Helen of Troy - Heroine or Goddess Helen of Troy - Heroine or Goddess? By Karen Pierce Originally Published Imbolc 2000 INTRODUCTION In this article I would like to take a look at the Greek mythological heroine Helen of Troy, and try to discern whether there is any evidence to show that she was once a Goddess, but one whose status faded over time. I will start by giving a synopsis of her myth to familiarise everyone with her story, and will then discuss her birth and death in light of her potential divinity. Next I will look at her status as a heroine in myth and in historical times before moving on to the suggestion that she is perhaps a vegetation or solar deity. THE MYTHOLOGICAL HELEN Helen was the daughter of Leda and Tyndareus (though her true father was Zeus). She was reputed to be extremely beautiful, and when she reached the age to marry, many men, chiefs and kings came to court her. Realising the difficult situation the family were in, Tyndareus (via the inspiration of Odysseus) made all the suitors swear an oath - that they would come to the aid of whoever won Helen, should need arise.

Menelaus was chosen (his brother, Agamemnon, being already married to Helen's sister, Clytemnestra), he and Helen married, and in time they had a daughter, Hermione. Meanwhile, across the sea in what is now Turkey, a young shepherd/prince called Paris was chosen by the gods to be an arbitrator in a contest between three goddesses, as to who was the most beautiful. Each goddess offered him a bribe, Athena offered success in battle, Hera offered rule over Asia, and Aphrodite promised him the most beautiful woman in the world as his wife (i.e. Helen). Paris chose Aphrodite, and thus set in motion the start of the Trojan War. Paris came to Sparta, the home of Helen and Menelaus, and visited as a royal guest. When Menelaus had to depart to Crete, he left Helen to look after their guest, at which point Paris seduced, or raped her (depending on which variant you read). Paris took Helen and many rich goods back with him to Troy. When Menelaus discovered the betrayal he called in the suitors' oath, and a great Greek army was amassed and sailed to Troy to reclaim Helen.

The war lasted ten years, many heroes were killed, and the gods joined in on both sides. Finally the Greeks won, with a little trickery (i.e. the wooden horse) and Helen and Menelaus were reunited. They sailed back to Greece and lived out the rest of their lives together. There are many variants on the basic story (and many other stories interconnected), and the issue of whether Helen chose to go with Paris or was raped has generated much discussion. Within ancient sources she is usually castigated for being a loose woman, blamed for all the deaths in the Trojan War, and almost universally hated. Her actions do not demonstrate her to be a particularly bad woman, sometimes a little selfish or misguided, but not the evil whore many other characters accuse her of being. The story of a woman whose abduction caused a ten year war would not at first glance seem particularly illuminating for the story of a goddess or a heroine, but a closer look will reveal just how special Helen was.

BIRTH As mentioned above, although Helen's mortal parents were Leda and Tyndareus, her real father was known to be Zeus, who had also fathered one of her brothers, Polydeuces (though both he and his twin, Castor, are known collectively as the Dioscuri, ie sons of Zeus). There is also some doubt over Helen's mother, with several sources crediting the goddess Nemesis with this position. Commonly referred to as the Goddess of Retribution, her actions are not always conceived of in the negative sense. In Hesiod's Works and Days (197-201), when Nemesis leaves earth to join the other Gods mankind is believed to be worse off without her presence, and she can perhaps be seen to personify 'rightful vengeance' instead of pure retribution. Hesiod credits Nemesis' birth parthenogenically to Night, but this is not reflected in later sources who claim that Zeus was her father. Zeus also raped Nemesis, and thus Helen was born. In Greek mythology it is not unusual that Zeus should rape his own daughter, he does after all live in marriage with his own sister.

This rape, however, caused shame and indignation for Nemesis, and she attempted to flee Zeus' advances by shape-changing into many different creatures, as he pursued her (see Cypria - Athenaeus 8.334B). Zeus finally caught up with her when she was in the form of a goose, and he a swan. After the rape, Nemesis subsequently gave birth to an egg from which Helen eventually hatched. The egg was found and brought to Leda who brought up Helen as her own daughter. However, the more renowned version of Helen's conception is that it was Leda who was raped by Zeus in the form of a swan. The earliest extant reference to this story comes in Euripides' play Helen (16-23), but this appears to be the story that caught the imagination. The Nemesis version, although referred to throughout antiquity, remains largely un-remembered today. Iconographically we find a similar pattern, as although the version of Nemesis as Helen's mother was known there are very few representations of Nemesis in general. There is only one securely identified depiction of her on a Greek vase painting, and this picture does include Helen.

It shows Helen being persuaded by Paris (with much help from Aphrodite and Peitho - the Goddess of Persuasion). Nemesis looks on and points an accusing finger - possibly she is pointing to the future consequences of Helen's decision. There is also a cult statue of Nemesis, at a sanctuary at Rhamnous, which features Helen on the base. In sharp contrast there are very many depictions of Leda in Greek art. Generally she is shown with either a swan, or an egg. It would seem, however, that the majority of the depictions of Leda, especially with the swan, appear after the plays of Euripides have been produced, which leads us to suggests the possibility of his influence on the story. The pictures that depict Leda with an egg show her discovering it, and often looking surprised or shocked (she sometimes even runs away from the scene). Helen is sometimes shown emerging from the egg as a miniature human, rather than as a baby. To sum up the aspects of Helen's unusual birth: Although Leda is the traditionally known mother of Helen it is highly probable that the Nemesis version is of older origin.

Prior to Euripides' Helen there is no evidence of Leda having been raped by Zeus in the form of a swan. In fact there does not appear to be any rape story at all associated with Leda and the birth of Helen, until we reach Euripides. This is in contrast to the myth attached to Leda's bearing of the Dioscuri (see Homeric Hymn to the Dioscuri ). Iconographically Leda is seen finding the egg prior to Euripides, and afterwards she is depicted with a swan. With the Nemesis version of the myth established Helen is revealed to have two divine parents, and thus should be regarded as divine herself. If Leda does have any valid claim to be her mother, then Helen is the only mortal daughter of Zeus, this is significant in its exceptionality. DEATH AND IMMORTALITY The exceptionality of Helen's conception and birth illustrate that she is at least semi-divine. Turning to the opposite end of her life, how is her death portrayed? I have said that once the Trojan War was over, Helen returned home to Sparta and spent the rest of her life with Menelaus, but then what?

As is to be expected she has no mortal ending, instead she is either elevated to her rightful divine status, or she spends her days in the Elysian Fields. There is only one account of Helen's actual death, and this itself is at odds with the majority of sources. Pausanias (3.19.9-13) tells of a story, local to Rhodes, where Helen is hanged. In this version Helen lives on after Menelaus dies but is driven out of her homeland by his two sons - Nicostratus and Megapenthes. Her flight brought her to Rhodes where she believed she had a friend, Polyxo. This friend however turns traitor and wishes to avenge the death of her own husband, who died as a result of the Trojan War, on Helen. When Helen is out bathing Polyxo sends handmaidens, disguised as furies, to hound her and hang her from a tree. Pausanias ends the account by saying that it is for this reason that the Rhodians have a sanctuary of "Helen of the Tree".. This story is obviously an aetiological explanation for the sanctuary.

