
Marriage to Menelaus
When it was time for Helen to marry, many kings and princes from around the world came to seek her hand or sent emissaries to do so on their behalf. Among the contenders were
Odysseus,
Menestheus,
Ajax the Great,
Patroclus,
Idomeneus,
Menelaus and
Agamemnon, the latter two of whom were in exile, having fled
Thyestes. All but
Odysseus brought many rich gifts with them.
Her father,
Tyndareus, wouldn't choose a suitor, or send any of the suitors away, for fear of offending them and giving grounds for a quarrel.
Odysseus promised to solve the problem if
Tyndareus would support him in his courting of
Penelope, the daughter of
Icarius.
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. This stratagem succeeded and Helen and
Menelaus were married. Following
Tyndareus' death,
Menelaus became king of
Sparta because the only male heirs,
Castor and Pollux, had died and ascended to
Olympus.
Suitors of Helen
Several lists of her suitors were compiled, since the suitors of Helen were later the heroes of the
Trojan War. This one is from
Apollodorus:
Odysseus, son of
Laertes;
Diomedes, son of
Tydeus;
Antilochus, son of
Nestor;
Agapenor, son of
Ancaeus;
Sthenelus, son of
Capaneus;
Amphimachus, son of
Cteatus;
Thalpius, son of
Eurytus;
Meges, son of
Phyleus;
Amphilochus, son of
Amphiaraus;
Menestheus, son of
Peteos;
Schedius and
Epistrophus, sons of
Iphitus;
Polyxenus, son of
Agasthenes;
Peneleos, son of
Hippalcimus;
Leitus, son of
Alector;
Ajax, son of
Oileus;
Ascalaphus and
Ialmenus, sons of
Ares;
Elephenor, son of
Chalcodon;
Eumelus, son of
Admetus;
Polypoetes, son of
Perithous;
Leonteus, son of
Coronus;
Podalirius and
Machaon, sons of
Aesculapius;
Philoctetes, son of
Poeas;
Eurypylus, son of
Evaemon;
Protesilaus, son of
Iphiclus;
Menelaus, son of
Atreus;
Ajax and
Teucer, sons of
Telamon;
Patroclus, son of
Menoetius.
This list isn't complete;
Apollodorus earlier mentions
Cinyras king of
Cyprus and
Enarophorus and later mentions
Idomeneus king of
Crete Another list was compiled by
Hesiod and, later by
Hyginus.
Seduction by Paris
Some years later,
Paris, a
Trojan prince, came to
Sparta to marry Helen, whom he'd been promised by
Aphrodite after he'd
chosen her as the most beautiful of the goddesses, earning the wrath of
Athena and
Hera. Some sources say that Helen willingly left behind her husband
Menelaus and
Hermione, their nine-year-old daughter, to be with Paris, but, since
Aphrodite promised Helen to
Paris, there's some ambiguity about whether or not Helen went willingly. Some scholars have argued that Helen's abduction by Paris was in fact a rape (termed abduction as per the ancient understanding of raptus). Sources from Herodotus to material culture support this view. Ancient vases depict both the shameless Helen who went willingly to Troy and abduction stories in which Helen is taken by force.
Helen's relationship with
Paris varies depending on the source of the story. In some, she loved him dearly (perhaps caused by
Aphrodite, who had promised her to
Paris). In others, she was portrayed as his unwilling captive in Troy, or as a cruel, selfish woman who brought disaster to everyone around her, and she hated him. In the version used by
Euripides in his play
Helen,
Hermes fashioned a likeness of her out of clouds at
Zeus's request, and Helen never even went to
Troy, having spent the entire war in
Egypt.
In all, she's described as being of magnificent beauty.
Fall of Troy
When he discovered that his wife was missing,
Menelaus called upon all the other suitors to fulfill their oaths, thus beginning the
Trojan War. Almost all of
Greece took part, either attacking
Troy with
Menelaus or defending it from them.
Menelaus had demanded that only he should slay his unfaithful wife; but, when he raised his sword 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.
