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Helen of Troy: Beauty, Myth, Devastation
Ancient Greek culture is pervaded by a profound ambivalence regarding female beauty. It is an awe-inspiring, supremely desirable gift from the gods, essential to the perpetuation of a man's name through reproduction; yet it also grants women terrifying power over men, posing a threat inseparable from its allure. The myth of Helen is the central site in which the ancient Greeks expressed and reworked their culture's anxieties about erotic desire. Despite the passage of three millennia, contemporary culture remains almost obsessively preoccupied with all the power and danger of female beauty and sexuality that Helen still represents. Yet Helen, the embodiment of these concerns for our purported cultural ancestors, has been little studied from this perspective. Such issues are also central to contemporary feminist thought. Helen of Troy engages with the ancient origins of the persistent anxiety about female beauty, focusing on this key figure from ancient Greek culture in a way that both extends our understanding of that culture and provides a useful perspective for reconsidering aspects of our own. Moving from Homer and Hesiod to Sappho, Aeschylus, and Euripides, Ruby Blondell offers a fresh examination of the paradoxes and ambiguities that Helen embodies. In addition to literary sources, Blondell considers the archaeological record, which contains evidence of Helen's role as a cult figure, worshipped by maidens and newlyweds. The result is a compelling new interpretation of this alluring figure.
312 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 4, 2013
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November 19, 2017
There are talks about Helen, beauty, femininity, and all sorts of interpretations and portrayals of Helen. In particular, I enjoy the point about how Helen is stronger than what people may think. There are so many uncertainties and controversy surrounding Helen, and after reading this book, I think I have made my peace knowing that I will never fully know or understand Helen. I know that just based on the fact that there are many interpretations of her - some are probably to be more true than others, but there is no doubt that Helen is a complex figure. I see her as strong - someone who is honored as a goddess, ever after the whole debacle of the Trojan War, and someone who holds the reins in her marriage for the most part. I see her as a victim - someone who has run away because of the gods' will and perhaps her own, and unknowingly caused a war because of those wills (maybe more so if the Helen at Egypt is actually true). I see her as a manipulator - someone who is not afraid to use her words, actions, and her beauty to get what she wants - even if that means being cruel to other females and outwardly placating to men. I see her as a rebellious figure - someone who refuses to obey what human males and females want of her (whether good or bad). I ultimately see someone who has so many facets - some parts of her are great and some are pretty debatable and seem terrible - but that makes sense because women and humans are never fully just one thing. She is imperfect, obviously, like the rest of us - even as the "most beautiful woman."
NOTE: Also, for such a short book, this took me about 4-5 months to read, when I can usually finish a book in a day. It is not because this book is bad. I just really wanted to take everything in and really understand what the author is trying to say.
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Helen of Troy, are you the cause, the spark, the villain, the victim? Or...?
I'm really excited to dive down and learn more about her besides the superficial.
NOTE: Also, for such a short book, this took me about 4-5 months to read, when I can usually finish a book in a day. It is not because this book is bad. I just really wanted to take everything in and really understand what the author is trying to say.
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Helen of Troy, are you the cause, the spark, the villain, the victim? Or...?
I'm really excited to dive down and learn more about her besides the superficial.
December 31, 2012
Disclaimer: Read Arc via netgalley.
The pressure to portray Helen of Troy must be intense. You have to be beautiful. You are playing an unfaithful woman, and you must make her sympathetic. Wolfgang Peterson, director of 2004’s Troy had wanted no one to play Helen, to make her character more of a symbol, a non-enity. Studio heads apparently talked him out of it. The story f Helen is also confusing. A war fought over one woman, who leaves her husband and daughter for another man. The treasure that she takes with her is almost always forgotten, and the Greeks look like bullies, especially in the modern eyes because of their obsession with getting Helen back.
Yet there is something about the story, and it is even hard to hate Helen, especially today when you simply want to get her a good lawyer. While Ruby Blondell doesn’t really look at how the modern world sees Helen, several of her conclusions about how the ancient world saw Helen are still relevant today.
Her first look is Homer, and she looks not just at the Iliad but also the Odyssey. Her conclusion challenges the view of Helen as a simple woman and more as an emasculating agent, showing the disruption of the standard order. It is this view that answers, rather thoughtfully, the questions that many readers might have about Helen. She is Helen of Sparta, and Sparta is what her husband rules. In particular not only is Menelaus (and Paris) argued not to be manly men (or the ancient equivalent thereof) but if Blondell is correct, and her argument is rather solid, than Menelaus is like Scrooge McDuck, and Helen in some ways is simply a treasure vault. Paris might really have been the wimp he was in the movie Troy.
