Introduction On us the gods have set an evil destiny, That we should be a singer's themeFor generations to come. -- Iliad 6.

357-5 !o "elen, re#lecting on her destiny, understands that her #unction is not $rimarily, or evensecondarily, to be a woman but to be #irst and #oremost a story. "elen s$ea% s here withtwo voices. One is her own, the voice o# a woman who $erceives hersel# cast as acharacter and a theme in a drama authored by the gods. The other voice is "omer's, or,more accurately, it is the voice o# the e$ic tradition s$ea%ing through the Iliad, thetradition beholding itsel# in and through "elen, and re#lecting on its god li%e $ower tocreate icons and endow them with a li#e to rival the immortality o# the gods. &ut bothvoices converge on one unha$$y truth. 'hether we view the Tro(an 'ar through "elen'seyes or through the eyes o# the tradition, it is the same story, in which "elen was andremains the ma(or scandal. )n her every a$$earance in the Ili ad, "elen shows hersel#conscious o# the scandal o# her behavior at Troy, and the scandal that she would becomein the songs o# the e$ic bards. Than%s to the immortal i*ing $ower o# e$ic, "elen would be#orever remembered, but in her case shame would be her distinction. "elen's scandal may be so#tened in the Odyssey -- it seems to be almost a thing o# the $ast-- but it is never entirely erased. +t almost the end o# the $oem ,enelo$e, in a$ologi*ing to Odysseus #or her e-treme cautionin recogni*ing him, invo%es "elen's evil re$utation in her own de#ense ./3./ 0 -/012 34oteven +rgive "elen hersel#, born o# 5eus, would have (oined with a #oreign man in the bedo# love, had she %nown that the warli%e sons o# the +chaeans w ould bring her bac% to her#atherland.3 The Tro(an 'ar is barely over, but already "elen is encoded in the e$ictradition as the woman who was doubly disgraced, #irst by entering a #oreigner's bed, andthen when she was #orcibly removed #rom the #oreigner's bed and returned to her law#ul$lace in her husband's bed. 'ith so much dis grace to hold be#ore her, ,enelo$e wouldneed to e-ercise so much the more discretion, lest she be remembered by the e$ic singersas a second "elen. !uch was the $ortrait o# "elen as it was transmitted through the tradition that culminatedin the "omeric $oems -- the woman who disgraced hersel# and betrayed her # amily and$eo$le. )n the $ost"omeric literary tradition "elen is again and again reviled, whether asthe treacherous wi#e or as the libertine who $re#erred $leasure to ho nor. 6ven !a$$ho,when she thin%s o# "elen (Ode 06 7,1, thin%s not o# the "elen worshi$ed as a goddess at!$arta but o# "omer's "elen, the shame#ul woman canoni* ed in the e$ic tradition. &ut in the archaic $eriod, when lyric $oetry was emerging as a $ersonal re#lection on thetraditional myths, a curious countermovement arose to rescue "elen's name #r om thedisre$ute that had accrued to it #rom the e$ic tradition. !tesichorus, the si-thcentury $oet#rom !icily, is the #irst in our literary record to give voice to this revisi on o# the "elenmyth. !a$$ho, !tesichorus' contem$orary, though e-onerating "elen on the grounds thatbeauty and the desire #or beauty are absolutes that override all other ethical and socialconsiderations, ma%es no e##ort to revise "omer's myth. 'hile !a$$ho sim$ly acce$ts the"omeric tradition, !tesichorus $ro$oses a radical revi sion2 "elen hersel# had never sailedto Troy but had been im$ersonated there by a ghost or eidolon. Thus at a single stro%e"elen would be removed #rom Troy, the am bi -/8uestia, a $art o# 9ale, :engage 7earning. www.;uestia.com Publication information: &oo% title2 "elen o# Troy and "er !hameless ,hantom. :ontributors2 4orman +ustin - +uthor. ,ublisher2 :ornell <niversity ,ress. ,lace o# $ublication2 )thaca, 4=. ,ublication year2 0>>?. ,age number2 / guities would disa$$ear #rom her character, and the scandal would be erased once and #orall. Our $rimary source #or the story o# this revision is ,lato, who re#ers to it in two $assages.)n the Phaedrus ./?3a-b1, !ocrates, admitting that he has (ust slandered 6ros by s$ea%ingin #avor o# the lover mas;uerading as a nonlover, o##ers to e-$iate his transgression by$er#orming an ancient #orm o# $uri#ication. This $urge, he claims, ! tesichorus %new,though "omer did not. !tesichorus, as !ocrates tells the story, was de$rived o# his sight #orhis slander (katgoria) o# "elen. "e did not remain in ign orance, however, as "omer did,!ocrates continues, but being 3musical3 (mousikos), he understood the cause o# hisblindness and com$osed 3the so-called Palinode" .t hat is, his 3song re-sung,3 his re-cantation1, whereu$on his sight was restored. !ocrates ;uotes three verses, which have generally been ta%en to be the $relude to thePalinode. These verses give us the #irst term that is essential #or the revision, tha t "elennever sailed to Troy. 'e can glean the second essential term #rom a $assage in theRepublic .5 6c1, where ,lato li%ens the $ursuit o# #alse $leasures to the Tro( an 'ar as!tesichorus inter$reted it, in which the 9ree%s and the Tro(ans #ought #or "elen's eidolon,in ignorance o# the truth. The Tro(an 'ar, thus revised, became a war not #or a womanbut #or her ghost, shadow, or image -- the various meanings contained in the 9ree% wordeidlon. The Palinode stands as the #irst instance in our literary record o# a 9ree% $oet attem$ting adeliberate and wholesale revision o# a myth canoni*ed in the e$ic tradition. 9ree% mythsabounded in variants, and the story that !tesichorus told, o# "elen re$laced by a ghost o#hersel# at Troy, may have been such a variant, $erha$s $romulga ted by the devotees o#"elen's shrine at Thera$ne in !$arta, where "elen continued to be worshi$ed as a goddessinto the historical $eriod. &ut whatever his source, !te sichorus $resented his version o# the"elen myth not as a variant but as a thorough re$udiation o# the "omeric story. 'ithout"elen at Troy, the Iliad and the Odyssey would #all to $ieces. 'e can scarcely -3even imagine an Iliad in which the "elen at Troy was only a ghost. The Odyssey toowould have to be retold. =oung Telemachus would listen s$ellbound as @enelaus described a ten-year war #ought #or a ghost, and "elen would be a #und o# amusinganecdotes about her solitary li#e in !$arta while her husband made a #ool o# himsel# chasing her ghost across the sea. 4o other revision o# a traditional myth $resented such a#undamental challenge to the "omeric authority.0 4o other character in 9ree % myth wasever so radically revised. The only com$arable case is the revision $ro$osed by "esiod in#ragment /3a @', where he e-$lains that )$himede .A )$higenei a1 had not died at +ulis,because +rtemis had s$irited her away to become 3+rtemis o# the Boad,3 whilesubstituting an eidolon #or her at +ulis. &ut this revision, while curiously similar to, and$erha$s even contem$orary with, the Palinode, would not have the #ar-reaching e##ects onthe story that would be re;uired by "elen's eidolon ./ The moti#s e-$ressed in the anecdote o# the Palinode, as !ocrates tells it, show that honorand shame are the driving #orces o# this revisionist $lot, as they were o# the "omeric$lot.3 First, the "elen o# this story is not a woman but has been elevated to unambiguousgodhood. 'ith "elen now a goddess, we have the moti# common in myth o# a maninsulting the goddess, wittingly or unwittingly, and the goddess ta%ing her immediate andruthless revenge. + $eriod o# alienation then #ollows between the man and the goddess,but #inally a reconciliation is e##ected. )ncluded in the anecdote is ____________________ 0 + $oint well made by &assi . 0>>3, 6C1.

/ !ee 'est 0> 5, 03C-35, #or the suggestion that two eidola in "omer .o# +eneas in theIliad, o# "era%les in the Odyssey), the eidolon o# "elen in !tesichorus, and the e idolono# )$higeneia in "esiod may be $oetic moti#s all introduced into literature at about thesame $eriod. 3 &assi . 0>>3, 5/-531 ;uestions whether a moral motive can be im$uted to the Palinode,and even whether the Palinode e-onerated "elen. )n my view the ethical $robl em that"elen $resented was $recisely the issue that led !tesichorus to com$ose his Palinode,though we today can read other, se-ual motives at wor% in the Palinode, mas%ed asethical concerns. ) am in #ull agreement, however, with &assi's argument that thePalinode was unsuccess#ul in its intention, since "elen's 3dyadic $resence only reiteratesthe di##iculty o# controlling #emale behavior .es$ecially as it is #igured in the #emalebody as the ob(ect o# se-ual desire13 .531. -?yet another mythological moti#, that o# the $oet or $ro$het blinded #or his blas$hemy but$urged o# his errors and restored to sight a#ter he humbles himsel# be#ore the angrydeity.? 'hile our discussion o# the motives o# the Palinode can be only s$eculative, sinceso little o# the $oem remains, we are on #irmer ground when consideri ng !ocrates' .or,lato's1 motives. Decency and shame are certainly u$$ermost in the mind o# !ocrateswhen he tells the story o# the Palinode. "is language is #ull o# reli gious signi#icanceE #orhim the story o# the Palinode is a $arable that tells o# blas$hemy with regard to sacredmatters (mythologia), $unishment, re$entance, and rehabi litation.5 !ocrates concludesthe $arable by a$$lying it to himsel#. he o##ers to ma%e amends to 6ros, the god whom hehas (ust blas$hemed, by com$osing his $alinode with his head bared, 3and not veiled inshame, as be#ore.3 The common elements that lin% "elen, !tesichorus, and !ocrates in this$assage in the Phaedrus are 6ros, an d the shame and $unishment that are so integral tothe erotic e-$erience. !ocrates, who strongly re(ected any scandals im$uted whether togods or heroes in the traditio nal myths, here gives his a$$roval to !tesichorus as amythma%er to whom it had been revealed how to erase the scandal #rom one o# thesigni#icant icons o# the 9ree% mythical tradition. !ocrates, imitating the re#ormist $oet,would com$ose a $alinode in his turn to erase the scandal that he had #alsely im$uted tothe great deity 6ros. !tesichorus' Palinode mar%s a signi#icant moment in the history o# thought in ancient9reece. For the #irst time the im$licit $lot o# the Iliad was laid bare, and it was $l ainlyarticulated that the Tro(an 'ar was a war #ought not #or a woman but #or a woman'simage. <n#ortunately nothing more o# the Palinode has survived beyond the three verses;uoted by !ocrates. The Palinode became a celebrated to$ic while the $oem itsel# sli$$edinto oblivion. + "elen story that removed "elen #rom Troy, whi le ma%ing #or a memorF ____________________ ? This moti#, o# the blinding o# the $oet and the restoration o# his sight, has receivedmuch attention in recent yearsE see &assi 0>>3, 5?, #or a brie# discussion o# theschol arshi$. 5 The nature o# !ocrates' recantation in the Phaedrus has itsel# become a to$ic o# ma(orinterest recentlyE see !venbro 0> scussionand re#erences to $revious scholarshi$. -5able anecdote, could not $revail against the story that had been canoni*ed in the "omerictradition. "elen was $leased with the $oet's revision, so we may in#er #rom th e #act that!tesichorus was cured o# his blindness, but her $leasure and her $ower#ul intervention incom$osing the new $lot could not erase the old $lot that the 9ree%s had inherited #rom the"omeric tradition.6 !tesichorus $ro$osed a reading o# the "elen myth which, li%e many $rogressive ideas, wasboth o# its time and ahead o# its time. )# !tesichorus was the #irst $oet to rea d the Tro(an'ar e-$licitly as a war over an image, the general ;uestion o# images was a to$ic much inthe air in the cities o# archaic 9reece. Geno$hanes, the )onian $ hiloso$her whom traditioncuriously lin%s to the brother o# !tesichorus, was $ro$ounding the more general theorythat all the gods o# traditional myth were but images com$osed by the human mind, sel#-made and sel#-re#lecting icons that humans then venerate as their gods. &ut timely as the Palinode was, it was still too modernist even #or its modernist age. Onone hand, as a sim$le re$udiation o# the "omeric myth, it was doomed to #ailu re, sincethe ghost o# "elen could never re$lace 3"elen o# Troy.3 On the other hand, #rom anotherangle the Palinode was a remar%able elucidation o# the Iliad. That ,l ato would twice re#erto the Palinode suggests that he #ound it $hiloso$hically interesting. The whole o# !ocrates'li#e could be read as a $alinode in its own way, since !ocrates, li%e !tesichorus, dedicatedhimsel# to erasing the blemishes #alsely attributed to the gods and to clari#ying thedistinction between the name and the $erson, & eing and the semblance o# &eing. &ut i#!ocrates #ound the Palinode a satis#ying or challenging reading o# the Tro(an 'ar, it wasno doubt di##icult #or most o# his cont em$oraries to see its $remise as anything more thanan e-ercise in ingenuity. "owever ____________________ 6 On the $roblem o# a revisionist te-t com$eting against the authori*ed te-t, see &assi0>>3, 502 3Te-ts that overtly deny other te-ts . . . are ambivalently situated within thetradition they inhabit and hel$ to de#ine.3 !ee also $. 5 2 in $ur$orting to negate the"omeric "elen, the Palinode in e##ect 3creates another "elen .or, more $recisel y, aloo%-ali%e "elen1 to ta%e the $lace o# the old and, in doing so, #inances its ownsubversion.3 -6serious his intentions in com$osing the Palinode as a re$lacement #or the "omeric story o#the Tro(an 'ar, !tesichorus succeeded only in adding a curious marginal n ote to thecanonical te-t. =et, in dichotomi*ing the "omeric "elen neatly into her real and her imaginary #orms,!tesichorus had made e-$licit the oscillation around "elen's name both in "om er and inthe $ost-"omeric literary tradition. Thus though the story o# the $hantom "elen couldnever en(oy anything more than a code$endent e-istence, as a curious a ddendum to the"omeric myth, it continued to e-ercise its own shadowy in#luence on the "elen myth andto develo$ in the course o# time an interesting history o# its o wn. "erodotus ma%es no re#erence to the eidolon story, but, li%e !tesichorus, he too claims tohave discovered the true account o# the Tro(an 'ar, and his version, too, #latl y contradictsthe "omeric story in one im$ortant res$ect, namely, "elen. "is truth does not rely on$oetic ins$iration, as in the case o# !tesichorusE he claims to have le arned it in 6gy$t, #rom$riests at the $haraoh's shrine in @em$his. )n this 6gy$tian story, so "erodotus claims,,aris had indeed abducted "elen #rom !$arta, but he wa s blown o## course en route toTroy and was #orced to ma%e a landing in 6gy$t. There the $haraoh, discovering ,aris'crime, detained "elen and sent ,aris on his way d , ///-3 E &assi 0>>3, 67, #or an interesting di

