Although no-one has actually said it, it will be clear from the variety of responses and the reference to various authors that there is no one "Helen"; each author was and is free to "interpret" the character "Helen" as he/she sees fit.
However, the most interesting (because ambiguous and many-sided) view of Helen's "response" to Menelaos, to Paris and to sexual passion and family life is Homer's Iliad, the episode of the single combat in Books 2,3,4. There we see the power of beauty, male and female, and of sexual attraction studied in a masterly way in a variety of contexts including the old men on the wall and Priam himself. There the power of Aphrodite is shown for what it is - not something to be trifled with. And that portrayal of Helen is set right beside - not contrasted - with the portrait of Andromache that follows. Rebecca and her girls, if they have not read those passages of the Iliad, truly have a treat in store! yn > From: "Rebecca Smyth" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: VIRGIL: Helen's Abduction > Date: Thu, 11 Feb 1999 10:49:31 PST > Reply-to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Salvete! > > Thank you all for your comments and insight. I am most grateful for > your help and I'm certain that my girls will also apreciate it; I'm > looking forward to my next class with them and an exciting discussion. > I would definitely enjoy reading the speech which Georgias wrote: thank > you in advance for forwarding it to me. > > I shall turn now to Homer, Euripides and Ovid and investigate this > matter further. > > I'm thoroughly enjoying teaching our heritage, particularly with such > marvellous discussions from interested students. > > Thank you, again, for providing me with further questions and ideas to > put to my students. > > Rebecca Smyth > > > > > ______________________________________________________ > Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. > Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message > "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You > can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub > Yvan Nadeau [EMAIL PROTECTED] 0131-650-3575 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub
