Helen of Troy

Helen of Troy.....The Face That Launched a Thousand Ships

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In Greek mythology, Helen of Troy is a character in Homer's epic poem, the Iliad. ... However, there is no solid evidence to suggest that Helen was a real person.

The first written record of Helen is in the Iliad but the origins of the myth that surrounds her dates back to the Bronze Age.

Helen of Troy almost certainly never existed as a historical figure. The Iliad and the Odyssey were probably mostly composed during the early seventh century BC, but the events they describe are set in the twelfth century BC, roughly five hundred years earlier.

We have solid archaeological evidence that Troy was indeed a real city, but nothing to support the historicity of the Trojan War, nor do we have any evidence to support the existence of any of the individual characters in the poems.

The characters in the Iliad and the Odyssey and in later Greek legends about the war, are all almost certainly fictional, including Helen.

The whole backstory of the war being triggered by Paris’s abduction of Helen is historically implausible.

Historically speaking, it makes no sense why all the armies of all the kingdoms of Greece would need to be assembled just to recapture one woman.

It also makes no historical sense why the Trojans did not simply give Helen back to Menelaos to save their city, and hundreds of people.

Because Helen is a fictional character, every ancient writer imagined Helen differently.

If you really want to know what Helen of Troy looked like, the answer is that she looked however you personally imagine her to have looked, because she is a fictional character.

Nonetheless, it is interesting to explore how Helen is described in Greek and Roman texts, and how she is portrayed in Greek and Roman art.

It is made clear in the Iliad, that Helen’s beauty is more than just an ordinary, mortal beauty.

Its claimed her beauty is supernatural and otherworldly.

The reason why Helen is so beautiful, is because she is the daughter of Zeus himself.

Helen of Troy has been imagined in many different ways throughout history.

People of each era have remade Helen to match their own standards of perfect beauty.

Today we are free to imagine Helen however we like, just as every other generation has been free to imagine her before us.

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https://talesoftimesforgotten.com/.../what-did-helen-of.../

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https://ko-fi.com/thetudorintruders

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Painting of Helen standing alone holding a mirror by the English Pre-Raphaelite painter Evelyn de Morgan c1898