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Window Helen of Troy -­ Heroine or Goddess?
By Karen Pierce
Originally Published Imbolc 2000
INTRODUCTION
In this article I would like to take a look at the Greek mythological heroine Helen
of Troy, and try to discern whether there is any evidence to show that she was
once a Goddess, but one whose status faded over time. I will start by giving a
synopsis of her myth to familiarise everyone with her story, and will then discuss
her birth and death in light of her potential divinity. Next I will look at her status
as a heroine in myth and in historical times before moving on to the suggestion
that she is perhaps a vegetation or solar deity.
THE MYTHOLOGICAL HELEN
Helen was the daughter of Leda and Tyndareus (though her true father was
Zeus). She was reputed to be extremely beautiful, and when she reached the age
to marry, many men, chiefs and kings came to court her. Realising the difficult
situation the family were in, Tyndareus (via the inspiration of Odysseus) made all
the suitors swear an oath -­ that they would come to the aid of whoever won
Helen, should need arise. Menelaus was chosen (his brother, Agamemnon, being
already married to Helen's sister, Clytemnestra), he and Helen married, and in
time they had a daughter, Hermione.
Meanwhile, across the sea in what is now Turkey, a young shepherd/prince called
Paris was chosen by the gods to be an arbitrator in a contest between three
goddesses, as to who was the most beautiful. Each goddess offered him a bribe,
Athena offered success in battle, Hera offered rule over Asia, and Aphrodite
promised him the most beautiful woman in the world as his wife (i.e. Helen). Paris
chose Aphrodite, and thus set in motion the start of the Trojan War.
Paris came to Sparta, the home of Helen and Menelaus, and visited as a royal
guest. When Menelaus had to depart to Crete, he left Helen to look after their
guest, at which point Paris seduced, or raped her (depending on which variant you
read). Paris took Helen and many rich goods back with him to Troy. When
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Menelaus discovered the betrayal he called in the suitors' oath, and a great Greek
army was amassed and sailed to Troy to reclaim Helen. The war lasted ten years,
many heroes were killed, and the gods joined in on both sides. Finally the Greeks
won, with a little trickery (i.e. the wooden horse) and Helen and Menelaus were
reunited. They sailed back to Greece and lived out the rest of their lives together.
There are many variants on the basic story (and many other stories
interconnected), and the issue of whether Helen chose to go with Paris or was
raped has generated much discussion. Within ancient sources she is usually
castigated for being a loose woman, blamed for all the deaths in the Trojan War,
and almost universally hated. Her actions do not demonstrate her to be a
particularly bad woman, sometimes a little selfish or misguided, but not the evil
whore many other characters accuse her of being.
The story of a woman whose abduction caused a ten year war would not at first
glance seem particularly illuminating for the story of a goddess or a heroine, but a
closer look will reveal just how special Helen was.
BIRTH
As mentioned above, although Helen's mortal parents were Leda and Tyndareus,
her real father was known to be Zeus, who had also fathered one of her brothers,
Polydeuces (though both he and his twin, Castor, are known collectively as the
Dioscuri, ie sons of Zeus). There is also some doubt over Helen's mother, with
several sources crediting the goddess Nemesis with this position. Commonly
referred to as the Goddess of Retribution, her actions are not always conceived of
in the negative sense. In Hesiod's Works and Days (197-­201), when Nemesis
leaves earth to join the other Gods mankind is believed to be worse off without
her presence, and she can perhaps be seen to personify 'rightful vengeance'
instead of pure retribution. Hesiod credits Nemesis' birth parthenogenically to
Night, but this is not reflected in later sources who claim that Zeus was her father.
Zeus also raped Nemesis, and thus Helen was born. In Greek mythology it is not
unusual that Zeus should rape his own daughter, he does after all live in marriage
with his own sister. This rape, however, caused shame and indignation for
Nemesis, and she attempted to flee Zeus' advances by shape-­changing into many
different creatures, as he pursued her (see Cypria -­ Athenaeus 8.334B). Zeus
finally caught up with her when she was in the form of a goose, and he a swan.
After the rape, Nemesis subsequently gave birth to an egg from which Helen
eventually hatched. The egg was found and brought to Leda who brought up
Helen as her own daughter.
However, the more renowned version of Helen's conception is that it was Leda
who was raped by Zeus in the form of a swan. The earliest extant reference to
this story comes in Euripides' play Helen (16-­23), but this appears to be the story
that caught the imagination. The Nemesis version, although referred to
throughout antiquity, remains largely un-­remembered today.
