Helen


“It could be that thewhole TrojanWarwas just a big fat dramaturgicalmistake on our part.” - Athena, Helen by EllenMcLaughlin


What if the Trojan War, which claimed so many lives, was fought for nothing at all?According to legend, thewar beganwhenHelen returned to Troy with Paris. In the Iliad, Achilles expresses the belief that reclaiming Helen was not worth the prolonged ighting and great loss of life which resulted. If so, then howmuchmore futile was the war if “the face that launched a thousand ships”was not even there?


Helen of Sparta From Vase ca. 450 BCE


In some versions of the story, Helen never gets to Troy at all. An alternative Greek myth has Helen sending a version of Helen made of clouds to Troy while the real Helen is taken to Egypt. Egyptian mythology claims that Helen is rescued from Paris in Egypt and held there throughout the war while Paris returns to Troy again, with a replica made of Helen by the gods, though this time under their Egyptian names.


Through the ages, Helen has been imagined and re-imagined, cast sometimes as a victim and sometimes as a self-absorbed, villainous seductress. In literary and theatrical tradition, she has served as amodel of female beauty, a igure of seduction and an opportunity to examine identity, both self-identity and that imposed by others. In Tiger at the Gates, by Jean Giradeaux, Helen is personally vapid, but is used to represent the way the men of Troy view the coming of war. In EllenMcLaughlin’sHelen, the title igure is also used to examine larger themes of the TrojanWar, though this time fromEgyptwhere she has spent the struggle. The sheer number of versions of Helen speaks to the enduring power of this adored and detested igure.


The Variety of Helen: Left, Penny Downie in an adaptation of Euripides’ Helen at the Globe in 2009. Center, The Love of Helen and Paris, by Jaques-Louis David in 1788. Right, Diane Krüger in the ilmTroy in 2004.


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