The Rhodians worship a "Helen of the Tree" but it has been forgotten or misunderstood why this sanctuary was first established. Since this then is the only account of Helen's death, and it is an aetiological fabrication, we must look instead to what is said about her afterlife. In ancient Greek myth the Elysian Fields and the Isles of the Blessed were two dwelling places for immortalised human beings. Similar in description it is difficult to tell what difference, if any, lay between them. Homer places Helen (and Menelaus) in the Elysian Fields, as does Apollodorus ( Epit . 6.30). Menelaus recovers his Spartan kingdom, and is subsequently made immortal by Hera, so that he and Helen can then go to the Elysian Fields. From these two versions it would appear fairly important that Menelaus and Helen should be together. After all that has occurred, and Menelaus has reclaimed his wife, he is rewarded. That Helen goes to the Elysian Fields seems to be perfectly understandable - she is a daughter of Zeus, her place is not in the underworld, she is immortal.

She and Menelaus are supposed to be together - for this to be possible he has to be immortalised too. In some ways this bears similarities to Helen's brothers, the Dioscuri. Since only Polydeuces was the actual son of Zeus, and therefore immortal, when Castor is killed his brother asks/begs for him to be immortalised so that they should not be separated in death. Their lives are thus spent split one day in 'heaven' the next in the underworld. Isocrates' Helen actually credits Helen herself with raising Menelaus to divine status. He says that she first deified her brothers, the Dioscuri, who had already undergone some form of divine transformation, and she then turned to Menelaus, to recompense him for all he had gone through because of her, she made him immortal, and an equal partner of her house and throne (61-63). Isocrates also mentions that even in his time the Spartans made sacrifices to Helen and Menelaus as gods, at their temple in Therapne. Menelaus and Helen however do not always stay together after death.

In Euripides' Orestes , Menelaus remains firmly mortal after Helen is rescued by Apollo during a murder attempt by Orestes. She is snatched away from the very brink of death (1629-1642) under the orders of Zeus her father. Apollo proclaims her fate, along with the other characters' at the end of the play. Helen is to live on immortal with Castor and Polydeuces her brothers, acting as a saviour to sailors. Menelaus, instead of being invited to join her, is told to take another wife instead. It is explained that Helen was basically an instrument of 'justice' to aid the eradication of many mortals/reduce the population of earth. She was a tool, or pawn of the gods, but now her work is done and the war is over she is to join her father and be viewed, and honoured by men as a goddess, and especially remembered by sailors. Helen is however believed by some people (those of Crotona and Himera), according to Pausanias (3.19.9-13) to live on an island called 'The White Island' which was sacred to Achilles, as his wife.

This 'White Island' appears to be somewhat akin to the Isles of the Blessed in concept. The idea of Helen being married to Achilles in the 'afterlife', although in many ways opposite to what we would expect, can be justified as a concept by some of the sources. Achilles was always too young to have been one of Helen's original suitors, but it was said of him that if he had been old enough there would have been no contest. They are of different generations, but as she is the most beautiful and he is the most heroic, they are both the best, and as such it is not difficult to see why some of the ancients could have conceived of a liaison of some sort between Helen and Achilles. So far we can assuredly say that when Helen came to the end of her time on earth, she did not 'die' and go to the underworld. As semi-divine, or immortal in whatever sense, she has a 'life' after death. Once she has achieved this immortality, she does not remain hidden away in some rosy mythical blissful place, but is apparently seen by mortals, and affects their actions.

Herodotus recounts a tale whereby Helen appeared at her own temple in Therapne (SE of Sparta) and caused the ugly child of a wealthy family to become beautiful. Not a particularly important act to commit, on the surface, yet we should recall that Helen was renowned for her own beauty, and the effects she had on men. That she should give beauty to another is perhaps appropriate. According to Pausanias (4.16.9) a more useful appearance of Helen, this time with her brothers, the Dioscuri, prevented an attack on Sparta one night. The majority of sources agree that Helen was some kind of divine being, and as such was elevated after her death to an immortal status. Poetic sources tell of various places she went to and whom she spent her time with (e.g. her husband Menelaus, or her brothers the Dioscuri), and historical sources say that she made various appearances in order to make something happen, or prevent an act. So was Helen actually worshipped as a divine being, immortal, deity, or heroine? Or were these accounts purely mythical tales?

HELEN AS HEROINE MYTH I will go on to discuss the worship of Helen as a heroine in historical times, but first I would like to try and attempt to define what a 'heroine' was to the ancient Greeks. While we might find it relatively simple to offer a definition of what a male hero constituted, and provide plenty of corresponding examples; it is not so simple to define/suggest the female counterpart. If a typical example of a hero is Achilles who lives a short, glorious, battle-filled life, whom is his female counterpart (aside from Amazons - who were not Greek, but foreign and 'other'), and if Theseus and Heracles achieved fame for their great deeds, which female also accomplished magnificent tasks? We cannot match male to female, hero to heroine, in an exact manner. Each sex achieves its heroic glory in diverging ways, female heroism has to be measured differently to male heroic action. Two recent works, Lyons (1997) and Kearns (1998) do explore the nature of Greek heroines in ways that bring a greater clarification to the subject matter. Working with their ideas we are able to get a clearer picture of Helen.

Kearns identifies up to six categories which illuminate the nature of heroines, although she herself does not number them such we can list them thus: 1) Those who die young, or virginal - and are usually associated with girls' transition, or initiation rites. 2) Those who experience sexual intercourse with a male deity - thus acting in a genealogical function, as they become the mothers of heroes. 3) Priestesses who are institutors of cults. 4) Eponymous heroines who are involved in the founding of places, and give their names to such. 5) Old women, who have much experience of married life. 6) Those afflicted with madness. Heroines can cross over some of the categories, as I feel Helen does, but since she does not fit into all the definitions, I will only focus on the ones she does, and see to what extent she conforms fully to those frameworks. 1) - Girls' Transition Rites - Often heroines, as young maidens, are worshipped as part of initiation or transition rites, often in conjunction with Artemis - the virgin goddess who offers protection to maidens and women in childbirth.

The mythological story surrounding these heroines will usually involve them dying a premature death, and normally when they are still virgins or unmarried. It is clear that Helen is not a maiden who dies young, or virginal, in fact quite the opposite could be said to be true. However this has not prevented her from being seen to be involved in some form of girls' transition, or initiatory experience. Theocritus' Idyll 18 is a wedding song for Helen, supposedly sung by young girls, who within it weave flowers into garlands to hang on a Plane tree, pour libations of oil by the tree and celebrate rites in honour of Helen. Theocritus has the young girls supposedly singing the song outside the doors of Menelaus' house. In a way these maidens are mourning the loss of their companion who will no longer play with them, but has become a wife. In one version of her story, Helen is abducted by Theseus when she is dancing at the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia, thus another link to girls' transition rites.

