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Helen of Troy, in Greek legend, the most beautiful woman of Greece and the indirect cause of the Trojan War. She was daughter of Zeus, either by Leda or by Nemesis, and sister of the Dioscuri. As a young girl, she was carried off by Theseus, but she was rescued by her brothers.
- Proteus
In a story first known from the work of the 6th-century-bce...
- Helen
Ask the Chatbot a Question Ask the Chatbot a Question Helen,...
- Nemesis
Nemesis, in Greek religion, two divine conceptions, the...
- Clytemnestra
Clytemnestra, in Greek legend, a daughter of Leda and...
- Dioscuri
Dioscuri, (Dioscuri from Greek Dioskouroi, “Sons of Zeus”),...
- Paris
Paris occupies a central position in the rich agricultural...
- Proteus
Dio Chrysostom gives a completely different account of the story, questioning Homer's credibility: after Agamemnon had married Helen's sister, Clytemnestra, Tyndareus sought Helen's hand for Menelaus for political reasons. However, Helen was sought by many suitors, who came from far and near, among them Paris who surpassed all the others and ...
- Family Relations
- Abduction by Theseus
- The Judgement of Paris
- The Trojan War
- The Return Home
- The Cult of Helen
- Helen in Art & Literature
In Greek mythology, Helen was the daughter of Zeus and Leda, the queen of Sparta and the wife of Tyndareus. Zeus disguised himself as a swan to seduce Leda, and Helen was the result of their amorous engagement. In another version of the myth, Helen's mother is the goddess Nemesis, the personification of retribution. Whoever is the mother, in both v...
Theseus, the legendary Athenian hero and early king of that city, captured Helen when she was a child and gave her to his mother to look after until she reached womanhood. The girl, who we are told was fond of wrestling and hunting, was then rescued by her brothers, the Dioscuri. The latter invaded Attica for the purpose, and Theseus was forced to ...
For the Greeks, the origins of the Trojan War went back to one particular event. At the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, Eris, the goddess of strife, offered a golden apple to the most beautiful of the goddesses of Olympia. Zeus invited the handsome Trojan prince Paris (also called Alexandros) to be the judge and decide between three choices: Athena, ...
The main source for our knowledge of the Trojan War and the most popular version of the story is presented by Homer in his Iliad, an epic poem written sometime in the 8th century BCE, and which was based on older oral legends. According to this version, a massive army of many Greek states sailed for Troy and laid siege to the city until Helen was r...
Menelaus and Helen return to Greece, stopping off at various places along the way. These events are told by Homer, this time in his Odyssey. First, the couple is dashed against the rocks of Crete in a storm. Next, arriving in Egypt, the couple spends many years there. Unable to gain favourable winds to get home, Menelaus makes trips to Cyprus and t...
Rather at odds with her standing in Greek literature, Helen was worshipped as divine at certain Greek sites. Scholars are broadly in agreement that Helen must first have been a goddess and then a semi-divine human figure. It may be that the myths of her abductions were an explanation of the goddess' temporary absences from her cult sites. Rhodes an...
Helen and the Trojan War were very popular subjects in many other examples of Classical literature besides Homer. For example, she is featured in Aeschylus' Agamemnon and Virgil's Aeneid. In the 5th-century BCE tragedian Euripides' Trojan Women, Helen appears in a trial before the captured women of Troy and defends her behaviour. Helen's chief defe...
- Mark Cartwright
Oct 18, 2021 · The story of Helen, wife of Menelaus of Sparta, and the consequences of her epic love triangle has been passed down the millennia and recounted by some of the greatest poets of all time, including Homer, Ovid, and Virgil.
Helen’s marriage to Menelaus, the powerful king of Sparta, was not one of love or choice but rather a union arranged by her father, Tíndaro. Menelaus’ position of power and his potential to inherit a kingdom made him the suitable match for Helen, regardless of her own desires.
Dec 8, 2022 · Helen of Troy, “the face that launched a thousand ships,” was a daughter of Zeus and Leda who was famous for her extraordinary beauty. When Helen left her Greek husband for a handsome Trojan prince, the Greeks started the Trojan War to get her back.
Helen of Troy. In Greek mythology, Helen was the most beautiful woman from the age of the heroes. She was the wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta (one of several Greek kingdoms). After Helen ran away with Paris, prince of Troy, the Greek armies fought a ten year long war against Troy to win her back.
