Helen

Not to be confused with Euripides’ tragedy Helen or the 1956 film Helen of Troy.

Helen of Troy was one of the most famous women in Greek mythology, known for her great beauty and for her central role in the Trojan War. She was usually said to be the daughter of Zeus and Leda, though Tyndareus, king of Sparta, was her mortal father in the royal household. Helen became the wife of Menelaus and queen of Sparta, but her departure with Paris, prince of Troy, led the Greek kings to sail against Troy. Because of this, she became known as the woman whose beauty helped cause one of the greatest wars in myth.

Who Was Helen?

Helen was a Spartan queen and the most beautiful woman in the Greek world, the daughter of Zeus and Leda and the wife of King Menelaus of Sparta. Her departure to Troy with the Trojan prince Paris is the event that starts the Trojan War, which is why she is remembered as Helen of Troy rather than Helen of Sparta. Homer calls her “daughter of Zeus” (Iliad 3.426).

• Parents: Zeus and Leda; her mortal father in the royal house was Tyndareus, king of Sparta (Apollodorus, Library 3.10.7)
• Siblings: Clytemnestra, and the twins Castor and Pollux
• Husband: Menelaus, king of Sparta; daughter: Hermione (Odyssey 4.12–14)
• Best known for: the beauty that drew every Greek king as a suitor, and the flight to Troy that caused the war

Family and Background

Helen was raised in Sparta as the daughter of Leda and Tyndareus. In the most common version, however, her true father was Zeus, who came to Leda in the form of a swan. According to Apollodorus, Zeus and Tyndareus both lay with Leda on the same night, and she bore Pollux and Helen to Zeus and Castor and Clytemnestra to Tyndareus (Library 3.10.7). Helen was therefore the sister of Clytemnestra and of Castor and Pollux, the twin brothers known as the Dioscuri. This family would become deeply tied to the Trojan War and its aftermath.

Was Helen of Troy Greek or Trojan?

Helen was Greek, not Trojan. She was born and raised in Sparta, in the southern Peloponnese, and she is Trojan only by association: she spent the years of the war living inside Troy after leaving with Paris.

• Her family was the Spartan royal house, and she was queen of Sparta before the war
• On the walls of Troy she identifies the Greek commanders by name, because they are her own countrymen and former suitors (Iliad 3.161–244)
• She returns to Sparta with Menelaus after Troy falls, and is living there again in the Odyssey (Odyssey 4.120–305)
• The Greeks fought to bring her back, which only makes sense because they considered her one of their own

Who Was Helen of Troy’s Husband?

Helen’s husband was Menelaus, king of Sparta and brother of Agamemnon. She was married to him before the Trojan War and returned to him after it, so he is her husband at both the beginning and the end of her story.

• He was chosen from among dozens of suitors, all of whom swore the Oath of Tyndareus to defend the marriage (Apollodorus, Library 3.10.8–9)
• Their daughter was Hermione, who in Homer is betrothed at Troy to Neoptolemus, and who in later tradition married Neoptolemus and then Orestes (Odyssey 4.1–9; Apollodorus, Epitome 6.14)
• In Troy, Helen lived as the wife of Paris, and after his death she was given to his brother Deiphobus (Apollodorus, Epitome 5.9)
• She was never married to Agamemnon – that was her sister Clytemnestra, which is the most common confusion in her myth

Who Was Helen of Troy’s Sister?

Helen’s sister was Clytemnestra, who married Agamemnon and later murdered him. The two sisters married two brothers, and their stories run in parallel from opposite directions.

• Both were daughters of Leda, but Helen was fathered by Zeus and Clytemnestra by the mortal Tyndareus
• Helen leaves her husband and is taken back; Clytemnestra stays and kills hers, with the help of Aegisthus (Apollodorus, Epitome 6.23)
• Their brothers were Castor and Pollux, the Dioscuri, who rescued Helen from Theseus (Apollodorus, Epitome 1.23)
• Apollodorus names two further sisters, Timandra, who married Echemus, and Phylonoe, whom Artemis made immortal (Library 3.10.6)

How Was Helen of Troy Born?

