Once again showcasing futitily of the Trojan War. What is real, and does it matter? If Helen were a phantom, would it have made a difference? Or was it the projections onto her by Achaeans and Trojans that made her real?

The back story for the siege of Troy, is that three Goddesses each try to bribe one luckless mortal into declaring them the most beautiful so the winner can claim a Golden Apple. This particularly unfortunate and horny judge is Paris, Prince of Troy, who picks Aphrodite because she promises him the most beautiful woman in the world. This happens to be Helen, or Mrs This is Sparta, and Aphrodite weaves her magic to makes Helen fall madly in love with the young Trojan prince. The rest is history, bloodshed and an inspiration for classical painters and that one crap Brad Pitt movie.

You would think being mind and loin controlled by a deity would absolve Helen for her part in the Trojan War, but apparently that is just not enough (this is the culture that basically accepts Hera punishing her husband's rape victims, after all). Deciding divine intervention is no good reason to let yourself be kidnapped, Euripides (inspired by Herodotus) saw a much simpler solution to the 'Should we condemn Helen?' question, and that would be: Helen was a ghost this whole time!

Yes, this is literally our setup for the play: in order to fully protect her purity, the actual Helen was spirited off by the Gods to Egypt, while a ghostly replica of herself went to Troy. Lonely and unable to contact her homeland, the true Helen is helpless and trapped for the entirity of the Trojan War. She also has the local King, the Greek hating Theoclymenus, trying to woo her and she is running out of excuses when word comes that Menaleus perished after Troy fell. Helen feels hopeless but then, Menaleus' ship crashes on her shore as he tries to sail home to Sparta, and he is very confused to discover he now has two identical wives.

Massive problem the first:
Priam is dead, his children and grandchildren are dead or enslaved, Achilles is dead, Patroclus is dead, Ajax is dead (those poor sheep are very dead), thousands of unnamed corpses are currently baking in the Mediterranean sun, Iphigenia is Schrodinger's Cat dead, Cassandra's defiled, a city is destroyed and Odysseus and Agememnon are about to get madly buggered. All that happens, all that war and poetry and tragedy, and Helen wasn't even in sodding Troy.

Massive problem the second:
'But all of that is unimportant, chaps!' calls a grinning Menelaus, 'This is the happiest and most perfect of endings, you see, because it mean's no one's had sex with my wife but me!'.

Massive problem the third:
Ok, Menelaus' ship might be FUBAR and Theoclymenus will certainly kill him if he discovers the Greek on his land, but he's just overjoyed to have the good and 'pure' Helen back. She's suffered in a way an Ancient Greek arsehole can feel sympathy for, and her demure faithfulness and goodness has completely absolved her of something that wasn't her damn fault in the first place. But how do they now get home?
Easy, Menaleus pretends to be a messenger bringing news of his own death and Helen pretends to accept Theoclymenus' marriage proposal, just as long he lets her take a boat out to sea, so she can offer a remembrance for her fallen husband. And then husband and wife just straight up fucking murder all the Egyptian sailors on the boat and sail back to Sparta. So, treachery and 'womanly deception' that leads to even more slaughter? 'But it's morally justified, don't you understand?!' shrieks Menaleus, 'It's all fine, because she didn't shag anyone but ME!'

Despite all the above, I really liked this play. It was speckled with swashbuckling, cackling ghosts and was so dumb how could I not enjoy it? It was also good to read something where Helen isn't constantly spat at for something that, again, was the machinations of the Gods and not her damned fault. So we get a happy ending, and it might take the poignancy out of the whole Troy story, but in another way its a wonderful example of just how utterly bloody pointless war can be.

Greek tragedy but David Lewis and Thanos and Gerald Ford?

this was absolutely fascinating. Helen as living in Egypt this whole time and has remained faithful and chaste for her husband who spent ten YEARS fighting for the return of a MAGICAL CLOUD OF AIR that has her face on it (made by the gods). honestly? fair enough. Wouldn't be the first time they made a magical air cloud version of someone (when they made a cloud hera for ixion then stuck his ass on the spinning flame death wheel in hell bc fuck that guy i guess? damn. First of all insane that this guy had sex with a cloud secondly insane that IT PRODUCED CHILDREN aka centaurs. what tf ever i guess) so yeah this isnt anything out of the norm for them. But its so interesting to read Euripides perspective on Helen and her being just and smart and fair (which i support because idc i love her everyone can shut up) vs when Homer writes her he just makes her call herself a bitch and a whore all the time. like shut tf up homer. we get it you hate her. If Ms. Frydenborg drilled one thing into my head its that homer hates helen. and homer also hates hector. sorry my dudes. but this was very interesting in comparison and how theyre all just godly pawns and whatever which is true. but then in this one they said they'll wait until helen dies for her to become a goddess but in Orestes menelaus comes home and the Dioscuri take helen as a goddess now and tell him to get a new wife. so what happened in real life? what's the true version of events. Euripides keeps contradicting himself. but helen is a sweetheart idc idc idc idc. Also the scenery was aesthetic af like a greek tomb for a minor sea god in egypt? thats so aesthetic are you kidding

notes:
- so we’re supposed to believe troy helen has been fake this whole time. yeah no
- this is fascinating to claim she was in egypt the entire time. i dont think i like this version as much but its nice to not have homer writing her bc he hates her
- “in my heart theres a great shrine of Justice” is a GREAT line

“If I can’t bring her home, I’ll take her down to death... If you want to kill us, do it! We’ll die as heroes.”

more like a comedy than a tragedy

What an interesting take on 'The Aftermath of Troy; or, Menelaos and Helen Reunited, and What Happened Then.' In a few short pages, Euripides has managed to turn the key element of the Abduction of Helen/Trojan War story upside-down.

