Helen - by Euripides-First Preformed 412 B.C.E. Translated by Emily Wilson -This play is included in The Greek Plays: Sixteen Plays by Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides-Preface, general introduction, play introductions, and compilation - 2016 by Mary Lefkowitz and James Romm
An Ancient Reads Work
Euripides-480 to 406 B.C.E
Plays by Euripides Previously posted upon
Medea
Trojan Women
Hippolytus
Electra
Bacchae
Cast of Characters in Helen in Order of Appearance
HELEN, wife of Menelaus
TEUCER, a Greek hero from Salamis
CHORUS of Greek maidens
MENELAUS, king of Sparta
THEONOË, priestess and sister of Theoclymenos
THEOCLYMENUS, ruler of Egypt
MESSENGER
CASTOR and POLLUX, semidivine brothers of Helen (also known as the Dioscuri)SERVANT
THEONOË, priestess and sister of THEOCLYMENUS
Setting: Helen takes place in front of the palace of Theoclymenos, ruler of Egypt.
"Helen by Euripides presents a very different account of the person of Helen depicted in the Iliad. Homer presented a faithless wife who abandons her much older husband because of an infatuation with a handsome young Trojan prince, Paris, visiting the court of her Macedonian husband, Menelaus, on a diplomatic mission. Her lack of decent morals and unfaithfulness ended up destroying Troy and costing 1000s of Greek lives.
Ever since Homer’s Iliad, Helen had been associated in the Greek mind with beauty, sexual allure, and a faithlessness and cunning born of these two qualities. To build a tragedy around such a woman—the polar opposite, in terms of stature, of Antigone or Medea— as Euripides did in 412 B.C. was a daring move, almost certain to produce a play that was not, in fact, tragic." From the introduction
Euripides presents a totally different story. His Helen never went to Troy, never was unfaithful. Instead the Goddess Hera, jealous because she lost a beauty contest, created a spirit figure in Helen's and sent this to Troy.
The real Helen made it to Egypt. As I did not already know what was going to happen I found the plotting quite exciting.
EMILY WILSON is Associate Professor in Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Her work includes Mocked with Death: Tragic Overliving from Sophocles to Milton; The Death of Socrates: Hero, Villain, Chatterbox, Saint; Seneca: A Life; Seneca: Six Tragedies; and a new translation of the Odyssey.
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