The greatest surprise to me was that it wasn’t all women-hating writers. Even Euripides who wrote the Trojan Women (you have to see the version with Hepburn) does Helen justice in some sense, making her a different character all together in his later play – Helen. The Trojan Women is a powerful play simply because of the viewpoints of the title characters and how they see Helen, which is not how men see Helen. Blondell’s admiration for the ancient writers, especially Euripes, that she writes about and this admiration makes a reader want to read them. Even here, when Blondell takes about how a Helen who blames changes how we see Helen and the war, as well as the men who fought it.
This is what Blondell does, besides offer an analysis of each independent work, is to compare and contrast the works. Not only is the reader shown the different Helen in each writer’s piece, but also why those Helens differ so much. Why what we feel for Homer’s Helen is different than what we feel for the Helen of the Trojan Women. Part of it has to do with how the reader feels blame should be assigned. Part of it has to do with how Helen herself is presented, and in how much control she seems to exert over the narrative that she is. Blondells points out that in many cases Helen is the only women who is allowed to act like a male hero in the various stories. Much of what she does is male. And the male writers, who return to her, also seem to fall under her spell to a degree. There are ancient defenses of her, written by men. The fascination of Helen and the question of blame started far before the modern era.
Does the male defense of Helen have to do with some of the same reasons that their own characters defend her? The question is perhaps circular. Does Homer forgive Helen because he is careful to deflect blame from her or does he simply do what the character calls on him to do? Is Helen blameless because the men, as Blondell points out, are simply obsessed with blood and battle? In some ways I would’ve liked to have these thoughts addressed somewhat. However the book does make one think about Helen.
The pressure to portray Helen of Troy must be intense. You have to be beautiful. You are playing an unfaithful woman, and you must make her sympathetic. Wolfgang Peterson, director of 2004’s Troy had wanted no one to play Helen, to make her character more of a symbol, a non-enity. Studio heads apparently talked him out of it. The story f Helen is also confusing. A war fought over one woman, who leaves her husband and daughter for another man. The treasure that she takes with her is almost always forgotten, and the Greeks look like bullies, especially in the modern eyes because of their obsession with getting Helen back.
Yet there is something about the story, and it is even hard to hate Helen, especially today when you simply want to get her a good lawyer. While Ruby Blondell doesn’t really look at how the modern world sees Helen, several of her conclusions about how the ancient world saw Helen are still relevant today.
Her first look is Homer, and she looks not just at the Iliad but also the Odyssey. Her conclusion challenges the view of Helen as a simple woman and more as an emasculating agent, showing the disruption of the standard order. It is this view that answers, rather thoughtfully, the questions that many readers might have about Helen. She is Helen of Sparta, and Sparta is what her husband rules. In particular not only is Menelaus (and Paris) argued not to be manly men (or the ancient equivalent thereof) but if Blondell is correct, and her argument is rather solid, than Menelaus is like Scrooge McDuck, and Helen in some ways is simply a treasure vault. Paris might really have been the wimp he was in the movie Troy.
The greatest surprise to me was that it wasn’t all women-hating writers. Even Euripides who wrote the Trojan Women (you have to see the version with Hepburn) does Helen justice in some sense, making her a different character all together in his later play – Helen. The Trojan Women is a powerful play simply because of the viewpoints of the title characters and how they see Helen, which is not how men see Helen. Blondell’s admiration for the ancient writers, especially Euripes, that she writes about and this admiration makes a reader want to read them. Even here, when Blondell takes about how a Helen who blames changes how we see Helen and the war, as well as the men who fought it.
This is what Blondell does, besides offer an analysis of each independent work, is to compare and contrast the works. Not only is the reader shown the different Helen in each writer’s piece, but also why those Helens differ so much. Why what we feel for Homer’s Helen is different than what we feel for the Helen of the Trojan Women. Part of it has to do with how the reader feels blame should be assigned. Part of it has to do with how Helen herself is presented, and in how much control she seems to exert over the narrative that she is. Blondells points out that in many cases Helen is the only women who is allowed to act like a male hero in the various stories. Much of what she does is male. And the male writers, who return to her, also seem to fall under her spell to a degree. There are ancient defenses of her, written by men. The fascination of Helen and the question of blame started far before the modern era.
