The Greeks are plotting to invade Troy to steal the treasures of the Trojans. Meanwhile Prince Paris is assigned by his wise father and King of Troy to travel to Sparta and shows the peaceful intentions of his people. Along his journey, he falls into the sea during a storm and is rescued on the shore by the Queen of Sparta, Helen. When he recovers, he believes that she is a slave and they fall in love with each other. When he arrives at the Spartan palace, he is arrested by King Menelaus but Helen helps him to escape.
They travel together to Troy and give the excuse the Greeks need to start the war and put Troy under siege for years. The Greeks are unsuccessful in their intents, until they listen to the cunning Ulysses. The Greeks then withdraw their one thousand ships from the Trojan waters and offer a wooden Horse of Troy as a gift to the winners. The etymology of Helen’s name has been and continues to be a problem for scholars. Georg Curtius related Helen (????? ) to the moon (Selene ?????? ). Emile Boisacq considered ????? to derive from the noun ????? meaning “torch”. [1] It has also been suggested that the ?
of ????? arose from an original ? , and thus the etymology of the name is connected with the root of Venus. Linda Lee Clader, however, says that none of the above suggestions offers much satisfaction. [2] If the name has an Indo-European etymology, it is possibly a suffixed form of a root *wel- “to turn, roll”[3] (or from that root’s sense “to cover, enclose” — compare Varuna, Veles),[citation needed] or of *sel- “to flow, run”. [citation needed] The latter possibility would allow comparison to the Vedic Sanskrit Sara? yu, a character who is abducted in Rigveda 10.
17. 2. This parallel is suggestive of a Proto-Indo-European abduction myth. Sara? yu means “swift” and is derived from the adjective sara? a (“running”, “swift”), the feminine of which is sara? a; this is in every sound cognate with ????? , the form of her name that has no initial digamma. [4] The possible connection of Helen’s name to ????? (“torch”), as noted above, may also support the relationship of her name to Vedic svarana (“the shining one”). [5][6] Prehistoric and mythological context[edit] Map of Homeric Greece; Menelaus and Helen reign over Laconia.
The origins of Helen’s myth date back to the Mycenaean age. [7] The first record of her name 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 Sparta of the Age of Heroes, which features prominently in the canon of Greek myth: in later ancient Greek memory, the Mycenaean 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. [8] 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. [9] An important Mycenaean site at the Menelaion was destroyed by ca. 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. [10] Life[edit] Birth[edit] Leda and the Swan by Cesare da Sesto (c. 1506–1510, Wilton). The artist has been intrigued by the idea of Helen’s unconventional birth; she and Clytemnestra are shown emerging from one egg; Castor and Pollux from another. In most sources, including the Iliad and the Odyssey, Helen is the daughter of Zeus and Leda, and the wife of the Spartan king Menelaus (no reference given for Helen as the daughter of Leda).
[11] 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 emerged. [12] 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. [13] Pseudo-Apollodorus states that Leda had intercourse with both Zeus and Tyndareus the night she conceived Helen. [14] On the other hand, in the Cypria, one of the Cyclic Epics, Helen was the daughter of Zeus and the goddess Nemesis. [15] 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. [16] Presumably, in the Cypria, this egg was somehow transferred to Leda. [17] 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. [18] Asclepiades of Tragilos and Pseudo-Eratosthenes related a similar story, except that Zeus and Nemesis became swans instead of geese.
[19] 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. [20] 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. [21] Abduction by Theseus and youth[edit]
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 of them 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. [22] 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. [23] On the other hand, Stesichorus said that Iphigeneia was the daughter of Theseus and Helen, which obviously implies that Helen was of childbearing age.
[24] In most sources, Iphigeneia is the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, but Duris of Samos and other writers followed Stesichorus’ account. [25] 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:[26] […] 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. Suitors of Helen[edit] In this painting by Maarten van Heemskerck Helen, queen of the Greek city-state Sparta, is abducted by Paris, a prince of Troy in Asian Minor. [27] The Walters Art Museum. 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. [28] Menelaus, her future husband, did not attend but sent his brother, Agamemnon, to represent him. There are three available and not entirely consistent lists of suitors, compiled by Pseudo-Apollodorus (31 suitors), Hesiod (11 suitors), and Hyginus (36 suitors), for a total of 45 distinct names. There are only fragments from Hesiod’s poem, so his list would have contained more. Achilles’ absence from the lists is conspicuous, but Hesiod explains that he was too young to take part in the contest.
