Helene (mythology)

Caption

Origin and youth

Léda, woman of Tyndare, king de Sparte, gave him four children, the two twins Castor and Pollux, Clytemnestre and Helene. But Helene and Pollux were actually the children of Zeus. According to one of the versions of the legend, Zeus visited Léda in the shape of a swan and Léda laid an egg, from which the two divine children left.

From an extraordinary beauty, it had been removed by Thésée and had been taken along in Attique during its youth, but during the absence of Thésée, which had gone to the Enfers, his/her brothers came to his help and brought back it to Sparte at the same time as Éthra, the mother of Thésée.

Applicants and the “oath of Tyndare”

When it was in age to marry, all the chiefs of Greece aspired to its hand (cf below). As their competition was likely to set ablaze Greece, on the suggestion of Ulysses, Tyndare sacrificed a horse and made assemble the applicants on the skin of the horse and lend a solemn oath: whatever was that which would be chosen, they promised to carry help to him all together if ever whoever tried to charm his wife to him.

The Trojan War

According to the alternatives of the legend, Helene chooses itself most beautiful of the princes - but not most spiritual -, or it was Tyndare which made the decision, preferring richest - but not most pleasant with his/her daughter. In any case, Helene married Ménélas and gave him a girl, Hermione. But, whereas it had gone away to go in Crete, the Trojan prince Pâris arrived at Sparte. According to certain versions, it allures it and persuaded it to flee with him or then it removed it from force and took along it to Troy. The goddess Aphrodite had indeed granted to him the love of the more beautiful woman of Greece following the judgment of Pâris. On its return, Ménélas and his/her Agamemnon brother assembled a forwarding against Troy.

Another tradition, going up at the time of the poet Stésichore (sixth century BC), wants that, to be kept in full safety, Helene was taken along near the king Protée of Egypt, whereas Zeus and Héra left only one phantom resembling to him to accompany Pâris in Troy, thus providing a pretext to the Trojan War, that Zeus had already issued in order to reduce the spite and the multitude of the men. After the war, Ménélas found Helene in Egypt and brought back it at his place.

In Iliade , Helene is a tragic character, forced by Aphrodite to be the woman of Pâris, which is not unaware of how much its misdemeanor made suffer everyone. It reproaches it, but in general Troyens do not show it, and never, say she, Priam or Hector does not make him reproaches. In a scene celebrates, on the fortifications of Troy, the old men, by seeing it, notice that such a beauty the place beyond the blame.

In the Odyssey , it lives peacefully in Sparte, reconciled with her husband, but it is an enigmatic character. She tells how once, in Troy, she only recognized Ulysses entered under a disguise, and evokes her enchantment when he killed out of many Troyens. In addition, Ménélas tells how it tried the Greeks hidden in the Trojan horse, so that they are revealed, by imitating the voice of their wives.

Judgments on Helene

The later, Greek writers and Roman, were in general hostile in Helene. But the praise of Helene was also an abundantly covered subject, in particular by Gorgias and Isocrate: it made it possible the speaker to show his argumentative know-how by covering a difficult subject.

Sources

(III, 10,7-III, 11,1), (II, 15-III, 6; V, 22; VI, 29).
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(france 68).
.
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(LXXXI, XCVII).
Isocrate, Praise of Helene .
( Thésée ).
.

See too

Helen of Troy: photograph and the legend

Jugement of Pâris
the Trojan War will not take place , Play of Jean Giraudoux
the Beautiful Helene , Comic opera Jacques Offenbach

External bonds

the Trojan War, Coluthus - the removal of Helene

Simple: Helen

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