Helen of Troy
The story of Helen starts in Sparta, at a time when King Tyndareus ruled it. Tyndareus was married to the beautiful Leda, the daughter of Thestius. The beauty of Leda attracted the attention of Zeus, who came up with a unique way of seducing the Spartan queen. As a result Leda would give birth to four children, Castor and Pollox, Clytemnestra and Helen; with Helen and Pollox considered to be the children of Zeus. According to Greek mythology, she was the main instigator of the entire Trojan war. For 27 centuries, Helen of TroyT been one of the most exciting and the most contested of female figures. Is she myth or for real? Was she brutally abducted or did she elope? Could she really have been the most beautiful woman in the world??
Helen of Troy - The most devastating beauty
Helen was the most beautiful woman ever. Because of her exceptional beauty, many men wanted to marry Helen, among them Theseus, the founder of Athens. Eventually, Helen became the wife of Menelaos, the legendary king of Sparta. Meanwhile, across the sea in what is now Turkey, a young shepherd/prince called Paris was chosen by the gods to be an arbitrator in a contest between three goddesses, as to who was the most beautiful. Each goddess offered him a bribe, Athena offered success in battle, Hera offered rule over Asia, and Aphrodite promised him the most beautiful woman in the world as his wife (i.e. Helen). Paris chose Aphrodite. Amazed by her beauty, Paris abducted Helen and transferred her to his hometown Troy. However, according to another myth, Paris didn't abduct Helen, but actually persuaded her to come with him and abandon her daughter Hermione who was nine years old by that time. Outraged by the abduction, Menelaus assembled a force with his brother Agamemnon and attacked Troy, causing a battle that lasted ten years.After the fall of Troy, Helen was released from the enchantment of Aphrodite and resumed her marriage with Menelaos; she and Menelaos had a daughter named Hermione.
Was Helen really to blame for the Trojan War?
Within ancient sources she is usually castigated for being a loose woman, blamed for all the deaths in the Trojan War, and almost universally hated. Her actions do not demonstrate her to be a particularly bad woman, sometimes a little selfish or misguided, but not the evil whore many other characters accuse her of being. Euripides, the famous tragedian, states: "Helen's destiny was to cause deaths in order to relieve the earth from arrogant humans". The story of a woman whose abduction caused a ten year war would not at first glance seem particularly illuminating for the story of a goddess or a heroine, but a closer look will reveal just how special Helen was.
Beyond antiquity, many have continued to struggle with the enigmatic Helen. She reappears, for example, on the Elizabethan stage, famously labelled as “the face that launch’d a thousand ships” in Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus (1604). And in Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida (c.1602), she is imagined as an insipid dunderhead, thoroughly responsible for the loss of Greek lives. Indeed, the Greek commander Diomedes states: “For every scruple / of her contaminated carrion weight, / A Troyan hath been slain”. As these cases illustrate, Helen’s unenviable status as an instigator of war colours many later receptions of Homer’s story. Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s 1863 painting Helen of Troy is another striking example.
Conclusion
It is worth bearing in mind that Helen is not always envisioned as a guilty, destructive force. Take, for instance, Derek Walcott’s Caribbean Helen in his 1990 poem Omeros. Walcott’s tale of migration is a radical rereading of Homer’s text, offering a fresh perspective on this iconic female figure. No longer is Helen cast as a figure of blame; “she was not a cause or a cloud, only a name / for a local wonder”. For Helen’s story is one that should lead us to question why it is that women have so often been made scapegoats in times of warfare, crisis and great political change. Only then might we break free from the question of whether or not Helen was to blame for the Trojan War – and start asking what role the men who carried the swords and spears played.
The story of Helen starts in Sparta, at a time when King Tyndareus ruled it. Tyndareus was married to the beautiful Leda, the daughter of Thestius. The beauty of Leda attracted the attention of Zeus, who came up with a unique way of seducing the Spartan queen. As a result Leda would give birth to four children, Castor and Pollox, Clytemnestra and Helen; with Helen and Pollox considered to be the children of Zeus. According to Greek mythology, she was the main instigator of the entire Trojan war. For 27 centuries, Helen of TroyT been one of the most exciting and the most contested of female figures. Is she myth or for real? Was she brutally abducted or did she elope? Could she really have been the most beautiful woman in the world??
Helen of Troy - The most devastating beauty
Helen was the most beautiful woman ever. Because of her exceptional beauty, many men wanted to marry Helen, among them Theseus, the founder of Athens. Eventually, Helen became the wife of Menelaos, the legendary king of Sparta. Meanwhile, across the sea in what is now Turkey, a young shepherd/prince called Paris was chosen by the gods to be an arbitrator in a contest between three goddesses, as to who was the most beautiful. Each goddess offered him a bribe, Athena offered success in battle, Hera offered rule over Asia, and Aphrodite promised him the most beautiful woman in the world as his wife (i.e. Helen). Paris chose Aphrodite. Amazed by her beauty, Paris abducted Helen and transferred her to his hometown Troy. However, according to another myth, Paris didn't abduct Helen, but actually persuaded her to come with him and abandon her daughter Hermione who was nine years old by that time. Outraged by the abduction, Menelaus assembled a force with his brother Agamemnon and attacked Troy, causing a battle that lasted ten years.After the fall of Troy, Helen was released from the enchantment of Aphrodite and resumed her marriage with Menelaos; she and Menelaos had a daughter named Hermione.
Was Helen really to blame for the Trojan War?
Within ancient sources she is usually castigated for being a loose woman, blamed for all the deaths in the Trojan War, and almost universally hated. Her actions do not demonstrate her to be a particularly bad woman, sometimes a little selfish or misguided, but not the evil whore many other characters accuse her of being. Euripides, the famous tragedian, states: "Helen's destiny was to cause deaths in order to relieve the earth from arrogant humans". The story of a woman whose abduction caused a ten year war would not at first glance seem particularly illuminating for the story of a goddess or a heroine, but a closer look will reveal just how special Helen was.
Beyond antiquity, many have continued to struggle with the enigmatic Helen. She reappears, for example, on the Elizabethan stage, famously labelled as “the face that launch’d a thousand ships” in Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus (1604). And in Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida (c.1602), she is imagined as an insipid dunderhead, thoroughly responsible for the loss of Greek lives. Indeed, the Greek commander Diomedes states: “For every scruple / of her contaminated carrion weight, / A Troyan hath been slain”. As these cases illustrate, Helen’s unenviable status as an instigator of war colours many later receptions of Homer’s story. Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s 1863 painting Helen of Troy is another striking example.
Conclusion
It is worth bearing in mind that Helen is not always envisioned as a guilty, destructive force. Take, for instance, Derek Walcott’s Caribbean Helen in his 1990 poem Omeros. Walcott’s tale of migration is a radical rereading of Homer’s text, offering a fresh perspective on this iconic female figure. No longer is Helen cast as a figure of blame; “she was not a cause or a cloud, only a name / for a local wonder”. For Helen’s story is one that should lead us to question why it is that women have so often been made scapegoats in times of warfare, crisis and great political change. Only then might we break free from the question of whether or not Helen was to blame for the Trojan War – and start asking what role the men who carried the swords and spears played.
No comments:
Post a Comment