Introduction
Helen, often called Helen of Troy or Helen of Sparta, is a daughter of Zeus and Leda, celebrated throughout Greek tradition as the most beautiful woman in the world. Her departure for Troy with the Trojan prince Paris, whether by abduction or by her own choice, is the event that directly triggers the Trojan War, the central conflict of the Greek Heroic Cycle.
This figure marks the point where the genealogy of the gods gives way to the genealogy of heroes. A fuller account of their adventures belongs to a separate treatment of the Greek Heroic Cycle; this article covers their divine parentage and place in that transition.
Family
- Father: Zeus
- Mother: Leda
- Siblings: Persephone, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Dionysus, Ares, Hephaestus, Hebe, Eileithyia, Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia, Urania, Perseus, Heracles, Arcas, Epaphus, Aeacus, Dardanus, Minos, Rhadamanthus, Sarpedon, Pollux (Polydeuces), Amphion, Zethus, Castor
Suitors and marriage
As a young woman of extraordinary beauty, Helen was sought by suitors from across Greece. To prevent conflict among them, her prospective husband Tyndareus, on the advice of Odysseus, had every suitor swear an oath to defend the marriage of whichever man Helen chose, an oath that later obliges nearly every major Greek king to join the war to recover her. She married Menelaus, king of Sparta.
The Judgement of Paris and Troy
When the Trojan prince Paris was asked to judge which of three goddesses was fairest, Aphrodite won his favour by promising him the love of the most beautiful woman alive, namely Helen, already married. Paris travelled to Sparta and, in most accounts, either persuaded her to leave with him or abducted her outright, taking her to Troy, an act that fulfilled the suitors' oath and launched the vast Greek expedition against the city, the central subject of Homer's Iliad and the wider Trojan War tradition.
Ambiguity of her role
Ancient sources themselves disagree on how much agency or blame Helen bears in her own departure, some (including a famous speech-defence attributed to the sophist Gorgias) treating her as compelled by divine power or persuasion beyond her control, others as a willing participant; this ambiguity is itself a long-standing and deliberate feature of her story across Greek literature.