West has thus proposed that Helena ("mistress of sunlight") may be constructed on the PIE suffix -nā ("mistress of"), connoting a deity controlling a natural element. In particular, her marriage myth may be connected to a broader Indo-European "marriage drama" of the sun goddess, and she is related to the divine twins, just as many of these goddesses are. Others have connected the name's etymology to a hypothetical Proto-Indo-European sun goddess, noting the name's connection to the word for "sun" in various Indo-European cultures including the Greek proper word and god for the sun, Helios. Elmo's fire) and sister of the Dioscuri, the other a vegetation goddess worshiped in Therapne as Ἑλένα Δενδρῖτις ("Helena of the Trees"). More recently, Otto Skutsch has advanced the theory that the name Helen might have two separate etymologies, which belong to different mythological figures respectively, namely *Sṷelenā (related to Sanskrit svaraṇā "the shining one") and *Selenā, the first a Spartan goddess, connected to one or the other natural light phenomenon (especially St. Linda Lee Clader, however, says that none of the above suggestions offers much satisfaction. It has also been suggested that the λ of Ἑλένη arose from an original ν, and thus the etymology of the name would be connected with the root of Venus. In the early 1900's, Émile Boisacq considered Ἑλένη to derive from the well-known noun ἑλένη meaning "torch". But two early dedications to Helen in the Laconian dialect of ancient Greek spell her name with an initial digamma (probably pronounced like a w), which rules out any etymology originally starting with simple *s. In the 1800s, Georg Curtius related Helen ( Ἑλένη) to the moon ( Selene Σελήνη). The etymology of Helen's name continues to be a problem for scholars. Christopher Marlowe's lines from his tragedy Doctor Faustus (1604) are frequently cited: "Was this the face that launched a thousand ships / And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?" Etymology The Love of Helen and Paris by Jacques-Louis David (oil on canvas, 1788, Louvre, Paris) In medieval illustrations, this event was frequently portrayed as a seduction, whereas in Renaissance paintings it was usually depicted as a "rape" (i. e. In classical Greece, her abduction by Paris-or escape with him-was a popular motif. Images of Helen start appearing in the 7th century BC. Her beauty inspired artists of all times to represent her, frequently as the personification of ideal human beauty. Helen boards a ship for Troy, fresco from the House of the Tragic Poet in Pompeii She was also worshiped in Attica and on Rhodes. A cult associated with her developed in Hellenistic Laconia, both at Sparta and elsewhere at Therapne she shared a shrine with Menelaus. 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. In some versions, Helen doesn't arrive in Troy, but instead waits out the war in Egypt. Other accounts have a treacherous Helen who simulated Bacchic rites and rejoiced in the carnage she caused. The legends of Helen during her time in Troy are contradictory: Homer depicts her ambivalently, both regretful of her choice and sly in her attempts to redeem her public image. When she married Menelaus she was still very young whether her subsequent departure with Paris was an abduction or an elopement is ambiguous (probably deliberately so). The obligations of the oath precipitated the Trojan War. All of her suitors were required to swear an oath (known as the Oath of Tyndareus) promising to provide military assistance to the winning suitor, if Helen were ever stolen from him. A competition between her suitors for her hand in marriage saw Menelaus emerge victorious. In her youth, she was abducted by Theseus. Her story reappears in Book II of Virgil's Aeneid. She was married to King Menelaus of Sparta "who became by her the father of Hermione, and, according to others, of Nicostratus also." Her abduction by Paris of Troy was the most immediate cause of the Trojan War.Įlements of her putative biography come from classical authors such as Aristophanes, Cicero, Euripides, and Homer (in both the Iliad and the Odyssey). She was believed to have been the daughter of Zeus and Leda, and was the sister of Clytemnestra, Castor and Pollux, Philonoe, Phoebe and Timandra. Helen of Troy, Helen, Helena, ( Ancient Greek: Ἑλένη, romanized: Helénē, pronounced ) also known as beautiful Helen, Helen of Argos, or Helen of Sparta, was a figure in Greek mythology said to have been the most beautiful woman in the world.
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