In this article we bring you all the information about Helena of Troy, one of the most beautiful women in Greek mythology, who was adored by many men and was kidnapped several times, until the Trojan War was carried out to possess her between the Greeks and the Trojans.
Helena of Troy
The life of the beautiful Helen of Troy will be analyzed in this article, since this beautiful lady played a very important role in Greek mythology and in the Trojan War, which she allegedly caused herself. Her life was full of adventures and enchantments that she cast on men because she was so beautiful. To learn more about the related legends, you can consult the article on Greek mythology.
In Greek mythology she is known as Helen of Troy and Helen of Sparta in total is the same person, her name has the meaning of "torch" o "Torch" according to many researchers of Greek mythology they affirm that Elena de Troya is the daughter of Zeus.
This woman was so beautiful that she was wanted by many kings, princes and heroes and after being married she was kidnapped by Prince Paris, who held the position of Prince of Troy and because of the kidnapping the Trojan War originates.
Helen's birth
In the story that has been made to the life of Helen of Troy, it is said that her father was the God Zeus himself, who with his powers transformed into a large and beautiful swan that managed to attract attention and seduce Leda, then After seducing Leda, he had relations with her and at night she was with her husband named Tyndareus the King of Sparta.
The wife of the King of Sparta became pregnant and when she gave birth she only laid two eggs, from the first egg two immortal babies were born who, according to the children of the God Zeus, were named Helena and Pollux. Two human babies were also born in the second egg but in this case they were mortal and their names were Clytemnestra and Castor.
Although Pollux and Castor considered them twin brothers, they were known as Dioscuri who later became two great heroes and are also known as the characters of the Gemini sign.
There is also another story about the birth of Helen of Troy which is that the God Zeus became a swan and was able to reach where Nemesis was hidden since she was persecuted by the God of heaven, and the God Zeus after seducing her had relations with her, after a time Nemesis who was the goddess of justice laid an egg.
The egg was collected by some local shepherds and they took it to the spore of the King of Sparta named Leda, she took it with great pleasure and took care of it until Helen of Troy was born and this is another version of the origin of the beautiful Helen of Troy. In the sanctuary of Leucipides there was an eggshell hung on the ceiling by several ribbons, it is believed that it is the egg where Helen of Troy was born.
The first abduction of Helen of Troy
In the biography of Helena de Troya, when she was just a girl, around the age of twelve or thirteen, she was participating in a dance, where a sacrifice was performed in the Sanctuary of Artemis Ortia located in the city of Sparta, from what which was also the young Athenian Theseus son of the King of Aegean, along with a friend named Pirithous. When young Theseus saw Helen of Troy, he fell in love with her young beauty.
For which he devised a plan, together with his friend Pirítoo, to kidnap the young maiden, after having committed the crime. They flipped a few coins to see who would get it. The winner was Theseus and when he returned to the city of Athens, the people of Athens prohibited Young Theseus from entering along with Helen of Troy.
As he could not enter the city of Athens, the young Theseus took her to the city of Afina which was near the region of Attica, north of Athens. She along with Theseus's mother who was called Etra. While the young Theseus, together with his friend Pirithous, headed for Hades, the ancient city of the underworld with the mission of kidnapping Persephone, a young maiden daughter of Zeus and Demeter to marry her to Pirithous, the friend of Theseus.
Being the young Theseus with his friend Pirithous in the city of Hades, the Dioscuri brothers Pollux and Castor devise a plan to rescue the young Helen of Troy which is successful and they manage to get out with her safe and sound. But they take the mother of Theseus and the sister of Pirithous to become the slaves of Helen of Troy.
In Greek mythology there is a tradition where Helen of Troy and the young Theseus had a daughter named Iphigenia, and when she managed to free her, her Dioscuri brothers decided to give that girl to her sister Clytemnestra, who was already married to Agamemnon, but other historians say that that girl was already the illegitimate daughter of Clytemnestra.