Does the male defense of Helen have to do with some of the same reasons that their own characters defend her? The question is perhaps circular. Does Homer forgive Helen because he is careful to deflect blame from her or does he simply do what the character calls on him to do? Is Helen blameless because the men, as Blondell points out, are simply obsessed with blood and battle? In some ways I would’ve liked to have these thoughts addressed somewhat. However the book does make one think about Helen.
June 11, 2013
I don’t read much non-fiction, although not for lack of noble intentions. I’ve got a bookshelf packed with philosophy, essays, art theory, literary theory, history, etc. But most of the non-fiction I’m interested in is fairly academic and demanding, so it takes quite a lot of determination for me to actually read any of it. But I’m inspired to try harder when I come across wonderful books like Ruby Blondell’s Helen of Troy: Beauty, Myth, Devastation.
Combining literary analysis, classical studies, feminism and philosophy, Helen of Troy beautifully bridges the gap between academia and general interest. It’s a scholarly work but you don’t need to be a scholar to appreciate it (although you might be inspired to become one afterwards). Going in, my only knowledge of Helen’s story came from pop culture and a few light books on Greek mythology I read when I was a child. I have never read The Iliad. I didn’t know Helen appears post-war in The Odyssey living comfortably with Menelaus. I’d never even heard of any of the lyric poetry or Athenian tragedy that later re-addressed or revised her story. No doubt I could have gotten much more from this book if I was familiar with these texts, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading it anyway, and in my ignorance I was able to learn a hell of a lot too.
Read the full review on my blog Violin in a Void
Combining literary analysis, classical studies, feminism and philosophy, Helen of Troy beautifully bridges the gap between academia and general interest. It’s a scholarly work but you don’t need to be a scholar to appreciate it (although you might be inspired to become one afterwards). Going in, my only knowledge of Helen’s story came from pop culture and a few light books on Greek mythology I read when I was a child. I have never read The Iliad. I didn’t know Helen appears post-war in The Odyssey living comfortably with Menelaus. I’d never even heard of any of the lyric poetry or Athenian tragedy that later re-addressed or revised her story. No doubt I could have gotten much more from this book if I was familiar with these texts, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading it anyway, and in my ignorance I was able to learn a hell of a lot too.
Read the full review on my blog Violin in a Void
September 29, 2015
This is a well written book which examines Helen of Troy and the way she was depicted in Greek myth, poetry and other writing. It also examines the way female beauty can cause havoc and devastation at any era of history. Beauty is a curse as well as a blessing. I was interested to read about the way Greek culture saw women's position in society as well as in art and literature.
Basically women were expected to be submissive, dress modestly and to stay at home most of the time. They were not allowed to be independent or think for themselves. Socrates seems to have been a lone voice which spoke out against the submission of women as he saw them as being as capable as men.
The book has plenty of illustrations throughout the text, a bibliography, notes of the chapters and an index. If you want to know more about Helen of Troy - apart from her being the spark that lit the Trojan Wars then this may be the book for you. It raises issues which women are still battling with today across the world.
Basically women were expected to be submissive, dress modestly and to stay at home most of the time. They were not allowed to be independent or think for themselves. Socrates seems to have been a lone voice which spoke out against the submission of women as he saw them as being as capable as men.
The book has plenty of illustrations throughout the text, a bibliography, notes of the chapters and an index. If you want to know more about Helen of Troy - apart from her being the spark that lit the Trojan Wars then this may be the book for you. It raises issues which women are still battling with today across the world.
June 25, 2013
THE HELENS OF TROY
Ruby Blondell argues dazzlingly in Helen of Troy: Beauty, Myth, and Devastation that Helen, daughter of Zeus and Leda, possessor of "the face that launched a thousand ships," was the greatest bombshell of all time. "No other character in ancient Greek myth," Blondell writes, "plays such a prominent role in so many disparate kinds of work: epic, lyric poetry, tragedy, historiography, rhetoric, comedy, even philosophy." The figure of Helen represented a crucial conundrum: "Having constructed female beauty as a threat, and imagined an absolute standard of beauty fulfilled by a single woman in whom that threat culminates, Greek men spent considerable energy attempting to analyze, contain, disarm, deny, or appropriate the power accorded to their own creation." Blondell's fascinating analysis of the mythic Helen in her many guises delineates the ancient Greek obsession with the dangers of female beauty and the control of female sexuality, showing the extent to which masculinity was predicated on and defined by the myth of the feminine. And Blondell's study reveals that this preoccupation is, three thousand years on, as strong as ever.
