Helen

Also known as: Argive Helen / lovely Helen · Family: Trojan/Achaean · Role: queen of Sparta and Troy · First appears: BOOK III

🌐 Also appears in: Greek Mythology — A Family Orrery (as Helen) · The Odyssey (as Helen) · Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans (as Helen) · Greek Tragedy — The Same Myth, Three Voices (as Helen) · The Divine Comedy (as Helen)

In Book III, Helen is identified as daughter of Jove and wife of Paris, also called Alexandrus. At Lacedaemon, she unknowingly learns that her brothers Castor and Pollux are already dead. After the duel, she and Paris reunite and lie together; Venus frightens her into following the goddess to him. Agamemnon proclaims Menelaus the victor and demands Helen’s return with compensation, while Helen calls Menelaus her former husband and describes Agamemnon as her brother-in-law. She also speaks of Priam as “father of my husband, dear and reverend in my eyes,” and tells him she wishes she had chosen death rather than come to Troy with his son.

In Book VII, Paris refuses to surrender Helen, offering instead to restore the wealth he brought from Argos and add more. Helen is attended by Aethrae and Clymene, and Iris comes to her in the form of Laodice. In Book VI, Helen addresses Hector as her brother; in Book XXIV, she calls him her dearest brother-in-law.

Relationship record

Life events

• Helen unknowingly learns that her brothers Castor and Pollux are already dead.(BOOK III · 📍 Lacedaemon)
  • With: Castor Pollux
  • “She knew not that both these heroes were already lying under the earth in their own land of Lacedaemon.”
• Venus frightens Helen into following her to Alexandrus.(BOOK III)
  • With: Venus
  • “At this Helen was frightened. She wrapped her mantle about her and went in silence, following the goddess and unnoticed by the Trojan women.”
• Alexandrus and Helen reunite and lie together after the duel.(BOOK III)
  • With: Paris
  • “Thus they laid themselves on the bed together; but the son of Atreus strode among the throng, looking everywhere for Alexandrus, and no man, neither of the Trojans nor of the allies, could find him.”
• Agamemnon proclaims Menelaus victorious and demands Helen’s return with compensation.(BOOK III)
  • With: Agamemnon Menelaus
  • “Thus spoke the son of Atreus, and the Achaeans shouted in applause.”
• Alexandrus refuses to surrender Helen but offers to restore her wealth and add more.(BOOK VII)
  • With: Antenor Paris
  • “I will speak plainly, and hereby notify to the Trojans that I will not give up the woman; but the wealth that I brought home with her from Argos I will restore, and will add yet further of my own.”