Iconographically we find a similar pattern, as although the version of Nemesis as
Helen's mother was known there are very few representations of Nemesis in
general. There is only one securely identified depiction of her on a Greek vase
painting, and this picture does include Helen. It shows Helen being persuaded by
Paris (with much help from Aphrodite and Peitho -­ the Goddess of Persuasion).
Nemesis looks on and points an accusing finger -­ possibly she is pointing to the
future consequences of Helen's decision. There is also a cult statue of Nemesis, at
a sanctuary at Rhamnous, which features Helen on the base.
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In sharp contrast there are very many depictions of Leda in Greek art. Generally
she is shown with either a swan, or an egg. It would seem, however, that the
majority of the depictions of Leda, especially with the swan, appear after the plays
of Euripides have been produced, which leads us to suggests the possibility of his
influence on the story. The pictures that depict Leda with an egg show her
discovering it, and often looking surprised or shocked (she sometimes even runs
away from the scene). Helen is sometimes shown emerging from the egg as a
miniature human, rather than as a baby.
To sum up the aspects of Helen's unusual birth:
Although Leda is the traditionally known mother of Helen it is highly probable that
the Nemesis version is of older origin.
Prior to Euripides' Helen there is no evidence of Leda having been raped by Zeus
in the form of a swan. In fact there does not appear to be any rape story at all
associated with Leda and the birth of Helen, until we reach Euripides. This is in
contrast to the myth attached to Leda's bearing of the Dioscuri (see Homeric
Hymn to the Dioscuri ). Iconographically Leda is seen finding the egg prior to
Euripides, and afterwards she is depicted with a swan.
With the Nemesis version of the myth established Helen is revealed to have two
divine parents, and thus should be regarded as divine herself.
If Leda does have any valid claim to be her mother, then Helen is the only mortal
daughter of Zeus, this is significant in its exceptionality.
DEATH AND IMMORTALITY
The exceptionality of Helen's conception and birth illustrate that she is at least
semi-­divine. Turning to the opposite end of her life, how is her death portrayed? I
have said that once the Trojan War was over, Helen returned home to Sparta and
spent the rest of her life with Menelaus, but then what? As is to be expected she
has no mortal ending, instead she is either elevated to her rightful divine status,
or she spends her days in the Elysian Fields. There is only one account of Helen's
actual death, and this itself is at odds with the majority of sources. Pausanias
(3.19.9-­13) tells of a story, local to Rhodes, where Helen is hanged. In this
version Helen lives on after Menelaus dies but is driven out of her homeland by his
two sons -­ Nicostratus and Megapenthes. Her flight brought her to Rhodes where
she believed she had a friend, Polyxo. This friend however turns traitor and wishes
to avenge the death of her own husband, who died as a result of the Trojan War,
on Helen. When Helen is out bathing Polyxo sends handmaidens, disguised as
furies, to hound her and hang her from a tree. Pausanias ends the account by
saying that it is for this reason that the Rhodians have a sanctuary of "Helen of
the Tree".. This story is obviously an aetiological explanation for the sanctuary.
The Rhodians worship a "Helen of the Tree" but it has been forgotten or
misunderstood why this sanctuary was first established. Since this then is the only
account of Helen's death, and it is an aetiological fabrication, we must look
instead to what is said about her afterlife.
In ancient Greek myth the Elysian Fields and the Isles of the Blessed were two
dwelling places for immortalised human beings. Similar in description it is difficult
to tell what difference, if any, lay between them. Homer places Helen (and
Menelaus) in the Elysian Fields, as does Apollodorus ( Epit . 6.30). Menelaus
recovers his Spartan kingdom, and is subsequently made immortal by Hera, so
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that he and Helen can then go to the Elysian Fields.
From these two versions it would appear fairly important that Menelaus and Helen
should be together. After all that has occurred, and Menelaus has reclaimed his
wife, he is rewarded. That Helen goes to the Elysian Fields seems to be perfectly
understandable -­ she is a daughter of Zeus, her place is not in the underworld,
she is immortal. She and Menelaus are supposed to be together -­ for this to be
possible he has to be immortalised too. In some ways this bears similarities to
Helen's brothers, the Dioscuri. Since only Polydeuces was the actual son of Zeus,
and therefore immortal, when Castor is killed his brother asks/begs for him to be
immortalised so that they should not be separated in death. Their lives are thus
spent split one day in 'heaven' the next in the underworld.