es$oiled o# his $ri*e. The 9ree%s,unaware that "elen was not at Troy but was being held in 6gy$t, waged their war againstTroy and discovered the truth only a#ter the y had sac%ed the city. This "elen story attributed to 6gy$tian $riests is certainly at odds with the revision that!tesichorus had $ro$osed, inso#ar as we can in#er the gist o# the Palinode #rom ,lato's twobrie# allusions. + story that had "elen being carried o## by ,aris, even i# only as #ar as6gy$t, would hardly deserve to be called a song resung.7 =et though the two storiessuggest two di##erent revisions, $erha$s created to serve ;uite di##erent ends, we cannotbut sus$ect that "erF ____________________ 7 :#. &assi . 0>>3, 56-571, who acce$ts the very late testimony o# ,. O-y. /5C6 .A!tesichorus, #rag. 0>3 ,@91, which asserts that !tesichorus had included in hi sPalinode a story o# "elen removed #rom !$arta to 6gy$t. -7odotus arrived in @em$his already %nowing an eccentric version o# the Tro(an 'ar, inwhich "elen had never reached Troy. The true story o# the Tro(an 'ar had bec ome ato$ic o# s$eculative debate. 'hile the $hantom "elen might be ina$$ro$riate in the6gy$tian story, "erodotus and !tesichorus are closer than they might seem a t #irst glance,since !tesichorus im$utes the Tro(an 'ar to a #alse image, and "erodotus im$utes it to amis$erce$tion. +nd on one $oint at least !tesichorus and "erod otus are in #ull agreement,that the true story re;uires "elen to be absent #rom the scene. +#ter !tesichorus, "elen's eidolon #irst rea$$ears e-$licitly in 6uri$ides. )n several o# his$lays 6uri$ides $resents the traditional "elen, the woman o# in#amy. )n the T ro an!omen, in addition to $ortraying the #aults traditionally ascribed to her -- in#idelity and$romiscuity -- 6uri$ides has made "elen into a so$hist o# the chea$est so rt. =et thisin#amous "elen is curiously shadowed by the $hantom that !tesichorus had introducedinto the myth. )n 6uri$ides' Orestes, where "elen is $ainted in the m ost $e(orative light, itune-$ectedly trans$ires that Orestes, thin%ing to %ill "elen, %ills instead only hersimulacrum, which +$ollo had substituted #or "elen at the last minute .lines 06/>-?/1."elen hersel# +$ollo s$irited into the 6ther so that she might share in her brothers'#unction as the $rotector o# sailors. 'hy 6uri$ides would be gin the $lay with the disgraced"elen o# the e$ic tradition and then in the #inal act revise the very ground o# the $lay byremoving this "elen into the 6ther or why he w ould con#use the strategy o# the Palinodeby introducing the eidolon into the $lot only a#ter "elen had done her damage at Troy are$u**les ) have not attem$ted to solv e in this wor%. &ut then, at the very end o# his career, 6uri$ides made a com$lete volte-#ace andcom$osed his own $alinode to the "elen whom he had so o#ten vili#ied in his earlierc areer. )n ?0/H?00 &.:. 6. he $roduced his "elen, a $lay in which he ta%es u$ the themeo# the eidolon, to dramati*e two con#rontations -- the one in the mind o# @enel ausbetween the true "elen and her #ic%le double, - 8uestia, a $art o# 9ale, :engage 7earning. www.;uestia.com and the other between "elen hersel# and the image o# her #or which the 9ree%s andTro(ans #ought at Troy. !ince !tesichorus' Palinode has disa$$eared, 6uri$ides' "e len is theonly surviving treatment o# the $hantom-"elen theme #rom anti;uity. )t is also the onlyattem$t by an ancient $oet to enter imaginatively into the $roblems th at the Palinode hadunwittingly introduced into the myth by s$litting "elen into her sel# and her image.!$eci#ically, 6uri$ides' "elen is a valiant, albeit #lawed, attem$ t to reconcile two "elens --the "elen o# the Iliad and the "elen o# the Palinode. The most interesting as$ect o# the $lay is that 6uri$ides has made "elen the $rotagonist, awoman com$elled to con#ront her own ontological ambiguity, re$resented b y the eidolonthat im$ersonated her at Troy and wielded so much more $ower than "elen could everho$e to wield, though the eidolon was but a ghost, while "elen wa s the daughter o# 5eus."elen's ontological ambiguity was a theme worthy o# the intellectual ambitions o##i#thcentury 9reece. +cross the 9ree% world the dis(unction b etween essence and$henomena was the chie# to$ic o# conversation among the $hiloso$hers andmathematicians, and one o# the $rinci$al themes o# +thenian tragedy. 'hat $lot moreto$ical in late #i#thcentury +thens than the story o# a woman divided into her real and herimaginary selvesI 'hat #igure o# traditional myth o##ered gre ater sco$e #or tragedy than a"elen who was innocent in her very being con#ronting the damage done to hersel#, to9reece, and to Troy by the con#usions wrought by h er image and in her nameI =et, as a tragedy, 6uri$ides' "elen could be (udged a #ailure. @odern commentatorsgenerally read it as a comedy or at best a tragicomedy. The im$ediment to a tragic treatment was that a "elen who was truly innocent on all counts could scarcely stand as a$ersuasive $rotagonist on the tragic stage. )nevitably, a story o# the Tro(an ' ar in which"elen was e-cused #rom the $lot but ha$$ily reunited with her husband a#ter the $lot wasover would easily slide into a romantic comedy. =et 6uri$ides' " elen remains signi#icantnot only as a document to the intellectual currents o# late #i#th-century +thens but as asym$athetic treatment o# the ->woman who because o# her beauty was #ated to be both one with and se$arate #rom hervalue as sign. )# the $roblematic relations between the real and the imaginary " elensresisted a satis#actory solution, 6uri$ides at least $erceived something o# their tragicconse;uences on both the $ersonal and the collective level. The ,alinode may have #ailed to redeem "elen's honor, but its introduction o# the eidoloninto the "elen story succeeded at least in revealing the ontological ambiguity that is thebasis o# the "omeric $ortrait o# "elen.# )n the )liad "elen is a woman-a woman o#su$erlative beauty but a woman nevertheless. =et she is $rivileged above all other women."er $rivilege is hinted at in the recurrent #ormula #or "elen, 3the daughter o# 5eus,3 and itis s$elled out more $lainly in boo% 3, when +$hrodite threa tens to withdraw her s$ecial#avor i# "elen $ersists in her insubordination. &ut the #ull nature o# "elen's $rivilege is notrevealed until the Odyssey, where we #ind #irst that "elen su##ered no harm at all a#ter the#all o# Troy #or her com$licity, real or imagined, in the war, and then that @enelaus willbe e-em$t #rom death and trans#err ed to the )slands o# the &lest as his $rivilege #or being"elen's husband. Ta%en together, the )liad and the Odyssey re$resent a com$licated "elenwho is both a woman at the mercy o# human desires and constraints, and someone morethan human, a daughter o# 5eus who esca$es human constraints altogether, including thenemesis tha t attends on transgressions o# the ethical codes. The ,alinode's $ro(ect, to remove the dishonor #rom the traditional story by ascribing all"elen's ambiguity to her simulacrum, #ar #rom resolving "elen's ambivalence s, had theunwitting e##ect o# ma%ing "elen into a ghost o# her own ghost, the negative o# anegative.$ +ll that could be said o# this revised "elen was that she ____________________ For the e-tensive im$lications o# this eidolon, as a mimetic, second "elen, see 5eitlin0> 0, /C3E &assi 0>>3, 6/-6?. >

On this $oint, c#. 'ohl . 0>>3, 3?1, who, borrowing the suggestion made by 7orau- vis-J-vis ,andora, writes o# "elen as 3la #emme2 une co$ie de soi-mKme3 .3woma n2 a co$yo# hersel#31. :#. 5eitlin 0> 0, /C/2 3For as #ictive eidolon, !tesichorus' "elen ac;uires theca$acity to im$ersonate hersel#.3 :#. also &assi 0>>3, 6? n. / 2 3Th e ,alinode is clearlydrawing u$on a tradition which #igures women -0Cwas not that troublesome ghost who had caused the grie# at Troy. )# it was as%ed what this "elen had done while her ghost $layed at Troy, the answer was 3nothing,3 since the only reason #or this "elen's being was to be not-"elen o# Troy. To $ursue this con#usion #urther, as it is mani#ested in the "elen myth, ) have borrowed Lac;ues 7acan's #igure, which ) used also in my @eaning and &eing in @yth, o# two overla$$ing circles, one o# which 7acan labels 3@eaningHthe !igni#ier,3 and the other 3&eingHthe !ub(ect.30C For 3@eaning3 we might $re#er to substitute the term 3!igni#icance.3 The overla$ o# the circles 7acan mar%s as an ecli$se, in #act a double ecli$se, since each circle ecli$ses the other2 @eaning .!igni#icance1 ecli$ses &eing, as &eing ecli$ses @eaning. 7anguage, the system o# interloc%ing codes that determine our $lace and value in the social structure, can be at most only a ma$, but a ma$ is only an a$$ro-imate to$ogra$hical diagram. Thus the !igni#ier, while $ur$orting to enclose all value and signi#icance within its domain, must inevitably $oint to something beyond itsel#, which in 7acan's diagram is the !ub(ect. &ut the !ub(ect is to be #ound only in the circle o# &eing. 'hen we loo% there, however, the !ub(ect is not to be #ound, since the only indications and clues that the !ub(ect e-ists are to be #ound in the circle o# the !igni#ier, which is e-cluded #rom &eing. )n @eaning and &eing in @yth ) cited the biblical account o# the Tower o# &abel as the ancient $arable that illustrates the $arado-.00 The idea that in our language-dominated human culture @eaning and &eing, though mutually e-clusive terms, re;uire each other #or their e-istence is at the heart o# the )liad. )t is almost incom$rehensible to +chilles to have &eing without signi#icance. "e may $onder the intrinsic value o# li#e de$rived o# honor when he is e-cluded #rom the battle#ield, but the call to achieve signi#icance is MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM as imitations and substitutes and there#ore as ob(ects o# incom$lete and elusive re#erence.3 'e should note that already in the Odyssey, "elen is 3mistress o# mimesis,3 as 5eitlin $uts it ./C?1. 0C 7acan 0>7 , /00. 