Recent Articles



































Helen



         


This article is about Helen of Troy. For other uses of Helen, see Helen (disambiguation)

Helen (Greek Ελένη) was a figure from Greek mythology. The name is maybe related to the Moon (Selene) and the Sun (Helios). Helene in Greek meant 'torch' and 'corposant'.

She was the wife of Menelaus and reputed to be the most beautiful woman in the world, and her abduction by Paris brought about the Trojan War.

Helen was believed to be initially the chief mother-goddess worshipped through the area, until the arrival of the Dodecatheon. Then, she was replaced by Zeus, and her role was demoted and 'survived' through mythology only to the most beautiful woman of the world.

According then to later Greek mythology, Leda bore Helen and Polydeuces, children of Zeus while at the same time bearing Castor and Clytemnestra, children of her father and husband Tyndareus, the King of Sparta. In some versions, Helen is a daughter of Nemesis, the goddess of vengeance.

As the story goes, Zeus cohabited with Leda in the form of a swan on the same night as her husband, King Tyndareus. To the former she gave birth to Helen and Polydeuces, and to the latter, Clytemnestra and Castor. In some versions she laid two eggs from which the children hatched.

Two Athenians, Theseus and Pirithous, pledged to marry daughters of Zeus. Theseus chose Helen. He and Pirithous kidnapped her and decided to hold onto her until she was old enough to marry. Pirithous chose Persephone. They left Helen with Theseus' mother, Aethra. and travelled to the underworld, domain of Persephone and her husband, Hades. 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.

When it was time for Helen to marry, many Greek kings and princes came to seek her hand or sent emissaries to do so on their behalf. Among the contenders were Odysseus, Menestheus, Ajax the Great, Patroclus and Idomeneus, but the favourite was Menelaus who did not come in person but was represented by his brother Agamemnon, both of whom were in exile, having fled Thyestes. All but Odysseus brought many and rich gifts with them.

Tyndareus would accept none of the gifts, nor would he send any of the suitors away for fear of offending them and giving grounds for a quarrel. Odysseus promised to solve the problem in a satisfactory manner 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 the chosen one. This stratagem succeeded and Helen and Menelaus were married. Following Tyndareus' death, Menelaus became king of Sparta because the only male heirs, Castor and Polydeuces, had died and ascended to Mt. Olympus.

Some years later, Paris, a Trojan prince came to Sparta to marry Helen, whom he had been promised by Aphrodite after he chose her as the most beautiful of the goddesses, earning the wrath of Athena and Hera. Helen fell in love with him, as the goddess had promised, willingly leaving behind Menelaus and Hermione, their nine-year-old daughter to be with her new love.

When he discovered that his wife was missing, Menelaus called upon all the other suitors to fulfill their oaths, thus beginning the Trojan War. Virtually all of Greece took part, either attacking Troy with Menelaus or defending it from them.

This is why Helen was often known as "the face that launched a thousand ships". Note that the idea of Helen's face launching a thousand ships is postclassical - it comes from Christopher Marlowe's The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, in which Helen makes a cameo, but well-remembered, appearance.

"Is this the face that launched a thousand ships And burned the topless towers of Ilium?"

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 a cruel, selfish woman who brought disaster to everyone around her, and she hated him. One version, used by Euripides in his play Helen claims 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.

When Paris died in the war, his brother, Deiphobus, married Helen. Deiphobus was killed by Menelaus in the sack of Troy. Menelaus had demanded that only he should slay his faithless wife; but, when he raised his sword to do so, the sight of her beauty caused him to let the sword drop from his hand. Instead, he led her in safety to the Greek ships. Helen returned to Sparta with Menelaus. After Menelaus' death, Helen was exiled by their son, Megapenthes. According to another version, use by Euripides in his Orestes, Helen had long ago left the mortal world by then, having been taken up to Olympus almost immediately after Menelaus's return.

Homer. Iliad; Homer. Odyssey; Euripides. Electra; Apollodorus. Bibliotheke III, x,7-xi, 1; Apollodorus. Epitome II, 15-III, 6; V, 22; VI, 29; Plutarch. Theseus.

An estimation of her life based on the traditional dates of the Trojan War:

[Top]




  View Live Article   This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License