[29] Taken together, the list of suitors matches well with the captains in the Catalog of Ships from the Iliad; however, some of the names may have been placed in the list of Helen’s suitors simply because they went to Troy. It is not unlikely that relatives of a suitor may have joined the war. Six Suitors listed in all three sources[30] Ajax – Son of Telamon. Led 12 ships from Salamis to Troy. Commits suicide there. Elephenor – Son of Chalcodon. Led 50 ships to Troy and died there Menelaus – Son of Atreus. Led 60 ships from Sparta to Troy. He returned home to Sparta with Helen. Menestheus – Son of Peteos.
Led 50 ships from Athens to Troy. He returned to Athens after the war. Odysseus – Son of Laertes. Led 12 ships from Ithaca to Troy. He returned home after 10 years of wandering the seas. Protesilaus – Son of Iphicles. Led 40 ships from Phylace to Troy. He was the first Greek to die in battle at the hands of Hector. Nineteen Suitors listed by both Apollodorus and Hyginus Agapenor – Son of Ancaeus, King of Arcadia. Takes 60 ships of men to Troy. Returns home. Ajax (AKA Ajax the Lesser or Locrian Ajax) – Son of Oileus. Led 40 ships to Troy, drowned on the way home when Poseidon split the rock he was on.
Amphimachus – Son of Cteatus. With Polyxenus and Thalpius, he led 40 ships from Elis to Troy. Killed by Hector. Antilochus – Son of Nestor. Went with his father and 90 ships to Troy. Killed in battle while protecting his father from Memnon. Ascalaphus – Son of Ares and King of Orchemenus. Led 30 ships to Troy. Killed in battle by Deiphobus. Diomedes – Son of Tydeus. Diomedes was one of the Epigoni and King of Argos. He led 80 ships to Troy. His wife took a lover and Diomedes lost his kingdom, so after the war he settled in Italy. Eumelus – Son of Admetus and King of Pherae. Led 11 ships to Troy.
Eurypylus – Son of Euaemon. Led 40 ships from Thessaly to Troy. Leonteus – Son of Coronos. With Polypoetes he led 40 ships of the Lapiths to Troy. Machaon – Son of Asclepius, brother of Podalirius. An Argonaut and physician. Led 30 ships. Killed in battle by Eurypylus (the son of Telephus). Meges – Son of Phyleus. Led 40 ships to Troy. Patroclus – Son of Menoetius. His younger cousin Achilles went with him to Troy. Killed by Hector. Peneleos – Son of Hippalcimus. An Argonaut. He went with the Boetian force of 50 ships to Troy. Killed in battle by Eurypylus (the son of Telephus).
Philoctetes – Son of Poeas. Led 7 ships from Thessaly to Troy, he was an archer and killed Paris. Podalirius – Son of Asclepius, brother of Machaon. A physician. After the war he founded a city in Caria. Polypoetes – Son of Pirithous. With Leonteus, he led 40 ships of the Lapiths to Troy. Polyxenus – Son of Agasthenes. With Amphimachus, and Thalpius, he led 40 ships from Elis to Troy. Sthenelus – Son of Capaneus. One of the Epigoni, he went with Diomedes to Troy. Thalpius – Son of Eurytus. With Amphimachus and Polyxenus, he led 40 ships from Elis to Troy. One Suitor listed by Apollodorus and Hesiod
Amphilochus – Son of Amphiaraus and younger brother of Alcmaeon. One Suitor listed by Hesiod and Hyginus Idomeneus – Son of Deucalion and King of Crete. Led 80 ships to Troy. Survived the war, but was exiled from Crete. Three Suitors listed only by Hesiod Alcmaeon – Son of Amphiaraus and one of the Epigoni. Lycomedes – a Cretan. Podarces – The younger brother of Protesilaus. He led the troops after his brother’s death. Ten Suitors listed only by Hyginus Ancaeus – Blanirus – Clytius – Meriones – A companion of Idomeneus of Crete. Nireus – He led 3 ships from Syme to Troy.