00 +ustin 0>>C, /C. -00#ar more numinous than li#e without signi#icance to a young warrior educated, as +chilleswas, to be always 3the best.3 +s the )liad un#olds, +chilles grows to com$re hend thetragedy that he can achieve his signi#icance .in "omer, his %leos%a$hthiton, 3im$erishableglory31 only by sacri#icing his very being. =et, in sacri#icing his bei ng #or honor, +chillesdiscovers that he has also irre$arably damaged his honor. To be trans#ormed into anim$erishable theme in e$ic song is the best com$romise that +chilles can ho$e #or as his$ri*e #or sacri#icing both his honor and his li#e. )n "elen's case the terms are reversed. !he en(oys an ama*ing degree o# #reedom #rom theconstraints that bind other humans. !he is not inhibited by the social code, n or will shesu##er any serious retribution #or her transgressions o# that code, including the #inalretribution, death. This is to gra*e the very border o# &eing. &ut the $ric e #or this $rivilegeis that "elen must #orgo honor. "elen is 3terribly li%e the deathless goddesses,3 the oldmen murmur when they see her at the city wall. From their $ ers$ective she en(oys the$rivileges that are available only to those who dwell in the circle o# &eing, where @eaningneither inhibits action nor im$oses serious conse; uences. O# course the case is more com$le-. "elen is strangely both a goddess and a human at thesame time and there#ore occu$ies both circles, o# @eaning and &eing. + wo man who hasno reason to #ear either nemesis or death is not a human but a god. =et this same $ersonis very much a human in her #unction as an ob(ect o# contention a mong men, as otherwomen are, a $risoner to the social order. +s a goddess "elen transcends shame, yet as awoman she is acutely conscious o# her #unction, to be the icon o# shame. To the old menga*ing on "elen at the city walls, "elen is all but the !ub(ect itsel#. &ut alas, #or all her$rerogatives, "elen is not the !ub(ect but a signi #ier, one o# the most numinous $erha$sbut still only a signi#ier, o# the !ub(ect. This boo% does not $retend to be an e-haustive treatment o# the whole "elen myth inancient 9ree% art and literature but #ocuses more narrowly on the eidolon theme, sincethe eldolon, whether &'(& ta%en as a revision or as an intriguing inter$retation o# the traditional myth, is an uncanny e-$ression o# the ambivalences continuously at wor% in the construction o# the "elen myth. 6ven so, ) have omitted the two treatments o# theme in the $ostclassical $eriod -- in 7yco$hron's +le-andra and in the Tro(an Oration o# Dio :hrysostom -- e-ce$t #or brie# allusions. These two treatments, the one #rom the "ellenistic $eriod and the other #rom the 9recoBoman $eriod, are both +le-andrian in their outloo% .their authors resided in, or were #amiliar with, +le-andria1, and as such they are interesting #ootnotes to the history o# the ,alinode o# !tesichorus, though the emotional #orce that generated the ,alinode was by their time largely s$ent. To %ee$ to the eidolon theme, ) have omitted any consideration o# +eschylus' re$resentation o# "elen in the +gamemnon, or her $ortrait in the lyric $oets, e-ce$t #or !a$$ho and !tesichorus. !imilarly, though 6uri$ides re$resents "elen in several o# his $lays and em$loys the eidolon as a dramatic device in two, ) have restricted my discussion to the "elen, where "elen's ghost is, i# not the $rotagonist, certainly the $rinci$al meta$hor o# the $lay. )n the #i#th century we #ind "elen's rehabilitation emerging also as an oratorical theme, but ) have e-cluded the encomia o# "elen com$osed by the two +ttic orators 9orgias and )socrates, since theirs was a di##erent strategy. They acce$ted the traditional "elen as "omer had re$resented her, but then $resented her case as i# they were her counsel de#ending her in a court o# law. These encomia have been inter$reted as bravura legal $er#ormances, demonstrating the orators' s%ill at ma%ing the worse cause a$$ear the better, but a #ull discussion o# this method o# rehabilitating "elen deserves se$arate treatment. )nitially, ) had thought to trace "elen's eidolon #rom its #irst re$orted a$$earance in !tesichorus down to the modern $eriod, to com$are the ancient treatments o# the theme with the treatment in both @arlowe's and 9oethe's Faust, then in the 0>/6 o$era by Bichard !trauss and "ugo von "o#mannsthal, Die Ngy$tische "elena, and #inally in ".D.'s "elen in 6gy$t, $ublished in 0>6C. &ut -03the com$le-ity o# the theme convinced me that the modern $oets should be e-amined se$arately, since they bring considerations $eculiar to their own times. To do (ustice to 9oethe's use o# "elen's eidolon in Faust, we would need to consider at some length "elen's role in the $oem, whether as woman, ghost, or idol. 'e would then need to set this theme within the broader #ramewor% o# the relations between idealism and realism in late eighteenth-century $hiloso$hy, and the relations between "ellas and classicism as it was being de#ined in 9oethe's mind. To a$$reciate what !trauss and "o#mannsthal brought to the theme in Die Ngy$tische "elena, we would need to s$ea% #irst o# 9oethe's towering in#luence on 9erman lyric, and then o# the modernist movement o# the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, so strongly in#luenced by symbolism and $sychoanalysis. ".D.'s "elen in 6gy$t is sul generis, being the #irst instance since !a$$ho in which a woman $oet underta%es to give us her reading o# the "elen myth. "ere "elen has become a hierogly$h, but at the same time she is the $riestess o# the hierogly$h, who must read its meanings both #or hersel# and #or others. &ut ".D.'s com$le- reading o# the ancient "elen myth, in which she struggles to #ind the uni#ying hierogly$h that will re$resent the multitudinous "elen $ortraits o# anti;uity, deserves more than to be an addendum to the $resent wor%. The concerns that the modern $oets bring to the theme can certainly be #ound in the ancient treatments. Bealism and idealism, the !igni#ier and the !ub(ect, the woman and the woman-as-sign -- these themes, which seem $eculiarly modern, can all be traced in ancient 9ree% thought as early as "omer. 'hat se$arates the 9ree% treatments #rom the modern uses o# the theme is the sim$le $roblem o# "ellenic honor. From "omer to 6uri$ides, wherever "elen's name is introduced into the

discourse, honor is the issue, whether it be her honor or the honor o# "ellas or, more o#ten, both. )# "elen had brought disgrace on hersel# by $re#erring ,aris to @enelaus, this was also a disgrace #or "ellas. True, ,aris $aid dearly #or his transgression, and "elen was recovered #rom the -0?#oreigner's bed and set bac% in her law#ul marriage bed, yet ;uestions remained thatre#lected un#avorably on 9ree% womanhood, but even more on 9ree% manhood. )# "ellas,3the #atherland,3 as the 9ree%s called it, had recovered its manhood by wi$ing Troy #romthe #ace o# the earth, it was still a ;uestion whether @enelaus had bee n something lessthan a man to allow ,aris or "elen, or the two o# them together, to nulli#y his marriagebed. 'as there not also something womanish about the #lower o# "ellas hurling itsel# to a$reci$itous death on #oreign soil #or a woman o# dubious virtueI "elen might be the very$aragon o# beauty, but was it manly to be so seduc ed by beautyI )n "omer we can see the code o# honor sha$ing "elen's role in two distinct ways. )n theIliad it determines her #unction, to be the sign #or which men #ight, while in th e Odyssey itdictates that in the end "elen's transgressions will be #orgiven and "elen will be elevatedto godhood. )# it were $ossible to distinguish in "omer between t he $rimary te-t.3"omer31 and the secondary te-ts .$ost-"omeric 3emendations31, we might be tem$tedto argue that "elen's a$otheosis, which is im$lied, though not e-$licitly stated, in theOdyssey, is the #irst ma(or revision o# the )liadic "elen, since it is the element needed toerase the dishonor that still adheres to the story when th e Iliad closes. The "omeric $oems omit any re#erence to "elen's earthly #ather, TyndareusE instead, sheis invariably 3the daughter o# 5eus.3 This omission may be a calculated strate gy on the$art o# the e$ic tradition to $lay down the $romiscuity that #igures in the "elen myth. &ye-cluding Tyndareus #rom the te-t, the e$ic ;uietly disengages itsel# #rom some o# thegreater embarrassments o# the "elen myth, which the name o# Tyndareus invariablyinvo%es. Other $oets lose no chance to remar% that Tyndareus wa s singularly un#ortunate,cursed even, to be the #ather o# singularly $romiscuous daughters -- "elen andOlytaimestra being the two most memorable. 'ith Tyndareus e -cluded, the ;uestion o#"elen's $romiscuity was not eliminated, but it was somewhat muted, thus easing the way#or "elen's later a$otheosis. )# "elen was the -05daughter not o# a human #ather but o# 5eus, her $romiscuity could be viewed in a more#avorable light. "er eventual a$otheosis would be the inevitable conclusion o# t he tale,since that would mean her return to her right#ul $lace, as the obedient daughter o# thecelestial #ather. )#, a#ter the #all o# Troy, "elen was reinstated #irst as the l aw#ul wi#e o#@enelaus, and then as the obedient daughter o# 5eus, the blood s$illed at Troy in the nameo# "ellenic honor would be redeemed. &ut even a$otheosis was inade;uate to settle the issue. "elen's shame was not to becanceled by sim$ly removing her husband to the )slands o# the &lest. !tesichorus $ ro$osedthe more radical solution, to erase "elen o# Troy #rom the story altogether and re$lace herwith the goddess who had never la$sed #rom her $ristine $urity.0/ = et the curious andcontradictory history that his Palinode engendered reveals that even removing "elen #romTroy did not so much settle the issue as generate new ;ues tions. The con#usion that arises when "elen's honor or shame is the issue has le#t uncannytraces o# itsel# in several manuscri$ts, some o# them $rimary literary wor%s and ot herscommentaries o# late anti;uity that allude to the Palinode. One o# the most remar%ableinstances where te-tual con#usion mirrors the con#usion in the story is to be #ound in the#inal stro$he o# the 9reat @other ode in 6uri$ides' "elen. ) address this $assage at greaterlength in :ha$ter 6, on 6uri$ides. !u##ice here to say that the tw o "elens, the real and theimaginary, which the whole $ur$ose o# the "elen is to %ee$ ____________________ 0/ &assi . 0>>3, 531 observes that the Palinode did not achieve its ob(ective2 "elen 3is notchastened.3 ) would distinguish here between the overt and the covert motives, however s$eculative our discussion must remain. The two can be described in terms o#the two contradictory meanings in our 6nglish verb 3to chasten.3 The e-$licit, $ ublicmotive o# the Palinode was surely to redeem the honor o# "ellas by ma%ing "elenchaste again, to rema%e the woman o# shame into the immaculate, virginal god dess.This motive can be traced very clearly through 6uri$ides' "elen. )t would be reali*ed bythe sim$le strategy o# removing "elen #rom TroyE as the story was erased , the shamewould disa$$ear with it. &ut i# the covert motive o# the Palinode was to chasten "elen -- that is, to disci$line the woman who had disgraced "ellas by her behavior at Troy --this motive was doomed to #ailure #or all the reasons that &assi discusses. -06se$arate, have #allen into con#usion, and the te-t has #ollowed suit. The "elen is 6uri$ides'$alinode to "elen, ironic $erha$s but a $alinode nevertheless, which ado$ts the strategy$ro$osed by !tesichorus, to render the real "elen guiltless and ascribe all guilt and shameto her ghost. &ut here, in the #inal stro$he o# the 9reat @other od e, as the $lay moves toits #inale, we encounter some gibberish to the e##ect that "elen, though she had never set#oot in Troy or betrayed her husband's bed, was guilty o# an o##ense against the 9reat@other. 'hat could her o##ense have beenI !omeone, whether 6uri$ides himsel# or, as ) would $re#er to thin%, an inter$olator,recogni*ed that a blameless "elen was an o-ymoron. +n o##ense must have beenco mmitted, not by the #limsy ghost but by "elen hersel#, i# "elen was to be a $ersuasive$rotagonist on the tragic stage. The stro$he does its best to stri%e a com$romise. Thosewho needed crime and $unishment in their story could be satis#ied that "elen had indeedcommitted an o##ense, and $unishment indeed had been e-acted. Those who bal%ed at theidea o# "elen's guilt and $unishment could be relieved that she was not so much $unishedas re$rimanded, but then #orgiven, and welcomed bac% int o the radiant circle o# the 9reat@other. 'ith the $atriarchy and the matriarchy yo%ed here in uneasy alliance, we shouldnot be sur$rised i# the stro$he caves in and lea ves us treading the em$ty air. To set the revisionist myth within its conte-t, ) have begun this wor% with a discussion o#the locus classicus #or the traditional "elen $ortrait -- the third boo% o# the Il iad, where"elen's disgrace is de#initively articulated. ) have #ollowed this discussion with a cha$teron !a$$ho's Ode 06 7,, where "elen is named, though !a$$ho do es not belong amongthose who thought it necessary to revise the traditional "elen story. ) have included adiscussion o# !a$$ho's "elen #or several reasons. First, i# Ode 06 is in #act an ode o# !a$$ho's, as we have good reason to believe, it is one o#the earliest commentaries on "omer which have survived #rom ancient 9re ece. )ninvo%ing "elen as the (udge o# the beauty contest that stands as the central meta$hor o# -07the $oem, !a$$ho ta%es us directly bac% to the Iliad, and s$eci#ically to boo% 3, where"elen is at the center o# the con#lict between beauty and ugliness, honor and sha me.+lthough !a$$ho ma%es no e-$licit re#erence to the ;uestion o# "elen's shame and $assesno (udgment on "elen's choice o# ,aris over @enelaus, even to allude to the in#amoustriangle -- @enelaus, "elen, ,aris -- is to raise ;uestions o# honor and shame. )n my viewthe argument o# !a$$ho's Ode 06 derives its emotional #orce #ro m the #ield o# shame,which was invariably activated by the merest re#erence to "elen o# Troy.

