Biography of Helen of Troy, Cause of the Trojan War

Helen of Troy is a character in Homers classic epic poem, the Iliad, written in the 8th century about the Trojan War, imagined by the Greeks to have occurred about 500 years earlier. Her story is one of the most dramatic love stories of all time and is said to be one of the main reasons for a 10-year war between the Greeks and Trojans, known as the Trojan War. Hers was the face that launched a thousand ships because of the vast number of warships the Greeks sailed to Troy to retrieve Helen. Fast Facts: Helen of Troy Known For: She was the most beautiful woman in the ancient Greek world, the daughter of the king of the Greek gods, and the cause of the 10-year Trojan War between Troy and Sparta.Birth: In Sparta, date unknownParents: The king of the gods, Zeus, and the wife of the Spartan king Tyndareus, Leda; or perhaps Tyndareus himself and the goddess of retribution, Nemesis, who gave Helen to Leda to raiseDied: UnknownSiblings: Clytemnestra, Castor, and PolluxSpouse(s): Theseus, Menelaus, Paris, Deiphobus, Achilles (in the afterlife), perhaps five others In the Iliad, Helens name is a battle cry, but her story is not told in detail: the Iliad is chiefly a mans story of the conflicting passions and struggles of men on opposing sides of a great battle.  The Trojan War was central to the early history of ancient Greece. Details of Helens story are provided in a group of poems known as the epic cycle or the Trojan War Cycle, written in the centuries after Homer. The poems known as the Trojan War Cycle were the culmination of many myths about the ancient Greek warriors and heroes who fought and died ​at Troy. While none of them have survived to this day, they were summarized in the second century CE by the Latin grammarian Proclus and in the ninth century CE by the Byzantine historian Photius. Early Life The Trojan War Cycle is based on a story from the legendary period of ancient Greece, a time when it was common to trace lineage to the gods. Helen is said to have been a daughter of the king of the gods, Zeus. Her mother was generally considered to have been Leda, the mortal wife of the king of Sparta, Tyndareus, but in some versions, the goddess of divine retribution  Nemesis, in bird form, is named as Helens mother, and the Helen-egg was then given to Leda to raise. Clytemnestra was the sister of Helen, but her father wasnt Zeus, but rather Tyndareus. Helen had two (twin) brothers, Castor and Pollux (Polydeuces). Pollux shared a father with Helen and Castor with Clytemnestra. There were various stories about this helpful pair of brothers, including one about how they saved the Romans at the Battle of Regillus.​ Helens Husbands   The legendary beauty of  Helen  attracted men from afar and also those close to home who saw her as a means to the  Spartan  throne. The first likely mate of Helen was Theseus, the hero of Athens who kidnapped Helen when she was still young. Later Menelaus, brother of the Mycenaean King Agamemnon, married Helen.  Agamemnon  and  Menelaus  were sons of King Atreus of Mycenae and were therefore referred to as  Atrides. Agamemnon married the sister of Helen, Clytemnestra, and became king of Mycenae after expelling his uncle. In this way, Menelaus and Agamemnon were not only brothers but brothers-in-law, just as Helen and Clytemnestra were sisters-in-law. Of course, the most famous mate of Helen was Paris of Troy, but he wasnt the last one. After  Paris  was killed, his brother  Deiphobus  married Helen.  Laurie Macguire, writing in  Helen of Troy From Homer to Hollywood, lists the following 11 men as husbands of Helen in ancient literature, proceeding from the canonical list in chronological order, to the 5 exceptional ones: TheseusMenelausParisDeiphobusHelenus (ousted by Deiphobus)Achilles (Afterlife)Enarsphorus (Plutarch)Idas (Plutarch)Lynceus (Plutarch)Corythus (Parthenius)Theoclymenus (attempt, thwarted, in Euripides) Paris and Helen Paris (also known as Alexander or Alexandros) was the son of King  Priam  of Troy and his queen,  Hecuba, but he was rejected at birth and raised as a shepherd on Mount Ida. While Paris was living the life of a shepherd, the  three goddesses,  Hera,  Aphrodite, and  Athena, appeared and asked him to award the fairest of them the golden apple that  Discord  had promised one of them. Each goddess offered Paris a bribe, but the bribe offered by Aphrodite appealed to Paris most, so Paris awarded the apple to Aphrodite. It was a beauty contest, so it was appropriate that  the goddess of love and  beauty, Aphrodite, had offered Paris the most beautiful woman on earth for his bride. That woman was Helen. Unfortunately, Helen was taken. She was the bride of the Spartan king Menelaus. Whether or not there was love between Menelaus and Helen is unclear. In the end, they may have been reconciled, but meanwhile, when Paris came to the court of Menelaus as a guest, he may have aroused unaccustomed desire in Helen, since in the Iliad, Helen takes some responsibility for her abduction. Menelaus received and extended hospitality to Paris. Then, when Menelaus discovered that Paris had taken off for Troy with Helen and other prized possessions Helen may have considered part of her dowry, he was enraged at this violation of the laws of hospitality. Paris offered to return the stolen possessions, even though he was unwilling to return Helen, but Menelaus wanted Helen, too. Agamemnon Marshals the Troops Before Menelaus won out in the bid for Helen, all the leading princes and unmarried kings of Greece had sought to marry Helen. Before Menelaus married Helen, Helens earthly father Tyndareus extracted an oath from these, the Achaean leaders, that should anyone try to kidnap Helen again, they would all bring their troops to win back Helen for her rightful husband. When Paris took Helen to Troy, Agamemnon gathered together these Achaean leaders and made them honor their promise. That was the beginning of the Trojan War. Updated by K. Kris Hirst Sources Austin, Norman. Helen of Troy and Her Shameless Phantom. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008.Macguire, Laurie. Helen of Troy from Homer to Hollywood. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.Scherer, Margaret R. Helen of Troy. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 25.10 (1967): 367-83.