Phemius – Phidippus – He led 30 ships to Troy. Prothous – He led 40 ships from Magnetes to Troy. Thoas – He led 40 ships from Aetolia to Troy. Tlepolemus – He led 9 ships from Rhodes to Troy. Five Suitors listed only by Apollodorus Epistrophus – Son of Iphitus, brother of Schedius. Ialmenus – Companion of Ascalaphus, who led 30 ships to Troy Leitus – Son of Alector Schedius – Son of Iphitus, brother of Epistrophus. He was killed by Hector who was trying to throw a spear towards Ajax. Teucer – The half-brother of Ajax. Survived the war. The Oath of Tyndareus[edit]
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 had sworn not to retaliate, Menelaus was chosen to be Helen’s husband. As a sign of the importance of the pact, Tyndareus sacrificed a horse. [31] Helen and Menelaus became rulers of Sparta, after Tyndareus and Leda abdicated. Menelaus and Helen rule in Sparta for at least ten years; they have a daughter, Hermione, and (according to some myths) three sons: Aethiolas, Maraphius, and Pleisthenes. The marriage of Helen and Menelaus marks the beginning of the end of the age of heroes. Concluding the catalog of Helen’s suitors, Hesiod reports Zeus’ plan to obliterate the race of men and the heroes in particular.
The Trojan War, caused by Helen’s elopement with Paris, is going to be his means to this end. [32] Seduction by Paris[edit] See also: Judgement of Paris El Juicio de Paris by Enrique Simonet, c. 1904. This painting depicts Paris’ judgement. He is inspecting Aphrodite, who is standing naked before him. Hera and Athena watch nearby. In western painting, Helen’s journey to Troy is usually depicted as a forced abduction. The Rape of Helen by Francesco Primaticcio (left, c. 1530–1539, Bowes Museum) is representative of this tradition.
In Guido Reni’s homonymous painting (right, 1631, Louvre, Paris), however, Paris holds Helen by her wrist, and leave together for Troia. Paris, a Trojan prince, came to Sparta to claim Helen, in the guise of a supposed diplomatic mission. Before this journey, Paris had been appointed by Zeus to judge the most beautiful goddess; Hera, Athena, or Aphrodite. In order to earn his favour, Aphrodite promised Paris the most beautiful woman in the world. Swayed by Aphrodite’s offer, Paris chose her as the most beautiful of the goddesses, earning the wrath of Athena and Hera.
Although Helen is sometimes depicted as being raped by Paris, Ancient Greek sources are often elliptical and contradictory. Herodotus states that Helen was abducted, but the Cypria simply mentions that, after giving Helen gifts, “Aphrodite brings the Spartan queen together with the Prince of Troy. “[33] Sappho argues that Helen willingly left behind Menelaus and their nine-year-old daughter, Hermione, to be with Paris: The Rape of Helen by Tintoretto (1578–1579, Museo del Prado, Madrid); Helen languishes in the corner of a land-sea battle scene. [34] 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. [35] 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 Menelaus on 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. [36] 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, according to Iliad, the two lovers consummated their passion. On the other hand, Cypria note that this happened the night before they left Sparta. [37] Helen in Egypt[edit]
At least three Ancient Greek authors denied that Helen ever went to Troy; instead, they suggested, Helen stayed in Egypt during the duration of the Trojan War. Those three authors are Euripides, Stesichorus, and Herodotus. [38] In the version put forth by Euripides in his play Helen, Hera fashioned a likeness of Helen (eidolon ) out of clouds at Zeus’ request, Hermes took her to Egypt, and Helen never 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 by putting forward his own evidence—he traveled to Egypt and interviewed the priests of the temple of (Foreign Aphrodite, ) at Memphis. According to these priests, Helen had arrived in Egypt shortly after leaving Sparta, because strong winds had blown Paris’s ship off course. King Proteus of Egypt, appalled that Paris had seduced his host’s wife and plundered his host’s home in Sparta, disallowed Paris from taking Helen to Troy. Paris returned to Troy without a new bride, but the Greeks refused to believe that Helen was in Egypt and not within Troy’s walls.
Thus, Helen waited in Memphis for ten years, while the Greeks and the Trojans fought. Following the conclusion of the Trojan War, Menelaus sailed to Memphis, where Proteus reunited him with Helen. [39] Helen in Troy[edit] Helen on the Ramparts of Troy was a popular theme in the late 19th-century art. Both Frederick Leighton (left), and Gustave Moreau (right) depict an expressionless Helen; a blank or anguished face. When he discovered that his wife was missing, Menelaus called upon all the other suitors to fulfill their oaths, thus beginning the Trojan War.
The Greek fleet gathered in Aulis, but the ships could not sail, because there was no wind. Artemis was enraged with a sacrilegious act of the Greeks, and only the sacrifice of Agamemnon’s daughter, Iphigenia, could appease her. In Euripides Iphigenia in Aulis, Clytemnestra, Iphigenia’s mother and Helen’s sister, begs her husband to reconsider his decision, calling Helen a “wicked woman”. Clytemnestra (unsuccessfully) warns Agamemnon that sacrificing Iphigenia for Helen’s sake is, “buying what we most detest with what we hold most dear”.
