Helen
This article is about the mythical figure known as Helen of Troy. For other meanings of the word see Helen (disambiguation).In
Greek mythology,
Helen was reputed to be the most beautiful mortal woman ever. Her abduction by
Paris brought about the
Trojan War.
The name has been compared to
Vedic Saraṇyū, 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").
Birth
According to later
Greek mythology,
Leda bore Helen and
Clytemnestra, children of
Zeus while at the same time bearing
Castor and Polydueces (Pollux), 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.
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.
Suitors of Helen
Several lists of her suitors were compliled since the suitors of Helen were later the heroes of the Trojan War. This one is from Apollodorus:
Odysseus, son of
Laertes;
Diomedes, son of
Tydeus;
Antilochus, son of
Nestor (mythology);
Agapenor, son of
Ancaeus;
Sthenelus, son of
Capaneus;
Amphimachus, son of
Cteatus;
Thalpius, son of
Eurytus;
Meges, son of
Phyleus;
Amphilochus, son of
Amphiaraus;
Menestheus, son of
Peteos;
Schedius and
Epistrophus, sons of
Iphitus;
Polyxenus, son of
Agasthenes;
Peneleos, son of
Hippalcimus;
Leitus, son of
Alector;
Ajax, son of
Oileus;
Ascalaphus and
Ialmenus, sons of
Ares;
Elephenor, son of
Chalcodon;
Eumelus, son of
Admetus;
Polypoetes, son of
Perithous;
Leonteus, son of
Coronus;
Podalirius and
Machaon, sons of
Aesculapius;
Philoctetes, son of
Poeas;
Eurypylus, son of
Evaemon;
Protesilaus, son of
Iphiclus;
Menelaus, son of
Atreus;
Ajax and
Teucer, sons of
Telamon;
Patroclus, son of
Menoetius(Apollodorus,
Library 3.10.8)
This list is not complete, Apollodorus later mentions
Idomeneus king of
Crete[Apollodorus, Epitome 3.13.] and
Cinyras king of
Cyprus.
[ Apollodorus, Epitome 3.9.] Another list was compiled by
Hesiod and, later by
Hyginus.
Seduction by Paris
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. In all, she is described as being of magnificent beauty. [
1]
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.
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 conjectured that this and many other Greek legends point to the possible the existence of a
matrilineal inheritance system. According to this view, 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 pragmatic reason to fight over her.
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.
Inspired by the line
"Was this the face that launched a thousand ships...?" from
Marlowe's play
The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, it was determined that a
Millihelen is the amount of
beauty that can launch one ship.
Helen of Sparta is one of the main characters in Wolfgang Petersen's epic movie, "Troy", which starred Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Orlando Bloom, Peter O'Toole, Saffron Burrows, Brendon Gleeson, Julie Christie, Sean Bean, Diane Kruger and Brian Cox. The movie was released in May 2004.
*
Iliad (
Homer)
*
Odyssey (
Homer)
*
Electra (
Euripides)
*
Bibliotheke III, x,7-xi, 1 (
Apollodorus)
*
Epitome II, 15-III, 6; V, 22; VI, 29 (
Apollodorus)
*
Theseus (
Plutarch)
*
An analysis of the legend including historical evidence of worship as a goddess*
A more detailed profile of Helen
