Helen (2)

A tragedy by Euripides produced in 412 BCE.

This play seems to have reconciled the two versions of Helen’s tragic tale and the destruction of the city of Troy; it would seem that in 412 BCE everyone agreed that Troy had been sacked by the Greeks and that the abduction of Helen had been the cause, however, the Trojan War had been fought some eight hundred years before and the details were in question.

Euripides chose a very clever middle ground on which to base this story and portrayed the characters and events in a plausible way; according to Euripides, Helen was never in Troy and had never married the Trojan prince, Alexandros (Paris); when Alexandros earned the gratitude of Aphrodite (goddess of Love), by choosing her as the most beautiful goddess, he also earned the wrath of Hera, queen of the Immortals.

When Alexandros met and fell in love with Helen, Hera created a phantom in the form of Helen and the real Helen was taken by the god, Hermes, to Egypt; the king of Egypt, Proteus, offered Helen sanctuary until her husband, Menelaos (Menelaus), arrived to claim her.

As the play opens, we find Helen at the tomb of Proteus hiding because Proteus’ son, Theoklymenus (Theoclymenus), wants to betray his dead father’s promise and marry her; a shipwrecked Menelaos arrives at the palace of the new king and begs for an audience; he explains that he, his wife and his crew are stranded on the Egyptian coast and, as one king to another, he is sure that he will be granted help; he is told that Greeks are unwelcome in Egypt and that he will be killed if the young king finds him at the door; he is also told that Helen resides in the palace.

Menelaos believes that he rescued Helen from Troy and does not know that the wife he saved and has been shipwrecked with is the phantom-Helen; Menelaos then goes to the tomb of Proteus and finds the real Helen there; as they talk and discover the truth of their situation, one of Menelaos’ crew arrives and says that the Helen he and the other crew members were protecting has vanished into thin air; Menelaos and Helen begin plotting a means of escape from Egypt and devise a plan to trick Theoklymenus into giving them a ship.

The ending of the play is never really in question but the details of the drama are always intriguing; the play has many seemingly irrelevant, but interesting, asides but the most unusual is the recitation, by the chorus, of the story of Demeter and Persephone.

One very interesting element of the story is in the first few lines where Helen announces that she is in the land of the Nile and that it is fed, not by rain, but by melting snow; the historian, Herodotus (484?-425? BCE), was the one who declared that Helen was never in Troy and was protected by king Proteus in Egypt; Herodotus also said that, while he was in Egypt, the priests told him the Nile was fed by melting snow; Herodotus thought them to be mad or, at least, uninformed; he carefully explains how ridiculous their explanation of the Nile’s flood waters were to an educated man like himself; it would seem that by the time Euripides wrote Helen (412 BCE), the matter had been settled and that, at least on this point, Herodotus had been corrected.

If you care to read the plays of Euripides, I personally recommend the translations by David Grene and Richmond Lattimore, The Complete Greek Tragedies vol. 3 & 4, ISBN 0226307662 and 0226307670.

• Histories, book 2, chapters 19-27 and 112-120