Isocrates' Helen actually credits Helen herself with raising Menelaus to divine
status. He says that she first deified her brothers, the Dioscuri, who had already
undergone some form of divine transformation, and she then turned to Menelaus,
to recompense him for all he had gone through because of her, she made him
immortal, and an equal partner of her house and throne (61-­63). Isocrates also
mentions that even in his time the Spartans made sacrifices to Helen and
Menelaus as gods, at their temple in Therapne.
Menelaus and Helen however do not always stay together after death. In
Euripides' Orestes , Menelaus remains firmly mortal after Helen is rescued by
Apollo during a murder attempt by Orestes. She is snatched away from the very
brink of death (1629-­1642) under the orders of Zeus her father. Apollo proclaims
her fate, along with the other characters' at the end of the play. Helen is to live on
immortal with Castor and Polydeuces her brothers, acting as a saviour to sailors.
Menelaus, instead of being invited to join her, is told to take another wife instead.
It is explained that Helen was basically an instrument of 'justice' to aid the
eradication of many mortals/reduce the population of earth. She was a tool, or
pawn of the gods, but now her work is done and the war is over she is to join her
father and be viewed, and honoured by men as a goddess, and especially
remembered by sailors.
Helen is however believed by some people (those of Crotona and Himera),
according to Pausanias (3.19.9-­13) to live on an island called 'The White Island'
which was sacred to Achilles, as his wife. This 'White Island' appears to be
somewhat akin to the Isles of the Blessed in concept. The idea of Helen being
married to Achilles in the 'afterlife', although in many ways opposite to what we
would expect, can be justified as a concept by some of the sources. Achilles was
always too young to have been one of Helen's original suitors, but it was said of
him that if he had been old enough there would have been no contest. They are of
different generations, but as she is the most beautiful and he is the most heroic,
they are both the best, and as such it is not difficult to see why some of the
ancients could have conceived of a liaison of some sort between Helen and
Achilles.
So far we can assuredly say that when Helen came to the end of her time on
earth, she did not 'die' and go to the underworld. As semi-­divine, or immortal in
whatever sense, she has a 'life' after death. Once she has achieved this
immortality, she does not remain hidden away in some rosy mythical blissful
place, but is apparently seen by mortals, and affects their actions.
Herodotus recounts a tale whereby Helen appeared at her own temple in Therapne
(SE of Sparta) and caused the ugly child of a wealthy family to become beautiful.
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Not a particularly important act to commit, on the surface, yet we should recall
that Helen was renowned for her own beauty, and the effects she had on men.
That she should give beauty to another is perhaps appropriate. According to
Pausanias (4.16.9) a more useful appearance of Helen, this time with her
brothers, the Dioscuri, prevented an attack on Sparta one night.
The majority of sources agree that Helen was some kind of divine being, and as
such was elevated after her death to an immortal status. Poetic sources tell of
various places she went to and whom she spent her time with (e.g. her husband
Menelaus, or her brothers the Dioscuri), and historical sources say that she made
various appearances in order to make something happen, or prevent an act. So
was Helen actually worshipped as a divine being, immortal, deity, or heroine? Or
were these accounts purely mythical tales?
HELEN AS HEROINE
MYTH
I will go on to discuss the worship of Helen as a heroine in historical times, but
first I would like to try and attempt to define what a 'heroine' was to the ancient
Greeks. While we might find it relatively simple to offer a definition of what a male
hero constituted, and provide plenty of corresponding examples;; it is not so
simple to define/suggest the female counterpart. If a typical example of a hero is
Achilles who lives a short, glorious, battle-­filled life, whom is his female
counterpart (aside from Amazons -­ who were not Greek, but foreign and 'other'),
and if Theseus and Heracles achieved fame for their great deeds, which female
also accomplished magnificent tasks? We cannot match male to female, hero to
heroine, in an exact manner. Each sex achieves its heroic glory in diverging ways,
female heroism has to be measured differently to male heroic action. Two recent
works, Lyons (1997) and Kearns (1998) do explore the nature of Greek heroines
in ways that bring a greater clarification to the subject matter. Working with their
ideas we are able to get a clearer picture of Helen.
Kearns identifies up to six categories which illuminate the nature of heroines,
although she herself does not number them such we can list them thus:
1) Those who die young, or virginal -­ and are usually associated with girls'
transition, or initiation rites.
