Helen

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

Helen and Menelaus: Menelaus intends to strike Helen; struck by her beauty, he drops his sword. A flying Eros and Aphrodite (on the left) watch the scene. Detail of an Attic red-figure krater, c. 450–440 BC (Paris, Louvre).

In Greek mythology, Helen (in Greek, Ἑλένη – Helénē), known as Helen of Troy (and earlier Helen of Sparta), was the daughter of Zeus and Leda (or Nemesis), 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

The etymology of Helene's name has been a problem to scholars until the present. Georg Curtius related Helen (Ἑλένη) to the moon (Selene; in Greek Σελήνη pronounced sɛˈliːniː). Émile Boisacq considered Ἑλένη from the noun ἐλένη meaning "torch". Otto Scutsch believes that the aforementioned noun can hardly be identical with Helen's name, but betokens some connection with it. It has also been suggested that the λ of Ἑλένη arose from an original ν, and thus the etymology of the name is connected with the root of Venus. Linda Lee Clader points out however that none of the above suggestions offer much satisfaction.^[1] Hjalmar Frisk and Pierre Chantraine despair of an etymology.^[2]

If the name has an Indo-European etymology, it is possibly a suffixed form of a root *wel- "to turn, roll".^[3] The latter possibility would allow comparison to Vedic Sanskrit Saraṇyū, who is abducted in RV 10.17.2, a parallel suggestive of a Proto-Indo-European abduction myth. Saraṇyū means "swift" and is derived from the adjective saraṇa ("running", "swift"), the feminine of which is saraṇā; the latter is in every sound identical with "Ἑλένα", the form of her name that had no digamma.^[4] Helen's name possible connection with the noun "ἐλένη" ("torch") may also support the relationship of her name to Vedic svaranā ("the shining one").^[5]

Prehistoric and mythological context

The origins of Helen's myth date back to the Mycenaean age.^[6] Her name first appears in the poems of Homer, but scholars assume that such myths invented or received by the Mycenaean Greeks made their way to Homer. Her mythological birthplace was the Sparta of the Age of Heroes, which features prominent in the canon of Greek myth: in later ancient Greek memory, the Myceneaean Bronze Age became the age of the Greek heroes. The kings, queens and heroes of the Trojan Cycle are often related to the gods, since mythic origins gave stature to the Greeks' heroic ancestors. The fall of Troy came to represent a fall from an illustrious heroic age, remembered for centuries in oral tradition before being written down.^[7] Recent archaeological excavations in Greece suggest that modern-day Laconia was a distinct territory in the Late 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.^[8] An important Mycenaean site at the Menelaion was destroyed by c. 1200 BC, and most other Mycenaean sites in Lakonia also disappear. There is a shrinkage from fifty sites to fifteen in the early twelfth century, and then to fewer in the eleventh century.^[9]

Life

Birth

Leda and the Swan by Cesare da Sesto (c. 1506–1510, Wilton House, Wilton). The artist has been intrigued by the idea of Helen's unconventional birth; she and Clytemnestra are shown emerging from one egg; Castor and Pollux from another.

In most sources, including the Iliad and the Odyssey, Helen is the daughter of Zeus and Leda, the wife of the Spartan king Tyndareus.^[10] 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, 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 an egg, from which Helen was produced.^[11] The First Vatican Mythographer introduces the notion that two eggs came from the union: one containing Castor and Pollux; one with Helen and Clytemnestra. Nevertheless, the same author earlier states that Helen, Castor and Pollux were produced from a single egg.^[12] Pseudo-Apollodorus states that Leda had intercourse with both Zeus and Tyndareus the night she bore Helen.^[13]

On the other hand, in the Cypria, one of the Cyclic Epics, Helen was the daughter of Zeus and the goddess Nemesis.^[14] The date of the Cypria is uncertain, but it is generally thought to preserve traditions that date back to at least the 7th century BC. In the Cypria, 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 mated with Nemesis, who produced an egg from which Helen was born.^[15] Presumably in the Cypria this egg was somehow transferred to Leda^[16] Later sources state either that it was brought to Leda by a shepherd who discovered it in a grove in Attica, or that it was dropped into her lap by Hermes.^[17]

Asclepiades and Pseudo-Eratosthenes related a similar story, except that Zeus and Nemesis became swans instead of geese.^[18] 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.^[19]

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 to Hilaeira and Phoebe, in order to see the relic for himself.^[20]

Abduction by Theseus and youth

Theseus pursuing a woman, probably Helen. Side A from an Attic red-figure bell-krater, c. 440–430 BC (Louvre, Paris).