Elsewhere we also have mention of a festival called the Helenephoria, which is perhaps a reference to the same, or a similar, celebration that Theocritus has composed about. 2) Mother of Hero - genealogical function. Heroines who do not die young and virginal usually progress to the next stage of a woman's life - that of motherhood. Often being courted or raped by a male deity, they become mothers of heroes. As Kearns (102) reminds us, this is the earliest attested to definition of being a heroine, as seen in the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women .. Helen progresses from maidenhood to marriage and motherhood, but is never courted or raped by a god. Her partners are all human, and as such she never produces a hero as a son. Despite being credited with up to fourteen children in different sources, she is never renowned for being a mother. 3) Priestess and institutor of a cult - Often a heroine will be a priestess at a particular shrine or sanctuary, possibly one she herself has instituted. Upon her death, she is worshipped at the shrine, sometimes in conjunction with the deity previously worshipped.

Helen is known to have been worshipped at several shrines most specifically at Therapne. She is also, however, credited with setting up a shrine to Eileithyia according to Pausanias (2.22.6), after she had given birth to Iphigeniea. We might align this event with category 1, where Helen is also associated with transition rites, and with Artemis. Since Artemis is concerned with childbirth, here we have Helen specifically setting up a shrine after she has given birth. 4) Eponymous heroines - although Helen does not give her name to any city or polis which she has founded, there is some evidence of various springs being named after her, and Menelaus. As far as the categories Kearns identified are concerned, Helen can be seen to play some part in at least three of them. Helen is also unusual in that she is the only mortal daughter of Zeus. She is a heroine because she is a famous and notable mythological female, however, she is not worshipped, or regarded, as a heroine by her contemporaries, it is only after her death (within her mythological lifetime), and outside of the mythology that she is honoured.

When she achieves cult status it is partly as a partner to Menelaus (e.g. at their shrine in Therapne). Helen is therefore a heroine who achieved divine status within poetic and literary sources. HISTORICAL EVIDENCE Due to the comments and observations made by several writers (Herodotus, Isocrates and Pausanias) we know that some form of cult worship to Helen still existed in the historical period. Various locations for shrines connected to Helen are mentioned the main, or primary, shrine we are aware of is the one at Therapne, just east of Sparta, though there is another sanctuary near the tomb of Alcman, and a Plane tree Grove. During the last century various excavations at a site in Lakonia have indeed revealed a shrine that is most probably the one referred to in the literary sources. The site of the Menelaion is on a high escarpment, to the east of Sparta, looking down on the town and the Eurotas valley. A number of archaeologists have dug at this site, most notably Hector Catling with the British School at Athens, who has been digging at the site and the surrounding area since the early 1970's.

Though it was Ludwig Ross in the 1830's who was the first to identify the remains of this site as the historically referred to shrine of Helen and Menelaus at Therapne. It was also he who coined the modern usage of the term the 'Menelaion' for the shrine in 1833. Although as I will come to argue, the shrine was in honour of both Helen and Menelaus, the name, 'Menelaion' is one that was also used in ancient times - primarily by later sources such as Polybius (5.18). Although it would be interesting and important to find evidence for the worship of Helen at a shrine in Therapne dating back to the Mycenaean Age it appears that there is no archaeological evidence showing so. There are signs of occupation and use of the site and surrounding area during the Mycenaean period, but no recoverable shrine or area of worship. If Helen was revered as a deity or heroine in this period in this locality there is no archaeological evidence to demonstrate it, so why was the later shrine placed there?

In the era when the idea of hero-cults first began to gain in popularity, would not the inhabitants, or leaders, of 8th century BC Lakonia look to where they could see evidence of previous occupation - evidence of where their heroes, Helen and Menelaus, might have lived and died. Mycenaean ruins on top of the, now labelled, Menelaion Hill would feasibly have been visible in the 8th century BCE. If a people were looking into the past, consciously looking back to a heroic age since gone, would they not have looked around their own landscape for traces of this heroic past, and having seen the ruins on top of the hill, have surmised that this is where their heroes lived, or that this was 'politically' an ideal location to visualise their community 'ancestors', and begin to venerate them. This idea may have been taken further with the premise that their heroes might be entombed there too. The shrine is built upon a natural outcrop, which was subsequently enclosed by a platform (to presumably even up the ground).

This outcrop might have appeared to be a natural tomb for Helen and Menelaus, or at least suggest the possibility of a burial place for heroes. During the 8th century a greater focus was being put on temples and sanctuaries, which is partly attributed to the emergence of the polis. Although Sparta was not the average 'Greek polis' the founding of the shrine at Therapne in the 8th century plausibly fits with this hypothesis. Although we cannot prove that religious activity occurred on the site of the shrine before the 8th century, after that date we do have the existence of the shrines, and epigraphical evidence that Helen and Menelaus were worshipped there. In 1975 a trench cut into the north east terrace fill of the shrine revealed two bronze objects both inscribed. The first was a pointed aryballos that dates to the second quarter of the 7th century BC. Its inscription reads: " Deinis dedicated these to [Helen wife of] Menelaus ". This is scratched around the mouth of the vase.

The second object was an 'harpax' an unusual object described by Catling (1975, 267) as "a small socketed instrument ending in a ring from which once radiated twelve curved prongs." This object may once have been used in ritual sacrifice, possibly as some form of meat hook. Along the handle of this object is scratched the dedication "For Helen", it probably dates to the 6th century BCE. Over the next decade a couple more inscribed objects were discovered with mention of either Helen or Menelaus. What this iconographical evidence can tell us, or suggest to us, is that the name 'Menelaion' which Ludwig Ross gave to the shrine in the 1830's, and which Catling found so appropriate in 1977, should perhaps be considered a misnomer. This is Helen's shrine, or at least a shared shrine with Menelaus, but it is not exclusively his. Although the sample of inscriptions is small, there are objects dedicated to Helen alone, just as there are to Menelaus.

It seems fairly apparent then, taking into account both the literary evidence and the archaeological evidence that the shrine at Therapne was used to worship both Helen and Menelaus - either as a couple or as individuals. Though I would be inclined to favour the idea that the shrine was either originally, or primarily, Helen's (and after all it is only she who has appeared within its vicinity, and not Menelaus) there is no evidence to back up this theory. So we can only state that it was a shared shrine. Although there was some belief that Helen and Menelaus were buried there so far no burials have been discovered. HELEN AS A GODDESS The question now arises whether Helen was in actuality a Goddess in her own right, albeit one whose divinity had faded, so that she tended to be remembered as a semi-divine heroine rather than a fully fledged Goddess? The idea that Helen is a 'faded' goddess is of course not new. Farnell, amongst others, discussed the idea in the early decades of the 20th century, though he later changed his mind and dismissed the theory as sterile and unnatural (1921, 324).