2) Those who experience sexual intercourse with a male deity -­ thus acting in a
genealogical function, as they become the mothers of heroes.
3) Priestesses who are institutors of cults.
4) Eponymous heroines who are involved in the founding of places, and give their
names to such.
5) Old women, who have much experience of married life.
6) Those afflicted with madness.
Heroines can cross over some of the categories, as I feel Helen does, but since
she does not fit into all the definitions, I will only focus on the ones she does, and
see to what extent she conforms fully to those frameworks.
1) -­ Girls' Transition Rites -­ Often heroines, as young maidens, are worshipped as
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part of initiation or transition rites, often in conjunction with Artemis -­ the virgin
goddess who offers protection to maidens and women in childbirth. The
mythological story surrounding these heroines will usually involve them dying a
premature death, and normally when they are still virgins or unmarried. It is clear
that Helen is not a maiden who dies young, or virginal, in fact quite the opposite
could be said to be true. However this has not prevented her from being seen to
be involved in some form of girls' transition, or initiatory experience. Theocritus'
Idyll 18 is a wedding song for Helen, supposedly sung by young girls, who within
it weave flowers into garlands to hang on a Plane tree, pour libations of oil by the
tree and celebrate rites in honour of Helen. Theocritus has the young girls
supposedly singing the song outside the doors of Menelaus' house. In a way these
maidens are mourning the loss of their companion who will no longer play with
them, but has become a wife.
In one version of her story, Helen is abducted by Theseus when she is dancing at
the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia, thus another link to girls' transition rites.
Elsewhere we also have mention of a festival called the Helenephoria, which is
perhaps a reference to the same, or a similar, celebration that Theocritus has
composed about.
2) Mother of Hero -­ genealogical function. Heroines who do not die young and
virginal usually progress to the next stage of a woman's life -­ that of motherhood.
Often being courted or raped by a male deity, they become mothers of heroes. As
Kearns (102) reminds us, this is the earliest attested to definition of being a
heroine, as seen in the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women .. Helen progresses from maidenhood to marriage and motherhood, but is never courted or raped by a god.
Her partners are all human, and as such she never produces a hero as a son.
Despite being credited with up to fourteen children in different sources, she is
never renowned for being a mother.
3) Priestess and institutor of a cult -­ Often a heroine will be a priestess at a
particular shrine or sanctuary, possibly one she herself has instituted. Upon her
death, she is worshipped at the shrine, sometimes in conjunction with the deity
previously worshipped. Helen is known to have been worshipped at several
shrines most specifically at Therapne. She is also, however, credited with setting
up a shrine to Eileithyia according to Pausanias (2.22.6), after she had given birth
to Iphigeniea. We might align this event with category 1, where Helen is also
associated with transition rites, and with Artemis. Since Artemis is concerned with
childbirth, here we have Helen specifically setting up a shrine after she has given
birth.
4) Eponymous heroines -­ although Helen does not give her name to any city or
polis which she has founded, there is some evidence of various springs being
named after her, and Menelaus.
As far as the categories Kearns identified are concerned, Helen can be seen to
play some part in at least three of them. Helen is also unusual in that she is the
only mortal daughter of Zeus. She is a heroine because she is a famous and
notable mythological female, however, she is not worshipped, or regarded, as a
heroine by her contemporaries, it is only after her death (within her mythological
lifetime), and outside of the mythology that she is honoured. When she achieves
cult status it is partly as a partner to Menelaus (e.g. at their shrine in Therapne).
Helen is therefore a heroine who achieved divine status within poetic and literary
sources.
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HISTORICAL EVIDENCE
Due to the comments and observations made by several writers (Herodotus,
Isocrates and Pausanias) we know that some form of cult worship to Helen still
existed in the historical period. Various locations for shrines connected to Helen
are mentioned the main, or primary, shrine we are aware of is the one at
Therapne, just east of Sparta, though there is another sanctuary near the tomb of
Alcman, and a Plane tree Grove.
During the last century various excavations at a site in Lakonia have indeed
revealed a shrine that is most probably the one referred to in the literary sources.
