Whatever Helen's feelings had been when she first ran off with Paris, after ten years of fighting, she wishes she had stayed in Sparta. Contempt for the coward she lives with, respect for the husband she left, and above all regret for the happy life she used to live make her long for home.
Menelaus had meant to kill Helen because she had deserted him. When he saw her again, however, he was overcome by her beauty and forgave her. After the Greek victory Menelaus and Helen returned to Sparta, where they lived happily until their deaths.
Helen has several lines of dialogue in The Iliad. However, she primarily speaks about her regret in coming to Troy with Paris, and that she wishes that she had instead chosen death. She also wishes death upon Paris following his duel with Menelaus, her former husband.
Menelaus After Troy
All sources say that they both survived the war and most say that they were reunited. The Odyssey finds Menelaus and Helen living together in Sparta again, with Menelaus having forgiven his wife for her infidelity.
Helen was already married to King Menelaus of Sparta (a fact Aphrodite neglected to mention), so Paris had to raid Menelaus's house to steal Helen from him—according to some accounts, she fell in love with Paris and left willingly.
Paris appeared. As was customary by the laws of hospitality in ancient Greece, they gave him lodging and entertained him with banquets and gifts. Paris and Helen fell madly in love from the moment they met. Helen escaped with Paris and together they went to Troy.
Her many sexual partners – the hero Theseus, her husband Menelaus, her lover Paris, her second Trojan husband Deiphobus, and (some whispered) Achilles after both he and Helen were dead – are trotted out by ancient and modern authors alike as the gossip columns would the client-list of a high-class prostitute.
Helen's suitors—including Odysseus—came from all parts of Greece, and from among them she chose Menelaus, Agamemnon's younger brother. During an absence of Menelaus, however, Helen fled to Troy with Paris, son of the Trojan king Priam, an act that ultimately led to the Trojan War.
Also known as 'the face that launched a thousand ships,' Helen of Troy started a war that would last for ten years. Ultimately, with the help of the Trojan horse, the Greeks won the war, Menelaus forgave Helen, and she was restored to her position as queen of Sparta.
The subject of this tabletop bronze comes from Greek mythology. When the Trojan prince Paris abducted Helen--the beautiful wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta--and carried her off to the city of Troy, the Greeks responded by mounting an attack on the city, thus beginning the Trojan War.
Helen felt guilty about leaving her husband because of all the deaths she caused by starting the war. She no longer felt strongly about her new husband, Paris. Finally, Helen helped the Trojans by identifying Achaean kings and heroes by name, but that was the extent of her assistance.
Helen of Troy, Helen, Helena, (Ancient Greek: Ἑλένη, romanized: Helénē, pronounced [helénɛː]) 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.
Assisted by Aphrodite, Paris convinced Helen to leave her husband and took her back with him to Troy. Menelaus and Agamemnon went after them, and the war that resulted lasted for ten years. Finally, due to Odysseus' craftiness in devising the Trojan horse, the Trojans were defeated and Helen was returned to Menelaus.
After the Greeks defeated Troy, Menelaus returned to Sparta with Helen. However, the journey home was very difficult because he had neglected to offer sacrifices to the Trojan gods. The story of the voyage is told in Homer's Odyssey]. When Menelaus died, he became immortal because he had married a daughter of Zeus.
In Greek mythology, Helen is said to represent the ultimate in human beauty. Aphrodite herself identifies Helen as the most beautiful woman in the world.
Odysseus had come up with a plan for the Greeks to get into the city of Troy by hiding in a wooden horse. Why didn't Menelaus go right home after the Trojan War? The gods had caused a wind to blow him to Egypt.
One of the key lessons we can learn from Helen of Troy is the importance of effective communication in leadership. In the myth, Helen's beauty is said to have caused a great deal of tension and strife between the Greek and Trojan peoples.
In Euripides' play, The Trojan Women, set in the immediate aftermath of the fall of Troy, Hecuba tells Menelaus that she would praise him if he killed Helen. Helen then issues a spirited defence of herself, pointing out the undeniable truth – that Hecuba blames Helen for the war, rather than her own son, Paris.
Helen was cursed for her beauty, 'beauty like that of a goddess' as Homer puts it – (meaning a ferocious vitality that changed men's lives). Helen's physical perfection spawned suffering and rage and ugly death.
The goddess of sex, love, and passion is Aphrodite, and she is considered the most beautiful Greek goddess in Mythology. There are two versions of how Aphrodite was born.
While Helen repeatedly acknowledges her role in igniting the conflict, other characters, such as Priam, refuse to blame her. The Greek gods – who are accused of staging this great conflict – and the Trojan prince Paris are also held responsible.
The oddness of the situation comes down to this: technically, Paris and Helen's marriage was divinely sanctioned by Aphrodite and at no point did any of the gods dispute that. As such, Priam did not really have the right to send Helen back to Sparta without Paris.
Question 5: How did Helen betray Menelaus? Answer: Helen fell in love with a Trojan boy named Paris. One day, when King Menelaus was away on some business, they both fled from Greece and came to Troy. That is how Helen betrayed Menelaus.
What did Helen look like? Today's movies and paintings make her a blonde, but ancient Greek paintings show her as a brunette. Homer merely tells us she was “white-armed, long robed, and richly tressed,” leaving the rest up to our imagination. Ancient artist's rendering of Helen, with Eros urging her on.
But one ancient commentator says that Helen had two kids: “Hermione and her youngest-born, Nicostratus, a scion of Ares.” Pseudo-Apollodorus confirms, “Now Menelaus had by Helen a daughter Hermione and, according to some, a son Nicostratus.” A later commentator suggests Helen and Menelaus had another little boy, ...