Helen of Troy

My namesake, Helen of Troy, is arguably the most famous woman in the Ancient Greek pantheon. She shares a distinct similarity with the Hollywood actress Hedy Lamar, as both were called the most beautiful woman in the world.

Known simply as “the face that launched a thousand ships,” Helen is known for being the cause of the Trojan War and is far too often blamed for the war that was the fault of men. But her story is deeper than just being a beautiful damsel in distress.

 

Helen was born after her mother, Leda, was raped by Zeus while he was in the guise of a swan (Zeus had some really weird bestiality fetishes.. it’s best not to look too much into that,) but Helen was not alone as she was one of a set of twins. Her twin sister was named Clytemnestra. She also had two brothers from Leda, who were also twins, Castor and Pollux.

 

Helen’s beauty was renowned and thus she had many suitors. As a condition of their attempted wooing of Helen, all the men who aimed to win her hand had to swear an oath to intercede if she were ever abducted. This oath came about as a result of her abduction by Theseus, the Greek hero who is most known for slaying the Minotaur in the maze and later becoming the King of Athens. Soon after her abduction by Theseus, Helen was left in the care of Aethra, Theseus’ mother, while he left Athens on an adventure. While the King was away, Helen’s Spartan brothers saw their chance to rescue her and they invaded Athens, taking both Helen and Aethra into their custody.

 

The man who eventually received Helen’s hand in marriage was Menelaus, the King of Sparta, making Helen the Queen. Around the same time, the brother of Menelaus, Agamemnon, wed Helen’s sister, Clytemnestra.

Helen’s wedding proved to be the beginning of the end, not just for the city of Troy, but also of the age of heroes.

 

Helen had four children with Menelaus; three sons, Aethiolas, Maraphius and Pleisthenes, and a daughter, Hermione.

It was during her marriage to Menelaus that Helen met Paris, the Prince of Troy, who was in Sparta for a wedding that had been organised by Zeus himself.

During the wedding, discord between the gods was brought to an end when Paris told Aphrodite that she was “the fairest” and she in turn promised him that he would receive the most beautiful woman in the world.

 

After this, Helen fled to Troy and eloped with Paris, having fallen in love with him (possibly Aphrodite’s doing). Some accounts of Helen’s tale state that she was abducted by Paris because he believed that she should belong to him due to the promise made to him by Aphrodite. Personally, I prefer the version where Helen made up her own mind and eloped with Paris. She is so much more than just a simple damsel in distress and the fact that there are early accounts that suggest it was her own decision to leave Sparta for Troy gives her much more agency as a female character than someone who was constantly abducted just because she was pretty. So, I am going with the version where she chose to marry Paris and lived happy and prosperous with her love in Troy.

 

Unfortunately, Menelaus quickly discovered that his wife was missing. As all of Helen’s previous suitors had sworn the oath to save her if she were ever abducted, Menelaus had Agamemnon, now the King of Mycenae, call them all to their side to aid them in bringing Helen back to Sparta.

Thus began the legendary conflict known as the Trojan War, led by Agamemnon, which lasted for 10 long years. Battles were fought, Achilles’ took an arrow to the ankle and the Spartans ended the siege of the city of Troy by hiding inside a giant wooden horse.

 

After the war, Helen was returned to Sparta and her first husband, however, her fate has differing accounts.

In one version, she returned to her life as Queen of Sparta until the death of Menelaus, when she was exiled to the island of Rhodes. On the island she crossed paths with a vengeful widow of the Trojan War, who had Helen hanged.

In another version, after returning to Sparta, Menelaus tried to kill Helen himself, accusing her of treachery, but she quickly disrobed and her beauty weakened Menelaus and he dropped his sword.

In yet another version, Helen was said to have ended up on Mount Olympus with the gods.

Personally, my favourite version of the ending of the tale is the one that DC’s Legends of Tomorrow gives to Helen, where they change history and send her to a peaceful existence with the Amazon warriors of Themyscira.. granted, that one isn’t from any Greek myth, but instead from a time travel superhero TV show, but Helen definitely got the best ending from that one!

 

And so ends the story of my woman I was named after.

The women in these tales are often strikingly important figures and yet so undervalued not just by the men in the tales, but also by the men who write them. I hope I have gone some way to shine a light on the remarkable women, like Helen.