Helen was born from an egg. Zeus came to Leda in the form of a swan, and the child of that union was hatched rather than delivered in the ordinary way – one of the strangest birth stories in Greek myth.

• Apollodorus gives the main version: Leda bore Pollux and Helen to Zeus, and Castor and Clytemnestra to Tyndareus, the offspring of a single night (Library 3.10.7)
• In another tradition Helen’s real mother is the goddess Nemesis, who changed herself into a goose to escape Zeus; Zeus became a swan and Nemesis laid an egg, which a shepherd found in the groves and gave to Leda, who kept it in a chest until Helen hatched and raised her as her own daughter (Apollodorus, Library 3.10.7)
• The egg itself was displayed as a relic in a temple at Sparta centuries later: Pausanias saw an egg tied with ribbons and hanging from the roof of the sanctuary of Hilaeira and Phoebe, which the Spartans said was the egg Leda brought forth (3.16.1)
• Homer does not tell the swan story, but he consistently calls Helen a daughter of Zeus (Iliad 3.426)

Helen’s Birth

Many myths say that Helen was born from an egg after Zeus’ union with Leda. In Apollodorus’ main account she and Pollux are the children of Zeus, while Clytemnestra and Castor are the children of Tyndareus. Other accounts give Helen a different mother, Nemesis, and say that Leda only raised her after the egg was brought to her. Pausanias also records that the sanctuary of Nemesis at Rhamnus was said to have a statue base showing Leda leading Helen to Nemesis, her mother (1.33.7–8).

What Did Helen of Troy Look Like?

No ancient source really describes her. Homer never tells us Helen’s height, colouring, or features – he calls her “white-armed” (Iliad 3.121) and “fair-haired” (Iliad 9.339) and then shows us her beauty entirely through its effect on the men who see her.

• The most famous moment is on the walls of Troy, where the Trojan elders say that no one could blame Trojans and well-greaved Achaeans for suffering so long over such a woman, so like an immortal goddess is she to look upon (Iliad 3.154–158) – and in the same breath they add that she should still go home on the ships
• When Iris finds her, she is in her chamber weaving a great purple web into which she works the battles of Trojans and Achaeans fought for her sake (Iliad 3.125–128)
• Hesiod calls her “rich-haired” in his Catalogue of Women, where he lists the kings who came to woo her
• The famous line about the face that launched a thousand ships is not Homer at all: it comes from Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, written in the late sixteenth century

Was Helen of Troy Real?

There is no historical evidence that Helen existed. She is a mythological figure, and no record, inscription, or artefact from the Bronze Age Aegean names her or any other character from the Trojan cycle.

• Troy, Mycenae and Sparta were real places, and later Greeks could visit them: Pausanias describes the sanctuary of Helen and Menelaus at Therapne near Sparta (3.19.9)
• Our sources are poems, plays and mythographers: Homer, the lost epics of the Trojan cycle, the tragedians, and the handbooks of Apollodorus, all written long after the period they describe
• Helen was worshipped in cult at Sparta and at Therapne. Herodotus tells how a Spartan nurse carried an ugly child to Helen’s shrine at Therapne every day, and how a woman appeared who stroked the child’s head and promised that she would become the most beautiful woman in Sparta (6.61)

Helen of Sparta and Helen of Troy

Helen is often called Helen of Troy, but she was first Helen of Sparta. She became queen of Sparta through her marriage to Menelaus. The name Helen of Troy comes from the years she spent in Troy after leaving Sparta with Paris. Her two names show the split at the heart of her story: she belonged by marriage to Sparta, but became forever linked with Troy.