Helen of Troy and her marriage to Menelaus
When Helen of Troy was old enough to get married, there were many who went to marry the beautiful Helen of Troy, it is said that there were more than twenty people made up of kings, princes, heroes and high-ranking military officials to marry Helen of Troy. Troy.
All these people came from all over Greece, whoever managed to marry the beautiful Helen of Troy would obtain fame, prestige and the crown of Sparta, speculations and small clashes had already been formed by those who were going to visit Helen of Troy, King Tyndareus of Sparta asked for advice from Odysseus or also known as Ulysses, one of the great legendary heroes of Greek mythology.
The advice that Odysseus gave to the king of Sparta was that all the suitors of the beautiful Helen of Troy had to sign a kind of treaty or oath where they had to abide by the decision of Helen of Troy, that the one who would be her wife had the obligation to come to her aid if something happened against Helen of Troy such as kidnapping her or seducing her by someone. This topic brings us to the figure of Cassandra and her life, who is also related to these events.
Following the advice Odysseus gave King Tyndareus, he promised to help him marry his niece Penelope. After the oath was fulfilled, the King of Sparta married Helen of Troy to Menelaus, the younger brother of Agamemnon, King of Mycenae, who was also the husband of his other daughter, Clytemnestra. However, other versions of the story suggest that Helen herself chose Menelaus.
After being married to Helen of Troy and the younger brother of the King of Mycenae named Menelaus, they had two children, the first a girl named Hermione and a son about whom not much is known named Nicostratus. In addition, his story is related to the myth of Aphrodite, since she also plays a crucial role in Helena's life.
The seduction and kidnapping of Paris
The goddess Aphrodite had promised him the most beautiful woman, since Prince Paris had chosen the goddess Aphrodite as the most beautiful in a beauty contest between the three goddesses Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite. Due to this situation, the Trojan prince Paris went to the city of Sparta, where he was received by Menelaus and his wife Helen in a very courteous and friendly manner.
But while Prince Paris was there, Helen of Troy's husband, Menelaus, had to attend a funeral in the city of Crete for the death of his maternal grandfather, Catreus. When Helen's husband left, the goddess Aphrodite caused Helen of Troy to fall in love with the Trojan prince Paris.
With such insistence from Prince Paris, for Helen's love, he seduced her, and then they both escaped, taking a great treasure with them while Helen's husband was in the city of Crete. When they arrived at the island named Skull, the location of which is imprecise, the goddess Hera sent them a great storm, but they sailed through Cyprus and Phoenicia until they reached the city of Troy.
There is another version about Helena's flight from Troy with Prince Paris, where Helena does not go with Prince Paris, but the Gods Zeus, Era and Proteus form a specter of Helena and she was the one who escaped with Paris to the city of Troy, while the real Helen went with Hermes to Egypt, in this version it is believed that it is written in the version of palinodia that was written by the poet Stesichorus.
The Trojan War
When Prince Paris arrived to the city of Troy, according to some historians they were poorly received by the people of Troy, but it is also said that the brothers of Prince Paris and Queen Hecuba treated them with great courtesy and favorably, there are also versions that Helen of Troy was so beautiful that many fell in love with her, like King Priam who came to say “that he would never let her leave Troy”.
Although the fortune-teller Cassandra came to predict that this was the end of the city of Troy, since the war would ruin it all, but nobody believed her. Meanwhile Menelaus had already assembled a large army that included Achilles, Ulysses, Nestor and Ajax, they also had a fleet of a thousand ships.
But before starting the war they worked with diplomacy, because Menelaus went to the city of Troy together with Ulysses to ask that Helen of Troy be handed over to her husband Menelaus and the great treasure that Helen had in her possession. But the Trojans refused to return the treasure and Helen. They were even going to kill Ulysses and Menelaus, but they were saved thanks to the old Antenor, who was very wise and was a Trojan advisor who intervened in not harming these two ambassadors.