+n archaic 9ree% $oet's reading o# the Iliad is intrinsically interesting, and even moreinteresting when the $oet is !a$$ho, and her to$ic is the memorable "elen o# the )liad.&ut my #inal reason #or including !a$$ho's 3+na%toria3 ode is that the $a$yrus #ragmenton which the ode a$$ears o##ers another illustration o# the uncanny way i n which ancientte-ts dissolve when "elen's name is broached. )n this case there is no ;uestion o# aninter$olation or o# editors garbling the te-t. The cul$rit is time itse l#, which has torn the$a$yrus e-actly where "elen's name a$$ears, leaving even her name incom$lete andadri#t, surrounded by em$ty s$aces on either side. The recon structions o# the sentenceattem$ted by modern scholars give remar%able testimony to the ambivalence thatcontinues to a##ect attitudes toward "elen even in the mode rn $eriod, when the to$ic iseither her beauty or her behavior. The two readings $ro$osed o# the ragged sentence,which hinge on the $roblematics involved in such sim $le 9ree% terms as ariston .the best1and kalliston .the most beauti#ul1, remind us that even today the ;uestion o# "elen's guiltor shame has not been laid to rest. +#ter my discussion o# !a$$ho, ) consider "elen as she is re$resented in the Odyssey.'hile this "elen is certainly the same $erson that we see in the Iliad, the Odysse y shi#tsthe em$hasis so as to suggest that the $rocess o# revision that later led !tesichorus toinvo%e the eidolon had already begun. The "elen o# the Iliad is already so mething o# aghost, since she understands hersel# to be sim$ly a $ersona in a $arable authored by thegods, but her ghostly as$ects are given greater $rominence in the Odyssey. 7iving in -0 absolute domestic rectitude, "elen seems already to dwell in a realm that is beyond our world and closer to the world o# the gods. !$arta, as $ortrayed in the Odyssey, bears resemblances to the underworld, as scholars have remar%ed, and "elen bears resemblances to ,erse$hone.03 The drug .$harma%on n<PCC3$enthes1 that "elen dro$s into the wine at !$arta has the $ower to $urge the $ast o# all its negative emotions -- shame, guilt, #ear, hatred. &ut, even more im$ortant, when @enelaus in#orms Telemachus that his reward #or being "elen's husband is that he will be trans$orted to the )slands o# the &lest, the result is to insinuate into the world o# the e$ic an esca$e #rom human destiny that is never hinted at in the )liad. The )liad removes the obviously divine as$ects #rom "elen's character, leaving only subliminal as$ects, as in her #ormula 3the daughter o# 5eus,3 but the Odyssey seems to reverse the $rocess and reinvests "elen with the divinity that would no doubt be dramatically ina$$ro$riate in the conte-t o# the )liad. +t the same time, however, the Odyssey gives us the domesticated "elen, as a #oil to the undomesticated "elen o# the )liad. "er magical $owers are still at her bec% and call, but they have been tamed. 4o longer threatening either to her husband or to the 9ree%s, they can even be turned to benevolent ends, the most benevolent being the gi#t o# immortality that @enelaus will en(oy #or being "elen's husband. )n the ensuing cha$ters, on !tesichorus, "erodotus, and 6uri$ides, ) #ocus s$eci#ically on the revisionism o# the archaic and classical $eriods, when the eidolon was introduced into the "elen myth. !ince "erodotus does not allude to the eidolon, however, it would be more accurate to say that although the eidolon was an im$ortant element in the ancient revision o# the "elen myth, the most signi#icant element was sim$ly the removal o# "elen #rom the story. To trace a single theme through the literature o# several centuries is to ris% doing in(ustice to the individual authors, $articularly MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM 03!ee +nderson 0>5 . -0>when the authors are o# the stature o# those treated in the $resent wor%, and to the largebody o# scholarshi$ on those authors. The story o# the Tro(an 'ar which "erod otusattributes to 6gy$tian $riests, #or e-am$le, raises ;uestions regarding his use .orinvention1 o# #oreign sources and his attitude toward myth, history, and religion.!i milarly, 6uri$ides' use o# the eidolon theme in his "elen invites us to $onder the $ortraito# "elen in his various $lays. That $ortrait in turn is $art o# a larger conte-t, whichincludes his attitudes not only toward myth and religion, as in the case o# "erodotus, butmore $articularly toward women. Or again, to understand "elen's $lace in the "omeric$oems re;uires a #ull discussion o# each $oem ta%en as a whole. &ut to %ee$ within certainbounds, ) have restricted my discussion to what seemed most germane either to thes$eci#ic ;uestion o# "elen's shame or to the vagaries o# the eidolon theme as it a$$ears anddisa$$ears in anti;uity. ) should note here, however, three essays that a$$eared in +rethusa /6 . 0>>31 a#ter thisboo% was substantially com$lete -- +nn !uter's contribution on ,aris and Dion ysus,Qictoria L. 'ohl's on se-ual ideology in the Odyssey, and Oaren &assi's on the ,alinode o#!tesichorus. +ll three are germane, and ) regret that ) have not been ab le to re#er to themas #ully as they deserve. )n $articular, ) ac%nowledge the signi#icance o# &assi's study o#the ,alinode. &assi and ) may disagree on $articulars as to w hat was or was not includedin the ,alinode, but these $oints will $robably always remain con(ectural. On essentials weare in agreement, regarding both the $aternalisti c attitude toward "elen embodied in the,alinode and the reasons why such a revision could not e-$ect to su$$lant the traditional"omeric story. ) trust that this wor% will su$$ort &assi's arguments by $roviding a largerconte-t o# the $roblematic history o# the eidolon #rom its #irst brie# re#erences in ,lato and)socrates to the con#use d discussions o# the to$ic in the commentaries o# late anti;uity."elen's eidolon was a lively to$ic in anti;uity, and the several artistic and $oetictreatments o# the them e in this century indicate that it is as alive today as it was twothousand years ago. &()& :"+,T6B 0 The "elen o# the )liad "elen o# Troy is no doubt the most #amous woman in 6uro$ean history a#ter the Qirgin @ary, and certainly the most #ascinating. The story reverberates through the ages, and mysterious "elen is still a $oet's theme, a$$earing most recently in Dere% 'alcott's Omeros. !uch long-enduring #ame raises the inevitable ;uestion, 'as there a real "elen o# TroyI ,ut another way, 'as "elen no more than a storyI Time was when the Tro(an 'ar was ta%en to be no more than a story, richly embroidered by #ol% imagination, but archaeology has taught us caution. Troy has been uncovered, several Troys in #act, layer u$on layer, and @ycenae too. Treasures enough have been #ound in both citadels to ma%e Oing +gamemnon and Oing ,riam at least $lausible historical #igures. &ut "elenI "ere scholars bal%. @odernists, we smile at the #ables o# the ancients, and when they tal% o# thrones and diadems we see economics. ,erha$s a devastating war was #ought in the late &ron*e +ge between the @yceneans and the Tro(ans #or economic motives. 4o one, reading +gamemnon's ma(estic o##er o# goods and $ro$erty, including his own daughter, to +chilles in )liad>, could miss the economics o# the Tro(an 'ar. "omer's 9ree%s and Tro(ans loved their commodities with a $assion and re;uired ever new territory, it seems, to $reserve and enlarge their treasuries. The new technology, which re;uired ore and mines, and shi$$ing lanes to those mines, had the whole @editerranean in thrall. -/3&ut above economics "omer $laces a more seductive cause the ;uest #or beauty. &eauty is among the greatest, i# not the greatest, o# all the archety$es in "omer's $antheon. 'hoever $ossessed beauty in "omeric society would $ossess the world, so high was the value $laced on beauty. +$hrodite may be wounded by a mere man .in )liad51 or abused by "era and +thena #or her so#t, womanish ways, but we should not be misled by such tem$orary insults to her dignity. "ers was the $ower to undo even the $olitical arrangements o# Olym$us .as in )liad0?, when "era borrows +$hrodite's charms to divert the will o# 5eus1. &eauty in the )liad, as in ,lato's cosmology, is the !ub(ect to which every signi#ier turns, li%e the com$ass $oint to its magnetic $ole.0 On one side "omer $laces the other commodities #or which men #ight -- horses, bron*e, chariots, breast$lates, greaves, silver, gold, slaves male and #emale. &ut "elen belongs in an economic category o# her own. )# we ta%e the "elen tradition as a whole, we see that "elen, though o#ten ca$tured, is not, never was, and never will be a slave. O# all the women in the )liad, "elen alone esca$es the slavery in store #or the others -- :hryseis, &riseis, +ndromache, "ecuba, the seven beauti#ul and gi#ted women o# 7esbos whom +gamemnon gives to +chilles in boo% 0> -- the list is almost endless. "elen is cons$icuously di##erent.

To heighten the di##erence even #urther, "elen, with nothing more to lose but her re$utation, will be res$onsible, or held res$onsible at least, #or the slavery that be#alls the other women. They will be reduced to the level o# commodities 3through3 or 3because o#3 "elen, while "elen hersel# remains a #ree woman. "omer's #ormula #or "elen, 3the daughter o# 5eus,3 reminds us that "elen transcends economic categories. 7i%e +$hrodite, MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM 0For the $lace o# beauty in the archaic $antheon, c#. "esiod . Theogony0/C1, who calls 6ros 3the most beauti#ul R%allistosS among the deathless gods.3 :#. also )socrates 6ncomium on "elen5?2 "elen 3$ossessed the greatest share o# beauty R%allosS, which o# things that e-ist is the most venerated, most honored, and most godly.3 3Things that e-ist3 .ta onta1 was, in )socrates' day, the conventional $hiloso$hical term #or &eing itsel#. &eauty #or )socrates is ne-t to &eing, i# not &eing itsel#. -/?"elen's Olym$ian archety$e, "elen transcends categories altogether. &eauty writes itsown laws. "elen, li%e +$hrodite, may be wounded but never bought, sold, or %il led. :ould "omer's uncouth $irates have waged war #or beautyI 'e smile at the romanticism.The tribal imagination s$ins com$le- social history, which today is generall y read as the$olitics o# ac;uisition and dominance, into romance -- the 3Ba$e o# "elen,3 the3Ludgment o# ,aris,3 the 3"ouse o# +treus,3 the 3Tro(an 'ar.3 The "omer ist, as%ed to si#tthrough the romance #or 3the real "elen,3 res$onds with the scholar's shrug. Thearchaeologist, on one hand, will settle #or nothing less than material $r oo#, and no s$adehas yet uncovered "elen's sandal./ On the other hand, the literary critic needs no #acts.4o historical documents or arti#acts will ever diminish "omer 's "elen or im$rove her.'hat has art to do with historyI &eauty is truthE that is all we need to %now. &ut while "omerists o# whatever stri$e may dismiss the real "elen as irrelevant, whether#or history or #or literature, the story goes on, retold #rom generation to gener ation, andcurious listeners continue to as%, 3'as there ever a real "elenI3 The ;uestion may benaive, yet in its innocence it shows a surer instinct #or "omer's art than the scholar whobrac%ets the ;uestion to attend to ;uestions o# graver im$ort. The ;uestion is, in #act,central to "omer Iliad, and we can still hear its echo in the Odyss ey. 'hoever as%s the;uestion is "omer's true reader, res$onding to the enigma that "omer himsel# named3"elen, daughter o# 5eus.3 'hen we $onder 3the real "elen,3 we venture beyond the sim$le historical ;uestion thatmight be as%ed o# "omer's other characters.3 'e have no di##iculty imaginin g anoverbearing, truculent %ing li%e +gamemnon, a garrulous old soldier li%e 4estor, a ____________________ / 3"elen's !andal3 was a shrine in !$arta where the sandal that "elen lost in her #light#rom !$arta was veneratedE see Boscher, 02 0>5C. &ut a$$arently at )a$ygia in sou thern)taly there was another shrine where other sandals o# "elen's were venerated2 c#. thestory told by 7yco$hron . *le+andra 5/-551 o# @enelaus dedicating a %rater , his shield,and "elen's #ur-lined sli$$ers at )a$ygia when he was roaming the @editerranean insearch o# the lost "elen a#ter the #all o# Troy. 3 + $oint made by &assi . 0>>3, 6C1. -/5vain, young hots$ur o# the royal house li%e ,aris. &ut "elen stands on another ontological$lane. 'as she goddess or humanI 'as she seduced by ,aris or ra$edI 'as she a libertineor the victim o# societyI "elen will never die #or her honor, as +chilles will, and a host o#others, including +gamemnon, ,atro%los, and "ector. "elen will lose neither li#e norhonorE instead, she will be given, according to the synta- $eculiar to the "omeric e$ic,immortality in return #or having no honor to lose. That i s to be her sign #or eternity2 to bethe woman with no shame. Disgraced in li#e, "elen is s$ared $unishment, and even death, which is the common #ateo# all other women, whether virtuous or not. )nstead, "elen is #ated to s$end eternity in astate o# grace, or as close to grace as human im$ersonations o# the gods can reach. )n theversion given to us in the Odyssey .?.560-6>1, @enelaus will be t rans$orted to the )slandso# the &lest, where we may in#er that he and "elen will be united #or all eternity, thoughother stories outside the e$ic suggested that i# @enela us were rewarded with a $lace in6lysium, "elen hersel# would be advanced even higher, to the very s%ies. =et other storiesarose, which told o# "elen and +chilles as lovers a#ter death, two eidola -- icons, images,shadows -- consummating their secret, s$iritual union on 7eu%e, the island in the &lac%!ea where +chilles was honored in cult a#ter his death., 6ven in death "elen's state wasundecided -- whether she ____________________ ? ,ausanias 3. 0>.00. The distinction between local cult traditions and the tradition o# thee$ic, which 4agy em$hasi*es . 0>7>, 0>>Cb1, is e-tremely signi#icant in any tr eatmento# "elen in ancient myth. 