More recently Clader (1976), Skutsch (1987) and West (1975) amongst others have explored the possibility, to a far greater extent and the idea has gained in credence. It is extremely difficult to be able to separate the strands we have. As stated, in the poetic sources we are presented with Helen as a heroine who achieved divine status (as her birth-right/paternity dictated) but whether this story of Helen, Menelaus and Paris, and the Trojan War masks a story about a goddess, or what about some kind of semi-historical event we cannot say. The 'hero' cult of Helen grew up in the 8 th - 6 th century BCE along with others at the time, and much of the archaeological remains we have, and literary sources, refer only to this 'hero cult' period, but this does not rule out the possibility of a cult or form of worship of Helen as a goddess prior to this time. VEGETATION GODDESS? I mentioned above the one account of Helen's death, on Rhodes, which we have discredited as an aetiological explanation.

That passage, however, is important in that it noted that Helen was worshipped on the island as 'Helen of the Tree'.. We may surmise that at this island sanctuary images of Helen as a goddess were hung on trees. Lindsay (1974, 225) makes the suggestion that: "The idea of the Hanged Goddess substantially derived from the custom of hanging images or masks in trees, and ritual fillets helped to create the idea of the rope - though beyond the custom lay the belief in the tree as a form or image of the Earth Mother." Helen is not the only maiden to hang from a tree, and there are notable parallels with the myths of Ariadne and Phaedra (amongst others). Helen is linked elsewhere to Plane trees, and a festival at Sparta called the Helenia, believed to be celebrated in spring or early summer, had young girls hanging garlands on her holy tree. Theocritus Idyll 18 describes these activities and locates them at the time of Helen and Menelaus' wedding.

This suggests that Helen was some sort of vegetation deity, in addition, we have an abduction motif attached to Helen which can be paralleled with Perspehone and Ariadne. Paris was not the first man to abduct Helen, she was previously taken by the hero Theseus when she was a young girl. Her brothers, the Dioscuri, managed to rescue her and bring her home - some sources claim she remained virginal, whilst others claim that she became pregnant by Theseus. The child that she bore was called Iphigeneia, and she subsequently gave her to her sister Clytemnestra to bring up (Iphigeneia was the maiden who was sacrifiiced by Agamemnon so that the Greek fleet could have a fair wind to sail to Troy - if Iphigeneia was Helen's daughter, then we have the daughter being sacrificed for the mother). Theseus was aided in his abduction attempt by his friend Perithous, they next went down to the underworld to attempt to snatch Persephone. Both heroes wanted to marry a daughter of Zeus, but this adventure proved to be their undoing.

Persephone is of course the archetypal vegetation goddess, who spends the winter in the underworld and who returns at spring to bestow her blessings on the land. Theseus also 'abducted' Ariadne from Crete - although a mortal princess in mythology, she is also known to be an old Minoan Nature Goddess. Theseus then is involved in the abduction (or attempted abduction) of three Vegetation Goddesses. Should we assume these are separate myths, or are they all variations on a theme? Helen is of course later abducted by Paris, and subsequently has her name linked with a variety of men - again perhaps just a variation, or repetition, of a theme. SOLAR DEITY? In my earlier synopsis of Helen's story there was one element which I neglected to mention, and that was the recurring references to Egypt. There are some versions of Helen's myth that claim that Helen did not go to Troy at all, but went to Egypt instead (a place that is neither near Sparta, or Troy, nor in any way en route between them).

Herodotus claims that Paris landed in Egypt on his way home, and when the authorities learned of his misadventures they confiscated the stolen goods, including Helen, and sent Paris back to Troy. The Greeks refused to believe that Helen was not in Troy, and thus sacked the city before checking the story out. Other versions, such as Euripides' play, Helen, claim that a phantom Helen was taken to Troy, and the real Helen was transported to Egypt for safe keeping until the war was over. Whichever version should be believed there is no escaping the fact that Helen, at some stage, was in Egypt. Even Homer explains that Helen and Menelaus visited Egypt on their way home from Troy, having been blown off course. So why is Egypt so important? It may have something to do with Helen's Vegetation Goddess aspect, in that when she leaves for winter (or is abducted) she has to go somewhere, and Egypt is a convenient place to locate her.

On the other hand it might be as West suggests, that because Egypt was the only land in the south known to the early Greeks; that Helen went away to the south like the sun when the winter came, and that her return was celebrated at the Heleneia in the spring. We should now look a little more closely at Helen's brothers to see what part they play in this story. Previous studies, including those by West and Skutsch, demonstrate that the Dioscuri, the divine twins, have counterparts in many different mythologies. They can be seen as Hengist and Horsa in Germanic myths, as the Asvins in the Indian Rigveda, and they appear in folksongs of various countries in the Baltic area. They are two figures who are closely associated with horses and have a connection to the daughter of the sun - usually trying to win her hand in marriage, or abduct her from her husband. The Dioscuri are not suitors of Helen, for they are her brothers, but they do try to protect her from other men. When Theseus abducts her they rescue her.

That they fail to rescue Helen when she is stolen by Paris is explained by the story that they had already died (and become immortalised) before they could join the battle at Troy. However, mythologically we can see that their role has been replaced/usurped by the brothers Menelaus and Agamemnon. Both brothers are involved in the courtship of Helen, as Agamemnon comes to woo her on his brother's behalf. When Paris steals her the brothers take an army to reclaim her. Whilst, just as the Dioscuri are only half divine (one mortal, one not - but they share their divinity in the afterlife), Menelaus is immortalised (for being Helen's husband) but Agamemnon is murdered and rests in the underworld. Meanwhile, since the Dioscuri cannot pay suit to the sun maiden as she is their sister, they instead turn their attention to a set of twin maidens, the Leucippides (White Horse maidens). These girls had been promised in marriage to another set of twin brothers, Idas and Lynceus.

The Dioscuri abduct the Leucippides, and end up fighting Idas and Lynceus, this results in death for all but Polydeuces. The maidens' names are Phoebe and Hilaera, which are both suitable names for sun maidens. Phoebe means 'shining' and is the name of a daughter of the sun elsewhere; Leda apparently also has a daughter of that name - though there may be some confusion with the Leucippides. Hilaera is a epithet that is normally applied to fire, or to the moon. Their father Leucippus, or White Horse, can be associated with dawn, daylight, and the sun, as the white horses pull the chariot of the sun across the sky. So we see that the motifs are still apparent, even though mythology has anthropomorphised the characters into mortals. Etymological evidence has connected Helen's name to *svarana - 'the shining one' and as such she can also be connected to torches, fire, and natural occurrences of fire-balls, which we might label St. Elmo's Fire.

