Classical Wisdom Litterae - April 2019

Helen Brought to Paris, by Benjamin West, 1776

The play’s chorus agrees:

wedding of their daughter Hermione to Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles. The couple also hosts Telemachus while he searches for his father Odysseus, who never returned after the Trojan War. They all weep as Menelaus speaks of Odysseus’ many toils and the fact that he has not returned home.

Poor Troy! You have lost countless men All for one woman and her hateful bed! (Euripides, Trojan Women 780-1)

In this version of the story, Helen’s fate is to be killed by her husband Menelaus. In, Homer’s Odyssey , however, the two sail home together, reunited as husband and wife. The next time we see them, they are celebrating the

Helen in her grief puts a drug in her wine that eases her

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