'hile alluding to, or echoing, the cults o# the various 9ree%heroes included in the Tro(an e-$edition, the "omeric $oems lay a trail o# their own. )nthe tradition outside the "omeric te-ts the ma(or heroes o# the Tro(an e-$edition have$assed through the mortal state to a ;uasi-divine state. @any wer e thought to havereached islands somewhere #ar at sea .whether in the &lac% !ea in the #ar northeast, orin the +tlantic in the #ar west1, where they became the tutelary s$irits o# their res$ectiveislands. These were collectively the )slands o# the &lest. 3&lest3 here re#ers to the herowhose cult was maintained on the island. +s the daimo n o# the island, the hero wasblest himsel# with the $er;uisites o# the gods .i.e., the devotion o# his worshi$ers1 andblessed his devotees in return #or their devotion. !o me heroes -- Diomedes, #or e-am$le-- were claimed as the local daimon o# several se$arate locations. The distribution o# thehero cults throughout the @editerranean s uggests that on the historical level the -/6remained with her husband or re(oined her brothers, the Dios%ouroi, or #ound true love with +chilles. 4either "omer's 9ree%s nor his Tro(ans %new what to ma%e o# "elen, who was as hated as she was $rivileged, and "elen hersel# was as $er$le-ed as they. +chilles and "elen -- the two occu$y a $osition o# su$reme $rivilege in "omer's world, she as the daughter o# 5eus, and he as the son o# Thetis. !he is the #airest o# the +chaeans, and he the best. &ut the terms are synonyms in "omer's shame culture2 the best is the #airestE the #airest, the best.5 +chilles is the most beauti#ul and the best in the masculine #ormE "elen, the most beauti#ul and best in a woman's #orm. &ut $rivilege in myth is double-edged. !een by their $eers, "elen and +chilles stand on the $innacle o# good #ortune, their being bordering &eing itsel#, to borrow ,armenides' elo;uent $hrase.6 &ut seen through "omer's eyes, the ga$ between their MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM cults on the various islands $robably re$resent traditions that the @yceneans carried with them in the dias$ora a#ter the #all o# @ycenac. The hero cult on the island was testimony to the islanders' descent #rom the true @yceneans. "omer's heroes, however, have no such consolation to loo% #orward to. +#ter death the best that they can e-$ect is to #ade into ghosts or eidola, mere images or shadows o# themselves, $er$etuated by bardic memory. O# "omer's heroes, only @enelaus reaches the state granted to the heroes in the religious cults, to esca$e

death and reach the closest a$$ro-imation to &eing in the 6lysian Fields, as his com$ensation #or being the husband o# "elen. "omer's other heroes must ho$e to #ind their immortality through their %leos -- their #ame as it was transmitted through the e$ic tradition. 5For %allistos and aristos as synonymous in "omer, see )liad 3.0/?, where )ris ta%es the #orm o# 7aodi%e, who 3o# the daughters o# ,riam was best in $hysical #orm3 .eidos aristT1E c#. also +lcaeus ?/.00 7,, where Thetis is 3best o# the 4ereids.3 For one e-tended conversation in anti;uity regarding the good, the beauti#ul, and the ugly, see !imonides, #rag. 5?/ ,@9, and ,lato's commentary on the $oem at ,rotagoras 33>a-3?6d. !ee Dodds 0>50, /6 n. 0C>, on %alon and ais%hron as signi#icant terms in the shame culture o# ancient 9reeceE also +d%ins 0>6C, 05?-5 E 0 5- >E :airns 0>>3. For the su$reme signi#icance o# aristos .the best1 in the )liad, see 4agy 0>7>. To call ancient 9reece an 3honor,3 rather than a 3shame,3 culture would be more in alignment with its own orientation. 6Frag. 3? . ?-5 OB2 3For all is #ull o# &eing. 'here#ore the all adheres. +nd &eing borders &eing Reon gar eonti $ela*eil.S.3 6ven ,armenides, while denying the $ossibility o# an interval between &eing and &eing, must com$ose a second section -/7being and the #ull, e-travagant being o# the gods, slight as it is, is the #ocus #or the dee$este-istential an-iety. &orn o# the archety$es .the gods1, they are not themselv es thearchety$es but only their icons in human #orm. "eroes can only a$$ro-imate the gods,though this they do heroically, so heroically in "elen's case that she is des tined to en(oy a$aradise that is a simulacrum o# Olym$us itsel#. +s i# to mar% their $rivilege in his own way, "omer ma%es "elen and +chilles his twosurrogates, seers and $oets. Far removed in time #rom the $lains o# Troy, relyin g onhearsay .3the @uses31, "omer stations +chilles as his one seer in the 9ree% cam$, and"elen, his other, in the bedroom at the heart o# the Tro(an a##air. ,lacing th e two at thevorte- o# the storm, "omer #orthwith removes them to the $eri$hery. +chilles, 3the best o#the +chaeans3 -- as athlete, horseman, and warrior -- is banishe d by his $ride, which is hisinternali*ed re$resentation o# the code o# honor, #rom the arena where a hero's honor isestablished.7 )dled at the shi$s, +chilles is a hollow shell with $erha$s $otential, but noactual, signi#icance. "elen is banished too, but to her own room, secluded not only #romthe men but #rom the grieving wives and w idows, to hide her shame. 'hethercom$assionate or not, how could "elen (oin the other women in their mourning, beinghersel# the cause o# their grie#, at least in thei r eyesI &oth "elen and +chilles, situatede-actly where mortality gra*es immortality, are thus marginali*ed and made to observethe action #rom the s$ectator's seat. !e ;uestered, each learns to sublimate li#e into art, asthey watch their own being drained #rom them to render them into icons #or $osterity. Todiagram honor and shame i n their culture, ____________________ o# his $oem to e-$lain the a$$arent s$ace between the two. )n myth, the heroesilluminate that same a$$arent s$ace, as a *one o# intense #riction between ;uotidianbein g and &eing, where signi#iers shade into what they signi#y, which is &eing itsel#. 7 aristos%+%hai(Un .best o# the +chaeans1 is a regular #ormula in the )liadE #or itssigni#icance see 4agy 0>7>, es$. cha$. /. -/ +chilles would serve as the icon o# glory, and "elen as the icon o# shame. 'hatever +chilles' e-istential doubts when he is banished #rom the #ield o# glory, "elen $erha$s $lumbs the ontological abyss more dee$ly when she wonders .to "ector, at )liad 6.357-5 1 whether the gods designed her li#e with ,aris s$eci#ically that she and ,aris might be a theme #or singers, by which she means a byword #or generations to come. +chilles, watching his brie# li#e unravel, may come to $erceive that he will one day be no more than a story, but such a reali*ation is #ar #rom his mind when he is ram$ant in the heat o# success. )rony comes late to +chilles, but "elen was born to it. +chilles never ha*ards the $ossibility that the sole reason #or his li#e was that he should #igure in someone else's story. <ntil the death o# ,atro%los trans#ormed his story into the 3Death o# ,atro%los,3 +chilles could still live in the illusion that the story was his own to sha$e as he chose, whether gloriously or ingloriously. "elen is allowed no such illusions, certainly not at least a#ter )liad3. Only "elen is com$elled to read her own li#e as a ghost story. Only she must, consistently and #rom the beginning, learn to convert .or subvert1 the stu## o# her daily li#e into her #unction as the gly$h #or 3shameH shamelessness3 in the storyboo% o# the tribe. "elen #irst a$$ears on the 6uro$ean stage in "omer )liad3, when )ris ta%es us #rom the battle#ield directly into "elen's $rivate room. The ru$ture between +chilles and +gamemnon in boo% ) has been glossed over. The two armies have marched #orth, ready #or war again. @enelaus, sighting ,aris in the Tro(an lines, beauti MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM !ee Dodds . 0>501, who a$$lies to classical 9ree% thought the distinction drawn by anthro$ologists between shame and guilt cultures. &ut no hard line can be drawn between the two. !ome cultures may be more shame-oriented, and others more guilt-orientedE but $robably both guilt and shame are to be #ound to some degree in every culture. @y view is that literacy contributes signi#icantly to increasing guilt and devaluing shame, since it moves the locus o# (udgment #rom the $ublic arena to the $rivate screen o# the individual reader. Beaders learn to internali*e what in nonliterate cultures is $layed out on the highly $ublic stage. For the enormous in#luence o# literacy in resha$ing thought and culture, see "aveloc% 0>63E Ong 0> /E !venbro 0> . -/>#ul in his leo$ard s%in, re(oices li%e a lion sighting his $rey. &ut ,aris, who is, as the )liad$resents him, short on substance, on #irst sight o# @enelaus shrin%s bac% into the Tro(anran%s. &ut then stung, #or the moment at least, by "ector's insults to his manhood, ,arisstri%es a noble attitude to recou$ his .and "ector's1 honor. "e calls # or a truce and o##ersto settle the issue o# the war in a duel between himsel# and @enelaus. "eralds are dis$atched to the city and to the shi$s to #etch the sacri#icial animals to securethe covenant. 'hile some race to #etch old %ing ,riam #rom his $alace to wi tness thecovenant, )ris, normally the messenger o# the gods but acting this time without waiting#or her instructions, ta%es the o$$ortunity to #ly to "elen's rooms, to lu re her out to thecity walls.$ +t once we are in the #orest o# ambiguity. 'hy is "elen needed at the city wallsI To witness the duel that will decide her status onceand #or all, between @enelaus and ,aris, whatever we may call them -- her two lovers,her two husbands, her husband and her lover, her $ast and her $resent husband. &ut whyshould "elen witness the duelI 'e, the audience, will be #ascinate d, o# course, but we arenot "elen. The ;uestion is more $ointed i# we have read ahead and %now the true, butignominious, conclusion o# the duel -- "elen and ,aris in bed, at the end o# boo% 3. 'ill one duel between two s$earsmen, however noble, really settle the issue. that a$rotracted war between two great armies has only e-acerbatedI 3=ou will be declar ed thebeloved wi#e o# the victor,3 )ris e-$lains to "elen .3.03 1. &ut )ris is naive. !he does not%now the mind o# 5eus, or o# "omer, as we do. @enelaus will win the duel, by de#aultE+$hrodite will steal her darling #rom the #ield o# shame and $ut him to bed, where "elenwill com#ort him #or his lac% o# manhood on the battle#ield. On the #ield the duel will endin ,aris' disgrace, but then, in the bedroom, we will witness the true end and #unction o#the duel, when "elen ca$itu ____________________ > :#. 6dwards 0> 7, 0>/2 3)ris is really the messenger o# the $oet.3 !ee his $$. 0>0->7 #ormany a$t remar%s on the ensuing scenes in boo% 3. lates and (oins ,aris in his disgrace.0C Outside the bedroom ,andaros will ob(ecti#y the disgrace in a more $ublic way by shooting an arrow that tears the truce to $ieces. The war will resume, and everything will be as it was be#ore the duel. "elen's status remains as it was -- undecided -- e-ce$t that #or the moment she is to be #ound in ,aris' bed, which signi#ies the disgrace that attends u$on undecidedness.

'hy is "elen really needed at the city gatesI The answer is obvious. )# "elen is re;uired as witness to the covenant between the 9ree%s and Tro(ans, the $lot re;uires also that she be witnessed. !he may observe, but more im$ortant she must be observed. "er #unction is to be $roudly dis$layed by the Tro(ans #rom the tower, and ga*ed at by the tormented 9ree%s, as the $ri*e worthy o# such a contest. +s Deianeira watches "era%les wrestling with +chelous, with hersel# as the $ri*e, "elen's $art in the story is to stand witness to her own value as the $ri*e in a contest o# such heroic dimensions. &ut the two cases are not symmetrical. +t least "era%les had the blood o# 5eus in his veinsE "elen's $ri*e is ,aris, whom his brother "ector calls a travesty o# manhood .and ,aris cheer#ully agrees, at 3.3>-661. Far #rom witnessing the decision to clari#y her status, "elen is as%ed to witness instead that her status cannot be decided. &ehind the human contests are ranged three contestants on Olym$us -- "era and +thena on one side, and +$hrodite on the other. "elen, so close to godhood hersel#, must #unction as +$hrodite's sign, and +$hrodite's #avors are not bound by the normal social contracts. 7i%e all signs, "elen must be e;uivocal. The greater the sign, the more e;uivocal its meanings2 that is in the nature o# the sign. @en cannot agree on her meaning, even when they stage a contest secured by oaths sworn in the $resence o# the u$$er and nether gods, because +$hrodite, the archety$e o# which "elen is the human co$y, is not to be netted in human signi#iers. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM 0C!lat%in . 0>>0, ?3 n.3C1 observes that while +$hrodite's bene#iciaries .,aris and +eneas1 3esca$e destruction and survive the )liad, their individual heroism, #rom an e$ic stand$oint, has been $ermanently com$romised.3 -30To add to the com$lications, "elen must be both woman-assign and woman, $erson and im$ersonation, at the same time. 'ithout the woman hersel#, who would want the woman-as-signI 'hat use is the icon i# the god will not dwell thereinI 'ere "elen an icon em$ty o# substance, the sign would lose all value. )n the story s$un #or her by the gods, "elen must be both the ob(ect o# desire and its sub(ect, the source o# desire and its goal. To #ul#ill this #unction she must not only a$$ear e;uivocalE she must also e;uivocate, i# she is to a$$ear credible. For a clearer vision o# "elen as the !ub(ect we could turn to the local cult o# "elen at !$arta. "erodotus tells a lovely story o# this "elen, the goddess, beauti#ying an ugly child, who grew u$ to become the mother o# the !$artan %ing Demaratos.00 O# the stories told o# Demaratos, two were $articularly remar%able. One concerned the marriage o# his $arentsE the other, the $eculiar #ortunes o# his mother, who was a living witness to "elen's $ower to beauti#y the ugly. The #irst story tells o# the $arents o# Demaratos and the clouded circumstances o# his birth. +riston, one o# the %ings o# !$arta, was still without heirs a#ter two marriages. "e then too% a #ancy .an erotic itch, in "erodotus1 #or the woman who was considered the most beauti#ul o# !$artan women. !he, however, was already married, and to +riston's good #riend +getos. <ndaunted, +riston conceived a clever $lan. "e $ersuaded his #riend to ma%e an agreement o# e-change, no doubt in to%en o# their #riendshi$, in which each would hand over to the other that one thing, whatever it might be, which his #riend desired. The agreement was secured under oath. 