Helen of Troy

[James]

This is related to the Troy thread.

I never thought of Helen as a Tragic Hero before. It certainly wasn't taught that way in Class.

In class, Helen was more like an act of nature, with very little character development she was merely a very beautiful woman. If there is anything merely about such beauty.

And because of her beauty she was abducted and raped as a teen, married off to menelaus, wood by Paris and then I believe married to someone else after Paris died.

But I keep thinking . . . Assuming she was a real person, and assuming she loved Paris, not Menelaus and saw flight to an enlightened wealthy Troy as infinitely preferable to remaining in cold dark Sparta, with a man she neither loved nor chose . . then wasn't she truly a victim of terrible misfortune?

Because at the end of the ten years, she saw Paris dead, Hector dead, all the friends she had made at Troy and that life dead as well as the city burned to the ground. And she lived long enough to go home with Menelaus, back to a cold dark Sparta and a loveless marriage.

She cast the dice opting for a better life and fate saw to fit to leave her alive to see everything she wanted stripped from her in a horrific way.

Anyway . . go see the movie Troy.