Helen's troubles began with a beauty contest: Zeus appointed Paris, a prince of Troy, to judge whether Hera, Athena, or Aphrodite was the most beautiful goddess. Aphrodite secretly promised Paris that if he chose her, she would bestow upon him as his bride the universally desired Helen (that she was already married to Menelaus, king of Sparta, was only a minor hindrance). Having confirmed Aphrodite's aesthetic supremacy, Paris seduced Helen and sailed away with her to Troy. Incensed at both his guest's bad behavior and his wife's "abduction," Menelaus called upon his brother Agamemnon (married to Helen's sister Clytemnestra) to help him raise an army to retrieve her. So commenced the decade-long Trojan War.
Blondell quickly dispenses with the reality of Helen: "As the woman who was -- and is -- by definition the most beautiful woman of all time, Helen of Troy could never have existed." For the Greeks a woman's beauty, and by extension her erotic allure, was her essential source of power in a world where she otherwise had little. This sexualized force was perceived as a potentially devastating threat to male reason. As a result women were deemed "beautiful evils," embodying, Eve-like, the dual source of male desire and his downfall. Helen, the iconic bride, symbolizes the danger to every man of incorporating this "beautiful evil" into his household. "Every bride," asserts Blondell, "like Helen, is a kind of Trojan Horse."
In Blondell's examination of ancient Greek texts from Homer to Sappho, Hesiod to Aeschylus and Euripides, two central questions emerge: Was Helen to blame, and was Helen really worth it? Erotic folly and the folly of war become fatally and eternally linked as these narratives explore the advisability of the war itself -- should the Greeks have pursued Helen at such a devastating cost? Should the Trojans have insisted on keeping her, ensuring their own destruction?
The first and most influential representation of Helen's character appears in Homer's epics the Iliad and the Odyssey, where she is portrayed as simultaneously guilty and sympathetic. Despite Aphrodite's intervention and Paris's seduction, Homer's Helen repeatedly blames herself for eloping with Paris and causing the ensuing war. This depiction allows for a subtle, complex, and more humanized Helen, but it is also an endorsement, Blondell notes, by Helen herself of "the linchpin of Greek gender ideology, affirming that women's desires are excessive, unstable, and unhealthy, and leave nothing but trouble in their wake." Yet Homer's Helen is also claiming for herself an active, powerful role in the story, one denied by later writers when they depict her exclusively as a dupe of divine coercion, thus a blameless, beautiful object fought over by men.
The versions of Helen in the work of post-Homeric lyric poets -- Semonides, Alcaeus, Sappho, Ibycus and Stesichorus -- are as much in response to Homer's Helen as an attempt to make Helen fit their own agendas. Semonides and Alcaeus blame Helen for the war; Ibycus makes her a helpless victim of the treacherous Paris, her beauty a worthy object of struggle. Sappho emphasizes Helen's beauty and her erotic desires and desirability. She describes her willfully going to Troy, thus retaining the Homeric vision of Helen as actor in her own story. But Sappho avoids blaming Helen for how the men respond. "If men chose to retrieve her at any cost," interprets Blondell, "that is not, perhaps, a consequence for which she should be held accountable." In Stesichorus's Palinode, Helen never goes to Troy at all but sits out the war in Egypt, the gods having created a phantom Helen to go to Troy in her stead. Helen's reputation is saved by this twinning, but she also is no longer a player. With each text it becomes clearer that the Trojan War was a battle over a mirage.
Read the rest of the review at Bookslut: http://www.bookslut.com/the_bombshell...
Ruby Blondell argues dazzlingly in Helen of Troy: Beauty, Myth, and Devastation that Helen, daughter of Zeus and Leda, possessor of "the face that launched a thousand ships," was the greatest bombshell of all time. "No other character in ancient Greek myth," Blondell writes, "plays such a prominent role in so many disparate kinds of work: epic, lyric poetry, tragedy, historiography, rhetoric, comedy, even philosophy." The figure of Helen represented a crucial conundrum: "Having constructed female beauty as a threat, and imagined an absolute standard of beauty fulfilled by a single woman in whom that threat culminates, Greek men spent considerable energy attempting to analyze, contain, disarm, deny, or appropriate the power accorded to their own creation." Blondell's fascinating analysis of the mythic Helen in her many guises delineates the ancient Greek obsession with the dangers of female beauty and the control of female sexuality, showing the extent to which masculinity was predicated on and defined by the myth of the feminine. And Blondell's study reveals that this preoccupation is, three thousand years on, as strong as ever.