Herodotus
Herodotus offers a differing account in which Helen never arrived in Troy. In that account Paris was forced to stop in Egypt on his way home. While there, his servants told the
Egyptians that Paris had kidnapped the wife of Menelaus, who had offered Paris hospitality. The Egyptians scolded Paris and informed him that they were confiscating all the treasure he'd stolen (including Helen) until Menelaus came to claim them and that Paris had three days to leave their shores.
Fate
Helen returned to
Sparta and lived for a time with
Menelaus, where she was encountered by
Telemachus in
The Odyssey. According to another version, used by
Euripides in his play
Orestes, Helen had long ago left the mortal world by then, having been taken up to
Olympus almost immediately after
Menelaus' return.
According to
Pausanias the geographer (3.19.10.):
"The account of the Rhodians is different. They say that when Menelaus was dead, and
Orestes still a wanderer, Helen was driven out by Nicostratus and
Megapenthes and came to
Rhodes, where she'd a friend in
Polyxo, the wife of
Tlepolemus. For
Polyxo, they say, was an Argive by descent, and when she was already married to
Tlepolemus shared his flight to
Rhodes. At the time she was queen of the island, having been left with an orphan boy. They say that this
Polyxo desired to avenge the death of
Tlepolemus on Helen, now that she'd her in her power. So she sent against her when she was bathing handmaidens dressed up as
Furies, who seized Helen and hanged her on a tree, and for this reason the Rhodians have a sanctuary of Helen of the Tree."
Tlepolemus was a son of
Heracles and Astyoche. Astyoche was a daughter of Phylas, King of Ephyra who was killed by
Heracles.
Tlepolemus was killed by
Sarpedon on the first day of fighting in the
Iliad. Nicostratus was a son of
Menelaus by his concubine Pieris, an Aetolian slave.
Megapenthes was a son of
Menelaus by his concubine Tereis, no further origin.
In
Simonianism, it was taught that Helen of Troy was one of the incarnations of the
Ennoia in human form.
Media
A television version of Helen's life up to the fall of Troy, Helen of Troy.
Helen of Troy is referenced in the climactic scene of The Truth About Cats & Dogs
In 2004, Helen was in the film Troy, played by Diane Kruger. In this adaptation she doesn't return to Sparta with Menelaus, but leaves Troy with Aeneas when the city falls.
Appeared in the episode 12 of Season 1 called "Beware Greeks Bearing Gifts" in . Played by Galyn Görg, Helen was supposedly a close friend of Xena's and sent out a messenger to fetch her during the Trojan War.
In 1928, Richard Strauss wrote the German Opera Die ägyptische Helena, The Egyptian Helena, which is the story of Helen and Menelaus's troubles when they're marooned on a mythical island.
Margaret George wrote an epic adult novel, Helen of Troy, in 2006, told through Helen's first-person narrative.
Esther Friesner wrote a young-adult novel, Nobody's Princess, published in 2007, of Helen's childhood and early life.
Caroline B. Cooney also wrote a young-adult novel, Goddess of Yesterday, where Helen is one of the main characters.
Modern culture
Inspired by the line "Was this the face that launched a thousand ships...?" from Marlowe's play The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, Isaac Asimov jocularly coined the unit to mean the amount of beauty that can launch one ship.
The band Genesis wrote and performed two songs that referred to Helen. The song "Ripples" from their 1976 album titled Trick of the Tail includes the line..."The face that launched a thousand ships." The song "Blood on the Rooftops" from their 1976 album titled [Wind& Wuthering], includes the line "Seems Helen of Troy has found a new face again."
The song "The Third Temptation of Paris" by Alesana tells the story of Helen and Paris from the viewpoint of Paris.
Henry Rider Haggard wrote a novel,"The World's Desire" in which Odysseus finds Helen in Egypt as a priestess and they wed.
The modernist poet H.D. wrote an epic poem Helen in Egypt from Helen's perspective. Further Information
Get more info on 'Helen Of Troy'.
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