Helen of Troy There are just few women who perhaps can be counted on the finger tips of one hand who are famed in history for their beauty and the consequent events that followed because of this fatalistic gift of nature. Helen of Troy as we famously know her is among this select group and very rightly inspired the famously know line of, “Was this the face that launched a thousand ships…?” . Since ancient times Helen is probably one of the most inspirational women of all time as she became a symbol of to be feared yet desired by men and the type of women, that all women would love to be yet hate with envy. (Helen, From Wikipedian the free encyclopedia) According to the Iliad and the Odyssey and various other Greek mythology sources Helens was born from an egg after Zeus and Leda had mated while they were in the form of swans. Another version of the mythology says that Helens parents were Zeus and the goddess Nemesis. When Helen became of marriageable age, kings, princes and all the heroes came to her stepfather, King Tyndareus to seek her hand in marriage; however, Tyndareus feared offending the suitors therefore made most of them swear a solemn oath to agree to defend the chosen husband of Helen against whoever quarreled with him.
Thereafter, Menalaus proved to the lucky suitor who was eventually married with Helen and following Tyndareus death, he became the King of Sparta as there were no living heirs to the throne. According to Greek mythology, several years later a Trojan prince by the name of Paris, who had been promised by the goddess Aphrodite after he had chosen Helen as the most beautiful of all goddesses to marry to marry her, came to Sparta when her husband Menelaus was away. While there remains some ambiguinity whether Helen went willingly with Paris or not, one version of the story states that she fell love with Paris and willingly left behind her nine year old daughter and her husband to Troy. When Menelaus discovered that Helen was missing, he called upon all the suitors who had sworn to defend him against the injustice and disrespect that the prince of Troy had shown by breaking all the laws of hospitality and thus began the saga of the Trojan War that lasted for nine years as described in the Illiad in which all the Green heroes participated because of the oath they had made. In the later stages of the Trojan War, Paris was eventually killed and his brother Deiphobus forcibly married Helen until he too was killed by Menelaus. While Menelaus wanted to slay his unfaithful wife himself, his sword dropped from his hands when he raised it to deliver the death blow at the sight of her beauty once again.
The Essay on Beautiful Woman Paris Troy King
The Judgement of Paris According to the legend, the chain of events that led to the Trojan War started at a royal wedding. Peleus, king of the Myrmidons, was marrying a sea nymph named Thetis. Many gods went to the the wedding, but Eris, daughter of Zeus, king of the gods, wasn't invited because she was the goddess of discord and was going to cause trouble. Angry for not being invited, Eris ...
The story of Helen of Troy can perhaps never be recounted with the mention of the fabled Trojan Horse in which the best Greek soldiers were stowed and left behind as they pretended to leave Troy by sailing away on their ships and after the Trojans brought the horse inside their walled city, the hidden Greeks escaped from the horse during the night and opened the gates for their waiting comrades to ransack and burn down Troy to its very foundations. If we consider Helen of Troy from a humane and feminist point of view, we can perhaps think of her as a victim of her own beauty because when she was ten, an Athenian King had kidnapped from whom her brothers had to rescue her. While the extraordinary effect that her beauty had on all men was undeniable, contrary to popular belief she was not a temptress or seductively coy woman as described in literature and never used her charms to seek powers or any personal agendas. Helen of Troy should perhaps also be portrayed as woman who deserved to be pitied because of the emotional despair she must have suffered on seeing so many contend to possess her and being hated by many for the woes that her beauty caused in the conflicts in which so many died. She has appropriately also been given the surname of “Lady of Sorrows”. .
The Essay on Helen of Troy allusion from Romeo and Juliet
Allusion location: Act 2, Scene 4, line 107 Quote: “Helen and Hero were sluts and harlots.” Plot context: Romeo has just arranged for Juliet and his marriage and is walking home when Mercutio spots him. Mercutio makes jokes about how his girl is so beautiful that she makes the most beautiful women in history look ugly. Mercutio also mentions that Romeo gave them the slip the previous night. Romeo ...
Works Cited: Carlos Parada, Helen, Greek Mythology (Accessed: April 27, 2007) http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Helen.html Helen, From Wikipedian the free encyclopedia (Accessed: April 27, 2007) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen Patricia Hamilton, 1998, Helen of Troy (Accessed: April 27, 2007) http://www.arthistory.sbc.edu/imageswomen/papers/h amiltonhelen/helenoftroy.html.