Helen's troubles began with a beauty contest: Zeus appointed Paris, a prince of Troy, to judge whether Hera, Athena, or Aphrodite was the most beautiful goddess. Aphrodite secretly promised Paris that if he chose her, she would bestow upon him as his bride the universally desired Helen (that she was already married to Menelaus, king of Sparta, was only a minor hindrance). Having confirmed Aphrodite's aesthetic supremacy, Paris seduced Helen and sailed away with her to Troy. Incensed at both his guest's bad behavior and his wife's "abduction," Menelaus called upon his brother Agamemnon (married to Helen's sister Clytemnestra) to help him raise an army to retrieve her. So commenced the decade-long Trojan War.
Blondell quickly dispenses with the reality of Helen: "As the woman who was -- and is -- by definition the most beautiful woman of all time, Helen of Troy could never have existed." For the Greeks a woman's beauty, and by extension her erotic allure, was her essential source of power in a world where she otherwise had little. This sexualized force was perceived as a potentially devastating threat to male reason. As a result women were deemed "beautiful evils," embodying, Eve-like, the dual source of male desire and his downfall. Helen, the iconic bride, symbolizes the danger to every man of incorporating this "beautiful evil" into his household. "Every bride," asserts Blondell, "like Helen, is a kind of Trojan Horse."
In Blondell's examination of ancient Greek texts from Homer to Sappho, Hesiod to Aeschylus and Euripides, two central questions emerge: Was Helen to blame, and was Helen really worth it? Erotic folly and the folly of war become fatally and eternally linked as these narratives explore the advisability of the war itself -- should the Greeks have pursued Helen at such a devastating cost? Should the Trojans have insisted on keeping her, ensuring their own destruction?
The first and most influential representation of Helen's character appears in Homer's epics the Iliad and the Odyssey, where she is portrayed as simultaneously guilty and sympathetic. Despite Aphrodite's intervention and Paris's seduction, Homer's Helen repeatedly blames herself for eloping with Paris and causing the ensuing war. This depiction allows for a subtle, complex, and more humanized Helen, but it is also an endorsement, Blondell notes, by Helen herself of "the linchpin of Greek gender ideology, affirming that women's desires are excessive, unstable, and unhealthy, and leave nothing but trouble in their wake." Yet Homer's Helen is also claiming for herself an active, powerful role in the story, one denied by later writers when they depict her exclusively as a dupe of divine coercion, thus a blameless, beautiful object fought over by men.
The versions of Helen in the work of post-Homeric lyric poets -- Semonides, Alcaeus, Sappho, Ibycus and Stesichorus -- are as much in response to Homer's Helen as an attempt to make Helen fit their own agendas. Semonides and Alcaeus blame Helen for the war; Ibycus makes her a helpless victim of the treacherous Paris, her beauty a worthy object of struggle. Sappho emphasizes Helen's beauty and her erotic desires and desirability. She describes her willfully going to Troy, thus retaining the Homeric vision of Helen as actor in her own story. But Sappho avoids blaming Helen for how the men respond. "If men chose to retrieve her at any cost," interprets Blondell, "that is not, perhaps, a consequence for which she should be held accountable." In Stesichorus's Palinode, Helen never goes to Troy at all but sits out the war in Egypt, the gods having created a phantom Helen to go to Troy in her stead. Helen's reputation is saved by this twinning, but she also is no longer a player. With each text it becomes clearer that the Trojan War was a battle over a mirage.
Read the rest of the review at Bookslut: http://www.bookslut.com/the_bombshell...
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April 6, 2025Visual and literary representation of my fight with myself not to pick up a Classics minor/second major 😅
April 14, 2015
I picked this up at Half-Price Books on a whim because it was $2 and it was SUCH A GOOD DECISION! Ruby Blondell's done a lot of great research and her commentary on ancient literature/folklore surrounding not only the magnificent myth that is Helen of Troy but also about women and gender in ancient Greece/Rome is marvelous.