Skutsch discusses the corposant suggesting that it was originally called 'Helen's Fire' and that while her brothers, the Dioskouroi, tended to be regarded as saviours - especially to those at sea (when they appeared as a double light), Helen tended to be feared (as the appearance of a single light). The etymology of Helen's name, and her roots in Indo-European mythology are beyond the scope of this article. The nature of Helen is not a simple idea for discussion as much has gone into her make-up. What I do believe is that we would be foolish to regard Helen as merely a mortal heroine in a tale of abduction. There are far greater and wider implications, and what the studies by Skutsch, Clader, and others, have demonstrated is distinct possibilities that 'Helen of Troy' may have descended mythologically from a sun-maiden and/or vegetation goddess. A figure who goes south in the winter and is rescued/brought back in the spring by twin riders. I think we can realistically regard Helen as a divine figure, and although the nature of her divinity may have altered over the centuries, she was worshipped and believed in as a divine power.

We may have only explicit archaeological and literary evidence of Helen being revered alongside Menelaus in a Spartan hero-cult, at a shrine in Therapne, but we should not close our minds to her wider divine, mythological past-history. Bibliography Catling, H. (1975) 'Excavations of the British School at Athens at the Menelaion, Sparta, 1973-75.' Lakonikai Spoudai 2: 258-69. Clader, L.L. (1976) Helen: The Evolution from Divine to Heroic in Greek Epic Tradition. Leiden: Brill. Farnell, L.R. (1921) Greek Hero Cults and Ideas of Immortality. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Lindsay, J. (1974) Helen of Troy: Woman and Goddess . London. Skutsch, O. (1987) 'Helen, Her Name and Nature.' Journal of Hellenic Studies 107: 188-93. West, M.L. (1975) Immortal Helen. Castle Cary: Castle Cary Press.

About Helen of Troy About Helen of Troy Robert E. Bell H elen of Sparta was perhaps the most inspired character in all literature, ancient or modern. A whole war, one which lasted for ten years, was fought over her. Not only that, nearly all the myths of the heroic age were threaded together in such a way that this most idealized of all wars was the culmination of various exploits, including the Argonaut, the Theban wars, and the Calydonian boar hunt. It is as though this event was in the destiny of every dynasty formed from the beginning of things. Helen, the face that launched a thousand ships, was a tantalizing enigma from the very first. She was flesh and blood certainly, but she was also immortal, since her father was none other than Zeus. Her mother was the beautiful Leda, queen of Sparta, who was ravished by the father of the gods in the form of a swan. Leda's husband was Tyndarecus, who later the same night, unaware of his feathered predecessor, also impregnated his wife. She produced two eggs, one of which yielded Helen and Polydeuces and the other of which contained Castor and Clytemnestra.

While a swan's egg can be accepted for the sake of myth, it has never made much sense that the part of her pregnancy initiated by Tyndareus should produce an egg as well. This most curious of births has been subjected to all manner of combinations over the years. As delicious as the story of Leda was, some commentators even went so far as to suggest that Helen and the Dioscuri were conceived at Rhamnus in Attica by Zeus and Nemesis, the usually rather stern and sexless goddess whose job it was to curb excesses. Nemesis, not happy with being raped by a swan, laid an egg and left it. Leda found it, and when the egg hatched it produced Helen and the Dioscuri. In that case, Clytemnestra was not even a sister of Helen. It is difficult to imagine the childhood of the famous egg-born quartet. Two of them could be injured, perhaps, but not fatally; two had special gifts that made them physically and mentally superior. Apparently there was no jealousy among them. Castor and Polydeuces were so closely attached they swore to die together, even if Polydeuces could not hope to fulfill this resolve.

The relationship between Helen and Clytemnestra was not so simple. Helen was stunningly beautiful, and this must have caused Clytemnestra some wistful moments when inevitable comparisons were made. When the sisters reached puberty, Helen was kidnapped. Both the aging Theseus, king of Athens, and his friend Peirithous, king of Larissa, wanted to have sex with one of Zeus' daughters before they died. Theseus chose Helen, whose remarkable beauty was already talked of far and wide. The abductors took her to Aphidna, a small city north of Athens, and left her in the safekeeping of one of Theseus' vassals. He put his mother, Aethra, with her as a guardian and companion. Inevitably, stories arose that Theseus took her into safekeeping to do Tyndarcus a favor. One of Tyndarcus' nephews was persistently pursuing her as a suitor, even at her very young age. Another story said the sons of Apharcus, Idas and Lynceus, stole her, which caused the famous fatal battle between them and the Dioscuri. There can be little question that Theseus took Helens virginity.

After all, that was the object of the kidnapping. Some suppose that he planned to keep her intact until she reached marriageable age. But the more realistic writers even gave the couple a child. Interestingly, but improbably, the child was Iphigeneia. We cannot know how long Helen was at Aphidna. Theseus had accomplished his goal, so he left her and went with Peirithous to Hades to steal Persephone. This was foolhardy as it turned out, for both were imprisoned, Peirithous forever. The Dioscuri meanwhile raised an army and marched on Athens. The Athenians knew nothing of the outrage to their sister, but one Academus had knowledge of the facts and revealed the hiding place. The brothers razed Aphidna and delivered Helen, whom they carried home to Sparta, along with Aethra and Peirithous' sister as personal slaves to their sister. Clytemnestra married during this time, first to Tantalus, son of Thyestes, and later to Agamemnon, who killed Tantalus.

If Helen did bring a baby back from Aphidna, it made good sense for Clytemnestra to adopt it, since Helen was still considered a virgin. If the child was Iphigeneia, some of the drama of sacrifice at Aulis would be diminished, and Clytemnestra's revenge motive would not be as strong. It is probably best to go with the common story that Helen had no child by Theseus and that Iphigeneia was the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. Upon Helen's return to Sparta, an avalanche of suitors started to arrive. It would be interesting to explore the dynamics of this mass courting. Every red-blooded male in Greece who had heard of the gorgeous Helen dreamed of possessing her. But acting on such ambition had a price tag. One had to be able to afford an impressive appearance, complete with attendants, gifts, and other evidence of affluency. It must be pointed out that the suitors were really wooing Tyndarcus, not Helen. Their expense was nothing to what the process cost the father.

The suitors and their attendants had to be lodged and entertained, and the laws of hospitality probably did not allow for limits on the duration of one's stay. The roll call of suitors shows that they came from all parts of Greece and represented the finest stock of heroes and heirs to property and wealth.

They were 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; Peneleus, 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 Peirithous; Leonteus, son of Coronus; Podaleirius and Machaon, sons of Asclepius; Philoctetes, son of Poeas; Eurypylus, son of Euaemon; Protesilaus

 and Podarces, sons of Iphiclus; Menelaus, son of Pleisthenes (or Atreus); Ajax and Teucer, sons of Telamon; Patroclus, son of Menoetius; and Idomeneus, son of Deucalion.

There were other lists, of course, with considerable variation in the names. In later years it was probably socially advantageous for one to be able to claim an ancestor who had been one of Helens suitors, in much the way descendants of the Argonauts could probably have filled three ships with their ancestors. It is interesting to learn that some of the suitors did not appear in person but sent representatives with offers of handsome dowries. Ajax the Greater promised considerable property, some of it not his own but to be acquired if he was chosen. Odysseus took no gifts, not expecting to win. Idomeneus of Crete appeared in person, depending on his extraordinary good looks to overcome the competition. Tyndareus was at a loss as to how to proceed, because he feared reprisal from the unsuccessful. Happy to settle for Tyndareus' niece, the wily Odysseus offered a solution in exchange for Penelope, a match Tyndareus was able to arrange with his brother Icarius.

