Disambiguating Helen

Published by Reblogs - Credits in Posts, April 18th, 2023

Helen: Did you mean...?

Related Terms:

Greek Mythology • Helen of Troy • Trojan War • Iliad • Menelaus

Helen (Play)

Helen is a Greek tragedy by Euripides (c. 484-407 BCE). It is usually thought to have first been performed at the Great Dionysia of 412 BCE and was part of the trilogy that included Euripides' lost Andromeda. Helen recounts an unusual version...

Helen of Troy

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...

Menelaus

Menelaus (also Menelaos) is a figure from ancient Greek mythology and literature who was the king of Sparta and the husband of beautiful Helen, whose abduction by the Trojan prince Paris sparked off the legendary Trojan War. The story is...

Helen of Troy, the Catalyst for the Trojan War

The story of Helen of Troy, and the Trojan war specifically, is best known from the Iliad, by Homer, after the abduction by Paris of Troy, which was ultimately the catalyst for the ten-year Trojan War. The most common version of the birth...

Oenone

Oenone was a nymph in Greek Mythology, the daughter of the river god Cebren and sister of the nymph Asterope/Hesperia. She was given the gift of prophecy by Rhea (mother of the gods) and the gift of healing by Apollo. Her name comes from...

Menelaus Pursuing Helen

Red-figured hydria attributed to the Syriskos Painter. Made in Attica, Greece, c. 480 BCE, found in Vulci.

Leda

Leda is a figure from Greek mythology who was famously seduced by Zeus when he took the form of a swan. She was a queen of Sparta and mother of beautiful Helen who sparked the Trojan War, and the Dioscuri twins. Leda and the swan was a popular...

Birth of Helen of Troy

A sculpture showing the birth of Helen of Troy. Helen's mother was Leda who was seduced by Zeus when he was disguised as a swan. Limestone, made in the 5th century BCE. (Archaeological Museum of Metapontum, Italy)

Helen of Troy

A detail from an Attic red-figure krater showing Helen of Troy. Made c. 450 BCE. (Louvre, Paris)

Trojan War

The Trojan War was fought between Greeks and the defenders of the city of Troy in Anatolia sometime in the late Bronze Age. The story has grabbed the imagination for millennia but a conflict between Mycenaeans and Hittites may well have occurred...

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Art and Myth in Ancient Greece by Carpenter, T.H
The Oxford Classical Dictionary by Hornblower, S
The Greek Myths by Graves, R
The Iliad by Homer &Robert Fagles & Bernard Knox
Athenian Black Figure Vases by Boardman, John

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