[40] Before the opening of hostilities, the Greeks dispatched a delegation to the Trojans under Odysseus and Menelaus; they endeavored to persuade Priam to hand Helen back without success. A popular theme, The Request of Helen (Helenes Apaitesis, ?????? ????????? ) was the subject of a drama by Sophocles, now lost. [41] Homer paints a poignant, lonely picture of Helen in Troy. She is filled with self-distaste and regret for what she has caused; by the end of the war, the Trojans have come to hate her. When Hector dies, she is the third mourner at his funeral, and she says that, of
all the Trojans, Hector and Priam alone were always kind to her:[42] Wherefore I wail alike for thee and for my hapless self with grief at heart; for no longer have I anyone beside in broad Troy that is gentle to me or kind; but all men shudder at me. The Love of Helen and Paris by Jacques-Louis David (oil on canvas, 1788, Louvre, Paris); a love that soon faded, when Helen realized that Paris is not a man of courage and strong character. These bitter words reveal that Helen gradually realized Paris’ weaknesses, and she decided to ally herself with Hector.
There is an affectionate relationship between the two of them, and Helen has harsh words to say for Paris, when she compares the two brothers:[43] Howbeit, seeing the gods thus ordained these ills, would that I had been wife to a better man, that could feel the indignation of his fellows and their many revilings. [… ] But come now, enter in, and sit thee upon this chair, my brother, since above all others has trouble encompassed thy heart because of shameless me, and the folly of Alexander.
After Paris was killed in action, there was some dispute among the Trojans about which of Priam’s surviving sons she should re-marry: Helenus or Deiphobus, but she was given to the latter. During the fall of Troy, Helen’s role is ambiguous. In Virgil’s Aeneid, Deiphobus gives an account of Helen’s treacherous stance: when the Trojan Horse was admitted into the city, she feigned Bacchic rites, leading a chorus of Trojan women, and, holding a torch among them, she signaled to the Greeks from the city’s central tower.
In Odyssey, however, Homer narrates a different story: Helen circled the Horse three times, and she imitated the voices of the Greek women left behind at home—she thus tortured the men inside (including Odysseus and Menelaus) with the memory of their loved ones, and brought them to the brink of destruction. [44] After the death of Hector and Paris, Helen became the paramour of their younger brother, Deiphobus; but when the sack of Troy began, she hid her new husband’s sword, and left him to the mercy of Menelaus and Odysseus.
In Aeneid, Aeneas meets the mutilated Deiphobus in Hades; his wounds serve as a testimony to his ignominious end, abetted by Helen’s final act of treachery. [45] However, Helen’s portraits in Troy seem to contradict each other. From one side, we read about the treacherous Helen who simulated Bacchic rites and rejoiced over the carnage of Trojans. On the other hand, there is another Helen, lonely and helpless; desperate to find sanctuary, while Troy is on fire. Stesichorus narrates that both Greeks and Trojans gathered to stone her to death. [46] When Menelaus finally found her, he raised his sword to kill her.
He had demanded that only he should slay his unfaithful wife; but, when he was ready to do so, she dropped her robe from her shoulders, and the sight of her beauty caused him to let the sword drop from his hand. [47] Electra wails:[48] Alas for my troubles! Can it be that her beauty has blunted their swords? Fate[edit] 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. 9–10): “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. “[49] 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[edit] Zeuxis et les Filles de Crotone (Francois-Andre 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. [50] From Antiquity, depicting Helen would be a remarkable challenge. The story of Zeuxis deals with this exact question: how would an artist immortalize ideal beauty?
[51] He eventually selected the best features from five virgins. The ancient world starts to paint Helen’s picture or inscribe her form on stone, clay and bronze by the 7th century BC. [52] Helen is frequently depicted on Athenian vases as being threatened by Menelaus and fleeing from him. This is not the case, however, in Laconic art: on an Archaic stele depicting Helen’s recovery after the fall of Troy, Menelaus is armed with a sword but Helen faces him boldly, looking directly into his eyes; and in other works of Peloponnesian art, Helen is shown carrying a wreath, while Menelaus holds his sword aloft vertically.
In contrast, on Athenian vases of c. 550–470, Menelaus threateningly points his sword at her. [53] The abduction by Paris was another popular motif in ancient Greek vase-painting; definitely more popular than the kidnapping by Theseus. In a famous representation by the Athenian vase painter Makron, Helen follows Paris like a bride following a bridegroom, her wrist grasped by Paris’ hand. [54] The Etruscans, who had a sophisticated kn