Two Athenians, Theseus and Pirithous, thought that since they were both sons of gods, both should have divine wives; they thus pledged to help each other abduct two daughters of Zeus. Theseus chose Helen, and Pirithous vowed to marry Persephone, the wife of Hades. Theseus took Helen and left her with his mother Aethra or his associate Aphidnus at Aphidnae or Athens. Theseus and Pirithous then traveled to the underworld, 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.^[21]

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.^[22] On the other hand, Stesichorus said that Iphigeneia was the daughter of Theseus and Helen, which obviously implies that Helen was of childbearing age.^[23] In most sources, Iphigeneia is the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, but Duris of Samos and other writers followed Stesichorus' account.^[24]

Ovid's Heroides 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 the palaestra; an image alluding to a part of girls' physical education in classical (and not in Mycenaean) Sparta. Sextus Propertius imagines Helen as a girl who practices arms and hunts with her brothers:^[25]

[...] 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.

Marriage to Menelaus

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.^[26] Menelaus, her future husband, did not attend but sent his brother, Agamemnon, to represent him. There are three available lists of suitors, compiled by Pseudo-Appollodorus, Hesiod, and Hyginus respectively. In these catalogs, suitors range from twenty-five to thirty-six – from Hesiod's poem we only have fragments. Achilles' absence from the lists is conspicuous, but Hesiod explains that he was too young to take part in the contest.^[27]

Helen of Troy by Evelyn de Morgan, 1898

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 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. After the suitors swore not to retaliate, Menelaus was chosen to be Helen's husband. As a sign of the importance of the pact, Tyndareus sacrificed a horse.^[28] Following Tyndareus' death, Menelaus became king of Sparta because the only male heirs, Castor and Pollux, had died and ascended to Olympus.

Seduction by Paris

Some years later, Paris, a Trojan prince, came to Sparta to claim Helen. Before this journey, Paris had been appointed by Zeus to proclaim the most beautiful goddess. In order to earn his favor, 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 of Athena and Hera.

The Rape of Helen by Francesco Primaticcio (c. 1530–1539, Bowes Museum). In western painting, Helen's journey to Troy is almost always depicted as a forces abduction.

Although Helen is sometimes depicted as being unwillingly raped by Paris (termed abduction as per the ancient understanding of raptus), ancient Greek sources are often elliptical and contradicting. Herodotus states that Helen was abducted, but Cypria simply mention that, after giving Helen gifts, "Aphrodite brings the Spartan queen together with the Prince of Troy."^[29] Sappho argues that Helen willingly left behind Menelaus and Hermione, her nine-year-old daughter, to be with Paris:^[30]

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, Klytaemnestra, Tyndareus sought Helen's hand for Menelaos an account of 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.^[31] Cypria narrate that in just three days Paris and Helen reached Troy. Homer narrates that during a brief stop-over in the small island of Kranai, where, according to Iliad, the two lovers consummated their passion. On the other hand, Cypria note that this happened the night before they left Sparta.^[32]

Certain ancient Greek authors denied that Helen ever went to Troy at all. Three accounts of this version of Helen's story have survived: by Stesichorus, Herodotus, and Euripides. In the version used by Euripides in his play Helen, Hermes fashioned a likeness of her (eidolon, εἵδωλον) out of clouds at Zeus's request, and Helen never even went to Troy, spending the entire war in Egypt. Eidolon is also present in Stesichorus' account, but not in Herodotus' rationalizing version of the myth. Herodotus adds weight to the "Egyptian" version of events putting forward his own evidence – he traveled to Egypt, and interviewed the priests at Memphis, who indeed confirmed that Helen spent ten years in Egypt around the time of the Trojan War.^[33]

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.

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 had 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 had 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.

Artistic representations

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 at Agrigentum, Sicily. To realize his task, Zeuxis chose the five most beautiful maidens in the region.^[34]

The ancient world starts to paint Helen's picture or inscribe her form on stone, clay and bronze by the 7th century BC.^[35]

Media

• The Private Life of Helen of Troy, an early silent film.

• 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 are marooned on a mythical island.

• In 1956, an Italian-made epic titled Helen of Troy was released, directed by Oscar-winning director Robert Wise and starring Italian actress Rossana Podestà in the title role.

• A television version of Helen's life up to the fall of Troy, Helen of Troy.

• Appeared in the episode 12 of Season 1 called "Beware Greeks Bearing Gifts" in Xena: Warrior Princess. 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.

• 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 does not return to Sparta with Menelaus, but leaves Troy with Aeneas when the city falls.

• 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.

• The first season Xena: Warrior Princess episode "Beware Greeks Bearing Gifts" (1996) is based around Helen of Troy, although some liberties are taken with the setting.

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 millihelen to mean the amount of beauty that can launch one ship.^[36]

• 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.

• Margaret George wrote a novel "Helen of Troy" that describes her entire life in great detail.

