Helen of Troy

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For other uses, see Helen of Troy (disambiguation).
"Helen of Sparta" redirects here. For the play, see Helen of Sparta (play).

Helen of Troy

Greek mythology character

The Love of Helen and Paris by Jacques-Louis David (oil on canvas,

1788, Louvre, Paris)

In-universe information

Family Zeus (father)

Leda (mother)

Spouse Menelaus

Children Hermione

In Greek mythology, Helen of Troy,[1][2][3] Helen,[4] Helena,[5] (Ancient Greek:

Ἑλένη Helénē, pronounced [helénɛː]), also known as beautiful Helen, Helen of Argos,
or Helen of Sparta,[6] was said to have been the most beautiful woman in the world. She
 was believed to have been the daughter of Zeus and Leda, and was the sister
of Clytemnestra, Castor and Pollux, Philonoe, Phoebe and Timandra. She was married
to King Menelaus of Sparta "who became by her the father of Hermione, and, according
to others, of Nicostratus also."[5]
The usual tradition is that after the goddess Aphrodite promised her to Paris in
the Judgement of Paris, she was seduced by him and carried off to Troy. This resulted
in the Trojan War when the Achaeans set out to reclaim her. Another ancient tradition,
told by Stesichorus, tells of how "not she, but her wraith only, had passed to Troy, while
she was borne by the Gods to the land of Egypt, and there remained until the day when
her lord [Menelaus], turning aside on the homeward voyage, should find her there." [7]
Elements of her putative biography come from classical authors such
as Aristophanes, Cicero, Euripides, and Homer (in both the Iliad and the Odyssey). Her
story reappears in Book II of Virgil's Aeneid. 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; whether her subsequent
departure with Paris was an abduction or an elopement is ambiguous (probably
deliberately so).
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. 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 worshiped 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 abduction by Paris – or escape with him – 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. abduction) by Paris.
[a]
 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?"[b]

Contents

 1Etymology
 2Prehistoric and mythological context
 3Mythology
o 3.1Birth
o 3.2Youthful abduction by Theseus
 o 3.3Suitors
o 3.4Oath of Tyndareus
o 3.5Seduction or kidnapping by Paris
o 3.6In Egypt
o 3.7In Troy
o 3.8During the Fall of Troy
o 3.9Fate
 4Artistic representations
 5Cult
 6In popular culture
o 6.1Pre-modern
o 6.2Modern
 7See also
 8Notes
 9References
 10Additional references
o 10.1Primary sources
o 10.2Secondary sources
 11External links

Etymology[edit]
The etymology of Helen's name continues to be a problem for scholars. Georg
Curtius related Helen (Ἑλένη) to the moon (Selene; Σελήνη). Émile Boisacq considered
Ἑλένη to derive from the well-known noun ἑλένη meaning "torch".[8] It has also been
suggested that the λ of Ἑλένη arose from an original ν, and thus the etymology of the
name would be connected with the root of Venus. Linda Lee Clader, however, says that
none of the above suggestions offers much satisfaction. [9][c]
More recently, Otto Skutsch has advanced the theory that the name Helen might have
two separate etymologies, which belong to different mythological figures respectively,
namely *Sṷelenā (related to Sanskrit svaraṇā "the shining one") and *Selenā, the first a
Spartan goddess, connected to one or the other natural light phenomenon
(especially St. Elmo's fire) and sister of the Dioscuri, the other a vegetation goddess
worshiped in Therapne as Ἑλένα Δενδρῖτις ("Helena of the Trees").[14]
Others have connected the name's etymology to a hypothetical Proto-Indo-
European sun goddess, noting the name's connection to the word for "sun" in various
Indo-European cultures.[15][16][17] In particular, her marriage myth may be connected to a
broader Indo-European "marriage drama" of the sun goddess, and she is related to
the divine twins, just as many of these goddesses are.[18] Martin L. West has thus
proposed that Helena ("mistress of sunlight") may be constructed on the PIE suffix -
nā ("mistress of"), connoting a deity controlling a natural element. [19]
None of the etymological sources appear to support the existence, save as a
coincidence only, of a connection between the name of Helen and the name by which
the classical Greeks commonly described themselves, namely Hellenes,
after Hellen (/ˈhɛlɪn/; Greek: Ἕλλην) the mythological progenitor of the Greeks.
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.[20] Her name first appears
in the poems of Homer but scholars assume that such myths derive from
earlier Mycenaean Greek sources. 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 divine
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.[21] 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. [22] Modern findings
suggest the area around Menelaion in the southern part of the Eurotas valley seems to
have been the center of Mycenaean Laconia.[23]

Mythology[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.

Helen of Troy wearing a pileus.

In most sources, including the Iliad and the Odyssey, Helen is the daughter of Zeus and

of Leda, the wife of the Spartan king Tyndareus.[24] 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.[25] 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.[26] Fabius Planciades Fulgentius also states that Helen, Castor and Pollux are born
from the same egg.[27] Pseudo-Apollodorus states that Leda had intercourse with both
Zeus and Tyndareus the night she conceived Helen. [28]
On the other hand, in the Cypria, part of the Epic Cycle, Helen was the daughter of
Zeus and the goddess Nemesis.[29] 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 raped Nemesis, who produced an egg from which
Helen was born.[30] Presumably, in the Cypria, this egg was somehow transferred to
Leda.[31] 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.[32]
Asclepiades of Tragilos and Pseudo-Eratosthenes related a similar story, except that
Zeus and Nemesis became swans instead of geese. [33] 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.[34]
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. [35]
Pausanias also says that there was a local tradition that Helen's brothers, "the Dioscuri"
(i.e. Castor and Pollux), were born on the island of Pefnos, adding that the Spartan
poet Alcman also said this,[36] while the poet Lycophron's use of the adjective
"Pephnaian" (Πεφναίας) in association with Helen, suggests that Lycophron may have
known a tradition which held that Helen was also born on the island. [37]