According to another version, Diomedes and Acamas were entrusted with the diplomatic rescue of Helen of Troy. Similarly, Herodotus of Halicarnassus claims in his research that Helen of Troy was not in Troy but in Egypt with King Proteus. This is why the Greeks believed the Trojans mocked them because when Helen entered the city, not even the treasure was there.
After diplomatic talks had no effect, Menelaus contacted his older brother King Agamemnon and they decided to go with the aforementioned army to war with the city of Troy to rescue Helen.
The war in Troy lasted ten years, until finally the army led by Menelaus was able to enter the walled city with the intelligence of Ulysses. During those years, Helen of Troy was cursed by both sides, although she realized that she was taking refuge in the castles of King Priam, she spent her time weaving and embroidering many war scenes.
She also felt sad because she missed her daughter Hermione and her husband Menelaus. In moments of reflection, she felt ashamed of what she had done and even thought she should end her life rather than let herself be seduced by Prince Paris. In this context, we can explore more about Helen and her influence on her.
At that time her love for Prince Paris had dropped to the minimum, but the goddess Aphrodite appeared to her and told Helen of Troy to share her bed with Prince Paris, or else she would turn the Greeks and Trojans against her in this way, Helen agreed to go to the Prince's room, when she was there she complained to Paris about many things, but he ignored her and only had relations with her.
Some time after the war, Prince Paris died in battle when he was mortally wounded by an arrow from the Greek Philoctetes. Helen was thus widowed, but she remarried Deiphobus, Prince Paris's brother. However, when the Greeks invaded Troy, Helen herself handed over her new husband to be killed.
In an idea that the Greeks had, Ulysses entered the city of Troy dressed as a tramp to devise a plan while he toured a large part of the city killing some Trojans, the only person who could recognize Ulysses was Helena, but she did not give him away since She longed to return to her hometown of Greece and be able to be with her daughter and husband.
After the fall of the city of Troy, Menelaus traveled the world for a while, he had already reconciled with Helen of Troy and they were together as if nothing had happened, but in the Trojan War there were some important data such as the Greeks They were able to win the war, many brave soldiers and heroes died, such as Achilles, who was struck by the arrow of Paris in the heel and killed him, Paris himself also died.
Helen of Troy in the Iliad
in the novel The Iliad Written by the poet Homer, Helen of Troy is a very important character, as well as being highly respected by King Priam who was very important in the Trojan War, since he played the role of sovereign and military strategist. Also Helena was respected by Hector who was the commander of the Trojan forces and dies at the hands of the warrior Achilles.
Similarly, in the city of Troy, all the inhabitants are amazed by Helen's beauty, but they know that the war and the suffering of the people is only her own fault. In several chapters of the novel The Iliad, Helena is present in several events or is observing how they are:
- Helen of Troy is present when all the Trojan military leaders make the strategic decisions in order to defeat the Greeks.
- In an interesting chapter of the novel The Iliad, Helen herself observes the confrontation between Prince Paris and her husband Menelaus.
- The discussion that Helen of Troy holds against the Goddess Aphrodite, where this goddess tells her that she is going to put the Greek people and the people of Troy against her.
- In a part of the novel when Helen of Troy herself feels very sad and mourns the death of the Trojan army commander Hector who was also her brother-in-law.
Later events in The Iliad
Helena de Troya is also linked in later events to the novel written by the poet Homer, there is a story about Corito, a son of Prince Paris with his former wife, the nymph Oenone, since Corito, seeing Helena, was so admired for her beauty. that he fell in love with her and that love was reciprocated.
But Prince Paris, realizing this situation, had to kill his son Corinth, but this part of the story is not very credible, since other researchers or mythographers came to assure that Corinth was the son of one of Paris's sons with Helen of Troy herself.
Another important point was when the prince in the war fighting against the Greeks dies, since he was hit by an arrow causing a mortal wound, for this reason Helen of Troy is forced to marry Deíphobo, brother of Prince Paris and Commander Hector.
Because of this marriage, which Helenus disapproved of, another brother of Prince Paris and the commander Hector decided to leave Troy, as did the soothsayer Cassandra, their sister. Meanwhile, another soothsayer named Calchas predicted that Helenus was leaving Troy.