You see, according to Euripides' Helen, Queen Helen of Sparta herself was not carried away to Troy at all. The gods fashioned a 'phantom Helen,' a sort of doppleganger, passed her off as the real Helen, and that is who Paris/Prince Alexander of Troy carried off with him. The true Helen was carried by the gods into Egypt, there to wait in safety (apart from an unwanted suitor) for the duration of the war - never mind that this war is being fought on false pretexts, over a phantom woman. (Rather an oversight on the gods' part; but then, that's fake gods for you.)

At first, I thought this 'major change' in the story made it less tragic; focused solely on Menelaos and Helen and their relationship (Menelaos being my favourite character in this whole getup, never mind which version), I was overjoyed that she had not been unfaithful to him after all. Upon further reflection, however, I realized that the Siege of Troy's being caused by a phantom rendered it that much more tragic. Agamemnon kills his daughter, great warriors kill each other, innocent civilians are slaughtered - over a phantom. As Helen waits in Egypt, rumours of the war reach her, and she bemoans the wasted lives and the fact that her name is being dragged through the mud; she will always be known as the Cause of the War, even though she is really innocent. While the play does observe these sobering facts, it moves relatively quickly on to more lighthearted scenes.

The focus of the play's 'main action' is on Menelaos's reunion with Helen (the real Helen this time; the fake Helen has conveniently vanished) and Menelaos and Helen's escape from Egypt (where, naturally, the King is dead-set on marrying Helen and would kill Menelaos on the spot if given the opportunity). It is rendered in a whimsical, humourous, and heartwarming manner, and ends optimistically enough (the Odyssey has already shown us where the two ultimately end up, so no real surprises as to outcome). However, behind the 'happy' and 'comedic' veneer lurks the dark truth that the Spartan King and Queen's happy reunion has come at the heavy price of countless wasted lives and wrecked relationships.

Euripides' Helen is, overall, an enjoyable read. The fact that it's a bit of a 'walking contradiction' - lighthearted in the telling, yet sobering upon further consideration - is both frustrating and fascinating. I would love to see a staged performance someday.

« L’homme injuste jamais ne jouit du bonheur. Au juste seul est promis le salut. »

Lol

منذ أن قرأت ملحمتي هوميروس، وتعلقت بكل ما يمت للحضارة اليونانية بِصلة، بدأت بالقراءة لأعمال متنوعة هن الحضارة اليونانية والأساطير الشعبية..

في قصة هيلين (أجمل سيدات الأرض)، هناك روايتان. الأولى كما عرفناها في إلياذة هوميروس، وهي أن هيلين اختطفت من قبل باريس وقامت الحرب بسببها حتى حررها زوجها وعاد بها إلى اسبرطة. والرواية الأخرى تختلف بعض الشيء بدايةّ من اختطافها، والإختلاف هنا حيث تشير الرواية أن زيوس أمر هيرمس أن يأخذها إلى ملك مصر لحمايتها، وأرسل بدلا منها شبح أو كما قال (سحابة) شبه هيلين تماماً، حتى اعتقد الجميع أنها هي، مع إن هيلين الحقيقية في مصر. بعض الشعراء و الكتاب اعنمد على هذه الرواية مثل هيروديت..

في هذه المسرحية يصور لنا يوربيديس الرواية الثانية..

Rewriting the Trojan War
28 April 2013

tThis is probably one of my all time favourite Greek plays, namely because Euripides takes a well known Greek epic and completely turns it on its head. I actually studied this particular play in Greek and Roman Drama and the focus of the lectures was on the idea of appearance and reality. It seems that this is something that was explored back then as it is now in the post-modern movement, which makes me think that there is nothing modern about post-modernism.

tBasically, according to Euripides, Helen was never taken to Troy but rather taken to Egypt and hidden away and a phantom sent with Paris namely because the gods did not actually want Helen to be defiled by the Trojans. The idea was that if the Greeks failed at Troy (which makes me think that, in Euripides' mind, the outcome of the Trojan War was never certain) then she would be safe in Egypt. However, one does question whether, if the Greeks did fail, would the Greek homeland be under threat.

