Helen of Troy

Helen (Ancient Greek: Ἑλένη, romanized: Helénē^[b]), also known as Helen of Troy,^[2][3] or Helen of Sparta,^[4] and in Latin as Helena,^[5] was a figure in Greek mythology said to have been the most beautiful woman in the world. She was believed to have been the daughter of Zeus and Leda or Nemesis, and the sister of Clytemnestra, Castor, Pollux, Philonoe, Phoebe and Timandra. She was married first to King Menelaus of Sparta "who became by her the father of Hermione, and, according to others, of Nicostratus also."^[5] Her subsequent marriage^[c] to Paris of Troy was the most immediate cause of the Trojan War.

Elements of her putative biography come from ancient Greek and Roman authors such as Homer, Hesiod, Euripides, Virgil and Ovid. In her youth, she was abducted by Theseus. A competition between her suitors for her hand in marriage saw Menelaus emerge victorious. All of her suitors were required to swear an oath (known as the Oath of Tyndareus) promising to provide military assistance to the winning suitor, if Helen were ever stolen from him. The obligations of the oath precipitated the Trojan War. When she married Menelaus she was still very young. In most accounts, including Homer's, Helen ultimately fell in love with Paris and willingly went to Troy with him, though there are also stories she was abducted.^[6]

The legends of Helen during her time in Troy are contradictory: Homer depicts her ambivalently, both regretful of her choice and sly in her attempts to redeem her public image. Other accounts have a treacherous Helen who simulated Bacchic rites and rejoiced in the carnage she caused. In some versions, Helen does not arrive in Troy, but instead waits out the war in Egypt.^[7] Ultimately, Paris was killed in action, and in Homer's account Helen was reunited with Menelaus, though other versions of the legend recount her ascending to Olympus instead. A cult associated with her developed in Hellenistic Laconia, both at Sparta and elsewhere; at Therapne she shared a shrine with Menelaus. She was also worshipped in Attica and on Rhodes.

Her beauty inspired artists of all times to represent her, frequently as the personification of ideal human beauty. Images of Helen start appearing in the 7th century BC. In classical Greece, her elopement—or abduction—was a popular motif. In medieval illustrations, this event was frequently portrayed as a seduction, whereas in Renaissance paintings it was usually depicted as a "rape" (i. e., a forced abduction) by Paris.^[d] Christopher Marlowe's lines from his tragedy Doctor Faustus (1604) are frequently cited: "Was this the face that launched a thousand ships / And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?"^[e]

The lyric poets Ibycus and Alcaeus consider her the cause of the war and associate her with infidelity. On other hand Sappho refers to Helen in her own poem not to criticize her as the cause of war, but to highlight the power of love that caused Spartan queen to abandon her first husband. In tragedies written by Euripides she is mostly presented as a willing participant in elopement with Paris, but she nevertheless shows remorse for her actions and reconciles with Menelaus after the Trojan war. In the "Encomium of Helen", the orator Gorgias undertakes to defend Helen for her marital "infidelity". In the introduction four factors are listed to which responsibility for her decision to follow Paris could be attributed: 1) the gods and fate, 2) violence, 3) persuasive speech and 4) love. Gorgias examines these four factors one by one and concludes that in all four cases Helen had to deal with forces much more powerful than a person's will, concluding that she is not responsible for her action.

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