Helen and Theseus

The First Abduction of Helen

Before the Trojan War, Helen was abducted by Theseus, the hero and king of Athens. According to Apollodorus she was only twelve years old at the time, though Diodorus Siculus says ten (Epitome 1.23; Diodorus 4.63.2). Theseus and his friend Pirithous had agreed that each would marry a daughter of Zeus. Theseus chose Helen and carried her away from Sparta; Apollodorus says she was taken to Aphidnae (Library 3.10.7).

Rescue by Castor and Pollux

While Theseus was away in the Underworld with Pirithous, Helen’s brothers Castor and Pollux marched against Aphidnae, took it, and brought Helen back to Sparta (Apollodorus, Library 3.10.7). They also led away Aethra, the mother of Theseus, as a captive. In the Iliad Aethra, daughter of Pittheus, is one of the two handmaids who follow Helen to the Scaean gates (3.143–144). The scene was also carved on the chest of Cypselus at Olympia: “The sons of Tyndareus are carrying off Helen, and are dragging Aethra” (Pausanias 5.19.3). This early episode already shows Helen as a woman whose beauty draws powerful men into violence.

Helen’s Suitors

The Most Beautiful Woman in Greece

When Helen reached marriageable age, many kings and heroes came to Sparta to win her. Apollodorus lists them one by one (Library 3.10.8), and Hesiod’s Catalogue of Women also listed the suitors and described how each went about his wooing. Her beauty made her the most desired woman in Greece, but it also created a political problem. If Tyndareus chose one suitor, the rejected men might turn against him or against the chosen husband.

The Oath of Tyndareus

Odysseus helped solve the problem. He promised to suggest a way to avoid a quarrel if Tyndareus would help him win Penelope, and he advised Tyndareus to make all of Helen’s suitors swear an oath that they would defend the man chosen as her husband if anyone later wronged him in his marriage (Apollodorus, Library 3.10.9). The suitors agreed. In Pausanias’ account they swore standing on the pieces of a sacrificed horse (3.20.9). This oath later became one of the main reasons why so many Greek kings joined the expedition against Troy.

Marriage to Menelaus

Tyndareus chose Menelaus as Helen’s husband. When the Dioscuri were taken up among the gods, Tyndareus sent for Menelaus to Sparta and handed the kingdom over to him, so Menelaus became king of Sparta and Helen queen (Apollodorus, Library 3.11.2). They had a daughter named Hermione. Homer says that the gods gave Helen no more children after Hermione (Odyssey 4.12–14), though Apollodorus adds that according to some she also bore Menelaus a son, Nicostratus (Library 3.11.1). According to another account, Helen had borne Theseus a daughter, Iphigenia, whom Clytemnestra raised as her own (Pausanias 2.22.6–7).

The Judgement of Paris

The Golden Apple

The events that led to Helen’s departure began with the wedding of Peleus and Thetis. Eris, the goddess of discord, was not invited. In anger, she threw a golden apple among the guests, marked for “the fair one.” Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite each claimed it (Apollodorus, Epitome 3.2). Some said the whole affair served the will of Zeus, who wished his daughter to be famous for having embroiled Europe and Asia, or wished to exalt the race of the demigods (Epitome 3.1).

Paris Chooses Aphrodite

Zeus commanded Hermes to lead the three goddesses to Paris, also called Alexander, on Mount Ida, so that he could judge between them. Each goddess promised him a gift. Hera said she would give him the kingship over all men, Athena promised victory in war, and Aphrodite promised him the hand of Helen. Paris decided in favour of Aphrodite (Apollodorus, Epitome 3.2).

Paris Comes to Sparta

Paris later sailed to Sparta, where Menelaus entertained him for nine days. On the tenth day Menelaus went to Crete to perform the funeral rites for his mother’s father Catreus, and Paris persuaded Helen to go away with him. She left Hermione, then nine years old, and sailed with him by night, taking most of the property on board (Apollodorus, Epitome 3.3). This made the betrayal worse, because Paris violated the sacred bond between guest and host. Some versions say he abducted her by force, while others say she went willingly, influenced by Aphrodite or by desire. In the Iliad Helen herself says that she followed Paris, leaving her bridal chamber, her kinsfolk and her daughter (3.173–175).