tNow, the idea of appearance and reality is that not everything was as it seemed to be. The Helen that was taken by Paris was not the true Helen, but rather a ghost. Also notice that there is a suggestion that nothing may be unique, as Menelaus says 'may there be two Sparta's'. Once again this is an idea that reverberates through to our time as we explore the idea of alternate dimensions: dimensions where everything is almost the same except for one thing which separates them. There was a particular television series, Sliders, that even explored this concept of alternate universes.

tThere is the question of futility: the entire Trojan War was fought over nothing but a ghost, despite the fact that Menelaus had no idea that Helen had been spirited away to Egypt. Not only had he spent ten years at Troy fighting, but another seven years attempting to return home. It adds another layer of futility to the idea of war (and remember that during the time that Euripides was writing, Athens was in the middle of a major war). I suspect that there is an anti-war sentiment coming out here.

tHowever, the one thing that strikes me in this play is that Euripides is rewriting history to redeem Helen. Throughout history Helen has been seen as, well, a slut, because she deserted her husband and ran off with another man, and it was not as if she went unwillingly. It seemed in many cases that she agreed to leave with Paris (and if you watch the modern movie Troy – brilliant movie by the way – it is clear from there that Helen was a willing participant in the whole affair). However, not only is Helen entirely ignorant of what happened, she is also entirely innocent.

tWhat Euripides is doing is in effect redeeming not only Helen, but all women. He is effectively saying to the Greeks 'your attitude towards women is bad, they are not sluts, and they are not untrustworthy, and here I will show you.' Mind you, he did not need to redeem Helen to do that because all the Greeks needed to do was to look at the Odyssey to see an example of a virtuous and faithful woman. However, I suspect that there is more to this play than redeeming women. Euripides wanted to redeem Helen, because, in his mind, she had been hard done by. The question that is raised is, what if she was not a willing participant? What if she was forcefully taken by Paris? What if she never went to Troy and was stranded in a foreign land and held prisoner?

tAnother side note is that we also see a vision of Egypt from the eyes of a Greek. Okay, we see a lot of that in Herodotus, but here we see the land being described as 'the Jewel of the Nile'. Sometimes we tend to disconnect Greece from Egypt (or at least I do) when in reality there was probably a lot of connections. Mind you by the time that Euripides was writing, Egypt was little more than a Persian possession, however Euripides is not writing about now, but about the past, around the time of the Trojan War. Looking at a time line (and mind you I do not necessarily agree with them, but we will work with them) the destruction of Troy occurs around the time of the Pharoah Rameses II, and we are told in this play that the previous Pharoah was Proteus, who is held in high regard, which, to me, is suggestive of Rameses (who, no doubt, would have been known to the Greeks).

La peculiarità di questa tragedia di Euripide è l’inquadramento del personaggio principale, Elena di Troia, che nella mitologia classica era individuata come la causa della guerra di Troia, donna bellissima che proprio per colpa della sua bellezza tante morti produsse per gli Achei e per i Troiani. Nell’immaginario collettivo Elena era la bella senza cuore, donna di facili costumi, traditrice del marito Menelao per seguire un altro bellissimo, Paride, portatrice di infelicità ovunque andasse e infelice essa stessa perché maledetta in ogni luogo della terra allora conosciuta come infame e svergognata (nel mondo di oggi…beh lasciamo perdere).
Euripide, in questa tragedia, ci offre invece una versione diversa da quella classica, ci presenta una donna che nulla ha avuto a che fare con la guerra di Troia perché portata da Giove, suo padre, in Egitto, mentre nel Mediterraneo ferveva la guerra, dopo che un suo doppio, creato dalla volontà della dea Era, fu mandato a Troia con Paride e subì l’infamia che sappiamo. Questa è la peculiarità dell’opera, che presenta per prima cosa la novità del doppio –che pure una certa parte aveva nella mitologia greca, basti pensare ai Dioscuri-, ed inoltre la figura di una donna fedele, una moglie legata al ricordo del marito creduto morto in guerra, al ricordo della figlia che per colpa della sua infamia non ha potuto sposarsi, e , quando il marito Menelao, sbarcato dopo lunghe peripezie marittime in Egitto, compare improvvisamente al palazzo dove la donna è tenuta come prigioniera in attesa che acconsenta al matrimonio con il signore di quei luoghi, l’amore per lo sposo risorge più forte e passionale, così i due organizzano la fuga con l’aiuto della sorella del pretendente, una sacerdotessa che ha natura mezza divina mezza umana ed ha uno stretto contatto con le menti degli dei dell’Olimpo (una figura ambigua, abbastanza singolare, che è usato come escamotage per arrivare al finale). Non ho molto da dire sulla bellezza della tragedia greca, che ho letto negli anni scolastici per obbligo e non mi ha mai appassionato, soprattutto le parti in cui il coro eleva dei canti agli dei, inserendo miti e personaggi dei più svariati a me sconosciuti. Molto meglio invece vedere le rappresentazioni in teatro, qui dalle mie parti c’è il teatro romano di Urbisaglia, dove ogni estate vengono rappresentate tragedie e commedie greche e romane, spettacoli sempre molto di successo e suggestivi. Se venite da queste parti in vacanza al mare o in montagna, approfittatene.