Helen

Category:

Epigraph

“Was this the face that Launcht a thousand ships
And burnt the toplesse Towers of Ilium? […]
O thou art fairer then the evenings aire,
Clad in the beauty of a thousand starres. ”

—Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus 1943–1944;1956–1957

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Contents

1. Introduction
2. …

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1 Introduction

[closing speech of the Dioscuri in Euripides‘ Helen; line 1668: xénia!]

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2

Herodotus?

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Ancient interpretations of Helen’s name

“Helen (Helénē), the heroine (hērōḯs),

• “(is so named) from hélō, ‘to draw’: ‘she who draws people with her beauty’, because she attracted many with her beauty;
• “or from Hellas (‘Greece’);
• “or from being born in a marsh (hélos); she was thrown into a marshy place by (her father) Tyndareus, but by some divine providence, she was retrieved by Leda. So, Helen was named after the marsh.”

(Etymologicum Magnum, s.v. Ἑλένη)

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[…]

star of Helen (cp. star of the Dioscuri)

[Isocrates‘ Helen (!), Gorgias‘ piece on her, Plato about Simonides, Philostratus, etc. Theocritus. Alcaeus.]

Catullus? (Theocritus?)
Ptolemy Chennus? Proclus, Athenaeus (Nemesis); egg-shell? Etc.
Scholia Eur. Or. 249
Cypria (Chennus, Proclus, Athenaeus). Pausanias,
Helenion, Anakeia, Helenês kratêr

φάντασμα δέ τι καὶ δαιμόνιον | συμπολιτεύεσθαι μετὰ τῶν θεῶν | ὅτι Ξείνης Ἀφροδίτης ἐπώνυμόν ἐστι | ἣν Ξένην Ἀφροδίτην ὀνομάζουσιν | ἐγεγόνει θεὸς ἡ Ἑλένη | τὸ τῆς Ἑλένης ἱρόν | ὁ μὲν Ἰλιεὺς θεὸν Ἕκτορα λέγει καὶ τὴν Ἑλένην Ἀδράστειαν ἐπιστάμενος προσκυνεῖ | Πόθεν δὴ ἐξέλαμψε τὸ τῆς Ἑλένης τῆς περιμαχήτου κάλλος, ἢ ὅσαι γυναικῶν Ἀφροδίτης ὅμοιαι κάλλει | τῶν γοῦν θεῶν ἐξ ἡρώων γενομένων Ἡρακλῆς τέ ἐστιν ὁ Διὸς καὶ Διόσκουροι καὶ Ἑλένη | Ὠοῦ ἐξῆλθεν | Ῥαμνοῦς δῆμος Ἀττικῆς

Status: under construction.