Want to read
October 21, 2013Blondell gave an excellent presentation on Helen at Geek Girl Con this past weekend. I walked out of the event much more interested in the character and the ideals of Helen than when I walked in, and I'm very sorry I missed the author's signing session afterwards.
September 21, 2023
What an amazing approach to Helen's mythical and political story! This book was an accidental read, but it has not only provided me a great insight into the femininity of Ancient Greece and its myths, but also a new way of looking at the epics and tragedies of Greece.
The book systematically analyses every piece of literature written about Helen in the Classical ages. It problematises the various treatments Helen gets in myths, then looks at how history treated women against the backdrop. From Homer to Isocrates the book slices apart the stories and approaches them from the critical point of view necessary to study a complex character like Helen.
The various sources have, in different times, treated Helen differently: sometimes as a repenting wife, sometimes as a scheming woman, and sometimes as a mere victim. But one thing is clear: Helen did what no one else could, bringing the entire of Attica together in one of the most epic wars of literature. The historicity and mysticism of her existence is also debated, juxtaposed with her cult worship. The variety of myths that tell a different story each get ample attention.
What matters the most in the end is that Helen is a woman set within a patriarchal string of faith. As such, her stories are being told by men, but the divinity and its influence shapes how Helen is presented. In fact, Helen herself is deified to become equated to the Muses. Therefore she cannot be studied unilaterally. Her very dichotomy of existence demands a study that goes deep into the cause and effect of her movement to Troy. This the book does very well, allowing the reader to form their own opinion as they go.
For those interested in women of mythology, or myths in general, this is a great read. The anglicised Greek words come with the relevant diacritic marks (η represented by ē, etc) and the book uses technical terms to explain various critical approaches. The book serves as a good academic material as well, but does not make itself inaccessible to those reading it out of pure personal interest.
Such study of mythical women have greatly been done on characters like Clytemnestra, Medea, Penelope, and others. Helen, who is just as important as them, if not more, gets a fitting place in this chain of analysis through this book. The text also uses Helen to analyse in brief her cousin Penelope, half-sister Clytemnestra, and the Trojan women. It takes into consideration how different forms of literature (epic, poetry, speech, drama) represent Helen differently. The assimilation of the Greek identity and the pun on her name (Helladda and Hellenē) are used time and again to explain her importance.
Breaking away from my usual reads of feminist retellings, this was refreshing and not boring at any point. But that might just be me. My academic inclinations has led me to progress from retellings to more academic material, and this book lies at the dawn of such an exploration. With time I will perhaps find more intricate and resourceful texts on Helen, but this would be the point where I began studying her.
The importance of Helen on modern culture is reinstated again and again. Our very society is built on Classical philosophies and stories, and every age has had its own explanation of Helen. From the Roman writers to 21st century film directors, Helen has remained an object of artistic inspiration. For feminists she is an icon, for the religious she is a warning, and for the brave she is a treasure. No matter how many times she is recreated, Helen gets a new life in every decade.
This book cannot capture the vastness of Helen's production and reproduction, but it does a great job of understanding her sources. She is many things in one, and at once both an objective representation and a subjective character. Every artist gives her a form of their own, and in doing so rehabilitate her into the contemporary. As Classical works are reignited, so is Helen, representing many things at once and embodying the true essence of ideas such as gender dynamics, social norms, patriotic unity and more. Her transgression and her submission represent her as a character that stands above the binaries set up by society. She makes them, breaks them, and like a Phoenix is reborn again and again as humanity progresses.
The book systematically analyses every piece of literature written about Helen in the Classical ages. It problematises the various treatments Helen gets in myths, then looks at how history treated women against the backdrop. From Homer to Isocrates the book slices apart the stories and approaches them from the critical point of view necessary to study a complex character like Helen.
The various sources have, in different times, treated Helen differently: sometimes as a repenting wife, sometimes as a scheming woman, and sometimes as a mere victim. But one thing is clear: Helen did what no one else could, bringing the entire of Attica together in one of the most epic wars of literature. The historicity and mysticism of her existence is also debated, juxtaposed with her cult worship. The variety of myths that tell a different story each get ample attention.
What matters the most in the end is that Helen is a woman set within a patriarchal string of faith. As such, her stories are being told by men, but the divinity and its influence shapes how Helen is presented. In fact, Helen herself is deified to become equated to the Muses. Therefore she cannot be studied unilaterally. Her very dichotomy of existence demands a study that goes deep into the cause and effect of her movement to Troy. This the book does very well, allowing the reader to form their own opinion as they go.
