Troy 2: Helen of Troy

Long, long ago, a bard sang a song about a woman whose beauty was so extraordinary that thousands of men literally died for want of her. Many of these men were great kings and legendary warriors of their time. So besotted were these men with this woman’s beauty that their desire for her caused the death, destruction, and misery of the Trojan War. Her name was Helen. This is her story.

Helen’s father was Zeus, the king of the gods in Greek mythology. Her mother was Leda, a mortal and the queen of Sparta. According to legend, Zeus came to Leda in the form of a swan and fathered Helen, who was born from an egg laid by her mother (image). From birth, Helen was divine, noble, and exotic. Her birthright foreshadowed her mythic life.

Helen was raised in the house of King Tyndareus of Sparta, along with her two brothers and her sister. There, she grew to be an incomparable beauty. Her loveliness incited jealousy in women, both mortals and goddesses. Her beauty drove men to depraved actions. In her teens, Helen was kidnapped by King Theseus of Athens (image). Desiring to have Zeus as a father-in-law and hearing tales of Helen’s beauty, he kidnapped the girl and brought her to Attica. Helen was rescued by her bothers, Castor and Polydeuces. While kidnapping a woman for marriage was not as reviled then as it is now, Helen’s kidnapping made King Tyndareus realized that he had to quickly find a suitable husband for this desirable beauty with the divine birthright.

Zeus the Great Philanderer

Although he was married to the beautiful goddess Hera (image), Zeus’ lust for female companionship was never satisfied. As the king of the ancient Greek gods, Zeus has a freehand with women, both mortal and divine. He had numerous affairs with mortal women and lesser deities. Many of these affairs produced offspring. Zeus' liaisons with other women always angered Hera, who was vengeful. Hera exacted her revenge for Zeus’ indiscretions, not on Zeus, but on the women Zeus seduced and, often, the children Zeus fathered.

Callisto

Zeus seduced the mortal woman, Callisto. When Hera learned of the seduction she became so angry that she transformed Callisto into a bear. Hera then incited Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, to slay the bear that was Callisto.

Hera suspected that Zeus had an interest in the mortal woman Io. To fool Hera and avoid her wrath, Zeus turned Io into a white cow and coupled with her in secret. Hera learned of Zeus’ ruse and sent a gadfly to torment Io who wandered the earth feeling the sting of the horrible fly until eventually she was forgiven and returned to her mortal form by Hera. In another version of the myth, Io went to Egypt in the form of a bull and gave birth to Zeus’ son Ephaphos. She became the Egyptian goddess Isis.

Alcmene

Alcmene was the stunning wife of King Amphitryon of Troezen. To satisfy his lust for Alcmene, Zeus masqueraded himself as Amphitryon and visited Alcmene’s bed while her husband was away. Alcmene became pregnant with Zeus’ child on the night he visited her. The next night Amphitryon returned and Alcmene became pregnant again with his child. When the time came for Alcmene to deliver the babies, Hera sent witches to delay Alcmene’s labor. Alcmene eventually gave birth to two boys, Herakles the son of Zeus and Iphicles the son of Amphitryon. So great was her anger over the birth of Herakles that Hera plagued innocent Herakles with great pain and hardships throughout his life.

Semele

Zeus fathered the god Dionysos by impregnating the mortal Semele. In a fit of rage over the pregnancy, Hera tricked Semele into demanding that Zeus appear to her in his immortal splendor. As a result of Hera’s trickery, the pregnant Semele was destroyed by Zeus’ brilliance. To save the child in Semele’s womb, Zeus sewed the baby into his thigh from which baby Dionysos was born. Later in his life, Hera drove Dionysos mad because of Zeus’ infidelity with Dionysos’ mother.