Odysseus suggested that each suitor swear an oath to stand behind whomever Tyndarcus selected and be ready at any time in the future to defend the favored bridegroom against any wrong done to him in respect to the marriage. Everyone agreed to these terms, and Tyndareus promptly chose Menelaus, whom he had probably had in mind all along. It may be important to realize that Helen really had little say-so in this arrangement. Menelaus was a political choice on her father's part. He had wealth and power, mainly through his brother Agamemnon, but for Helen he did not offer the good looks and glamor of some of her other suitors. It was her lot to grace the palace and the kingdom Menelaus soon inherited. She gave birth to Hermione, Aethiolas, Maraphius, and Pleisthenes, and, according to some, Nicostratus, although many claimed he and Megapenthes were the sons of Menelaus by Pieris, a slave.

In that case, we can took at an additional reason for her own infidelity: (She had no way of knowing about another amorous adventure Menelaus was having in Crete during the time he was attending his grandfather's funeral.) According to some writers, Sparta experienced a plague during the early years of their marriage, and Menelaus was advised by an oracle to go to Troy to observe propitiatory rites at the graves of Lycus and Chimaereus, sons of Prometheus, who were buried there. Menelaus did so and was accompanied on his return by Paris, who had accidentally killed his best friend in an athletic contest and needed purification. The two arrived in Sparta, and during the several days necessary for the purification ceremony, Paris had many opportunities to see the gorgeous woman who had been promised to him. About the time the absolution was completed, Menelaus had to leave unexpectedly for Crete to attend funeral ceremonies for his grandfather Catreus. Ingenuously he left the handsome visitor to be entertained by his wife. Helen had been utterly charmed by the stranger.

He was by nature already handsome, but Aphrodite, as if to guarantee the success of her project, had made him even more irresistibly beautiful. In addition, he possessed manners and charm, and it was impossible for Helen not to fall in love with this superb young man. He, of course, had fallen under her spell the instant he laid eyes on her. Menelaus had not been gone long before the lovers departed. Some say they left the very next night, but some preparation must have been necessary. Paris had his own ship, and certainly he had retainers with him befitting his royal status. Helen required her own attendants, who included Aethra, the mother of Theseus; Thisadie, sister of Peirithous; and Astyanassa, Clymene, and Electra, servants. According to some reports, Paris helped himself to the royal treasury. It does not speak too well for Menelaus' authority that his security forces would have allowed this flagrant plundering. He must have left a considerable army behind when he went to Crete. It is likely Helen had a sufficiently large number of loyal subjects that she could come and go without question.

Undoubtedly many of the palace guards were secretly in love with her. Inevitably there were the stories that sought to make Helen look sinned against rather than sinning. According to these, she was taken by force. One silly version even suggested that Aphrodite deceived her by giving Paris the appearance of Menelaus. It was Aphrodite herself, though, who had pronounced a curse on Tyndarcus that his daughters Clytemnestra, Timandra, and Helen would be adulteresses, and she probably did not allow for such an excuse as involuntary adultery. At Gythium, the port of Sparta, they embarked after Paris dedicated a sanctuary to Aphrodite Migonitis in appreciation for her assistance. They were barely under way before they stopped at the island of Cranae, still within view of Gythium. So far the couple had not been to bed together, even though there was ample opportunity after Menelaus left. Perhaps Paris felt comfortable in robbing the treasury of his host but not further violating the code of hospitality by sleeping with his wife in his own house. For some similar moral reason, Helen may have held him off until they had left the mainland.

Or maybe it made good sense to erect the sanctuary at Gythium to Aphrodite, who might otherwise give them trouble at a later time. Paris could have had in mind to make for Onugnathus, farther down the Laconian Gulf and more or less out of immediate range of any pursuers, but biological urgencies probably forced him to cast anchor immediately. The consummation stuns the imagination. What a sublime moment for Paris, who now lay with the most desired woman in the entire world. Undoubtedly his passion was heightened by Aphrodite, who must have considered this her most inspired achievement. As for Helen, there could have been a bittersweet response to the great moment. Until then she had experienced sex with only the aging Theseus and the prosaic Menelaus. This virile young man must have given her bliss she had not imagined, but certainly the shadow of her infidelity and the abandonment of her children must have cast itself across the love couch. The trip thereafter has been variously described. The temptation to embroider on the already rich tapestry was too strong to resist. The ship went to Egypt and Phoenicia.

According to one account, Proteus, king in Egypt, took Helen from Paris and gave him a phantom image of her, restoring the real Helen to Menelaus on his return from Troy. This inane account would then make the Trojan War a total mockery. Another similarly tiresome account had Paris robbing the king of Sidon, who had offered the party hospitality on their way up the coast. Already disgraced in most eyes, Paris would then have been little more than a pirate. Whatever minor adventures befell them, the company came at last to Troy. The Trojans, even those who had criticized the rashness of Priams son, could only marvel at the divine beauty who stepped off the ship. A wedding ceremony took place, and it was as though Helen was marrying Troy, since her destiny became at that moment interlocked with the destiny of the city. Even Priam was fully won over and vowed to protect her as long as she wanted to remain. The lovers had barely left Sparta before couriers were running swiftly to all parts of Greece. The unthinkable had happened. Menelaus came swiftly back from Crete, where his loitering with a nymph had allowed the elopers ample time to outdistance any possible pursuit.

Agamemnon was furious. Not only was his family dishonored, but he took the insult almost personally. One suspects he himself was in love with his sister-in-law. Swift action was taken. Menelaus, Odysseus, and, according to some, Acamas, the son of Theseus, went to Troy to demand that Helen be returned. Incidentally, this above all would seem to silence the versions that had Paris and Helen taking months to reach Troy. Though counseled by such advisers as Antenor and Aeneas to surrender Helen, Priam stubbornly held to his promise to her. Moreover, he recalled the reverse situation when his sister Hesione had been kidnapped by Heracles and Telamon, and the Greeks had turned deaf ears to entreaties for her return. The envoys returned to Greece, and preparations for war began. The former suitors of Helen were reminded of the oath they had sworn. Armies were recruited and ships were built. Men who had been boys when Helen married came forward to enlist in a cause that the gods transported her to Elysium. This was the most fitting end of the story since Helen was, after all, immortal.

Consequently, Menelaus could scarcely have carried out his intention of killing her when he was reunited with her at Troy. Immortal or not, her physical remains and those of Menelaus were supposed to be buried at Therapne in a temple dedicated to them. Writers even followed her into the afterworld, where they had her marry Achilles, making him her fifth husband, following Theseus, Menelaus, Paris, and Deiphobus. From there she was even said to have blinded the poet Stesichorus for writing unflattering things about her; she restored his vision when he recanted and composed a poem in her praise. The most fascinating thing about Helen was her story. It was far better than she was. We do not see any real character development in her and have to regard her as a pawn of the gods. The larger story is involved with the people around her, their rise and fall. She herself seemed almost oblivious to the horrors that surrounded her. She displayed very little emotion and no remorse. She seemed removed and largely unaffected by the outcome of the war. In most accounts of her final years she was not even made to pay for her part in the calamity that touched virtually every family in Greece.