For those interested in women of mythology, or myths in general, this is a great read. The anglicised Greek words come with the relevant diacritic marks (η represented by ē, etc) and the book uses technical terms to explain various critical approaches. The book serves as a good academic material as well, but does not make itself inaccessible to those reading it out of pure personal interest.
Such study of mythical women have greatly been done on characters like Clytemnestra, Medea, Penelope, and others. Helen, who is just as important as them, if not more, gets a fitting place in this chain of analysis through this book. The text also uses Helen to analyse in brief her cousin Penelope, half-sister Clytemnestra, and the Trojan women. It takes into consideration how different forms of literature (epic, poetry, speech, drama) represent Helen differently. The assimilation of the Greek identity and the pun on her name (Helladda and Hellenē) are used time and again to explain her importance.
Breaking away from my usual reads of feminist retellings, this was refreshing and not boring at any point. But that might just be me. My academic inclinations has led me to progress from retellings to more academic material, and this book lies at the dawn of such an exploration. With time I will perhaps find more intricate and resourceful texts on Helen, but this would be the point where I began studying her.
The importance of Helen on modern culture is reinstated again and again. Our very society is built on Classical philosophies and stories, and every age has had its own explanation of Helen. From the Roman writers to 21st century film directors, Helen has remained an object of artistic inspiration. For feminists she is an icon, for the religious she is a warning, and for the brave she is a treasure. No matter how many times she is recreated, Helen gets a new life in every decade.
This book cannot capture the vastness of Helen's production and reproduction, but it does a great job of understanding her sources. She is many things in one, and at once both an objective representation and a subjective character. Every artist gives her a form of their own, and in doing so rehabilitate her into the contemporary. As Classical works are reignited, so is Helen, representing many things at once and embodying the true essence of ideas such as gender dynamics, social norms, patriotic unity and more. Her transgression and her submission represent her as a character that stands above the binaries set up by society. She makes them, breaks them, and like a Phoenix is reborn again and again as humanity progresses.
January 30, 2020
A fascinating study of the view of Helen of Troy through many ancient sources, focusing especially on "the twin themes of beauty and female agency" (p. xi). She covers how views of Helen changed, sometimes dramatically, through the various sources, treating her as sympathetic, evil, beautiful, ugly, strong, weak, active and passive. She is sometimes gendered as traditionally masculine vs. her suiters (e.g. Paris, Menelaus) who are often portrayed as more traditionally feminine (e.g. p. 31). The concept of guest-friendship (xenia) is woven throughout the book.
I learned several new things about Helen, e.g. that there were three versions of her birth in antiquity (p. 28-29), although one emerged as the canonical one. Grammar in the original texts plays a vital role in understanding Helen, especially in the Homeric epics, in order to see how she speaks and is spoken of by others (e.g. pp 62, 65, 115) . It is very intriguing. I'm also a fan of Euripides, so I was pleased when Blondell writes: "Deprived of her Homeric eloquence by Aeschylus, Gorgias, and many others, Helen's voice was restored to her by playwright Euripides" (p. 182).
Each ancient source has its own chapter, so the book is both useful to read straight through or to use as a reference to individual pieces. Her Bibliographic Notes at the end were excellent. I liked that she didn't just provide a list of titles, but discussed topics and ideas and where to find them in the sources. An excellent aid.
I learned several new things about Helen, e.g. that there were three versions of her birth in antiquity (p. 28-29), although one emerged as the canonical one. Grammar in the original texts plays a vital role in understanding Helen, especially in the Homeric epics, in order to see how she speaks and is spoken of by others (e.g. pp 62, 65, 115) . It is very intriguing. I'm also a fan of Euripides, so I was pleased when Blondell writes: "Deprived of her Homeric eloquence by Aeschylus, Gorgias, and many others, Helen's voice was restored to her by playwright Euripides" (p. 182).
Each ancient source has its own chapter, so the book is both useful to read straight through or to use as a reference to individual pieces. Her Bibliographic Notes at the end were excellent. I liked that she didn't just provide a list of titles, but discussed topics and ideas and where to find them in the sources. An excellent aid.