The site of the Menelaion is on a high escarpment, to the east of Sparta, looking
down on the town and the Eurotas valley. A number of archaeologists have dug at
this site, most notably Hector Catling with the British School at Athens, who has
been digging at the site and the surrounding area since the early 1970's. Though
it was Ludwig Ross in the 1830's who was the first to identify the remains of this
site as the historically referred to shrine of Helen and Menelaus at Therapne. It
was also he who coined the modern usage of the term the 'Menelaion' for the
shrine in 1833. Although as I will come to argue, the shrine was in honour of both
Helen and Menelaus, the name, 'Menelaion' is one that was also used in ancient
times -­ primarily by later sources such as Polybius (5.18).
Although it would be interesting and important to find evidence for the worship of
Helen at a shrine in Therapne dating back to the Mycenaean Age it appears that
there is no archaeological evidence showing so. There are signs of occupation and
use of the site and surrounding area during the Mycenaean period, but no
recoverable shrine or area of worship. If Helen was revered as a deity or heroine
in this period in this locality there is no archaeological evidence to demonstrate it,
so why was the later shrine placed there?
In the era when the idea of hero-­cults first began to gain in popularity, would not
the inhabitants, or leaders, of 8th century BC Lakonia look to where they could
see evidence of previous occupation -­ evidence of where their heroes, Helen and
Menelaus, might have lived and died. Mycenaean ruins on top of the, now
labelled, Menelaion Hill would feasibly have been visible in the 8th century BCE. If
a people were looking into the past, consciously looking back to a heroic age since
gone, would they not have looked around their own landscape for traces of this
heroic past, and having seen the ruins on top of the hill, have surmised that this is
where their heroes lived, or that this was 'politically' an ideal location to visualise
their community 'ancestors', and begin to venerate them. This idea may have
been taken further with the premise that their heroes might be entombed there
too. The shrine is built upon a natural outcrop, which was subsequently enclosed
by a platform (to presumably even up the ground). This outcrop might have
appeared to be a natural tomb for Helen and Menelaus, or at least suggest the
possibility of a burial place for heroes.
During the 8th century a greater focus was being put on temples and sanctuaries,
which is partly attributed to the emergence of the polis. Although Sparta was not
the average 'Greek polis' the founding of the shrine at Therapne in the 8th century
plausibly fits with this hypothesis.
Although we cannot prove that religious activity occurred on the site of the shrine
before the 8th century, after that date we do have the existence of the shrines,
and epigraphical evidence that Helen and Menelaus were worshipped there. In
1975 a trench cut into the north east terrace fill of the shrine revealed two bronze
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objects both inscribed. The first was a pointed aryballos that dates to the second
quarter of the 7th century BC. Its inscription reads: " Deinis dedicated these to
[Helen wife of] Menelaus ". This is scratched around the mouth of the vase. The
second object was an 'harpax' an unusual object described by Catling (1975, 267)
as "a small socketed instrument ending in a ring from which once radiated twelve
curved prongs." This object may once have been used in ritual sacrifice, possibly
as some form of meat hook. Along the handle of this object is scratched the
dedication "For Helen", it probably dates to the 6th century BCE. Over the next
decade a couple more inscribed objects were discovered with mention of either
Helen or Menelaus.
What this iconographical evidence can tell us, or suggest to us, is that the name
'Menelaion' which Ludwig Ross gave to the shrine in the 1830's, and which Catling
found so appropriate in 1977, should perhaps be considered a misnomer. This is
Helen's shrine, or at least a shared shrine with Menelaus, but it is not exclusively
his. Although the sample of inscriptions is small, there are objects dedicated to
Helen alone, just as there are to Menelaus.
It seems fairly apparent then, taking into account both the literary evidence and
the archaeological evidence that the shrine at Therapne was used to worship both
Helen and Menelaus -­ either as a couple or as individuals. Though I would be
inclined to favour the idea that the shrine was either originally, or primarily,
Helen's (and after all it is only she who has appeared within its vicinity, and not
Menelaus) there is no evidence to back up this theory. So we can only state that it
was a shared shrine. Although there was some belief that Helen and Menelaus
were buried there so far no burials have been discovered.
HELEN AS A GODDESS
The question now arises whether Helen was in actuality a Goddess in her own
right, albeit one whose divinity had faded, so that she tended to be remembered
as a semi-­divine heroine rather than a fully fledged Goddess?
The idea that Helen is a 'faded' goddess is of course not new. Farnell, amongst
others, discussed the idea in the early decades of the 20th century, though he
later changed his mind and dismissed the theory as sterile and unnatural (1921,
324). More recently Clader (1976), Skutsch (1987) and West (1975) amongst
others have explored the possibility, to a far greater extent and the idea has
gained in credence.