It is small wonder some writers contrived alternative versions in which she was made to pay a debt to society. From Women of Classical Mythology: A Biographical Dictionary. Copyright � 1991 by Robert E. Bell. Jean-Louis Back�s Did the Trojan War take place? We have little reason to doubt it, but we have little more to believe that it was the greatest conflict ever to have occurred. The Greeks however, thought that it was: before telling the story of the Peloponnesian War the historian Thucydides felt the need to establish a parallel between it and the Trojan War to emphasize the importance of his subject. With the passage of time these heroic exploits had entered the realm of legend, people were convinced that the gods had taken part, and history became myth. The Trojan War glows with a dark fire at the dawn of time as the unsurpassable model for all the wars that were to come. An extraordinary phenomenon must have an extraordinary cause. Did Homer think so? It is impossible to tell: his Iliad recounts only one episode in the conflict, the death of Hector, otherwise contenting itself with allusions or prophetic pronouncements.

One thing is clear: each time the contenders started negotiations, it was said that the Trojans would have to hand back 'Helen and the treasures'. The affair started with a woman being raped and a raid -- an act of brigands. Paris went off with plundered treasure, and a queen to boot. With Aphrodite's blessing, he made the queen his wife. But other bards, whose work has been lost, were not satisfied with such a humble explanation. They built up a cycle of epics telling the whole story of the war from the beginning. They described the origin of the affair ab ovo. They accepted that Zeus wanted to decimate the human race which had become too numerous, and posited a whole series of events: rivalry among three goddesses over an apple given 'to the most beautiful' by Eris (Discord); a verdict favouring Aphrodite pronounced by Paris, a Trojan prince brought up among shepherds; Paris being rewarded with the most beautiful woman ever seen. This woman, Helen, was the daughter of Zeus and Leda; as Zeus had disguised himself as a swan to seduce his beloved, Helen and her brothers the Dioscuri were born ab ovo -- from an egg.

This explication of the whole episode entails several difficulties. The main question is the extent to which Helen accepted the fate assigned to her. Did she act of her own free will? It was not long before people wondered if she had followed Paris voluntarily. It is an important distinction. In the first instance it could be said that she was the occasion of the war, which makes her no less odious; in the second she was responsible for the war, and could thus be hated as a scourge, and also condemned on moral grounds. Such condemnation became increasingly necessary in the eyes of the Greeks, who were developing a personal morality, but was ever less acceptable to those among them who saw Helen as a goddess. The immorality of religious myths shocked more than one right-thinking person in the fifth century BC. In some towns, Sparta in particular, there were temples to Helen, feasts of Helen and a cult of Helen, who figured as the protectress of adolescent girls and young married women. It would be shocking if elsewhere she had set an example of adultery. And the closer we go towards presenting the story in human terms, the closer we come to the unacceptable.

Aeschylus turned Helen into a being who was both abstract and divine, a sort of curse closely allied to the goddess Nemesis, -- who according to some traditions was her mother, and not Leda. But Euripides saw his heroine purely as a woman; he did not even accept the possible intervention of Aphrodite to inspire Helen with an irresistible passion. Hecabe says so very forcefully in the Troades: 'Paris was an extremely handsome man -- one look,/And your appetite became your Aphrodite. Why,/Men's lawless lusts are all called love' (v. 987, trans. Vellacott). How far is this psychological speech, which uses allegory, also an impious speech casting doubt on the existence of the gods? It is not easy to say.

In any case it is almost at the opposite pole from the chorus in Agamemnon where Aeschylus says of Helen that she is the Erinyes, the 'wife of tears' and 'the priest of Ate'; we are also a long way from the suggestion that Helen has a sort of divine mission, making her the instrument of fate: as it is expressed in Vellacott's translation, 'Was born that fit and fatal name/To glut the sea with spoil of ships' (Agamemnon 689). The virtual disappearance of the religious aspect of Helen that surrounded her with an aura of sacred terror laid her open to the most scathing insults. People expressed amazement that the Trojan War should have been fought over such an unimportant creature -- a woman -- adding that the woman in question had absolutely no value because she herself had no sense of her own dignity. A fine assortment of insults could easily be garnered from Euripides.

This tradition did not stop with him; at the height of the neoclassical period in Europe the name of Helen became a simple figure of speech, a metonym that could be used to designate any woman who was dangerous because she was flighty; in Schiller's Maria Stuart one of the queen's most persistent opponents can find no worse epithet for her than this: she is a Helen. Euripides was alive at the time when sophistry was born. No doubt he was as amused as anyone else by the idea of pleading lost causes. Gorgias and Isocrates each produced a eulogy of Helen. The tragic poet had shown them the way by putting a plea in the heroine's own mouth (Troades 903ff.). There is censure of the power of the gods, the origin of desire and the power of seduction: a suitable subject for rhetors whose prime concern it was to attract an audience. Or there is praise of beauty. From whatever angle it was approached it was not a comfortable morality: was it possible for a woman who was perfectly beautiful to be corrupt and vile? A philosophical dimension loomed.

Homer was happy to concede that the Trojan populace felt ill-will towards Helen, but the finest Trojans, Priam, his advisers and Hector, found it impossible not to respect her. At one point in the Iliad (VI.358) a strange complicity is established between Helen and Hector, both of them unhappy, but sure that they will for ever be celebrated by poets. Homer's successors never tired of pondering a parallel between Helen and Achilles. One of the poets of the epic cycle had proposed a meeting between the most beautiful daughter of Zeus and the most valiant of heroes. Much later it was imagined that these two marvellous beings were united beyond death on the fabled Isles of the Blessed. But Euripides had already pointed out (Helen 99) that Achilles had been prominent among Helen's suitors, and that the Trojan War had been envisaged also with a view to allowing Achilles to distinguish himself (op. cit., 1. 41); moreover the apple of Discord, the origin of the whole affair, had been produced on the occasion of the wedding of Thetis and Peteus, Achilles' parents-to-be.

Paradoxically the concern to elevate Helen from the realm of sordid anecdote and restore her to an epic role, was to have the effect of casting doubt on the epic itself. Since it was vital that beautiful Helen should be virtuous, it was claimed that she had never been in Troy, that Zeus had put a phantom in her place or that a king of Egypt had snatched her from Paris to protect her. The second version, which was known to Herodotus, has had a long life: it can be found in the novel Kassandra (1983) by Christa Wolf. Wolf imagines that the Trojans pretended Helen was within their walls so as not to lose face. The first version also effectively makes Helen an object of derision, and again presents in an exaggerated form the bitter judgement so often repeated -- a woman was not a worthwhile cause for people to kill one another. Yet this was not the point of view expressed by Euripides, the poet supposed to hate women, in his tragedy Helen.