May 22, 2022
I want to make a review/comment about this book because of some significant reasons. The most important is that for the first time a book from a professor of classics is indeed good, not just another disrespectful approach to them or poor retelling. Blondell is also a professor of Gender, Women, & Sexuality which is demonstrate in this book and how she present Helen figure in a true academic and impartial way, making a clear study of the references and myths we have about her from several authors and not falling into the same stigma and hatred of many modern writers. I can safely say that Blondell has real affection for Helen, this book somehow cleans up the bad reputation she has and takes us through very interesting studies and analyzes about Helen as a figure of power, chaos, and impotence at the same time. Is a beautiful surprise to find a text about her that never, ever, insults her, and that in fact make interesting connections that most of the scholars leave aside, as the ones with Zeus and the muses. This text help us to understand and analyze Helen name and figure inside some significant books as Odyssey, The Trojan Women, Orestiada and others, always making special effort in the connections we must take in mind between Greek words, myth, and epic.
Of course is not a perfect book, Blondell sometimes make little asseveration that feel more like personal opinions, some of them feel superficial if you have already read academics as Nagy and Otto, but even so is a wonderful book.
Of course is not a perfect book, Blondell sometimes make little asseveration that feel more like personal opinions, some of them feel superficial if you have already read academics as Nagy and Otto, but even so is a wonderful book.
May 13, 2019
I'd expected this book to cover the uses of Helen through history, so I was a bit disappointed Blondell focuses almost entirely on ancient Greek interpretations. That reservation aside, it's very good. Blondell details the Greeks' rather misogynist views of women and their strong suspicion of beautiful women (it was good to have a sexy wife, but terrifying that their sexiness could overwhelm your rational mind). Then we get into how various poets, dramatists and philosophers dealt with Helen: was she an evil woman who ran off with another man? Was she really worth ten years of bloody warfare? What about her husband, Menelaus (who it turns out was strictly a B-list hero by Greek myth standards)? There are also details on the obscure parts of the legend, such as Theseus' attempt to abduct a young Helen and a story that she was actually in Egypt during the entire Trojan War. Well worth reading.
July 8, 2022
A fabulous book, a rich and quasi exhaustive analysis of Helen as portrayed by poets, philosophers, influencers, from Homer to Euripide, Gorgias, or Isocrates.
Obviously, Helen has always been, an remains, culturally and intellectually omnipresent, sometimes seen as an innocent victim, a goddess or a whore.
She's definitely an immense figure, paradoxically portraying patriarchal societies. If she is "the most beautiful woman", she also represents every woman ♀️
Obviously, Helen has always been, an remains, culturally and intellectually omnipresent, sometimes seen as an innocent victim, a goddess or a whore.
She's definitely an immense figure, paradoxically portraying patriarchal societies. If she is "the most beautiful woman", she also represents every woman ♀️
August 11, 2014
The story of Helen of Troy is one of the most beloved myths in history. Like most stories, the variant of her life changes upon whom you talk to and what you read, but the consensus has held true that her strength and beauty ushered in the femme fatale stories that would succeed her own. This book further explores the magnificent stories of Helen, providing readers with an in-depth understanding and appreciation for one of the finest historical periods: Ancient and Classical Greece.
Read the full review at http://www.musingwithcrayolakym.com/b...
Read the full review at http://www.musingwithcrayolakym.com/b...
December 27, 2014
Admitttedly I skimmed bits that were of less interest to me - but part of the excellence of this overview and analysis of the myths and literature about Helen of Troy is that each chapter is written like an excellent paper and stands on its own quite well. There's just enough reference and comparison to other sections to keep everything clear, without becoming overly repetitive. Insightful and very helpful in the research I was doing at the time!
February 1, 2015
This is a spectacular achievement. Blondell has thoroughly mastered the ancient literature dealing with Helen of Troy, and dissects the various presentations of the archetype. Not an easy read, but an elegant one. Highly recommended to all those interested in Greek culture, especially their conflicting attitudes about women.
April 4, 2016
Helen's beauty is unnerving, illusory, duplicitous and dangerous but for Euripedes and Isocrates she is synonymous with Greece (Hellas) and goodness, a pure woman. Blondell does a remarkable job of exploring the many faces of this Eve, her elusive beauty and her transcendent power.
January 21, 2013
Read for Library Journal. This is the kind of book that reminds me why I wanted to study classics in the first place.
September 4, 2016
This is a historical read that includes an overall depiction of femininity.
October 16, 2016
I read the chapters on the Iliad and Odyssey. They had really interesting comments on how love and eros is embodied within Homer's representation of Helen.
Would definitely recommend!
Would definitely recommend!
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