It is extremely difficult to be able to separate the strands we have. As stated, in
the poetic sources we are presented with Helen as a heroine who achieved divine
status (as her birth-­right/paternity dictated) but whether this story of Helen,
Menelaus and Paris, and the Trojan War masks a story about a goddess, or what
about some kind of semi-­historical event we cannot say. The 'hero' cult of Helen
grew up in the 8 th -­ 6 th century BCE along with others at the time, and much of
the archaeological remains we have, and literary sources, refer only to this 'hero
cult' period, but this does not rule out the possibility of a cult or form of worship of
Helen as a goddess prior to this time.
VEGETATION GODDESS?
I mentioned above the one account of Helen's death, on Rhodes, which we have
discredited as an aetiological explanation. That passage, however, is important in
that it noted that Helen was worshipped on the island as 'Helen of the Tree'.. We
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may surmise that at this island sanctuary images of Helen as a goddess were
hung on trees. Lindsay (1974, 225) makes the suggestion that: "The idea of the
Hanged Goddess substantially derived from the custom of hanging images or
masks in trees, and ritual fillets helped to create the idea of the rope -­ though
beyond the custom lay the belief in the tree as a form or image of the Earth
Mother." Helen is not the only maiden to hang from a tree, and there are notable
parallels with the myths of Ariadne and Phaedra (amongst others). Helen is linked
elsewhere to Plane trees, and a festival at Sparta called the Helenia, believed to
be celebrated in spring or early summer, had young girls hanging garlands on her
holy tree. Theocritus Idyll 18 describes these activities and locates them at the
time of Helen and Menelaus' wedding. This suggests that Helen was some sort of
vegetation deity, in addition, we have an abduction motif attached to Helen which
can be paralleled with Perspehone and Ariadne.
Paris was not the first man to abduct Helen, she was previously taken by the hero
Theseus when she was a young girl. Her brothers, the Dioscuri, managed to
rescue her and bring her home -­ some sources claim she remained virginal, whilst
others claim that she became pregnant by Theseus. The child that she bore was
called Iphigeneia, and she subsequently gave her to her sister Clytemnestra to
bring up (Iphigeneia was the maiden who was sacrifiiced by Agamemnon so that
the Greek fleet could have a fair wind to sail to Troy -­ if Iphigeneia was Helen's
daughter, then we have the daughter being sacrificed for the mother).
Theseus was aided in his abduction attempt by his friend Perithous, they next
went down to the underworld to attempt to snatch Persephone. Both heroes
wanted to marry a daughter of Zeus, but this adventure proved to be their
undoing. Persephone is of course the archetypal vegetation goddess, who spends
the winter in the underworld and who returns at spring to bestow her blessings on
the land. Theseus also 'abducted' Ariadne from Crete -­ although a mortal princess
in mythology, she is also known to be an old Minoan Nature Goddess.
Theseus then is involved in the abduction (or attempted abduction) of three
Vegetation Goddesses. Should we assume these are separate myths, or are they
all variations on a theme? Helen is of course later abducted by Paris, and
subsequently has her name linked with a variety of men -­ again perhaps just a
variation, or repetition, of a theme.
SOLAR DEITY?
In my earlier synopsis of Helen's story there was one element which I neglected to
mention, and that was the recurring references to Egypt. There are some versions
of Helen's myth that claim that Helen did not go to Troy at all, but went to Egypt
instead (a place that is neither near Sparta, or Troy, nor in any way en route
between them). Herodotus claims that Paris landed in Egypt on his way home,
and when the authorities learned of his misadventures they confiscated the stolen
goods, including Helen, and sent Paris back to Troy. The Greeks refused to believe
that Helen was not in Troy, and thus sacked the city before checking the story
out.
Other versions, such as Euripides' play, Helen, claim that a phantom Helen was
taken to Troy, and the real Helen was transported to Egypt for safe keeping until
the war was over. Whichever version should be believed there is no escaping the
fact that Helen, at some stage, was in Egypt. Even Homer explains that Helen and
Menelaus visited Egypt on their way home from Troy, having been blown off
course. So why is Egypt so important? It may have something to do with Helen's
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Vegetation Goddess aspect, in that when she leaves for winter (or is abducted)
she has to go somewhere, and Egypt is a convenient place to locate her. On the
other hand it might be as West suggests, that because Egypt was the only land in
the south known to the early Greeks;; that Helen went away to the south like the
sun when the winter came, and that her return was celebrated at the Heleneia in
the spring.
