In Greek legend, the wife of Menelaus of Sparta, famous for her beauty; her abduction by Paris the Trojan caused the Trojan War. She was the daughter of Zeus and Leda, in mythical accounts. According to Stesichoros, however, Helen stayed in Egypt, while a phantom accompanied Paris to Troy.
This article is about the mythological figure Helen of Troy. For other meanings of the word see Helen (disambiguation).In Greek mythology, Helen (Greek: Ἑλένη, Helénē), also known as Helen of Troy, was the daughter of Zeus and Leda and the wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta.
Life of Helen
Birth
According to one myth, Leda bore Helen and Polydeuces (Pollux), children of Zeus, while at the same time bearing Castor and Clytemnestra, children of her husband Tyndareus, the king of Sparta. To Zeus, she gave birth to Helen and Polydeuces, and to Tyndareus, Clytemnestra and Castor. In other versions, Helen is a daughter of Nemesis, the goddess who personified the disaster that awaited those who show hubris.
Marriage to Menelaus
Two Athenians, Theseus and Pirithous, pledged to wed daughters of Zeus. Theseus chose the child Helen. They left Helen with Theseus' mother, Aethra, and travelled to the underworld, the domain of Hades, to kidnap Persephone. Helen was subsequently rescued by her brothers, Castor and Pollux, who returned her to Sparta.
When it was time for Helen to marry, many kings and princes from around the world came to seek her hand or sent emissaries to do so on their behalf.
Tyndareus would not choose a suitor, or send any of the suitors away, for fear of offending them and giving grounds for a quarrel. 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 compiled, since the suitors of Helen were later the heroes of the Trojan War. This one is from Apollodorus:
Odysseus, son of Laertes; Menelaus, son of Atreus;
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 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.
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.
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;
Herodotus
According to Herodotus Helen never went to Troy. While there, his servants told the Egyptians that Paris had kidnapped the wife of Menelaus, who had offered Paris hospitality. The Egyptians scolded Paris and informed him that they were confiscating all the treasure he had stolen (including Helen) until Menelaus came to claim them and that Paris had three days to leave their shores. Herodotus also tells us that at the beginning of the war the Trojans informed the Greeks that they did not have the treasure or Helen. The Greeks did not believe them until after they sacked Troy, after which they sent Menelaus to Egypt to reclaim what was his.
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.
In some versions, however, Helen was forever sorrowful and silent after her return to Sparta, mostly due to the death of her beloved Paris. Because of her grief, she could not love Menelaus as she once had, and he (Menelaus) could not love her for what she had done, though he kept her by him for reasons of greed and anger. After Menelaus died by the poison of a snake, Helen travelled back to the deserted Troy because of her dream.
Timeline
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. 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. 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. 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 render Menelaus Tyndareus' successor on the throne of Sparta. 1203 BC - Nine years after Helen's marriage, Paris of Troy visits Sparta and in Menelaus' absence convinces Helen to flee with him. King Priam of Troy marries Helen to Paris. Priam marries Helen to Deiphobus, a younger brother of Paris. Deiphobus is slain by Menelaus, who reclaims Helen as his wife. 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. 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. 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. Helen seeks refuge in Rhodes near Polyxo, widow of Tlepolemus, an old friend of hers. In revenge for her husband's death, Polyxo orders her maidens to pretend to be the ghosts of the many dead seeking revenge on Helen. Helen commits suicide by hanging herself from a tree.Media
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 (as Helen) and Brian Cox. The Siege of Troy is also depicted in the film "Helen of Troy".
Helen is also a central character in the Kolchak: The Night Stalker episode The Youth Killer. In the modern day, Helen has relocated to Chicago and, by means of running a new dating service, selects physically perfect people to sacrifice to Hecate for eternal life and beauty. However, one of her sacrifices had a glass eye which he failed to mention on his application, and upon Kolchak's announcement of this fact to Helen, Hecate becomes angry and turns Helen into stone. Helen was played by Cathy Lee Crosby.
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