• 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. ^[37]

• The Australian singer/song writer Jon English wrote a 1990 rock opera Paris which tells the story of love and the Trojan War. A handful of small plays have appeared based on this musical work. A larger "Paris" musical started in July 2008. ^[38]

• Jacob M. Appel's play, Helen of Sparta, retells Homer's Iliad from Helen's point-of-view.^[39]

• The Canadian novelist and poet Margaret Atwood re-envisioned the myth of Helen in modern, feminist guise in her poem "Helen of Troy Does Countertop Dancing".^[40]

• The song "The Third Temptation of Paris" by Alesana was created to show how Menelaus attacked Paris in Troy due to Helen's abduction.

• The Memoirs of Helen of Troy written by Amanda Elyot was written about the life of Helen.

In Richelle Mead's "Succubus Blues," Helen of Troy is referred to as the attitude desired when trying to be seductive.

• During an episode of The Simpsons recounting the Odyssey, Agnes Skinner plays Helen and claims to have "the face that launched a thousand ships...the other way."

See also

• Astyanassa
• Simon Magus and Helen

Notes

References

Primary sources

• Cicero, De inventione II.1.1-2
• Cypria, fragments 1, 9, and 10. For an English translation see the Online Medieval and Classical Library.
• Dio Chrysostom, Discourses. For an English translation, see Lacus Curtius.
• Euripides, Helen. For an English translation, see the Perseus Project.
• Herodotus, Histories, Book II. For an English translation, see the Perseus Project.
• Hesiod, Catalogs of Women and Eoiae.
• Homer, Iliad, Book III; Odyssey, Books IV, and XXIII.
• Hyginus, Fables. Translated in English by Mary Grant.
• Servius, In Aeneida I.526, XI.262
• Lactantius Placidus Commentarii in Statii Thebaida I.21
• Ovid, Heroides, XVI.Paris Helenae. For an English translation, see the Perseus Project.
• Pausanias, Description of Greece, Book III. For an English translation, see the Perseus Project.
• Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, Book III. For an English translation, see the Perseus Project.
• Sappho, fragment 16.
• Sextus Propertius, Elegies, 3.14. Translated in English by A.S. Kline.

Secondary sources

• Allan, Williams (2008). "Introduction". Helen. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-83690-5. 
• Cairns, Francis (2006). "A Lighter Shade of Praise". Sextus Propertius. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-86457-7. 
• Chantraine, Pierre (2000). "Ἐλένη" (in French). Dictionnaire Étymologique de la Langue Gercque. Klincksieck. ISBN 2-252-03277-4. 
• Cingano, Ettore (2005). "A Catalog within a Catalog: Helen's Suitors in the Hesiodic Catalog of Women". in Hunter; Richard L.. The Hesiodic Catalog of Women. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-83684-0. 
• Clader, Linda Lee (1976). Helen. Brill Archive. ISBN 9-004-04721-2. 
• Cyrino, Monica S. (2006). "Helen of Troy". in Winkler; Martin M.. Troy: from Homer's Iliad to Hollywood. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 1-405-13182-9. 
• Frisk, Hjalmar (1960). "Ἐλένη" (in German). Griechisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch. I. French & European Pubns. ISBN 0-828-86839-5. 
• Gantz, Timothy (2004). Early Greek Myth. Baltimore, MD and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-801-85362-1. 
• Gumpert, Matthew (2001). "Helen in Greece". Grafting Helen. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0-299-17124-8. 
• Hard, Robin; Rose, Herbert Jennings (2004). "the Trojan War". The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-18636-6. 
• Hughes, Bettany (2005). Helen of Troy. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 1-400-04178-3. 
• Meagher, Robert E. (2002). "Helen and History". The Meaning of Helen. Bolchazy–Carducci Publishers. ISBN 0-865-16510-6. 
• Mills, Sophie (1997). "Theseus and Helen". Theseus, Tragedy, and the Athenian Empire. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-198-15063-6. 
• Moser, Thomas C. (2004). A Cosmos of Desire. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-11379-8. 
• Nilsson, Martin Persson (1932). "Mycenaean Centers and Mythological Centers". The Mycenaean Origin of Greek Mythology. Forgotten Books. ISBN 1-605-06393-2. 
• Pomeroy, Sarah B. (2002). "Education". Spartan Women. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-195-13067-7. 
• Skutsch, Otto (1987). "Helen, her Name and Nature". The Journal of Hellenic Studies 107: 188–193. http://www.jstor.org/stable/630087. Retrieved on 2009-06-06. 
• Thompson, Diane P. (2004). "The Fall of Troy – The Beginning of Greek History". The Trojan War. McFarland. ISBN 0-786-41737-4. 
• Whitby, Michael (2002). "Introduction". Sparta. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0-415-93957-7. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Helen

• An analysis of the legend including historical evidence of worship as a goddess.