'e already %now the end o# the story. The trusting +getos lost his wi#e, notwithstanding his $rotests that she had not been included in the agreement. +riston $rom$tly divorced his barren second wi#e and too% as his wi#e the woman who was remembered as the most beauti#ul o# !$artan women. The gods were %ind, and +riston's third wi#e, the anonymous beauty, now MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM 006.60. -3/the ;ueen, $roduced an heir at last, whom the $eo$le called Demaratos .,rayed #or by the ,eo$le1, since +riston was a muchloved %ing. This story is the )liad re$eated in com$act, local #orm2 two men, #riends, com$ete #or the most beauti#ul woman, who is already married to one o# them. + #riendshi$ is betrayed, a marriage is annulled, the woman is e-changed.0/ To ma%e the story truly )liadic, the man who wins the 3most beauti#ul3 woman .%allistT1 is himsel# named 3the best3 .+riston1, though his means are #oul. 3The best,3 here as in the )liad, is immediately $roblematic. +riston's behavior -- deceit, tric%ery, abuse o# #riendshi$ .the ty$ical gi#ts o# +$hrodite1 -- com$orts $oorly with his name. &ut where the libido is concerned .or where there are dynastic considerations1, liberties are allowed. "erodotus $lays out the $roblematics o# the story at some length. The marriage o# the best man and the most beauti#ul woman should have $roduced the best o# heirs. +nd so it did. Demaratos, welcomed at his birth, would grow u$ to become the %ing. &ut no story in "erodotus is com$lete without its blind curve. 9iven his heritage, we could surmise that Demaratos would have an e;uivocal history. 'hen +riston was brought the news o# his son's birth, as he was seated in council with the e$hors, he counted the months on his #ingers and concluded that +getos might be the #ather. +riston re#used to ac%nowledge the child as his legitimate son. )n years to come, when Demaratos, 3$rayed #or by the $eo$le3 but disinherited by his own #ather, grew to be e-actly the son +riston had $rayed #or, +riston regretted his early sus$icions. &ut by then it was too lateE the damage had been done. +s in the )liad, winning the most beauti#ul woman does not guarantee a man ha$$iness.03 MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM 0/!ee &oede%er 0> 7, 0 - >, #or the $attern o# the "elen myth in the story o# Demaratos. 03+s we might have $redicted, neither +riston nor +getos was, it turned out, the #ather o# Demaratos. The true #ather was the stable boyE see "erodotus 0.6 . 'hen Demaratos $leaded with his mother to tell him the true story o# his birth, -33The second $lot concerns the mother o# Demaratos, whose story is even more stri%ing than his. Though %nown in her maturity as the most beauti#ul o# !$artan women, the mother o# Demaratos had been born the ugliest o# babies. "er nurse, sym$athetic to the distress o# her $arents at having a baby so ill #ormed .#or they were $ros$erous $eo$le, "erodotus adds1, made it her daily $ractice to ta%e the baby to "elen's shrine at Thera$ne, a suburb o# !$arta, across the 6urotas Biver. !he would carry the baby heavily swathed, being under strict instructions #rom the $arents to let no one see their disgrace. "er $ractice was to $lace the baby at the #oot o# the cult statue .the agalma -- "elen's idol1, and beseech the goddess to change the baby's 3missha$enness3 .dusmor$hia1. One day, as she was leaving the shrine with the unsightly child heavily shawled against $rying eyes, the nurse encountered a woman who in;uired about the bundle in the nurse's arms. +t length the nurse con#essed it was a baby, but she would not show itE that was strictly #orbidden. The strange woman $ersisted, the nurse's o$$osition melted .as whose would notI1, the $arents' $rudish in(unction was #orgotten, and the ugly baby was e-$osed to the stranger's view. The stranger ."elen, o# course, in a cameo a$$earance1 then stro%ed the baby's head and said she would become 3the most beauti#ul3 .%allistT1 o# !$artan women. From that day, "erodotus concludes, the baby's a$$earance changed #or the better. This story $oints on the literal level to the idol o# "elen -- her agalma -- in her shrine, but the beauty o# the story is "elen, who is not the idol but the source o# all beauty, &eauty hersel#, #ar transcending her idol, yet deigning to inhabit it on occasion, ta%ing on MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM she e-$lained that the story o# the 3stable boy3 .ono$horbos, 3don%ey boy31 as his #ather was $ure gossi$. "is real #ather was the cult hero +straba%os ."e o# the @ule !addle1. +straba%os, she #urther e-$lained, had visited her in disguise, as gods are wont to do, ta%ing on the #orm o# her husband, the %ing +riston. The )liad comes #ull circle2 the most beauti#ul woman 3chooses3 not the best o# men but the li%eness o# the best, who turns out to be either the don%ey boy .in the local gossi$1 or .in his mother's version1 the god o# the stable. 4agy . 0>>Cb, 335-361 discusses the mule theme, as it was used by Demaratos'o$$onents to dis$arage his $edigree. !ee &ur%ert 0>65 #or more on the strange hero +straba%os. -3?human #orm and $laying the visitor at her own tem$le, when a devotee reaches her heart. 'hen gods deign to visit their shrines, we e-$ect miracles. The ugly is changed into the beauti#ul, and another girl becomes "elen's latest idol and idolater. :enturies a#ter "erodotus, ,ausanias, our guide to the shrines and monuments o# ancient !$arta, tells the same story in an abbreviated version, leaving out the #irst $lot .the contest between the two men #or the most beauti#ul woman1, and concentrating on the second $lot ."elen as the source o# beauty1. "elen's miraculous $ower to beauti#y the ugly was no doubt more germane to his tour o# the !$artan tem$les and shrines.0? )n $aring down the tale to a bare summary, ,ausanias diagrams the mythologern even more shar$ly. "erodotus, in love with the $articular, gives us the myth. &ut myth and mythologem together reveal how dee$ly mytho$oeic thin%ing $ermeated ancient 9reece into the historical $eriod. The terms o# the mythologern are %alos

.beauti#ul1, with its su$erlative, %allistos .most beauti#ul1E agathos .good1, with its su$erlative aristos.best1E and, at the other end o# the scale a single term, ais%hros .cause #or re$roach, disgrace#ul, ugly1 and its su$erlative, ais%histos .most disgrace#ul, the ugliest1. The a-is o# the mythologern is shame, over which "elen $resides, being hersel# the signi#ier o# beauty and there#ore delineating, while transcending, shame. +t one $ole is the cluster o# synonyms #or the good and the beauti#ul, and at the other $ole a single term will su##ice as the common antonym, disgrace and the ugly being synonymous. )n the shame or, more correctly, the honor culture o# archaic 9reece, the beauti#ul was good, and ugliness a disgrace. To ;uote )socrates2 3O# the things that lac% beauty we will #ind not one that is loved and cherished Raga$UmenonS, but all are des$ised e-ce$t those that $arta%e o# this #orm Rnamely, &eauty.S305 ,utting the two stories together, as told by the two authors, we MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM 0?,ausanias 3.7.7. 05 6ncomium on "elen5?. have a single story that is dominated #rom beginning to end by "elen's awesome and e;uivocal $ower. Through "elen's intervention the ugliest o# babies became the most beauti#ul o# womenE the disgrace o# her in#ancy was trans#ormed into her undying glory. Thus trans#ormed, she was in time married to the best o# men .+riston1, though the circumstances o# the marriage bring her again into disre$ute. "er son, who would not have been born had she not been beauti#ied by "elen in her in#ancy, is then disinherited by his #ather #or -- ironically -- his ;uestionable $aternity. The boy, who was 3$rayed #or by the $eo$le,3 is the shadow that haunts the woman's #ame, the signi#ier o# a beauty won at the cost o# honor, as it is in the )liad. The #inal touch o# shame is added when Demaratos learns that his #ather was the don%ey boy, but even this disgrace is turned to glory, since 3don%ey boy3 here is a code #or a god in disguise. "elen, by virtue o# her beauty, transcends both ugliness and disgrace. "ers is the $ower to trans#orm disgrace into the beauti#ulE yet she is also the woman who brings men into disgrace. The "elen o# our )liad seems to recogni*e the chilling as$ects o# such e;uivocal $ower, when she uses terms and #ormulas to re$resent hersel# as someone in whose $resence $eo$le shiver, with cold !tygian #ear.06 !tories o# this $ower may be charming when told by "erodotus, though even in "erodotus "elen's $ower is #ar #rom benign. &ut in the )liad the #orce that trans#orms the ugly into the beauti#ul is death. Once in the #ield o# the signi#iers, where men #ight #or their meaning, there is no access to the lu-ury o# &eing, where signi#iers dissolve into the !ub(ect, e-ce$t through death. 7ured to witness the s$ectacle #rom the city tower, "elen will discover .as i# she did not already %now1 that o# s$ectacles she is the s$ectacle.07 The duel between @enelaus and ,aris is inconse;uen MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM 06!ee :lader 0>76, ?0-6/, on "elen's character as revealed through e$ic diction. 4ote the words o# re$roach that "elen uses o# hersel#, and :lader's discussion, $$. 0 ##., o# those e$ithets and $hrases that allude to "elen's 3hate#ulE i.e. deadly3 nature .stugerosE c#. !ty-,the ice-cold river that $uts even gods into a coma1. 07For "elen as s$ectacle, c#. "esiod :atalogue o# 'omen, #rag. /C?. 5 -63 @', -36tial, e-ce$t #or the image o# ,aris $rancing on the #ield in his leo$ard s%in and then snatched #rom death by the sweetly smiling +$hrodite. &ut who would #orget the #ollowing scene in the bedroom, where the libido is declared victorious over honorI "elen will not be declared the legitimate wi#e o# the man who wins the duel by honorable means. )nstead, a#ter witnessing her lover's disgrace on the battle#ield, which is also her disgrace, she will be returned, to her own greater shame, to the bed o# the man without shame. +$hrodite, "elen's Olym$ian $rotector, %nows nothing o# shame cultures.0 "er birth $receded the age o# shame, though as shame cultures develo$ed the mythic mind would #abricate stories to com$ress +$hrodite into the con#ines o# the develo$ing social codes. 6ros, in "esiod's cosmology, is sel#-generated, one o# the #our $rime elements or $rinci$les.0> The libido $recedes all stories. "elen, to im$ersonate such a goddess, must learn to dis$ense with shame. "elen, alone in her room, weaving her silent record o# the war that rages all around her, is an un#orgettable image. On the loom is her crimson ta$estry, on which she weaves .or embroidersI1 the many contests that the horse-taming Tro(ans and the bron*echitoned +chaeans were su##ering #or her sa%e in deadly war3 .3.0/5-/ 1. The image, where "omer's art is at once most sim$le and most $ro#oundly suggestive, has (ustly $rom$ted much dis MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM where the $oet describes )domeneus coming in $erson #rom :rete to "elen's bride contest 3so that he might see +rgive "elen #or himsel# and not only hear #rom others the mythos that had already s$read throughout the land.3 0 :#. the $oint made by !lat%in . 0>>0, ?3 n.3C1, that +$hrodite's e##ect is to com$romise those whom she $rotects. 0> Theogony0/C. +t 073##. "esiod recounts the myth o# the castration o# Ouranos as, in e##ect, a second e-$lanation #or the origin o# desire. )n this version +$hrodite was born o# the severed genitals .i.e., the semen1, and the 6rinyes .s$irits o# revenge1 s$routed #rom the s$illed blood. The $rimal, undi##erentiated libido here divides into two, with se- and li#e on one side, and shame, guilt, and death on the other. The goddess has been revised into $olar o$$osites -- into the chthonic Furies on one hand, and the smiling daughter o# the celestial #ather on the other. !ee also &ergren 0> > on +$hrodite's $rimeval $ower to tame gods, humans, and animals, which is tamed in turn by 5eus. -37cussion./C )t calls to mind the later scene, in boo% >, when +gamemnon's ambassadors come u$on +chilles at his .or rather, +ndromache's1 lyre, singing 3the #amous deeds o# men.3 7yre and loom, singer and weaver -- +chilles and "elen are two im$ersonations o# the $oet, transmuting nature into art, &eing into @eaning./0 For +chilles, 3men's deeds o# valor3 .%lea andriUn1 are his $aidela, both his childhood education into manhood and his adult ideal. +chilles' songs o# valor console him #or his occluded glory, but they are also an incantation o# the victor's crown, which +thena $romises him in boo% 0. "is glory ecli$sed #or the moment, +chilles will yet assimilate himsel# to the mighty heroes o# earlier generations, li%e his #ather ,eleus or his great ancestor +ia%os. +chilles is at one remove #rom the center o# his song, since the glory, #ame, or radiance that men win .their %leos1 can be won only in the #ield o# action, in contest with other men. +chilles is e-cluded #rom the contest, but "elen is inevitably at the center. "er ta$estry tells o# men's valor too, but the deeds she commemorates are those waged #or her sa%e, or in her name. The #igures o# her ta$estry are not o# the $ast, as we assume +chilles' heroes are. They are the very men #ighting to the death on the #ields below the city walls. "er theme is the Tro(an 'ar and its sub(ect .or ob(ect1, "elen. "omer calls the tableau- on "elen's ta$estry aethloi .contests1, rather than using a more s$eci#ically military term. +ethloi, as 7inda 7. :lader notes, are 3contests #or a $ri*e.3// !uch contests in MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM /COn the associations in ancient 9ree% between weaving and $oetic com$osition, with good re#erences to the scholarshi$ on the sub(ect, see :lader 0>76, 7E &ergren 0>7>E 0> 3, 7>. On "elen's ta$estry, see also Oennedy 0> 6. /0On "elen as $oet, see :lader . 0>76, 1, who calls "elen 3both author and sub(ect o# her wor%.3 :#. also &ergren 0> 3, 7>2 "elen 3is both the ob(ect o# the war and the creator o# its emblem.3 On +chilles as the singer in )liad>, see 'hitman 0>5 , 0>3. !ee also @urnaghan 0> 7, 05/, on the $oets or surrogate $oets in the "omeric $oems .e.g., "elen and +chilles1, who are all in some way 3dis;uali#ied #rom heroic action.3 // 0>76, 7. !ee also her discussion o# "elen as the $ri*e o# the Tro(an 'ar, through whom the heroes win their #ame .%leos1, and there#ore symbolic immortality. -3 archaic 9ree% tradition lead in two directions2 to athletic contests, on the one hand, li%e the celebrated Olym$ian 9amesE and to bride com$etitions, on the other, where heroes gathered as a woman's suitors and com$eted #or the woman-as-$ri*e. +thletic contests were held #or a variety o# reasons besides bride com$etition .to

