Paris And Helena
Helen of Troy has captured the imagination of artists and
writers for ages. According to popular mythology, her beauty was the cause of
the Trojan War that would plague her part of the
world for an entire decade. This is why she was referred to as 'the face that
launched a thousand ships.' Her legendary beauty was the result of her divine
lineage. In most accounts of her birth, Helen of Troy was the daughter of Zeus, the
king of the Olympian gods, and a mortal woman named Leda, Queen
of Sparta. As the story goes, Zeus appeared to Leda in the form of a swan and
the pair conceived Helen. Instead of a regular birth, Leda gave birth to eggs,
which eventually hatched and yielded Helen and her siblings. Some accounts
reported that Helen was the only birth to result from this union. In some
myths, Helen is the daughter of Zeus and a goddess named Nemesis. The true
origins of the myth of Helen of Troy remain unclear. The first known record of
her name was written by the poet Homer.
This bust of Helen of Troy by artist Antonio Canova is on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum (photo by Yair Haklai).
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A long time ago, in the age of heroes, when
gods and goddesses still took a close interest in human affairs, a great
wedding was planned between a famous warrior called Peleus and a lovely sea
nymph whose name was Thetis. All the kings and queens of the day were invited
to the wedding feast, as well as all the immortal ones who lived on Mount
Olympus – all that is, except for one, for no invitation was sent to Eris, the
goddess of strife. Now strife is when people argue, and it was generally
thought a bad idea to invite strife to a wedding party, in case she caused the
happy couple to quarrel. Eris was extremely annoyed about being overlooked, and
as revenge she decided to play a spiteful trick on the wedding guests. Just as
the celebrations were at their height, she appeared in the banqueting hall
dressed as a serving girl. A silver plate was in her hands, and on it was an
apple on which she had written the words, “For the fairest of them all.” This
she placed on the table where the three loveliest goddesses were sitting; their
names were Hera, Athene and Aphrodite. Immediately as they saw the words on the
apple, a quarrel broke out between the three goddesses.
Hera said to the others, “I am the queen of
all the immortal gods, and it follows that I must be far fairer than either of
you two, therefore the apple belongs to me.”
“My dear Hera,” said Athene, “You might be
queen, but I am the goddess of wisdom, therefore I know absolutely everything
that is worth knowing. You must believe me when I say that you are quite
mistaken. Wisdom is beauty, and beauty is wisdom. They are one and the same
thing, therefore the apple belongs to me.”
“Darlings,” purred Aphrodite, “It’s quite
obvious that the apple belongs to me. I possess the power of love because, to
put it quite simply, I am so much more beautiful than anybody else.”
The goddesses carried on arguing
continuously for years after the wedding was over – for time means nothing to
the immortal ones. The king of all the gods, mighty and thundering Zeus, became
quite fed up with listening to their bickering. When, at length, he was at his
wits’ end, he suggested to the three lovely goddesses that they resolve the
question once and for all with a beauty contest. And that is exactly what they
did.
The three goddesses agreed on one thing:
that the most handsome and fashionably dressed mortal who walked on the face of
the earth was Paris, Prince of Troy. They decided to surprise him. One day when
Paris was out hunting on the foothills of Mount Ida, he discovered three lovely
goddesses standing beneath a tree. In all his life he had never seen such
dazzling beauty. For a moment he stood amazed, then Hermes, the winged
messenger of the gods, flew up to Paris and spoke to him as follows, “Hail
Paris, prince of magnificent Troy. Lord Zeus, the king of all the gods, sends
you his greetings. He wishes to bestow upon you a great honour. He asks that
you give this apple to the fairest goddess of them all.”
Paris, who normally had a keen eye for
beauty, found it hard to choose. Each goddess was so beautiful. Hera had the
most lovely milky white skin ever seen. Athene had the most dazzling, dancing
eyes. And Aphrodite had the most charming smile. Which should he pick?
At length, seeing that he was at a loss,
Hera said to him, “Prince Paris, give the apple to me and I will give you the
gift of great power.”
Athene, not to be outdone by this offer,
said, “Prince Paris, give the apple to me and I will give you the gift of great
wisdom.”
But Aphrodite laughed and said, “Paris my
dear, don’t you listen to those two silly goddesses. What fun would you have
with power or wisdom? Give the apple to me and I will give you a gift that is
much more to your liking. I shall give you the love of the most beautiful woman
on earth.”
