Helen in the Iliad PDF

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Discuss the figure of Helen in the Iliad. How do others see her and how does she see herself? To what extent is she considered responsible for the war? Compare this to what is said of her elsewhere....

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Essay Two: Question Three

Student ID: 64200346 Hannah Gray

Discuss the figure of Helen in the Iliad. How do others see her and how does she see herself? To what extent is she considered responsible for the war? Compare this to what is said of her elsewhere. The figure of Helen of Sparta in the Iliad is painted in a very negative light. She is blamed by Homer for causing the ten year war with the Trojans because she ran away with Paris, Prince of Troy. Helen often paints herself in a negative light, believing what she is hearing around her from other Trojans in Troy. However other sources have been found to both agree with Homer and disagree with his stand on whether it was Helen’s fault of if she was a victim of circumstance. I believe that although The Iliad paints her to be the villain who caused the war I believe that she is a victim through the occurrence of the judgement of Paris. Homer depicts Helen to be the downfall of the Trojans and she begins to believe it. In book three of ‘The Iliad’ she is found to be the talk of Troy amongst other Trojans speaking in soft words to not attract her to their unkind words. Helen obviously feels the judgemental eyes of the Trojans and I believe that she begins to believe that she is and will be their downfall however Priam paints a different idea. Homer has Priam saying to Helen that she is ‘in no way to blame in my eyes…the gods, I think, that are to blame.’1 However you can hear Helen blaming herself again when she speaks of ‘left my bridal chamber and kinfolk…’2 This quote leads me to believe that Helen finds it to be her fault because she has strayed from her bridal chamber with Menelaus she therefore is dismissing Priam’s idea that the gods are behind it all. She sounds distraught that she has left the chamber and her kinfolk suggesting that she possibly wants to go home to Sparta and sees how the eventual fall of Troy will be her fault. Later in book twenty four she speaks of Hector and how he brought her to Troy and that even though many blame her for the war, herself included. She goes on to say that Hector ‘evil or despiteful word from you’3 Even though she is speaking as Hector is dead it almost makes it come full circle because in the beginning Homer set out the poem to have a negative idea of Helen and to emphasise that she was the reason the war occurred and she even believed it too. But we can see in book twenty four that she is accepting that not everyone blamed her and this is seen through Hector not saying a mean word towards he giving the impression that like his father Priam he doesn’t blame Helen although her insecurities flare on line 775 when she talks about how ‘all me shudder at me…’4 Indicating that even though members of the family such as Priam and Hector didn’t blame her she was still receiving some pressures about war from the remaining Trojans. Homer makes Helen out to be the only possible cause for the war to occur. He states this all through ‘The Iliad’ with quotes about how she is to blame to the extent where she begins to believe it. However I believe that whilst Homer presents one view of Helen being the cause there are other causes that can be taken into account. Such as Helen was fated to be in Troy whether it was by divine will of the gods as Gorgias states in his work or whether she had words of love whispered in her ears by Aphrodite and Paris, trying to convince her to leave her husband behind and travel to Troy. Gorgias believes Helen to be a victim based on the occurrence of the judgement Paris made between Hera, Athena and Aphrodite and based off the prize that Aphrodite offered him for selecting her. ‘Presented the golden apple’5 Gorgias said about how Paris sealed the promise of his prize with presenting Aphrodite the golden 1 Homer, The Iliad, Book three, line 161-165 2 Homer, The Iliad, Book three, line 174-175 3 Homer, The Iliad, Book twenty four, line 768-769 4 Homer, The Iliad, Book twenty four, line 775 5 Gorgias, Encomium of Helen, section fourteen

Essay Two: Question Three

Student ID: 64200346 Hannah Gray

apple that had begun the judgement and so because the apple was a gift from the gods it would be fair to say that Helen although considered the cause of the war from the Trojans point of view could have been caused by the divine will of the gods. While Homer depicts Helen as the cause of the war through his words in ‘The Iliad’ other poets and philosophers do not agree completely. The Sicilian philosopher Gorgias who lived from 483 BC – 375 BC puts forward in his writing ‘Encomium of Helen’ that he believes that Helen is not the cause of the Greek’s ten year war with Troy. Instead he claims that Helen’s reasoning for leaving can be put down to three different options. One that she was ‘invaded by love’6, ‘persuaded by words’1 or even ‘compelled by divine necessity’1 and he believes that she therefore escapes the blame for the war. Gorgias is offering a different explanation than we receive from Homer in the Iliad, he is suggesting that she was invaded by love possibly stemming from the judgement of Paris where Paris the Prince of Troy was asked to judge on top of Mt Ida who was the most beautiful out of Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. Paris ultimately picked Aphrodite after she promised to reward him with the most beautiful woman in the world who at that current time was Helen of Sparta who was married to King Menelaus. Gorgias speaks that stemming from this judgement that Helen could have easily been persuaded by love that was cast upon her by Aphrodite and combined with her whispering words of wisdom in her ear and Paris most likely trying to also convince her. Through this event he gives us the idea that it was more about fate and what the gods wanted to occur. Gorgias leaves space for us to contemplate whether Helen really was the cause of the war as shown by Homer or whether she was simply a causality of war. I believe that she was both, because she may have chosen to leave Menelaus and leave with Paris and the Trojans but if we take into account the judgement of Paris and the prize he was promised for picking Aphrodite it is easy to agree with Gorgias in his viewpoint of her being a victim. However Euripides speaks of Helen in ‘Trojan Women’ although his view is mostly negative and expresses it in line 128, ‘For Helen, Menelaus’s hated wife’7 there are lines like this all through the poem expressing how he disagrees with Gorgias and agrees with Homer’s depiction of her being no victim. He expresses that she is a ‘sacker of Troy’8and eventually in lines 367-368 he expresses that she was ‘a willing victim she, not snatched away by force.’9 This is a different view to Gorgias however it could also be right. Homer writes of Helen being no victim in ‘The Iliad’. I believe that Helen of Sparta has been painted in a negative view by Homer. I believe that Helen is a victim of circumstance and that she simply had no control over what happened to her. She was offered as a prize for Paris with no prior knowledge and was persuaded by her words or captured by love in force. I believe that because Paris was so enfactuated with her that he also played a part in convincing her to leave Menelaus behind but also the gods played a huge part in the war because if the golden apple hadn’t appeared at the wedding where the judgement occurred then Helen would never have been offered as a prize nor would she have left Sparta under any influence other than her own. Homer depicts The Iliad in a way to entice Greeks who would have listened to his epic poem and been able to say that it was all Helen’s fault they lost men and everything happened. But I simply believe that although The Iliad says otherwise that Helen was a victim of circumstance. Reference 6 Gorgias, Encomium of Helen, section twenty 7 Euripides, Trojan Women, line 128 8 Euripides, Trojan Women, line 211-213 9 Euripides, Trojan Women, line 367-368

Essay Two: Question Three

Student ID: 64200346 Hannah Gray

Euripides, Trojan Women Gorgias, Encomium of Helen Homer, The Iliad Referred to lecture notes from Greek Myth 104 lectures twenty one, twenty two and twenty three Notes taken during Greek Myth 104 tutorial...