Love Stories - Helen & Paris

Helen of Troy "the face that launched a thousand ships" was known as the most beautiful woman in the Greek mythology. The daughter of Zeus by Leda, she was the wife of Menelaus.

Her abduction by Paris brought the Trojan War in effect. Helen as a child was abducted by Theseus and Pirithous as the former intended to marry her. They kidnapped her and decided to hold her until she was old enough to marry, but in the mean time Helen was rescued by her brothers and brought back to Sparta. When Helen reached the marriageable age many kings and princes from around the world came to seek her hand or sent emissaries for the same purpose. From among a lot of eligible competitors Menelaus emerged to be the favorite one. But unfortunately Menelaus was in exile and was represented by his brother. Menelaus was married to Helen and following the death of Tyndareus, Menelaus became the king of Sparta.

Some years later the Trojan prince, Paris, came to Sparta intending to marry Helen as she had been promised to him by Aphrodite after he selected the later as the most beautiful of the goddesses.

According to the promise of the goddesses to Paris, Helen fell in love with him and left behind her Menelaus and their nine year old daughter Hermione. Helen's relation with Paris varies greatly according to different sources. Some show her as the lover of Paris due to the enchantment of goddess as she had promised him and simultaneously in some she is portrayed as the unwilling prisoner of Paris or more so as a cruel selfish woman who brought destruction and sorrow in the lives of every body around her. In Euripides' play Helen, Hermes designed a likeness of her out of the clouds at Zeus's request, and Helen never resorted to Troy, she spent the entire war in Egypt. On the whole she has been described as a splendid beauty.

Menelaus on the other hand when discovered that his wife was not around, he called upon all the suitors to do their duty of protecting the king and the queen. Thus the Trojan War commenced with the whole of Greece participated in it, either attacking troy or defending it from Menelaus. Later in Trojan War Paris was killed by Philoctetes. With the death of Paris his brother, Deiphobus married Helen, but finally he was also killed by Menelaus. Menelaus intended to kill his faithless wife and so he raised his sword. But the very sight of her impeccable beauty forced him to drop his sword and to lead her safely to the Greek ships.

The logic of love probably still remains a mystery enshrouded in the garb of a myth or a historical truth as various sources claim differently about Helens affair with Paris or her abduction by Paris.