Who Kidnapped Helen of Troy and Why?

Paris, prince of Troy, took Helen from Sparta, and he did it because the goddess Aphrodite had promised her to him. When Paris judged Aphrodite the fairest of the three goddesses, his reward was the most beautiful woman in the world – who was already married to the king of Sparta.

• He was a guest in the house of Menelaus at the time, which made the act a violation of xenia, the sacred law of hospitality
• Menelaus was away in Crete for a funeral when Paris and Helen sailed (Apollodorus, Epitome 3.3)
• Whether it was a kidnapping or an elopement is left deliberately unclear: some sources say Paris carried her off by force, others that she went with him willingly under Aphrodite’s influence
• She was not the first to take her: Theseus of Athens had abducted her years earlier, when she was still a girl

Helen and the Trojan War

The Greeks Gather

When Menelaus learned that Helen had gone to Troy, he went to his brother Agamemnon at Mycenae and begged him to muster an army. Agamemnon sent a herald to each of the kings, reminded them of the oaths they had sworn, and warned them to look to the safety of their own wives, saying that the affront had been offered equally to the whole of Greece (Apollodorus, Epitome 3.6). The army sailed to Troy to recover Helen and punish Paris. This was the beginning of the Trojan War.

Helen in Troy

In Troy, Helen became the wife or lover of Paris. The Trojans were divided in how they saw her. Some blamed her for the war, while others saw her as a victim of the gods. In Homer’s Iliad, Priam treats Helen kindly and tells her that the gods, not she, are to blame for the war (3.164–165).

Helen on the Walls of Troy

One of Helen’s most famous scenes in the Iliad takes place on the walls of Troy. Priam asks her to identify the Greek warriors below, and she names Agamemnon, Odysseus, Ajax, and Idomeneus, among others. She calls Agamemnon her brother-in-law, and herself shameless (Iliad 3.161–244). This scene places Helen between the two sides of the war. She knows the Greeks as her own people, but she is living among the Trojans. She looks for her brothers Castor and Pollux among the army and cannot find them; the poet adds that the earth already held them in Lacedaemon (3.236–244).

The Duel Between Menelaus and Paris

To end the war, Menelaus and Paris fought a duel for Helen. Menelaus was stronger and almost dragged Paris away by the strap of his helmet, but Aphrodite broke the strap and carried Paris away in a mist to his bedchamber. Aphrodite then summoned Helen to him; Helen at first refused, and then obeyed (Iliad 3.328–447). The truce then collapsed when Pandarus shot an arrow at Menelaus, and the war continued (Iliad 4.86–140).

Helen During the War

Helen’s Shame and Grief

Helen is not shown in only one way in ancient myth. Sometimes she is blamed as faithless and dangerous. In Homer, however, she often blames herself and speaks with shame. She wishes that death had taken her before she followed Paris to Troy (Iliad 3.173–180), and she calls herself a “dog” and a contriver of mischief (Iliad 6.344). She misses the life she left behind and understands the pain caused by the war around her.

Paris and Hector

Helen’s relationship with Paris is not always shown as happy. In the Iliad, she criticizes Paris for cowardice after Aphrodite rescues him from Menelaus (3.428–436). She respects Hector more deeply: in Book 6 she says that Hector’s mind is burdened with toil because of her and Paris, and in Book 24, mourning Hector, she says that in twenty years he had never spoken a harsh or insulting word to her, and that others in Troy who reproached her were stopped by his gentle words (Iliad 6.344–358; 24.762–775).

The Wooden Horse

Helen was also connected with the story of the Wooden Horse. In the Odyssey, Menelaus tells Telemachus that Helen walked around the hollow horse and called out to the Greek leaders by name, imitating the voices of their wives; Deiphobus is said to have come with her. Anticlus was ready to answer, but Odysseus closed his mouth with his hands and held him until Athena led Helen away (Odyssey 4.265–289). This strange episode makes Helen’s role near the fall of Troy more uncertain and complex.