Not only does he depict her character in the same touching, majestic light as his Alcestis or his Polyxena (in Hecabe), he even extends the study of the sufferings of misrepresented innocence to a tragic interrogation of the identity of the person: Helen is a woman who has been robbed of her very name and face. Saved because the gods finally proclaim the truth, she can rejoin or at least expect to rejoin the pleasant atmosphere of the feasts in Sparta (I. 141ff.), the young girls dancing and the husband towards whom she was led with songs. Writing his 'Epithalamion of Helen' (Idylls 18) more than two centuries after Euripides, Theocritus did not even mention the Trojan War. No doubt he bore in mind that according to a tradition relayed by Plato (Phaedrus 243a) the poet Stesichorus had been blinded by the gods for speaking ill of Helen, recovering his sight only after reciting the Palinode (a recantation).

It is impossible to know which of the two traditions Euripides was more committed to, that which he followed in his Helen or the other which is evident in the rest of his plays, where he attacks her as fickle, flirtatious and brazen. We can only note that other heroic characters were also depicted by Euripides in a none too favourable light: wily Odysseus, for example, whose wisdom and ability to confront the most disconcerting situations unperturbed were described by Homer with admiration, tends to become an unscrupulous sophist who loves traps and machinations. If Hecabe reproaches Helen, she does not spare Odysseus. Reading the great tragedies that conjure up the fall of Troy (Traodes, Hecabe and to some extent Andromache as well) we get the impression that the judicious balance that Homer's epic poems preserved between the two opposing sides has been upset, and certainly not in favour of the victors. The legend also became degraded. Once seen as a divine scourge, Helen was now regarded as a hateful woman.

She was the butt of obscene jokes even in Euripides' day (the Cyclops), a tradition that was continued in Horace, Jean de Meung, Hofmannswaldau, and Meilhac and Hal�vy. Others merely adopted a light, frivolous, scornful tone when writing about her. [. . . .] The forms in which this myth is expressed are so diverse that it is hard to determine its invariables. How could we justify censuring those poets for whom Helen is perfectly and impudently at ease with her conscience, always supposing she has one? All the same, Helen is cast with remarkable frequency as a burdened soul who finds it hard to recognize her own identity, in the work of both those who stick to the Trojan version and those who adopt the Egyptian variant. One of the first times he mentions Helen Homer speaks of her 'sobs'. And the distress of the innocent Helen in Euripides' play is immense. Beside this motif there is another: Helen is par excellence the woman carried off by a stranger.

Abducted by Theseus, then by Paris, recaptured by her brothers, then by her husband, snatched from Paris by an Egyptian king, then from the son of that king by Menelaus, taken off by Simon Magus, then by Faust, sent to the heavens or to the Isles of the Blessed: is Helen the mistress of her fate? It will be remembered that in Troades Helen is 'held prisoner with all the women taken in Troy' (1, 872). She is imprisoned like Hecabe, Andromache and Cassandra. For the film he produced in 1971 Cacoyannis had a cage built in which Helen was discovered, and suddenly booed. And in the plea she makes, however sophistical it may be, the reviled princess claim that her time spent in Troy has always been to her a period of captivity. Morality and psychology would lead one to expect many subtle differences in the relationships between the characters. Euripides, for example, organized his tragedy round a conflict between Helen and Hecabe, and Tennyson made his poem a complaint levelled at Helen by Iphigenia.

Beyond these incontrovertible specific aspects, however, one feature remains: of all the heroic chronicles that have attained the status of myth, the saga of Troy is perhaps the one in which the roles played by women were most developed. From the mourning lament in Book XXIV of the Iliad to Christa Wolf's Kassandra, taking in the highly original adaptation by Jean-Paul Sartre of Troades, a veiled figure stands over the corpses, a pitiful victim left to her fate. When the warriors have perished, the women will be dragged far away from their land to the houses of new masters. The epic of Troy tells us that a city can die. Homer finishes the Iliad with a lament. Standing beside Hector's body Helen speaks to him, thanking him for never having insulted her. She is not afraid to compare their misfortunes; there are sensitive feelings that the old myth, facing darkness, may neglect: '. . .these tears of sorrow that I shed are both for you and for my miserable self. No one else is left. . .'. Excerpted from a longer essay in Companion to Literary Myths, Heroes, and Archetypes. Ed. Pierre Brunel.

Copyright � 1996 by Routledge. Helen of Troy (deceased) - Genealogy Genealogy Join the world's largest family tree Gender Is your surname of Troy? Research the of Troy family Share your family tree and photos with the people you know and love Build your family tree online Share photos and videos estimated between 1258BCE and 1198BCE Death: stepson About Helen of Troy Helen of Troy: In Greek mythology she was the daughter of Zeus and Leda (or Nemesis), step-daughter of King Tyndareus, wife of Menelaus and sister of Castor, Polydeuces and Clytemnestra. Her abduction by Paris brought about the Trojan War. Helen Helen by James Hunter Helen (often called "Helen of Troy") was the daughter of Leda and Zeus , and was the sister of the Dioscuri and Clytemnestra . Since Zeus visited Leda in the form of a swan, Helen was often presented as being born from an egg. She was reputed to be the most beautiful woman in the world. When Helen was still a child, she was abducted by Theseus .

Since she was not yet old enough to be married, he sent her to Aphidnae and left her in the care of his mother, Aethra . The Dioscuri rescued her and returned her to her home in Lacedaemon, taking Aethra prisoner at the same time. When Helen reached marriageable age, all the greatest men in Greece courted her. Her mother's husband, King Tyndareos of Lacedaemon, was concerned about the trouble that might be caused by the disappointed suitors. Acting on the advice of Odysseus , he got all the suitors to swear that they would support the marriage rights of the successful candidate. He then settled on Menelaus to be the husband of Helen. She lived happily with Menelaus for a number of years, and bore him a daughter, Hermione . After a decade or so of married life, Helen was abducted by -- or ran off with -- Paris , the son of King Priam of Troy. Menelaus called on the other suitors to fulfill their oaths and help him get her back.

As a result, the Greek leaders mustered the greatest army of the time, placed it under the command of Agamemnon , and set off to wage what became known as the Trojan War. After the fall of Troy, Menelaus took Helen back to Lacedaemon, where they lived an apparently happy married life once more. After the end of their mortal existence, they continued to be together in Elysium. There were a number of different accounts of Helen's relationship with Paris. In some, she was truly in love with him, although her sympathies were mostly with the Greeks who beseiged Troy. In others, she was a beautiful and wanton woman who brought disaster upon those around her. In still other accounts, she never went to Troy at all: Hermes , acting on Zeus's orders, spirited her away to Egypt and fashioned a phantom out of clouds to accompany Paris; the real Helen was reunited with Menelaus after the Trojan War. Article details:

Question: What was the name of Helen of Troy's mother?
Answer: LEDA