Helen of Troy: Beauty, Myth, DevastationAncient 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. |
Contents
| 1 | |
2 Helen Daughter of Zeus | 27 |
The Iliad | 53 |
4 Happily Ever After? The Odyssey | 73 |
Archaic Lyric | 96 |
The Oresteia | 123 |
Herodotus | 142 |
Gorgiass Encomium of Helen | 164 |
Euripides Trojan Women | 182 |
Euripides Helen | 202 |
Isocrates | 222 |
Epilogue | 247 |
Bibliographical Notes | 251 |
| 261 | |
| 277 | |
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abduction Achilles action active Aeschylus agency allows Aphrodite appearance argument associated Athenian Athens audience barbarian beauty behavior blame bride calls cause chap character claim contrast course cult death desire Despite destructive divine effect Egypt epic erōs erotic especially Euripides evil example eyes fact female female beauty feminine figure force gender gifts gives glory goddess gods Gorgias Gorgias’s Greece Greek Helen Helen’s beauty hero heroic Homer human husband Iliad implies important Isocrates judgment kind leaving less linked lives looks male marriage masculine means Menelaus Menelaus’s mention mortal object Odysseus Pandora Paris particular Persians person physical play poem praise present provides question reason remains responsibility role seems serves sexual Sparta speak speech status story suggests takes things threat tion traditional transgression Trojan Troy turn Unlike victim voice wife woman women Zeus