The Fall of Troy

What Happened to Helen of Troy?

Helen survived the Trojan War and went home. When Troy fell, Menelaus found her, spared her life, and took her back to Sparta, where the two lived as king and queen again – the only major figure of the war to lose nothing permanent by it.

• Paris was killed before the city fell, and Helen was married off to his brother Deiphobus, whom Menelaus killed during the sack (Apollodorus, Epitome 5.9, 5.22); Odysseus and Menelaus fought at Deiphobus’ house, according to the singer Demodocus (Odyssey 8.517–520)
• Menelaus meant to kill her for her betrayal, but dropped his sword when he saw her breast; the story is told by Peleus in Euripides’ Andromache (627–631)
• In the Odyssey, some years later, she is settled in the palace at Sparta, receiving Telemachus as a guest
• Her afterlife varies by source: in Euripides’ Orestes, Apollo says that Helen was saved from death and will be made a goddess in the sky beside Hera and Hebe, near her brothers, the Dioscuri (1629–1643, 1683–1690); in the Spartan account, Menelaus and Helen were buried at Therapne; Crotonian and Himeran tradition said she was wedded to Achilles on the White Island (Pausanias 3.19.9, 3.19.11–13); the Rhodians said that after Menelaus died she fled to Rhodes, where Polyxo, the widow of Tlepolemus, had her hanged on a tree by servants dressed as Furies (Pausanias 3.19.9–10)

The Sack of the City

After the long siege, the Greeks used the Wooden Horse to enter Troy. The hidden warriors came out at night, opened the gates, and the city was destroyed (Apollodorus, Epitome 5.14–21). Paris had already died by this point in many versions, and Helen had later been given to another Trojan, Deiphobus.

Menelaus Finds Helen

During the sack of Troy, Menelaus found Helen. Some versions say he planned to kill her for leaving him and causing so much suffering. But when he saw her beauty again, his anger weakened, and he dropped his sword (Euripides, Andromache 627–631). Apollodorus simply says that Menelaus killed Deiphobus and led Helen away to the ships (Epitome 5.22).

Did Helen Return to Sparta?

Yes – Helen returned to Sparta with Menelaus and resumed her life as queen. In Homer’s Odyssey, they are shown living together again after the war. When Telemachus visits Sparta in search of news about Odysseus, Helen and Menelaus receive him as hosts and speak about the war and its heroes.

• The journey home took them eight years, driven off course to Cyprus, Phoenicia and Egypt before they reached Sparta (Odyssey 4.81–85; Apollodorus, Epitome 6.29)
• Helen appears composed and hospitable in those scenes, putting a drug in the wine to ease the guests’ grief and telling her own story of the war; the drug, nepenthe, had been given to her by Polydamna, wife of Thon, in Egypt (Odyssey 4.219–264)
• Menelaus is told that he will not die in Argos but be sent to the Elysian plain, because he is Zeus’ son-in-law as husband of Helen (Odyssey 4.561–569)

Different Versions of Helen’s Story

Abduction or Elopement?

Ancient sources do not fully agree on whether Helen was abducted by Paris or went with him willingly. Some traditions make her a victim of Paris and Aphrodite. Others make her more active in leaving Menelaus. Apollodorus says that Paris persuaded her (Epitome 3.3), while in the Iliad Helen says she followed him (3.173–175). This uncertainty is one reason Helen remained such a debated figure in Greek myth.