Due to this situation, Odysseus and other soldiers devised a strategy to capture Helen and force him to share the information he had about the oracles of Troy. When the hero Odysseus managed to enter Troy dressed as a vagabond, the only person who was able to identify him was the beautiful Helen, but she failed to unmask him before the Trojans.
When the wooden horse was built and a handful of Greek warriors hid inside it, and the Trojans themselves brought it into the city of Troy, the beautiful and cunning Helen, who already knew the strategy, circled around her new husband Deiphobus to imitate the voices of the wives of the Greek warriors so that they would get out of the horse and be executed by the Trojans.
The Greek warriors realized it was a trap and did not come out until late to surprise the Trojan army when they were asleep. But there is another version that the beautiful Helena waited for the Trojans to fall asleep and she looked out the window waving a large torch, sending the Greek soldiers inside the wooden horse that it was time to get out of it.
The Trojan War culminates when the Greeks manage to enter the city of Troy, destroying it. Menelaus enters the castle and kills Helen's new husband named Deiphobus, but he was also about to kill Helen of Troy, but when he saw her again he was struck again by how beautiful she is and decides to forgive her for what she has done.
There is another version of how Helen of Troy's husband forgives her for the situation she has caused and it is that she herself kills her new husband, the brother of Prince Paris named Deiphobus, and then it seems that she undresses before her first husband, the Greek Menelaus, and he falls in love with her again because of how beautiful she is and decides to forgive her for what she herself created.
After Menelaus forgives her, along with Helen of Troy, they return to the city of Sparta, although the return was too rough, they decided to stay in Egypt and stay there for a long time and then return to Sparta, according to several mythographers, Helena becomes pregnant by Menelaus and a baby is born. baby named Nicostratus.
Helen in the Odyssey
In the novel written by the poet Homer, called the Odyssey, he tells in book IV, an event, since after the Trojan War ended, Helen lives with her husband Menelaus as if nothing had happened, until Telemachus, son of Odysseus, arrives to meet with Helen to find out if she knew anything about the whereabouts of his father.
When Helen of Troy meets Telemachus she is very surprised by the resemblance of both son and father, in the same way she had preserved the beauty that characterized her, at that moment she prepared a very stimulating concoction that she poured into the wine of young Telemachus, while she told everything she knew about her father Odysseus.
In this way, her husband Menelaus, who was observing the situation, was impressed by the other facet that his wife had and understood how they could put the wooden horse in the city of Troy, and everyone fell asleep. And the heroes inside the wooden hair could hear their wives calling out to them.
But although Menelaus discovered that unpleasant story, since he drank that same potion along with the other heroes that Helen of Troy had prepared, the Trojans would have come out and killed them all, but Menelaus paid no attention and again forgave Menelaus. Helena of Troy.
The Death or divinization of Helena
When it comes to the death or deification of Helen of Troy, there are many versions and none are similar, the most widespread version about Helen is that she was deified and sent to the Elysian Fields, in the company of her faithful husband Menelaus. But there is another version where she is sent to the city of Leuce and marries the Hero Achilles.
In the play written by the poet Euripides, he writes that Orestes and his friend Pylades decide to murder Helen of Troy because she was the source of everything bad that happened to them, since Orestes and his sister Electra were sentenced to death for having taken the life of their mother named Clytemnestra. But they could not carry out their objective because Helen was deified by the God Apollo.
However, other historians base their research on the belief that Helen was buried next to her husband Menelaus in a temple belonging to the family located in the city of Therapne near Sparta. This was the site of the cult of Helen of Troy. For more information, we invite you to read about the summary of Helen of Troy.
In the last and most heartbreaking version was the one told by Polyxo on the Island of Rodia, where the beautiful Helen was banished by the sons of her husband Menelaus, then Polyxo disguised the maids as the dead of the Trojan War who were seeking revenge, this tormented Helen so much that she decided to hang herself to avoid living with that suffering.
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