What happened to Helen?

[bamamick]

Not being blessed with a classical education, I was just wondering, after the fall of Troy to the Greeks, what happened to Helen? In the movie they just ran out the back way. Did Paris and Helen become sheep herders? Was she the face that launched 1000 sheep? Did she die a noble and tragic death? Just curious.

Mickey Lake

[westinghouse]

It depends who you ask. Euripides figured she never made it to Troy at all, but remained in Egypt during the Trojan War.

Check it out here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_of_Troy)

Eli

[ 01-08-2005, 02:51 AM: Message edited by: westinghouse ]

[bamamick]

Well, that was all very confusing. It's time like this that I am thankful for not having received a classical education.

Mickey Lake

[uncas]

I thought that Helen was taken back to Greece...
Not as long a trip than Ulysses so there wasn't a book about it... :D

[Mrleft8]

What most people aren't aware of is that Helen of Troy's real name was Helen Bach. After the Trojan war she opened up a consulting firm for defense contractors. Apparently she was fairly brutal in her assesments of some of the younger contractors bids, and told them repeatedly to re-work the numbers. When these poor guys got home at the end of the day, verbally abused and bone weary from trying to work out contractual loop holes, their wives would look at them and say:"Poor dear! You look like you've been to Helen Bach today!".

[uncas]

Mrleft8
Is she related to Johann S. Bach....? :D

[ 01-07-2005, 08:49 AM: Message edited by: uncas ]

[Mrleft8]

Great aunt I think....

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Mickey, the straight answer is that she went back to her husband, and lived happily ever after.

Here is Book Four of the Odyssey, in which Telemachus, son of Ulysses, who is seeking news of his father, visits Menelaus, King of Sparta.

Quite a cosy domestic scene, in fact:

http://classics.mit.edu/Homer/odyssey.4.iv.html

In fact, the outlook is rather good for the pair of them, according to the Proteus, the Old Man of the Sea (addressing Menelaus):

"As for your own end, Menelaus, you shall not die in Argos, but the gods will take you to the Elysian plain, which is at the ends of the world. There fair-haired Rhadamanthus reigns, and men lead an easier life than any where else in the world, for in Elysium there falls not rain, nor hail, nor snow, but Oceanus breathes ever with a West wind that sings softly from the sea, and gives fresh life to all men. This will happen to you because you have married Helen, and are Jove's son-in-law."

So Menelaus married into the right family, and lives happily ever after with Helen. smile.gif

[ 01-07-2005, 11:48 AM: Message edited by: Andrew Craig-Bennett ]