The Phantom Helen

Another version says that the real Helen never went to Troy at all. In this tradition, known from Stesichorus and Euripides, the gods created a phantom or image of Helen, and that false Helen went to Troy while the real Helen stayed in Egypt. Stesichorus, in a poem retracting his earlier abuse of Helen, said that she never sailed in the ships and never came to Troy (Plato, Phaedrus 243a–b). In Euripides’ Helen, Hera made the phantom out of cloud, and Hermes took the real Helen to Egypt and left her in the care of Proteus (Helen 31–51); Apollodorus summarizes this version (Epitome 3.5). In Euripides’ Electra it is Zeus who sends the phantom to Troy (1280–1283). Herodotus offers a third version: the Egyptians told him that Paris did bring the real Helen to Egypt, but that King Proteus sent Paris away and kept Helen until Menelaus came to collect her (2.112–120).

Helen After Sparta

There are also different stories about Helen’s final fate. Some say she lived out her life with Menelaus and was later taken to a blessed afterlife. Other versions say she was worshipped as a divine figure. A darker tradition says she was killed on Rhodes by Polyxo, who blamed her for the death and suffering caused by the Trojan War (Pausanias 3.19.10). Pausanias also records that the Rhodians said she was driven from Sparta by Menelaus’ sons Nicostratus and Megapenthes after his death (3.19.9).

Helen’s Role and Symbolism

Beauty and Blame

Helen is often treated as the symbol of beauty powerful enough to start a war. But the sources also raise a harder question: how much blame belongs to Helen, and how much belongs to Paris, Menelaus, the Greek kings, and the gods? The answer changes from source to source. Priam tells her the gods are to blame (Iliad 3.164), Helen blames herself (Iliad 6.344–358), and the Trojan elders would send her home (Iliad 3.156–160).

A Woman Between Two Worlds

Helen belongs to both Sparta and Troy, yet fully belongs to neither during the war. When Iris comes to call her to the walls, she puts into Helen’s heart a longing for her former husband, her city and her parents (Iliad 3.139–140). The Greeks fight to bring her back, while the Trojans suffer for keeping her.

The Power of the Gods

Helen’s story is also about divine control. Aphrodite promises her to Paris, Zeus allows the war to unfold, and in some versions Hera creates a phantom Helen. Human choices matter, but the gods push events toward disaster. Apollodorus records that some said Zeus willed the abduction in order to make his daughter famous, or to exalt the race of the demigods (Epitome 3.1).

Helen in Ancient Literature

Homer’s Iliad

In the Iliad, Helen appears inside Troy during the war. She speaks with Priam, criticizes Paris, and mourns Hector. Homer presents her as beautiful and dangerous, but also sad, self-aware, and caught in a war that has grown beyond her control.

Homer’s Odyssey

In the Odyssey, Helen is back in Sparta with Menelaus. She remembers Odysseus entering Troy in disguise, beaten and dressed as a beggar, and how she recognized him, bathed him and swore not to betray him (Odyssey 4.240–264). She also appears in the story of the Wooden Horse. This later picture of Helen is calmer, but the memory of Troy still surrounds her.

Euripides’ Helen

Euripides gives one of the most unusual versions of the myth. In his play Helen, the real Helen never went to Troy. She has been kept in Egypt, while a phantom Helen caused the Greeks and Trojans to fight. The play questions the whole idea of Helen as guilty.

Later Writers and Artists

Helen remained a favorite subject in ancient art and poetry. Pausanias describes her abduction by the sons of Tyndareus on the chest of Cypselus (5.19.3), and the scene of Menelaus and Proteus from the Odyssey on the throne at Amyclae (3.18.16); at Rhamnus, Pheidias showed Leda leading Helen to Nemesis (1.33.8). Later poets and playwrights continued to debate whether she was guilty, innocent, divine, or trapped by forces beyond her control.

Misconceptions and Lesser-Known Facts

Helen Did Not Kill Her Husband – That Was Her Sister

Helen never killed Menelaus, and she was never married to Agamemnon. The queen who murdered her husband after the Trojan War was Clytemnestra, Helen’s sister and Agamemnon’s wife.

