When Helen was only twelve years old, the Greek hero Theseus (pronounced THEE-see-uhs) kidnapped her and planned to make her his wife. He took her to Attica (pronounced AT-i-kuh) in Greece and locked her away under the care of his mother.
Also, there is the first kidnapping Helen endures by Theseus when she was just a young girl, probably pre-teen around 12 or 13. She's the hostage of the king of Athens, or rather his mother's hostage, until she's eventually rescued by her brothers, Pollux and Caster, and taken safely back to Troy.
Her many sexual partners – the hero Theseus, her husband Menelaus, her lover Paris, her second Trojan husband Deiphobus, and (some whispered) Achilles after both he and Helen were dead – are trotted out by ancient and modern authors alike as the gossip columns would the client-list of a high-class prostitute.
The Iliad recounts 51 days of a 10-year war. The war started because Paris, a Trojan, kidnapped Helen, Agamemnon's wife. Paris kidnapped Helen, because Aphrodite promised him the most beautiful mortal woman.
In Homer's adaptation of the legend, The Iliad, it is alluded to that Helen willingly left her husband Menelaus to be with Paris, the king of Troy. Although there are several accounts where Helen is said to have been abducted, or stolen away, the movie sticks with the rendition of her leaving on her own accord.
Helen's suitors—including Odysseus—came from all parts of Greece, and from among them she chose Menelaus, Agamemnon's younger brother. During an absence of Menelaus, however, Helen fled to Troy with Paris, son of the Trojan king Priam, an act that ultimately led to the Trojan War.
Ultimately, Paris was killed in action, and in Homer's account Helen was reunited with Menelaus, though other versions of the legend recount her ascending to Olympus instead. A cult associated with her developed in Hellenistic Laconia, both at Sparta and elsewhere; at Therapne she shared a shrine with Menelaus.
Paris appeared. As was customary by the laws of hospitality in ancient Greece, they gave him lodging and entertained him with banquets and gifts. Paris and Helen fell madly in love from the moment they met. Helen escaped with Paris and together they went to Troy.
Helen was already married to King Menelaus of Sparta (a fact Aphrodite neglected to mention), so Paris had to raid Menelaus's house to steal Helen from him—according to some accounts, she fell in love with Paris and left willingly.
What did Helen look like? Today's movies and paintings make her a blonde, but ancient Greek paintings show her as a brunette. Homer merely tells us she was “white-armed, long robed, and richly tressed,” leaving the rest up to our imagination. Ancient artist's rendering of Helen, with Eros urging her on.
According to Greek mythology, Helen of Troy, the legendary 'face that launched a thousand ships” was considered one of the most beautiful women in the world. In Homer 's Iliad, which covers only a short period of the siege of Troy, Helen represented an understated but essential part of the story.
The goddess of sex, love, and passion is Aphrodite, and she is considered the most beautiful Greek goddess in Mythology. There are two versions of how Aphrodite was born.
Helen was cursed for her beauty, 'beauty like that of a goddess' as Homer puts it – (meaning a ferocious vitality that changed men's lives). Helen's physical perfection spawned suffering and rage and ugly death.
Helen of Troy (sometimes called Helen of Sparta) is a figure from Greek mythology whose elopement with (or abduction by) the Trojan prince Paris sparked off the Trojan War. Helen was the wife of Menelaus, the king of Sparta, and considered the most beautiful woman in the world.
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: Theseus. Menelaus.
Most historians now agree that ancient Troy was to be found at Hisarlik. Troy was real. Evidence of fire, and the discovery of a small number of arrowheads in the archaeological layer of Hisarlik that corresponds in date to the period of Homer's Trojan War, may even hint at warfare.
Helen had a number of children by Paris, but none survived infancy. Paris died in the Trojan War, and Helen married his brother Deiphobus (pronounced dee-IF-oh-buhs). After the Greeks won the war, she was reunited with Menelaus, and she helped him kill Deiphobus. Then Helen and Menelaus set sail for Sparta.
While Menelaus was destined to spend the afterlife in Elysium (or, in other sources, the Isles of the Blessed), many claimed that Helen was transformed into a goddess after her death. In some traditions, she became the wife of Achilles in the afterlife.
Menelaus tears through Troy in a rage, determined to kill Helen for all the trouble she caused. Upon seeing her, however, he is overwhelmed by her beauty — he drops his sword and all is (temporarily) forgiven.
The Children of Helen
It is also said occasionally that Helen became pregnant by Paris during her time in Troy and became mother of Bunomu, Corythus, Aganus, Idaeus, and of a daughter Helena; all though were said to have been dead by the time Troy fell.
Achilles, distraught and wanting to avenge the death of his friend Patroclus, returns to the war and kills Hector. He drags Hector's body behind his chariot to the camp and then around the tomb of Patroclus. Aphrodite and Apollo, however, preserve the body from corruption and mutilation.
That's an ancient Greek region for which Sparta is the dominant city. The epithet “of Troy” is a modern description. It obscures Helen's marriage with King Menelaus of Sparta, Helen's adultery with Prince Paris of Troy, and the brutal violence against men of the Trojan War.
Troy (Greek: Τροία, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 Truwiša/Taruiša) or Ilion (Greek: Ίλιον, Hittite: 𒌷𒃾𒇻𒊭 Wiluša) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey.
After the fall of Troy, Menelaus recovered Helen and brought her home. Menelaus was a prominent figure in the Iliad and the Odyssey, where he was promised a place in Elysium after his death because he was married to a daughter of Zeus.
Near the end of the war, Paris shot the arrow that, by Apollo's help, caused the death of the hero Achilles. Paris himself, soon after, received a fatal wound from an arrow shot by the rival archer Philoctetes.