Helen, often called “Helen of Troy,” was a daughter of Zeus and Leda, and the sister of Polydeuces and Caster (also known as Dioscuri)[1]. She was the most beautiful woman in the ancient Greek world and was the indirect cause of the ten years Trojan War. 

Leda was the daughter of Thestius and the wife of Tyndareus. One night she was embraced both by her husband and by Zeus in the form of a swan, and by the former, she became the mother of Caser and Clytemnestra, and by the latter of Polydeuces and Helen. However, according to Homer’s description, only Helen was the daughter of Zeus. She produced two eggs. After Leda’s death, she raised to the rank of divinity, under the name of Nemesis [2].  

Helen was born among one of the eggs, in Sparta. She was wornshipped as a goddess associated with trees that could make ugly child beautiful. The legendary beauty of Helen attracted men from afar and also those close to home who saw her as a means to the Spartan throne. Theseus, the hero of Athens, kidnapped Helen when she was still young. In conjunction with Pirithous, Theseus carried Helen to Attica. After Theseus was absent in Hades, Polydeuces and Castor undertook an expedition to Attica. They took Helen back to Sparta with the mother of Theseus, Aethra, as a slave of Helen [3].After her return to Sparta, consulted with Odysseus, Tyndareus gave Helen to Menelaus, brother of the Mycenaean King Agamemnon. Agamemnon and Menelaus were sons of King Atreus of Mycenae and were therefore referred to as Atrides. Agamemnon married the sister of Helen [4]. 

Laurie Macguire [5], writing in “Helen of Troy From Homer to Hollywood,” listed the following 11 men as husbands of Helen in ancient literature, proceeding from the official list in chronological order:

  1. Theseus
  2. Menelaus
  3. Paris
  4. Deiphobus
  5. Helenus (“ousted by Deiphobus”)
  6. Achilles (Afterlife)
  7. Enarsphorus (Plutarch)
  8. Idas (Plutarch)
  9. Lynceus (Plutarch)
  10. Corythus (Parthenius)
  11. Theoclymenus (attempt, thwarted, in Euripides)

Before Menelaus married Helen, Helen’s earthly father Tyndareus extracted an oath from these, the Achaean leaders, that should anyone try to kidnap Helen again, they would all bring their troops to win back Helen for her rightful husband. When Paris took Helen to Troy, Agamemnon gathered together these Achaean leaders and made them honor their promise. That was the beginning of the Trojan War.

The most famous mate of Helen was Paris of Troy, but he was not the last one. After Paris was killed, his brother Deiphobus married Helen. Paris, as known as Alexander or Alexandros, was the son of King Priam of Troy. He grew up as a shepherd on Mount Ida. During his shepherd life, three goddesses, Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena, appeared and asked him to award the “fairest” of them the golden apple. Paris awarded the apple to Aphrodite and she had offered Paris the most beautiful woman on earth for his bride. When Paris came to the court of Menelaus as a guest, he aroused an unaccustomed desire in Helen, and Helen took some responsibility for her abduction. Menelaus received and extended hospitality to Paris. Then, when Menelaus discovered that Paris had taken off for Troy with Helen and other prized possessions Helen may have considered part of her dowry, he was enraged at this violation of the laws of hospitality. Paris offered to return the stolen possessions, even though he was unwilling to return Helen, but Menelaus wanted Helen, too. However, Helen was portrayed on many Greek vases. The moment where Menelaus was reunited with his wife after the fall of Troy was depicted on an Attic oinochoe (ca. 430 BCE; Vatican Museum) and on the skyphos of Hieron and Macron (ca. 490 BCE; Boston). Menelaus rode towards her with drawn sword (or casting away his sword) while Helen fleet. The same scene was painted in fresco in the Casa del Menandro (Pompeii). [6]

One version about the end of Helen was she lived a happy life with Menelaus after they went back to Sparta. According to a variant of the story, Helen, in widowhood, was driven out by her stepsons and fled to Rhodos, where she was hanged by the Rhodian queen Polyxo in revenge for the death of her husband, Tlepolemus, in the Trojan War. The poet Stesichorus, however, related in his second version of her story that she and Paris were driven ashore on the coast of Egypt and that Helen was detained there by King Proteus. The Helen carried on to Troy was thus a phantom, and the real one was recovered by her husband from Egypt after the war. This version of the story was used by Euripides in his play Helen [7].

Word: 777

Bibliography:

[1]: Pseudo-Apollodorus. The Library iii, 10.7; Hyginus. Fabulae, 77; Scholiast on Callimachus’ Hymn to Diana, 232.

[2]: N.S. Gill, Biography of Helen of Troy, Cause of the Trojan War, May 15,2019

[3]: Hyginus. Fabulae, 79; comp. Pausanias. Description of Greece i, 17.6, 41.5; ii, 22.7.

[4]: N.S. Gill, Biography of Helen of Troy, Cause of the Trojan War, May 15,2019

[5]: Macguire, Laurie. “Helen of Troy from Homer to Hollywood.” Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.

[6]: Encyclopedia Britannica, inc. Helen of Troy, Apirl 18, 2019.

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