• Menelaus outlived Helen’s time at Troy and shared the throne of Sparta with her afterwards
• Clytemnestra killed Agamemnon with the help of her lover Aegisthus (Odyssey 11.409–434; Apollodorus, Epitome 6.23); in the tragedies her grievance includes the sacrifice of their daughter Iphigenia, which Apollodorus describes in Epitome 3.22
• The confusion is easy to make, because the two sisters married two brothers and both stories end at home rather than at Troy

Helen Was First Queen of Sparta

Although she is famous as Helen of Troy, Helen was queen of Sparta before she was linked with Troy. Her marriage to Menelaus made her part of the Spartan royal house.

The Trojan War Was Not Caused by Beauty Alone

Helen’s beauty is central to the myth, but the sources name other causes as well: the oath of Tyndareus (Apollodorus, Library 3.10.9), the insult to Menelaus, the judgement of Paris and the promise of Aphrodite, and the will of Zeus (Epitome 3.1–2). Helen was the cause people named, but not the only force behind the war.

Helen Had Already Been Abducted Before Paris

Paris was not the first man to carry Helen away. Theseus had abducted her earlier, and she was rescued by Castor and Pollux. This earlier myth shows that Helen’s beauty had already caused conflict before the Trojan War.

Some Myths Say Helen Never Went to Troy

The phantom Helen story is one of the most important alternate versions. It does not erase the Trojan War, but it changes its meaning. In that version, Greeks and Trojans die for a false image, while the real Helen waits far away in Egypt.

Helen Was Not Always Hated

Helen could be blamed, pitied, admired, or even worshipped, depending on the source. In Sparta and other places, she had cult honors; Herodotus mentions her sanctuary at Therapne (6.61) and Pausanias the temple of Menelaus there (3.19.9). This shows that ancient Greeks did not view her in only one simple way.

Unraveling Helen: Beauty, War, and Blame

Helen of Troy is one of the most complex figures in Greek mythology. She is remembered for beauty, but the ancient sources tell more than a story about beauty. They tell of marriage, desire, divine promises, broken guest-friendship, war, guilt, and the way people place blame after disaster.

The sources never settle the question of whether Helen was taken or chose to go. Homer lets her speak of her own shame and lets Priam absolve her; Stesichorus and Euripides remove her from Troy altogether; Herodotus places her in Egypt; Pausanias records her cult at Therapne and the stories of her death. Each of these makes her a different figure, which is why she appears in so many places across Greek literature.

Helen Sources

Helen appears in Homer’s Iliad, especially Book 3 (the walls of Troy, the duel of Menelaus and Paris), Book 6 and Book 24 (her lament for Hector), and in the Odyssey, Books 3 and 4 (Sparta, the Wooden Horse, the drug from Egypt, Menelaus’ wanderings and the Elysian plain), with Book 8.517–520 on Deiphobus’ house. Hesiod’s Catalogue of Women (fragments) lists her suitors.

Ancient summaries of Helen’s birth, Theseus’ abduction, the suitors, the oath of Tyndareus, Menelaus’ kingship, Paris, and the Trojan War are found in Pseudo-Apollodorus, Library 3.10.6–9 and 3.11.1–2 (Library 3.10.7) and Epitome 1.23, 3.1–7, 5.9, 5.22, 6.14, 6.23, 6.29. Euripides gives the phantom version in Helen and Electra, Helen’s apotheosis in Orestes, and Menelaus’ dropped sword in Andromache. Herodotus (2.112–120, 6.61) and Plato (Phaedrus 243a–b) preserve the Egyptian version and Stesichorus’ recantation. Pausanias (3.19.9–13; also 1.33.7–8, 2.22.6, 3.16.1, 3.18.16, 3.20.9, 5.19.3) records the cult at Therapne, the egg at Sparta, the stories of her death and the White Island, and the art that showed her story. Diodorus Siculus (4.63.2) gives Helen’s age at Theseus’ abduction.

See Also: Trojan War, Menelaus, Paris, Leda, Zeus, Clytemnestra, Dioscuri, Tyndareus, Hermione, Theseus