We should now look a little more closely at Helen's brothers to see what part they
play in this story. Previous studies, including those by West and Skutsch,
demonstrate that the Dioscuri, the divine twins, have counterparts in many
different mythologies. They can be seen as Hengist and Horsa in Germanic myths,
as the Asvins in the Indian Rigveda, and they appear in folksongs of various
countries in the Baltic area. They are two figures who are closely associated with
horses and have a connection to the daughter of the sun -­ usually trying to win
her hand in marriage, or abduct her from her husband.
The Dioscuri are not suitors of Helen, for they are her brothers, but they do try to
protect her from other men. When Theseus abducts her they rescue her. That
they fail to rescue Helen when she is stolen by Paris is explained by the story that
they had already died (and become immortalised) before they could join the battle
at Troy. However, mythologically we can see that their role has been
replaced/usurped by the brothers Menelaus and Agamemnon. Both brothers are
involved in the courtship of Helen, as Agamemnon comes to woo her on his
brother's behalf. When Paris steals her the brothers take an army to reclaim her.
Whilst, just as the Dioscuri are only half divine (one mortal, one not -­ but they
share their divinity in the afterlife), Menelaus is immortalised (for being Helen's
husband) but Agamemnon is murdered and rests in the underworld.
Meanwhile, since the Dioscuri cannot pay suit to the sun maiden as she is their
sister, they instead turn their attention to a set of twin maidens, the Leucippides
(White Horse maidens). These girls had been promised in marriage to another set
of twin brothers, Idas and Lynceus. The Dioscuri abduct the Leucippides, and end
up fighting Idas and Lynceus, this results in death for all but Polydeuces. The
maidens' names are Phoebe and Hilaera, which are both suitable names for sun
maidens. Phoebe means 'shining' and is the name of a daughter of the sun
elsewhere;; Leda apparently also has a daughter of that name -­ though there may
be some confusion with the Leucippides. Hilaera is a epithet that is normally
applied to fire, or to the moon. Their father Leucippus, or White Horse, can be
associated with dawn, daylight, and the sun, as the white horses pull the chariot
of the sun across the sky.
So we see that the motifs are still apparent, even though mythology has
anthropomorphised the characters into mortals.
Etymological evidence has connected Helen's name to *svarana -­ 'the shining one'
and as such she can also be connected to torches, fire, and natural occurrences of
fire-­balls, which we might label St. Elmo's Fire. Skutsch discusses the corposant
suggesting that it was originally called 'Helen's Fire' and that while her brothers,
the Dioskouroi, tended to be regarded as saviours -­ especially to those at sea
(when they appeared as a double light), Helen tended to be feared (as the
appearance of a single light).
The etymology of Helen's name, and her roots in Indo-­European mythology are
beyond the scope of this article. The nature of Helen is not a simple idea for
discussion as much has gone into her make-­up. What I do believe is that we
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would be foolish to regard Helen as merely a mortal heroine in a tale of abduction.
There are far greater and wider implications, and what the studies by Skutsch,
Clader, and others, have demonstrated is distinct possibilities that 'Helen of Troy'
may have descended mythologically from a sun-­maiden and/or vegetation
goddess. A figure who goes south in the winter and is rescued/brought back in the
spring by twin riders.
I think we can realistically regard Helen as a divine figure, and although the
nature of her divinity may have altered over the centuries, she was worshipped
and believed in as a divine power. We may have only explicit archaeological and
literary evidence of Helen being revered alongside Menelaus in a Spartan hero-­
cult, at a shrine in Therapne, but we should not close our minds to her wider
divine, mythological past-­history.
Bibliography
Catling, H. (1975) 'Excavations of the British School at Athens at the
Menelaion, Sparta, 1973-­75.' Lakonikai Spoudai 2: 258-­69.
Clader, L.L. (1976) Helen: The Evolution from Divine to Heroic in Greek Epic
Tradition. Leiden: Brill.
Farnell, L.R. (1921) Greek Hero Cults and Ideas of Immortality. Oxford:
Clarendon Press.
Lindsay, J. (1974) Helen of Troy: Woman and Goddess . London.
Skutsch, O. (1987) 'Helen, Her Name and Nature.' Journal of Hellenic Studies
107: 188-­93.
West, M.L. (1975) Immortal Helen. Castle Cary: Castle Cary Press.
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