Was Helen of Troy Abducted Or Did She Choose to Bolt?

Hey, Noddy. I really will have to think about this, but there are dramatized accounts and, of course, political aspects. Personally, I like to think she went willingly with Paris, but it may have been a contrived thing, giving Menelaus an excuse to attack Troy; probably the latter.

Letty--

Did you know that Helen was raped (at the age of 11 or 12) by Theseus?

The Dirty Old Man was overcome by her beauty.

Very controversial subject here..

From my readings of the Homeric accounts, I got the feeling that Helen left Sparta from her own will.
Even though other authors agree she was abducted I still think she left free..

No, Noddy. I did not know that. I guess you have forced me to look at the history again, but I think we can count on Francis to provide it.

H, Francis. You are a hopeless romantic after all.<smile>

You can have some views on the subject here:The Conflicting Views of Helen

Thanks, Francis. An interesting account, but I still believe Helen was an excuse to go to war. I did notice one humorous flaw in the piece, and that was a typo, I suppose. The word "geeks" was used. Ok, so I am picky. <smile> And as for Sappho, she brought other senses to the interpretation of Helen.

Can't resist, Noddy.

Theseus:

So. you are saying Helen was the WMD of the ancient world, then?




Hmmmm.......



I am reading a book about Sappho, by the way.

Hey, Deb, Yep. It's been done before and since. I haven't read any books on Sappho, but I know some of her odes. I, of course, like to think that Helen was in love and was used.

I think Helen jumped from the frying pan to the fire.

She certainly wasn't the only cause for the Trojan War.

Was Helen of Troy abducted
She went willingly? You bet she did.

But it did make a handy excuse for a war.

However, I don't think Saddam Hussein looks much like Helen...

Tom Kitten--

Of course you can blame the war on the fun-loving gods and goddesses and ignore the Trojan middleman tariffs and the Greek expansionist dreams.

Re: Was Helen of Troy abducted


Who knows? Ideals of beauty change over time and cultures.

But seriously, how can we possibly know the motives of someone who lived, what? 3500 years ago and who left no personal memoirs? Troy was an established power in the area, but the aggressive Greeks were expanding. They wanted to war on Troy, where a win would allow them to expand into Asia Minor. Then 500 years later, Homer gathers all the fireside stories together into one epic. Not only do you have half a millenium of the "telephone game", but abstraction inherent in the storyteller tradition allows the characterizations to suit the author's message and theme. IOW, Homer et al were telling a story with grand themes, they were not modern scholars striving for historical accuracy.

But my money is on abducted. Her husband was to be King of Sparta, therefore she represented wealth and prestige and power. But in general, women of that era had little personal power, and women of the upper classes would have had none.

Tico--

Remember, Helen was a Daughter-of-Zeus (who appeared to her mother as a swan) and in her semi-divine role a focus for fertility cults.

hmmmmmm .....

This is just pure guessing on my part, but is it possible that her semi-divine state grew out of some religious role played by the females of the royal family? We know that rulers of the era (and for a great long time after that) were apt to claim some divine quality or favour to enhance their status, eg. the Egytian pharoahs.

Tico--

Most of the Bronze Age is pure guessing from our point of view.

Still, in the sense of Immediate Mythology (something every child with advantage should know) we're less than 90 years from the Trojan War.