honor the death o# a local hero, #or e-am$le1. &ut 9ree% myth curiously $reserves several stories o# women won through bride com$etition -- Thetis, "i$$odameia, Deianeira, ,enelo$e, the #i#ty daughters o# Danaos, and, o# course, "elen. 6ven "era%les, wrestling Thanatos .Death1 to retrieve +l%estis #rom the dead, is a variant on the same theme. &ride com$etitions continued into historical times, i# we are to believe "erodotus, who tells us o# Oleisthenes, tyrant o# !i%yon, announcing a $ublic com$etition #or the hand o# his daughter, +gariste .&est 'oman by Far1, wishing, as "erodotus says, to discover 3the best3 man .aristos1 in 9reece #or his son-in-law./3 + certain "i$$o%leides, an +thenian distinguished #or his wealth and loo%s, was one o# the two #inalists, having ac;uitted himsel# with honor both in the gymnasium and at the table. On the #inal night the suitors com$eted in contests o# music and a#ter-dinner oratory. "i$$o%leides, alas, under the convivial e##ects o# the drin%, disgraced himsel# by dancing u$side down on the dinner table, waving his legs in the air and e-$osing what should not be e-$osed .what in 9ree% were called ta ais%hra, 3the disgrace#ul $arts31, and certainly not to the $ros$ective #ather-in-law. "i$$o%leides lost the com$etition -- all honors garnered in a #ull year o# com$etitions were turned to shame by a single indiscretion -- but he was too #ar gone to care. @ega%les, the other +thenian contestant, was declared the winner. From his marriage to +gariste was born the celebrated Oleisthenes, and #ec%less "i$$o%leides dro$s #rom view. The )liad is bride com$etition told in e$ic #ullness. "elen weaves on her ta$estry all such bride com$etitions, recording her own as the common $aradigm shared by all other women. &ut "elen's MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM /36.0/6-/>. 4ote also "erodotus' e-$licit statement that +gariste's suitors were 3the best in loo%s and birth.3 -3>bride contest is signi#icantly di##erent #rom all other contests in that the com$etition in her case is $er$etually renewed and $er$etually undecided. "elen's ta$estry, indeed "elen hersel#, i# she is to be true to her own story, must $ortray indecisiveness. )# to win "elen is, as :lader notes, to win immortality, the nature o# this immortality and how it is to be granted remain mysterious./? "elen's $rivilege is to signi#y #or men that *one where ;uotidian being borders &eing itsel#, where all meanings are in $er$etual dis$ute, and misinter$retation is death. The "elen myth is a story o# bride com$etition re$eated again and again./5 )n her childhood she was sei*ed by Theseus, #rom whom she was rescued by her brothers, the Dios%ouroi .the 3sons o# 5eus3 rescuing 3the daughter o# 5eus31. 'hen "elen reached marriageable age, her .human1 #ather, Tyndareus, held the contest in !$arta, where the heroes gathered #rom all over 9reece to com$ete as her suitors. "ere, oddly, the winner was the man who did not, in #act, com$ete. +gamemnon acted on behal# o# his brother @enelaus, while @enelaus stayed at home. &eing already married to "elen's sister Olytaimestra, and there#ore hors de combat, +gamemnon acted as the $ro$er go-between, cementing the di$lomatic .and military1 alliance between the two great @ycenean houses, the house o# +treus and the house o# Tyndareus./6 4ow, des$ite all the oaths sworn by the contestants to honor the marriage o# @enelaus and "elen, the contest #or the bride has been reo$ened. )t is no longer a rivalry between the 9ree% tribal chie# MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM /? :lader 0>76, 00-0/. /5On the Tro(an 'ar as "elen's bride com$etition, see :lader 0>76, and c#. &ergren . 0> 3, /1, who $erce$tively notes that "elen 3is the #emale #orever abducted but never #inally ca$tured.3 )n a similar way the contest between ,enelo$e's suitors and Odysseus in the Odyssey re$lays the original com$etition #or ,enelo$e. For curious stories o# ,enelo$e's original courtshi$, see ,ausanias 3.0/.0-/, ?E 03.6. /6!ee "esiod, #rags. 0>6##. @', #or the list o# "elen's suitors. 6ven the contest between @enelaus and ,aris, as 9ree% versus Tro(an, re$eats itsel# in the )liad at 03.506, when Dei$hobos hurls his s$ear at )domeneus. The scholiast .A )bycus, #rag. />7 ,@91 e-$lains that Dei$hobos and )domeneus were deadly enemies, as rivals #or "elen's love. -?Ctains but has become an issue between 9reece and its allies on one side, and Troy and its allies on the other. + local con#lict has been globali*ed, since the contestants are not sim$ly the 9ree%s and the Tro(ansE they have become signi#iers warring in the #ield o# @eaning #or the !ub(ect, which, alas, is never to be #ound in the #ield o# @eaning but only in the arcane recesses o# &eing. "elen, "omer's eyewitness at the center o# the action, becalmed e-ce$t when she is needed #or her $ublic #unction as the s$ectacle, becomes, li%e "omer, a weaver o# stories./7 !he has s$ecial gi#ts #or this $art, being uni;uely both 9ree% and Tro(an. "elen's stereosco$ic vision will serve "omer well, as it serves ,riam on the city walls. =et such $rivilege, to be the $oet's $oet, only mar%s "elen's im$otence. "er ta$estry is a woman's com$osition, woven in solitude and $rivacy -- who would ever visit "elen's rooms, e-ce$t ,aris and her own slavesI The woman's view is not solicited in the contests that "elen re$resents in her tableau-. "elen may, indeed must, observe, but she must %ee$ her silence. One day, $erha$s, assuming the war ends and $eace returns, "elen's ta$estry may hang in a %ing's halls to entertain the %ing and his barons. &ut $erha$s not. ,erha$s it was never intended #or men's $erusal, or #or women's $erusal either, since "elen was even more alienated #rom women than #rom men. "elen, always com$liant to any tug on her emotions, hurries #rom her seclusion to witness the contest #or her signi#icance. 4ow her contradictions will be bla*oned #orth #or all to see. 6-cluded #rom the decision-ma%ing $rocess, e-ce$t as the $ri*e, "elen is a $artici$ant all the same, being intimately related, through the marriage bed, to both contestants. )ris, $ainting the stirring scene o# the armies marshaled on the #ield, and "elen's two husbands at the center, $re$ared to duel to the death, had aroused in "elen a MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM /7For "elen as weaver and storyteller, and the associative lin%s between woven #abric, $oetry, and intelligence .mTtis1, see &ergren 0> 3, 73E 5eitlin 0> 0, /C3-6. 6-tra$olating #rom these lin%s, &ergren reads the marriage o# 5eus and the goddess @Ttis .:unning )ntelligence1 as a story told to e-$lain 3the semiotic $ower assigned to the #emale and its .re1 a$$ro$riation by the male.3 -?03sweet yearning #or her #ormer husband, her city, and her $arents3 .3. 03>-?C1. &ut "elen's sweet yearning, though a su##icient motive to draw "elen #rom her room, is beside the $oint. "elen's #irst #unction is to be the sign that will guarantee either ha$$iness or immortality or both. "er second is, by witnessing the contest, to rati#y it in her uni;ue and mysterious way, to validate hersel#, and there#ore her value as sign. "er $ersonal investment is not germane to such mathematics. )t must be occluded in #avor o# "elen's meaning, which others will decide. "elen must be the dis$assionate s$ectator. =et, such is "elen's $arado-, a dis$assionate "elen would lose all value. )# "elen is to im$ersonate +$hrodite, she must $lay a woman o# unbridled $assion, since unbridled $assion is $recisely +$hrodite's nature, or the $lay would have no meaning. )# "elen is to be the ob(ect o# men's desire, the e;uation will not com$ute without "elen's libido included. 'ho would "elen be without her libidoI +t the !caean 9ates, "elen, in the role reversal characteristic o# her, #inds hersel#, once outside her own $rivate s$ace, not the s$ectator but the $rotagonist on the most $ublic o# all stages, with the old men o# the city, bu**ing li%e cicadas, as her tragic chorus. !o much we should have in#erred when )ris ca$tivated "elen's emotions and drew her to the $ublic stage. 'hy else was "elen $osted to the city gates i# not to be seenI "elen's voyeurism, to which )ris a$$eals in erotic e-citement, is a thin disguise. 'e are the voyeurs. 'hen )ris calls "elen 3dear bride3 .num$ha, at 3.03C1, the #ormula is #or our bene#it as much as it is #or "elen's. 'e are the audience im$atient to witness the duel #or a bride whose beauty overrides shame.

The status o# the city elders is ambiguous, as i# everything to do with "elen #alls into indeterminacy. They are no longer the strong warriors o# the city but the s$ea%ers .agorTtai, 3those who s$ea% in the assembly31. 7i%e "elen, they are removed #rom the #ield o# action where men determine signi#icance. !eeing "elen, the elders, -?/though $ast the age o# indiscretion themselves, can allow #or the hormonal storm that would $reci$itate war among the younger men #or such an emblem2 3#or she loo%s terribly li%e the deathless goddesses3E but even so, they say, 3let her sail home in the shi$s so that she may not be le#t here as a woe to us and our children herea#ter3 .3.056-6C1. The old men's res$onse to "elen e$itomi*es her ambiguity. 3)t is no disgrace that the 9ree%s and the Tro(ans su##er long evils #or such a woman,3 they say, using the word nemesis, the strongest term in "omer's shame culture #or 3blame.3/ The Tro(an 'ar is no cause #or shame on either side. @ore $ointedly, there is no cause #or blame, and no reason to #ear retribution, when the ob(ect is "elen, who awes the beholder into believing himsel# a witness to a god's e$i$hany. There is neither shame nor blame when men war #or the hidden !ub(ect to which all signs re#er. &ut the elders o# Troy could not be more mista%en, thin%ing their war over "elen was #ree o# nemesis. "elen is nemesis./> The old men are good s$ea%ers, "omer adds .at 3.05C-5/1, MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM / 7!L de#ines nemesis as 3distribution o# what is dueE but in usage always retribution, es$. righteous anger.3 )n the same entry aidUs is distinguished as sub(ective .shame1, and nemesis as ob(ective .retribution1. ) would re#ine the distinction, to call nemesis the #ear that attends the violation o# shame taboos, $ro(ected as retribution, whether human or divine. On nemesis in the )liad, see Bed#ield . 0>75, 003- 061, who notes that nemesis is re$resented as an e-cited condition. "e cites )liad .0> -/CC, where "era, e-$eriencing nemesis, sha%es on her throne, 3and great Olym$us trembled3E and 05.0C0-3, where "era grins through her teeth, but her #ace is not smiling. />:#. the connection between "elen and nemesis at "esiod, #rag. 0>7. @', where "elen's courtshi$ 3aroused the nemesis o# the gods.3 !ee also #rag. /C?- / @', where Tyndareus e-acts the oath #rom "elen's suitors that they would e-act vengeance on any man who, 3$utting aside nemesis and aidUs,3 would ta%e "elen by #orce. On the #re;uent association o# nemesis and "elen in 9ree% art, see 9haliOahil . 0>55, 02 5>-6C1, who discerns two $ossible in#luences here. On the literary side, the :y$ria gives us the story o# "elen as the o##s$ring o# 5eus and 4emesis .see :y$ria7 +llen1E and signi#icant on the religious side was the cult o# 4emesis at Bhamnous in +ttica, where she was worshi$ed as 3The Bhamnousian R9oddessS.3 'e can trace the con#luence o# these two sources in the e$ithet Bhamnousian, which the +le-andrian $oet :allimachus used o# "elen . "ymn to +rtemis/3/1. -?33li%e the cicadas in the leaves, which $our #orth their lily voices.3 Dry hus%s they may be, the elders, with all $assion and substance transmuted into voice, but it is still the li;uid, #ragrant voice o# e-$erience.3C Theirs is the guiding voice o# the city. &ut, alas, li%e cicadas, old men are no more than voice. 'isdom will not $revail over youth#ul ambition in this contest. "elen will one day be returned to 9reece, but not through old men's di$lomacy. Face-to#ace with "elen's com$elling signi#icance, the elders have only words, but words too #ail. "elen, transcending words, is truly terrible. 'hen old men's words #ail, the contest will be returned to the young warriors, who can still believe that trial by arms can reach a meaning where words cannot. ,riam brea%s in on the elders' murmuring to call "elen to his side, and "elen, chameleonli%e, reverses hersel# again, #rom s$ectacle to s$ectator .3.060-6312 3:ome, dear child, and sit here by me so you may see your #ormer husband, your $eo$le, and your #riends.3 Dear childI + moment earlier "elen was a virtual goddessE be#ore that she was a brideE now she is an old man's child. )t is a #ormula, o# courseE by convention "elen has become ,riam's daughter, as he has become her #ather. &ut around "elen even mundane #ormulas resonate. "as ,riam, the eldest o# the elders, #allen under "elen's s$ell that he would, as i# inadvertently, #rom sheer custom, address "elen as he might address +ndromache or any other o# his daughters-in-law but "elenI ,riam interru$ts his own train o# thought, as i# to gloss his indiscreet show o# a##ection .3. 06?-6512 3To me, you are not the cause. The gods ) hold res$onsible, who have roused this long, grievous war against us #rom the +chaeans.3 The Tro(an elders give a general absolution to both sides, 9ree% and Tro(an, #or the war. &ut s$eci#ically they absolve the men on the #ield, the warriors on both sides, #or consenting to go to their death when the MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM 3COn the men's 3lily voices3 and the com$arison with the cicadas' sound, see !tan#ord 0>6>. On voices as li;uid, see !venbro . 