Helen

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This article is about the mythical figure known as Helen of Troy. For other meanings of the word see Helen (disambiguation).

Helen (Template:Polytonic) was the wife of Menelaus and reputed to be the most beautiful woman in the world; her abduction by Paris brought about the Trojan War.

Image:Helen of Troy.jpg

1 Etymology
2 Helen in Greek mythology
3 Helen in modern literature
4 Timeline
5 Sources
6 External links

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Etymology

The name has been compared to Vedic Saraṇyū, daughter of Tvastar, who is abducted in RV 10.17.2; the name may then be from a PIE root *sel "to elope" and go back to a Proto-Indo-European abduction myth. The name is in any case unrelated to Hellenes, as is sometimes claimed (Hellenes being from the root *sed "settle").

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Helen in Greek mythology

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Birth

According to later Greek mythology, Leda bore Helen and Polydeuces, children of Zeus while at the same time bearing Castor and Clytemnestra, children of her husband Tyndareus, the King of Sparta. As the story goes, Zeus took the form of a swan and slept with Leda on the same night as her husband, King Tyndareus. To Zeus, she gave birth to Helen and Polydeuces, and to Tyndareus: Clytemnestra and Castor. In some versions, she laid two eggs from which the children hatched. In other versions, Helen is a daughter of Nemesis, the goddess who personified the disaster that awaited those suffering from the pride of Hubris.

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Marriage to Menelaus

Two Athenians, Theseus and Pirithous, pledged to wed daughters of Zeus. Theseus chose the child Helen. He and Pirithous kidnapped her and decided to hold onto her until she was old enough to marry. Pirithous chose Persephone, the wife of Hades. They left Helen with Theseus' mother, Aethra, and travelled to the underworld, the domain of Hades, to kidnap Persephone. Hades pretended to offer them hospitality and set a feast. As soon as the pair sat down, snakes coiled around their feet and held them there. Helen was subsequently rescued by her brothers, who returned her to Sparta.

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

Tyndareus would not choose a suitor, or send any of the suitors away, for fear of offending them and giving grounds for a quarrel. Odysseus promised to solve the problem if Tyndareus would support him in his courting of Penelope, the daughter of Icarius. Tyndareus readily agreed and Odysseus proposed that, before the decision was made, all the suitors should swear a most solemn oath to defend the chosen husband against whoever should quarrel with him. This stratagem succeeded and Helen and Menelaus were married. Following Tyndareus' death, Menelaus became king of Sparta because the only male heirs, Castor and Polydeuces, had died and ascended to [Mount Olympus].

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Seduction by Paris

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

Helen's relationship with Paris varies depending on the source of the story. In some, she loved him dearly (perhaps caused by Aphrodite, who had promised her to Paris). In others, she was portrayed as his unwilling captive in Troy, or as a cruel, selfish woman who brought disaster to everyone around her, and she hated him. In the version used by Euripides in his play Helen, Hermes fashioned a likeness of her out of clouds at Zeus's request, and Helen never even went to Troy, having spent the entire war in Egypt.

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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.

Late in the Trojan War, Paris was killed by Philoctetes. After Paris died, his brother, Deiphobus, married Helen until he was killed by Menelaus.

Menelaus had demanded that only he should slay his faithless wife; but, when he raised his sword to do so, the sight of her beauty caused him to let the sword drop from his hand. Instead, he led her in safety to the Greek ships.

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Fate

Helen returned to Sparta and lived for a time with Menelaus, where she was encountered by Telemachus in The Odyssey. After Menelaus' death, Helen was exiled by Menelaus's son, Megapenthes. 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's return.

Assuming the story of Helen is, to some extent, based on a real event it is worth knowing that this and many other Greek legends point to the existence of a matrilineal inheritance system. Thus Menelaus' right to the throne is based on his being married to the daughter of the previous king. However beautiful Helen may have been, this suggests a more cynical reason to fight over her.

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Helen in modern literature

Helen is often called "the face that launched a thousand ships", though this phrase is post-classical, from Christopher Marlowe:

Is this the face that launched a thousand ships

And burned the topless towers of Ilium?

The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

In Goethe's Faust (Part 2), Helen has a son by Faust named Euphorion.

In the Divine Comedy, Dante sees Helen along with Paris in the second circle of Hell, where they have been consigned for succumbing to the sin of lust.

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Timeline

The following is an estimation of her life based on the traditional dates of the Trojan War:

1225 BC - Birth of Helen to King Tyndareus of Sparta and his wife Leda. Thanks to her beauty she will later be considered daughter of Zeus.
1213 BC - At the age of twelve Helen is abducted by King Theseus of Athens who marries her against her father's and brothers' consent. During the absence of Theseus, her brothers Castor and Polydeuces help a revolt by his cousin Menestheus. Menestheus gains the throne and returns Helen to her brothers. According to some versions Helen was pregnant and a few months later gives birth to Iphigeneia. She trusts her daughter to her married sister Clytemnestra who will raise her as her own. Soon Menestheus of Athens and other kings and princes gather at Sparta as Helen's suitors.
1212 BC - Tyndareus marries Helen to Menelaus of Mycenae. Menelaus' brother is King Agamemnon who is married to Helen's sister Clytemnestra. Helen soon gives birth to Hermione. The early deaths of her brothers Castor and Polydeuces, soon make Menelaus Tyndareus successor at the throne of Sparta.
1203 BC - After nine years of marriage, Paris of Troy visits Sparta and in Menelaus' absence convinces Helen to flee with him. Menelaus discovers that his wife and guest betrayed him and starts contemplating war. King Priam of Troy marries Helen to Paris. Menelaus' preparations for war and gathering of allies and armies took him ten years according to some versions.
1194 BC - Beginning of the Trojan War.
1184 BC - Paris mortally wounded in battle by Philoctetes. Priam marries Helen to Deiphobus, a younger brother of Paris.
April 24, 1184 BC - Fall of Troy. Deiphobus is slain by Menelaus who reclaims Helen as his wife. They sail on their return journey but are stranded on the shores of Egypt.
1176 BC - After spending eight years in Egypt, they manage to set sail again and reach the shores of the Peloponnesus. According to Euripides they visit Mycenae, arriving shortly after the murders of King Aegisthus, who was Menelaus' first cousin, and Queen Clytemnestra, who was Helen's sister, by their common nephew Orestes, the new King of Mycenae. Orestes attempts to kill his aunt but fails. The royal couple return to Sparta (or else Helen is taken off by Apollo)
1174 BC - According to the Odyssey, Telemachus of Ithaca visits Sparta seeking information about his father Odysseus. Menelaus and Helen reply that they have not heard of him since they left Troy ten years ago. They mourn their many lost relatives and friends.
1154 BC - According to Pausanias, Menelaus dies of old age and natural causes. Megapenthes, his illegitimate son, seizes the throne and exiles Helen. He soon loses the throne to his first cousin King Orestes of Mycenae who is married to Hermione, the only legitimate daughter of Menelaus and Helen and half-sister of Megapenthes. By this point Orestes had also seized the vacant thrones of Argos and Arcadia and becomes the sole ruler of the Peloponnesus. Helen seeks refuge in Rhodes near Polyxo, widow of Tlepolemus, an old friend of hers. Tlepolemus was famously the first man to be killed during the Trojan War. In revenge for her husband's death, Polyxo ordered her maidens to pretend to be the ghosts of the many dead seeking revenge from Helen. Helen committed suicide by hanging herself from a tree. After her death she is deified.