Celebrated as the most beautiful woman in the world, the allure of Helen of Troy née Sparta was the yardstick for which all women were measured—-and found inadequate. Her scandalous abduction by Paris from her Spartan home with Menelaus triggered a ten-year-long siege on Troy which was responsible for the countless deaths of Trojans and Greeks alike. Yet despite the abysmal carnage for which she was largely held culpable, Helen escaped Troy without a hair out of place. After the war, in one tradition Helen winds up in Egypt, but if Herodotus is to be believed, she spent the entire war there. Doubtless, the Greeks were unduly obsessed with a heroine they loved to hate and have the stories to show for it.
Unsurprisingly, most of the myths which encircle this fairest of all women, involve rape. Helen herself was the product of the rape between Zeus almighty, king of the gods, and the lovely Leda, queen of Sparta. While Leda was sunbathing on the banks of the River Eurotas, an enamored Zeus turned himself into a magisterial swan and had his way with her. As a daughter of the almighty Zeus, it is no small wonder that Helen was radiant. Then by some accounts at the tender age of seven Helen was kidnapped or raped by Theseus, the mythological first king of Athens. Theseus, like Zeus before him, was accustomed to defiling the gentler sex but a romantic interest in another daughter of Zeus—Persephone herself—-would soon lead him astray. Ultimately, Helen’s twin brothers—Castor and Pollux— restored her to their Spartan home.
All the same, Helen the “richly tressed” Spartan queen is best known for fleeing with Paris to Troy after his “diplomatic” visit to Sparta. But a question that has plagued many throughout the ages is did she elope with the flamboyantly handsome Prince Paris of her own volition? And what role, if any, did the goddess of love, Aphrodite, play in her kidnapping?
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Was there more to Helen’s power than meets the eye? Read more in my book Unsung Heroes on Amazon.