0> , 0C0 n.3>1, with his citations #rom ,indar's odes. -??$ri*e is o# such daimonic signi#icance. ,riam, however, standing in #or "elen's #ather, reverses the e;uation and absolves "elen. +nd rightly so. !he is, in #act, but a child in the social order, to be $assed #rom one su$ervisory male to another as the rules dictate. ,riam's counselors would do without the sign altogether, given its cost. &ut ,riam is not o# their $ersuasion. &ewitched by both the woman and the war, he calls "elen to witness the great s$ectacle o# men #ighting to their death to calibrate the cost o# beauty. They ma%e an odd cou$le, ,riam and "elen, so li%e and unli%e #ather and daughter. "el$less to in#luence the action .,riam dis;uali#ied by age, "elen by her se-1, both are cast as s$ectators, though the s$ectacle in this case is their lives. They chat li%e #ather and daughter, as i# war were in the #ar distance. ,riam as%s his daughter-in-law to identi#y the enemy ."elen's onetime #amily and $eo$le1, much as i# they were at an entertainment, the rivalry between a woman's two clans, her biological #amily and her inlaws, #ormali*ed into an a#ternoon's athletic contest. "elen, decorous in all her #unctions, lends ,riam her eyes, as a daughter would, and grace#ully submits to being his military aide.30 &ut "elen is more than a military scout. De$ending on the $oint o# view, she is either a hostage or a wanton #ugitive #rom the 9ree% side. )n either case she is a ca$tive. The $oint is made, however graciously. The $lot is trans$arent2 the hostage sits in the commander's bo-, where she is seen to chat amicably with him, while her ransom is being arranged on the #ield below. "elen obliges, and as i# this were a holiday at the races, the hostage turns her %nowledge to her ca$tor's use. &ut "elen, serving as ,riam's eyes, is never allowed to #orget that she is the real s$ectacle .3.073-7612 3'ould that death had come on me,3 she re$lies to ,riam's grace#ul invitation, 3be#ore ) #ollowed your son hither, leaving my own room, my $eo$le, my child, and my #riends o# my youth. &ut that was not to be, and ) MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM 30On the $ower o# "elen's eyes, c#. !tesichorus, #rag. /C0 ,@9, where he is re$orted as saying that the men who advanced toward her to stone her 3at the sight o# "elen dro$$ed their stones to the ground.3 -?5waste away in grie#.3 &ut "elen's shame is her $rivate a##air, irrelevant both to the contest on the #ield below #or the #airest and the best, and to her #unction as the woman with no shame. +s the daughter o# 4emesis .as she is re$resented, #or e-am$le, in the :y$ria1, "elen must be com$letely dis$assionate.3/ ,utting her own investment aside, "elen obediently reads o## the roll call o# the enemy -- #riends in her eyes, though enemies in ,riam's -- as i# she were reading the $rogram notes to an aged #ather with #ailing eyesight.33 "er grie# and shame $ass unnoticed. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM 3/On the goddess 4emesis, see Boscher, 32 007-66, s.v. 34emesis3E and 02 es$. 0>3C-30, s. v. 3"elena )).3 On 4emesis as goddess o# vegetation, and "elen's connection with both 4emesis and vegetation, see :oo% 0>/5, 32 0C05E :lader 0>76, 73. 'orth noting also is !tesichorus, #rag. //3 ,@9, where "elen and Olytaimestra are the $unishment visited on their #ather, Tyndareus, by +$hrodite, when he sacri#iced to the other gods but omitted her #rom his devotions. +$hrodite in her anger $unished him by ma%ing both his daughters $romiscuous. Farnell . 0>/0, 3/?1 #inds no 3true mythic tradition3 in the story o# "elen's birth given by the

$oet o# the :y$ria, who ma%es her the daughter o# 4emesis. "e considers the story 3studied and didactic,3 an e-tra$olation #rom "elen's role in e$ic as the daughter o# 3divine wrath.3 )n my view, however, the story as told in the :y$ria o# the mating o# 4emesis .+$$ortionment1 and 5eus has the ring o# a genuine, archaic cosmogony dating #rom the mytho$oeic age, rather than o# a #iction invented by a so$histicated reader o# the )liad to e-$lain "elen's role and behavior in the e$ic. +ccording to #urther details su$$lied by later authors, 4emesis, resisting 5eus by changing #rom one #orm into another, #inally changed hersel# into a goose .a #ish in +thenaeus .33?c1, whereu$on 5eus did li%ewise .or chose the swan #orm1, and thus they consummated their love. From their union 4emesis gave birth to an egg .the cosmic egg1, #rom which in turn "elen emergedE that is, &eauty hersel#. The stories told o# 5eus $ursuing 7eda and 4emesis are remar%ably similar, suggesting that both were cognates o# an older archety$e. )n one story, which e-$licitly connects 7eda and 4emesis, 4emesis is given as "elen's true mother, but she gave "elen to 7eda to raise, and "elen was thus mista%en #or 7eda's daughter. !ee 7indsay 0>7?, cha$. 0/, 34emesis,3 #or a sym$athetic discussion o# 4emesis as "elen's mother. 33 :lader . 0>76, >1 notes the oddity o# "elen as the reader o# the roll call2 3)t is stri%ing that a woman should be the $oet o# a catalogue o# this sort. Traditionally, such a scene should be dominated by a member o# the o$$osing side, who could $rovide in#ormation about his #ormer comrades on the basis o# his own material e-$erience.3 :lader concludes that "elen's 3catalogue o# the troo$s3 re$resents her own bride com$etition, when all the 9ree% heroes gathered at !$arta as her suitors2 3The Teichosco$eia, then, is a reminder that the Tro(an 'ar is a second contest #or the $ossession o# +rgive "elen3 .0C1. :lader suggests #urther that the absence o# @enelaus and +chilles #rom "elen's roll call o# the +chaean heroes at -?6,riam's ga*e is #i-ed on the ma(esty o# +gamemnon and the magni#icence o# the bron*e-chitoned +chaeans. :oncluding her roll call o# the +chaean heroes -- its subte-t being the list o# her own suitors, with ,riam standing in #or her #ather -- "elen, overtly the $ri*e but im$licitly the (udge, since beauty sets the rules, discovers an absence that, but #or her %eener sight, would have been overloo%ed. Our attention, li%e ,riam's, is drawn to the warriors on the #ieldE i# we had noticed an absence, it would have been the absence o# +chilles. &ut "elen, scanning the #ield, #inds her brothers, the Dios%ouroi, nowhere to be seen. 'e would e-$ect to #ind them, now that our attention has been drawn to them, in the #ront lines, de#ending their #amily honor as +gamemnon de#ends his brother's honor. )# +chilles, +(a-, and Odysseus were $re$ared to #ight #or "elen to the death, what motivation could have %e$t "elen's own brothers #rom the #ieldI 9ree% myth and tradition credited the Twin Biders, :astor and ,ollu-, with miraculous rescues both on land and at sea. )n cult they were %nown as sUtTres .saviors1. They had rescued "elen when she was ca$tured by Theseus. 'here were they nowI They were, a#ter all, 3the sons o# 5eus3 .dios %ouroi1, and "elen, their sister, was 3the daughter o# 5eus.33? 'hy did they not race to their MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM Troy may re#lect her original bride contest, where the same two heroes were notably absent. On the Teichosco$ela as a traditional catalogue o# warriors sha$ed to its $resent $osition, with "elen being its #ocal $oint, see 6dwards 0> C, 0C/0-3. !ee also his discussion o# "elen and ,aris . 0> 7, 0?>-5 , 0>0->71. 'e should also note that the duel in )liad3 re$lays, on the #ield o# battle, the original o##ense, when ,aris violated the code o# honor and abducted "elen #rom her law#ul husband. The contest is restaged, and once again honor loses to the libido. On honor and shame in the )liad, see also !chein 0> ?, 06 ##. 3?On the Dios%ouroi as heavenly saviors, see +lcaeus, #rag. &/ 7,, and ,age . 0>55, /65-6 1, who lists the other ma(or testimony #rom ancient literature on the sub(ectE also :oo% 0>/5, /2 ?30-?C, in connection with other divine twins, and 0CC3-0>, 3Dios%ouroi and "elene in Fol%-Tales.3 Farnell, . 0>/0, 075-// 1 discusses the wide distribution o# their cult through 9reece, but $articularly in western 9reece .!icily and @agna 9raecia1, where the Doric $resence was strong. )n #rag. ades$ota 0C/7.c1 ,@9, they are addressed as %allistoi sUtTres .most beauti#ul saviors1E in 6uri$ides' "elen, the :horus invo%es them as 3the saviors o# "elen3 .line 05CC1, which, in the )liad, they cons$icuously are not. -?7sister's rescue, as they had in the $astI "elen assumes the worst2 her brothers, %insmen and dauntless warriors though they be, did not dare show themselves on the battle#ield #or shame .3.3/6- ?/1. "er assum$tion is incorrect, but that is less im$ortant than "elen's reminder that the s$ectacle to which she has been so grace#ully invited, by )ris #irst on the divine $lane, and then by ,riam on the human $lane, is the s$ectacle o# her own shame, or lac% o# it.35 "elen's shame dee$ens when +$hrodite hersel#, with ,aris #reshly bathed and $er#umed and sa#ely to bed, sallies #orth to lure "elen to her ne-t assignment. ,laying the #amiliar old crone o# romance, tugging at "elen's sleeve, +$hrodite is all breathless lubricity, coa-ing "elen into ,aris' bed. )ris was lubricious too, MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM 35For "elen's shame in the e$ic tradition, c#. "esiod, #rag. 076 @'2 3"elen disgraced the bed o# @enelaus.3 !ee Bed#ield 0>75, 003##. )# we can acce$t the Dios%ouroi as cognate #orms o# the Twin Biders o# the Qedic tradition, as :lader . 0>76, ? -531 argues, her suggestion that "elen's twin brothers have been re$laced in the e$ic tradition by the two +treidai, +gamemnon and @enelaus, and are thus rendered su$er#luous to the $lot is attractive. Farnell . 0>/0, 075-// 1 is not sym$athetic to the theory that the Dios%ouroi re$resent the 9ree% version o# the Twin Biders, but see 4agy 0>gob, >3 n.?6, #or #urther re#erences, and /55-56. The $rominence o# the twin element in the "elen myth, both in "omer and outside the "omeric te-ts, suggests an enigma that is not easily e-$lained as a 3#iction3 invented by the $oet o# the )liad, which would then have to be im$orted into a large number o# "elen's non-)liadic myths. Bather, this element alone suggests that the )liadic "elen is a $ortrait sha$ed by the e$ic but drawn #rom a much wider "elen tradition. +mong the double or twin elements are "elen's two brothers absent #rom TroyE the two sons o# +treus warring to recover her #rom the two sons o# ,riamE Theseus and ,eirithoos associated in the story o# "elen's childhood ra$e, with the two Dios%ouroi as her saviorsE her two brothers' twinned destiny2 the two alternating between li#e and death, and each alternating with the otherE the two sisters born #rom the same eggE and the two mothers. )n art, "elen is #re;uently re$resented as #lan%ed by two menE see Boscher, 02 0>6>. :oo% . 0>/5, /2 ??7##.1, in discussing the twin theme in myth, notes that in some instances one o# the twins is e##eminate. 'e hear the echo o# this distinction in "omer, in both the sons o# +treus and the sons o# ,riam. )n each case the one brother is a mighty warrior, while the masculinity o# the other is dee$ly $roblematicE then the $roblematic males must de#ine their masculinity vis-J-vis "elen. :#. the comic version o# the "elen story in ,etronius !atyricon 5>.00-0/, which has Diomedes and 9anymede as "elen's two brothers .the warrior and the e##ete1. -? though she veiled her voyeurism under the rubric o# 3contests3-- who does not want to see a contest, es$ecially a contest #or loveI +nd what bride would not want to witness her own bridal com$etitionI &ut now the libido is undisguised. Bescued and restored, ,aris awaits "elen in #ull se-ual arousal. "elen's contem$t #or +$hrodite is magni#icent, but useless, when +$hrodite abandons her crone $ersona and, revealing her true being, threatens to withdraw her love i# "elen disobeys .at 3.?0?-0712 3) may come to hate you as greatly as now ) love you.3 7oveI 'ords ta%e on mani#old meanings where "elen is concerned. "elen may continue to en(oy +$hrodite's charisma, $rovided she subsume her $ersonal being within her broader $ublic #unction, which, in her case, is to e-$ose all social convention as so much #lotsam in the tide o# the libido. "elen will survive, as +$hrodite's #avorites do, $rovided she acce$t +$hrodite's terms, that her honor be com$romised.36 :ommanded by +$hrodite to #orgo her shame, "elen dis$laces onto ,aris the anger that she is #orbidden to direct toward +$hrodite, who, as a god, is taboo. &ut ,aris is no more accessible as a target than +$hrodite. "e is all se-ual arousal, and "elen's sarcasm has no e##ect, unless $erha$s to stimulate his erotic imagination. "elen's sarcasm is an arrow that reaches only its archer, since only she %nows shame2 3'ould that ) had married a man who %new the meaning o# nemesis and shame, 3 "elen will later say to "ector .6.35C-501. &ut ,aris is im$ervious to shame.37 On the contrary, ,aris revels in his lu-ury, $ossessing the ;ueen o# the world, while "elen must both live with her shame and acce$t her #unction as the s$ectacle o# shamelessness. !hame may govern #amilies and order MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM 36&oede%er . 0>7?, 3?1 notes that "elen's reluctance to (oin ,aris 3recalls the moti# o# shame which in e$ic $oetry is #re;uently attributed to characters under the in#luence o# se-ual desire.3 !ee also $. 352 3+$hrodite is re$resented as an e##eminate and debasing love goddess.3 37:#. Bed#ield 0>75, 00?2 3,aris acce$ts himsel# as he isE he did not ma%e himsel# he says, and he cannot be otherwise. For the $oet o# the )liad such an attitude is #undamentally unheroic -- because it is unsociali*ed.3 -?>cities, but it is an em$ty word in +$hrodite's cosmology. 'hat better illustration o# the e-travagance o# the libido than the sight o# "elen, #or whom grown men die, $laying the #airy godmother, indulging the se-ual #antasies o# a boy who has never outgrown in#antile narcissismI

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