Now Paris no longer found the choice so
hard to make. He had long been in love with the most beautiful woman on earth,
whose name was Helen. It so happened that Helen was married to King Menelaus, and
Paris had thought up until that moment that the possibility of his winning her
love was beyond all hope, but now he understood that his chances could be
greatly improved – and so Paris gave the apple to Aphrodite. She giggled with
delight, but the other two goddesses were furious and flew directly back to
Mount Olympus in a great huff, where they complained long and bitterly to Zeus
about the unfairness of the competition. Zeus had a dark feeling that there was
trouble in store for humankind.
Paris set sail for the land of Sparta,
where Menelaus was king and lived with his beautiful Queen Helen. Menelaus
welcomed the famous prince into his palace, and while the two sat talking about
the affairs of the world, Queen Helen came down from her perfumed room, looking
as lovely as a goddess. The maid-servants brought her a seat and covered it
with a soft lambswool rug, and she sat before her silver work box, but before
she began to embroider, she glanced over at the visiting prince and questioned
her husband, “Shall I guess the name of this prince who has come to visit us?
Let us see if I am right or wrong? I have heard tell of a prince from far off
Troy who is famous the world over for his looks and fashionable style. Is it
he, Paris, prince of Troy who has come to stay with us?”
“My dear wife,” said Menelaus, “As always,
you are quite right. It is indeed, Paris, prince of Troy who is paying us the
honour of his visit.” Paris acknowledged Queen Helen with a nod of his head.
At dinner that night, Helen added a special
potion into the wine, so that anyone who drank it would forget all his cares,
and be happy for the rest of the evening. They feasted and made merry and while
Menelaus was busy laughing and joking with one of his generals, Paris spoke
softly to Helen.
“Most beautiful queen,” he said, “I beg
you, meet me tonight in the orchard beneath the palace walls and we shall sail
away together in my ship, and head directly for Troy, the most magnificent city
in all the world.”
And because the goddess of love, Aphrodite,
had wished it so, Helen could not help herself, and agreed to his suggestion.
When King Menelaus awoke in the morning,
and he discovered that his guest and his wife had run away together, he flew
into a rage, kicking the furniture and punching the walls of his chamber. He
swore before all the gods that his revenge would be truly terrible – so he went
to see his elder brother, King Agamemnon of Argos, and said to him, “My dear
brother, the honour of our family has been besmirched by this foreign peacock,
this perfumed playboy, this prancing Prince of Troy. Let us gather together all
the kings of Greece and combine our armies into the greatest force that has
ever been seen since the dawn of history, and let us sail to the far off city
of Troy, and teach Prince Paris some manners.”
Although Agamemnon was wise and he knew
that it is always a terrible mistake to rush headlong into conflict. He
suggested first, that they send an ambassador to Troy to request the return of
Queen Helen, whom he was sure had been abducted against her will. He knew that
Paris’ father, King Priam of Troy was a good man, and he was sure that he would
order his son to release her, and so they sent a message to Troy in the name of
peace and reconciliation, but Helen did not wish to go home, and Prince Paris
refused to return the lovely queen to her husband, saying that they had been
brought together by the Goddess of Love, Aphrodite herself; and so that meant
war. King Agamemnon, the brother of the wronged Menelaus, summoned all the kings
of Greece and prepared a navy of a thousand ships, the greatest military force
to ever set sail.
And that is the story of how the great war
between the Greeks and the Trojans was started by Prince Paris and Queen Helen.
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Images
The Movie named ,
Toy (2004)
Initial release: May 9, 2004 (Germany)
Writers:
Homer (poem), David Benioff (screenplay)Stars:
Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Orlando Bloom
( Based on Homer's "Iliad," this epic portrays the battle between the ancient kingdoms of Troy and Sparta. While visiting Spartan King Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson), Trojan prince Paris (Orlando Bloom) falls for Menelaus' wife, Helen (Diane Kruger), and takes her back to Troy. Menelaus' brother, King Agamemnon (Brian Cox), having already defeated every army in Greece, uses his brother's fury as a pretext to declare war against Troy, the last kingdom preventing his control over the Aegean Sea.An adaptation of Homer's great epic, the film follows the assault on Troy by the united Greek forces and chronicles the fates of the men involved. )
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