Could a face launch a thousand ships???

Helen of Troy (or Sparta) has always been a character surrounded by enigma.  Hers is touted to be the face that launched a thousand ships – the 10 year war between Greece and Troy based on her supposed abduction (elopement with) by Paris.

Many of the details we derive are contradictory.  The primary source for all the derivations is Homer’s ‘The Illiad’.   But ‘The Illiad’ only covers the last few weeks of the Trojan war from the demand to release Chrysues to the death of Patroclus and concentrates fully on the heroism of Achilles and the cunning of Ulysses.  Helen, is but a secondary character here who just started the whole war.

A note on The Illiad and The Odyssey :  Both were poems attributed to Homer who was supposedly blind by the time he wrote these epics.  These two are the only known epics apart from our very own Ramayana and Mahabharata - both of which are considerably older and more complex. While The Illiad talks about the Trojan war, The Odyssey talks about the 10 year long  travel adventures of Odysseus or Ulysses back to Ithaca from Troy after the war.  Many western scholars consider ‘Paradise Lost’ and ‘Paradise Regained’ of Milton as epics.  But purely from an age and the complexity of the story point of view, the western scholars are wrong.  So, that leaves only ‘The Illiad’ and ‘The Odyssey’ as western epics – both penned around the 8th Century BC. 

Hollywood did its own take on ‘The Illiad’ in the movie ‘Troy’.  Many of the depictions were accurate while the story in itself was decimated (Menelaus dying in the middle of the war rather than surviving the war and returning with Helen).  There were also some good dialogues in the movie like this one in the beginning between Menelaus and Hector – Paris.

1) “Let the Gods keep the wolves in their lairs and the women in our beds”!!! – What a comparison!?!?!

2) Ulysses to Achilles when he comes to invite him for the war – “ We play with the gifts that the Gods have given us – You have your sword and I have my words”

3) Ulysses to Achilles when the beach of Troy is taken – “ War is all about young men fighting and old men talking.  Ignore the politics.”

The story of Helen and the following events of the war as described in ‘The Illiad’ are very complex.  The Gods – including Zeus (the leader of Gods) and his consort Hera get actively involved in the war and take sides.  So are lesser Gods like Apollo, Aphrodite, Athena etc.  So the whole narrative becomes complex and intriguing as to why each God/Demigod supports that character. 

Helen, for her part, is the daughter of Zeus, but born to the King of Sparta.  When she becomes of marriageable age, there is a contest (swayamvaram?) and the King of Sparta is worried that there would be a huge fight for the winner against the losers.  Odysseus or Ulysses comes to the rescue of the King and agrees to a pact with all the suitors that they will abide by the choice of Helen.  Part of the agreement is that they will defend Helen against any abductor.  This forms the basis of all the Greek Kings agreeing to join the fight with Troy when Helen is supposedly abducted by Paris.  The other basis, is of course, Agememnon, the brother of Menelaus, who is the undisputed sovereign over all of Greece except the Mormidyns led by Achilles.  So, when he calls upon them, they have to fight for him.

Achilles, the principle character in ‘The Illiad’ is a human born to a demigod mother Thetis.  She refuses the advances of Zeus himself on the grounds that she was brought up by Hera and so technically is his daughter.  Thetis knows that Zeus would harm her son, Achilles and hence dips him head first in the river of ambrosia – Styx.  While doing this, she holds him by the heel and that part of his body does not get dipped.  That remains his only mortal part and he ultimately gets killed by an arrow shot by Paris to his heel. 

Having given a brief background,  the quintessential question is – Can a face launch a thousand ships?

The answer is as enigmatic as the question.  We see such similar instances throughout literature.  Some of the best examples from other classics are from Alexander Dumas’ works that include Milady de Winter from ‘The 3 Musketeers’ – the character which forms the basis for the character of Nandini in Kalki’s masterpiece ‘Ponniyin Selvan’.  A most beautiful and graceful lady who makes every man who approaches her to do her bidding – at the same time scheming the downfall of an empire.   Again, the entire plot of ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ starts off with Dante’s friends scheming and preventing him from marrying Mercedes.  Mumtaj Mahal is another example.  Shah Jahan was supposed to have had a harem of more than 300 women, but his love for Mumtaj made him go to great lengths to build the Taj Mahal.  For 20 years, the people of the Mughal empire had to pay double taxes and labor endlessly to create a monument for a single woman! 

Back to ‘The Illiad’ – Helen’s story during and after the war is again controversial.  She was detested by all the Trojans for having brought the war upon them.  The only people in Troy who loved and supported her were Priam-the old King, Hector- his first son and Paris- his second son.  But as the war progresses, Helen slowly realizes her blunder and has more feelings for the heroic Hector than the weak Paris.

After the war, the most widely believed account is that she returned with Menelaus to Sparta and ruled with him well into old age.  Now, why would a man do that with a woman who supposedly eloped with a foreigner?  Or was her beauty so great, that he was ready to pardon her misdemeanor and accept her back as the Queen of Sparta?  

Well, that is a question even the Gods on Olympus could not have answered!!!