Character · Individual
Read-only identity and editorial metadata.
daughter of aegis-bearing Jove
Descriptive reference · Direct
Argive Helen
Epithet · Direct
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Helen reached the Scaean gates with her two handmaids.
“She threw a white mantle over her head, and hurried from her room, weeping as she went, not alone, but attended by two of her handmaids, Aethrae, daughter of Pittheus, and Clymene. And straightway they were at the Scaean gates.”
Helen recalls having come to Troy with Alexandrus, far from her former home.
“would that I had chosen death rather than to have come here with your son, far from my bridal chamber”
Helen recalled being brought to Troy.
“Alexandrus who brought me hither to Troy”
Helen reached the house of Alexandrus with Venus.
“When they came to the house of Alexandrus the maidservants set about their work, but Helen went into her own room”
Helen sits in Alexandrus’s house with her women.
“there, too, sat Argive Helen with her women, setting them their several tasks”
Paris recalls Helen being with him upon the couch of love on Cranae.
“not even when I had converse with you upon the couch of love in the island of Cranae”
Juno describes Helen as still being kept by Priam and the Trojans and as the cause for which many Achaeans have died far from home at Troy.
“leave Priam and the Trojans the glory of still keeping Helen, for whose sake so many of the Achaeans have died at Troy, far from their homes”
Hector describes Helen as a lovely woman married among warriors whom Alexandrus carried off, and identifies her as Menelaus’s stolen wife.
“a lovely woman wedded among a people of warriors—to bring sorrow upon your father, your city, and your whole country, but joy to your enemies, and hang-dog shamefacedness to yourself? And now can you not dare face Menelaus and learn what manner of man he is whose wife you have stolen”
Alexandrus proposes that Helen and all her wealth go home with the victor of the duel.
“fight in their midst for Helen and all her wealth. Let him who shall be victorious and prove to be the better man take the woman and all she has, to bear them to his home”
Hector relays that Helen and all she has would go home with the duel’s victor.
“fight in the midst of you for Helen and all her wealth. Let him who shall be victorious and prove to be the better man take the woman and all she has, to bear them to his own home”
Helen works in her room at a great purple linen web, embroidering the battles fought for her sake between Trojans and Achaeans.
“She found her in her own room, working at a great web of purple linen, on which she was embroidering the battles between Trojans and Achaeans, that Mars had made them fight for her sake”
Helen yearns for her former husband, city, and parents, covers her head with a white mantle, and hurries weeping to the Scaean gates with two handmaids.
“Helen’s heart yearned after her former husband, her city, and her parents. She threw a white mantle over her head, and hurried from her room, weeping as she went, not alone, but attended by two of her handmaids, Aethrae, daughter of Pittheus, and Clymene. And straightway they were at the Scaean gates”
The Trojan elders call Helen marvellously and divinely lovely, yet fear she will bring sorrow to them and their children if she remains.
“Small wonder that Trojans and Achaeans should endure so much and so long, for the sake of a woman so marvellously and divinely lovely. Still, fair though she be, let them take her and go, or she will breed sorrow for us and for our children after us”
Helen reveres Priam as her husband’s father, wishes she had died rather than leave her home and loved ones with Priam’s son, calls her life tearful and sorrowful, and identifies Agamemnon as her brother-in-law.
“Sir,’ answered Helen, ‘father of my husband, dear and reverend in my eyes, would that I had chosen death rather than to have come here with your son, far from my bridal chamber, my friends, my darling daughter, and all the companions of my girlhood. But it was not to be, and my lot is one of tears and sorrow. As for your question, the hero of whom you ask is Agamemnon, son of Atreus, a good king and a brave soldier, brother-in-law as surely as that he lives, to my abhorred and miserable self”
Idaeus reports that Helen will go with the victor of the single combat.
“fight for Helen in single combat, that she and all her wealth may go with him who is the victor”
Helen stands on a high tower crowded by Trojan women and wears a perfumed robe that disguised Venus plucks.
“found her on a high tower with the Trojan women crowding round her. She took the form of an old woman who used to dress wool for her when she was still in Lacedaemon, and of whom she was very fond. Thus disguised she plucked her by perfumed robe”
Helen grows angry, recognizes Venus, accuses her of beguilement and betrayal, refuses to garnish Alexandrus’s bed, and fears public shame while troubled in mind.
“With these words she moved the heart of Helen to anger. When she marked the beautiful neck of the goddess, her lovely bosom, and sparkling eyes, she marvelled at her and said, ‘Goddess, why do you thus beguile me? Are you going to send me afield still further to some man whom you have taken up in Phrygia or fair Meonia? Menelaus has just vanquished Alexandrus, and is to take my hateful self back with him. You are come here to betray me. Go sit with Alexandrus yourself; henceforth be goddess no longer; never let your feet carry you back to Olympus; worry about him and look after him till he make you his wife, or, for the matter of that, his slave—but me? I shall not go; I can garnish his bed no longer; I should be a by-word among all the women of Troy. Besides, I have trouble on my mind”
Venus threatens that, if Helen provokes her, she will abandon and hate Helen, stir up fierce hatred between the armies, and bring Helen to a bad end.
“if you do, I shall leave you to your fate and hate you as much as I have loved you. I will stir up fierce hatred between Trojans and Achaeans, and you shall come to a bad end”
Frightened Helen wraps her mantle around herself and silently follows Venus, unnoticed by the Trojan women.
“Helen was frightened. She wrapped her mantle about her and went in silence, following the goddess and unnoticed by the Trojan women”
Helen enters her own room, sits facing Alexandrus with eyes askance, and begins to rebuke her husband.
“Helen went into her own room, and the laughter-loving goddess took a seat and set it for her facing Alexandrus. On this Helen, daughter of aegis-bearing Jove, sat down, and with eyes askance began to upbraid her husband”
Helen rebukes Alexandrus, wishes Menelaus had killed him, recalls his boast of superiority, and warns that another challenge would end with his death by Menelaus’s spear.
“So you are come from the fight,’ said she; ‘would that you had fallen rather by the hand of that brave man who was my husband. You used to brag that you were a better man with hands and spear than Menelaus. Go, then, and challenge him again—but I should advise you not to do so, for if you are foolish enough to meet him in single combat, you will soon fall by his spear”
Helen goes with Alexandrus as he leads her toward the bed.
“On this he led her towards the bed, and his wife went with him”
Helen lies on the bed together with Alexandrus.
“Thus they laid themselves on the bed together”
Helen was carried off by Alexandrus during his voyage from Sidon.
“whom Alexandrus had brought over from Sidon when he sailed the seas upon that voyage during which he carried off Helen”
Helen sits with her women and assigns their several tasks.
“Argive Helen with her women, setting them their several tasks”
Alexandrus says Helen has been gently urging him toward battle.
“My wife was even now gently urging me to battle”
Evidence records not already represented by a claim.
“Helen”
“for Helen and all her wealth”
“Argive Helen”
“Alexandrus husband of lovely Helen”
“the loveliest after Helen herself”
“preventing Helen’s being restored to Menelaus”
“lovely Helen”
“the accursed sake of Helen”
“What if I were to promise to give up Helen”
“then Helen for a third time took up the strain of lamentation”