What can the historical record tell us about Helen’s legend, if anything? Could there have a been a war for Helen—that is, some historical person who might have had a role in inspiring her legend? There were certainly conflicts, including one attested between Greece and Troy. Could a “Helen” have been involved? While accepting the there possibility of a Greek princess running off with an Anatolian prince (to conform to the story) and sparking a war, Barry Strauss states “the modern reader is skeptical of Homer.” Surely there must have been other reasons?1 It would be foolish to suggest otherwise (a multiplicity of reasons is the rule, not the exception) but the issue is more which reasons would be primary and which subsidiary, and what effect this might have on how the war was remembered and recorded.
This essay adds material relating specifically to Paris and Helen, including the notion, found in Herodotus and the Greek lyric tradition, that they visited Egypt on the way to Troy. Keep reading…
