$31.75 with 7 percent savings
List Price: $33.99

The List Price is the suggested retail price of a new product as provided by a manufacturer, supplier, or seller. Except for books, Amazon will display a List Price if the product was purchased by customers on Amazon or offered by other retailers at or above the List Price in at least the past 90 days. List prices may not necessarily reflect the product's prevailing market price.
Learn more
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Monday, May 13 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Thursday, May 9. Order within 9 hrs 44 mins
Only 5 left in stock - order soon.
$$31.75 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$31.75
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Ruby Blondell
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Helen of Troy: Beauty, Myth, Devastation Reprint Edition

by Ruby Blondell (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 25 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$31.75","priceAmount":31.75,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"31","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"75","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"sanbwaApTtVpWnUyDcoAFyOSnr6a0fSLuaOLMlvRYGiO59gTQpGcABsxUxacPuwK5r83Yyr0PieGZ6h9KC7QC5e0ond4cG4mLlsdXqvPmbjtPfC97h0bmRJJ%2FtRHbGTz43AJ8Wwaq4lHVsiSRPYAZA%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

Ancient Greek culture is pervaded by a profound ambivalence regarding female beauty. It is an awe-inspiring, supremely desirable gift from the gods, essential to the perpetuation of a man's name through reproduction; yet it also grants women terrifying power over men, posing a threat inseparable from its allure. The myth of Helen is the central site in which the ancient Greeks expressed and reworked their culture's anxieties about erotic desire. Despite the passage of three millennia, contemporary culture remains almost obsessively preoccupied with all the power and danger of female beauty and sexuality that Helen still represents. Yet Helen, the embodiment of these concerns for our purported cultural ancestors, has been little studied from this perspective. Such issues are also central to contemporary feminist thought.

Helen of Troy engages with the ancient origins of the persistent anxiety about female beauty, focusing on this key figure from ancient Greek culture in a way that both extends our understanding of that culture and provides a useful perspective for reconsidering aspects of our own. Moving from Homer and Hesiod to Sappho, Aeschylus, and Euripides, Ruby Blondell offers a fresh examination of the paradoxes and ambiguities that Helen embodies. In addition to literary sources, Blondell considers the archaeological record, which contains evidence of Helen's role as a cult figure, worshipped by maidens and newlyweds. The result is a compelling new interpretation of this alluring figure.
Previous page
  1. ISBN-10
    0190263539
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0190263539
  3. Edition
    Reprint
  4. Publisher
    Oxford University Press
  5. Publication date
    November 1, 2015
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    6.1 x 0.9 x 9.2 inches
  8. Print length
    308 pages
  9. See all details
Next page
All the Little Raindrops: A Novel
"All the Little Raindrops: A Novel" by Mia Sheridan for $10.39
The chilling story of the abduction of two teenagers, their escape, and the dark secrets that, years later, bring them back to the scene of the crime. | Learn more

Editorial Reviews

Review

"the book is a good survey of Helen in Greek literature and a decent introduction to Helen for undergraduate Classics students, but is a bit thin for those seeking more advanced, in-depth analysis." -- Stephanie L. Budin, Collingswood, New Jersey, Journal of the American Oriental Society

"These brief summaries do not begin to do justice to the subtle twists and turns of Blondell's analysis, but I hope that they at least give an idea of the kinds of issues she deals with repeatedly throughout this challenging and rewarding book. While the absence of the Greek texts and the traditional scholarly apparatus is occasionally frustrating, I would not hesitate to recommend this book either to an advanced undergraduate or to a professional scholar. In fact, I have already done so." --Deborah Lyons, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

"This excellent volume takes the reader on a tour with Helen of Troy, as she journeys from
the Archetype (Pandora) through her complex identities in the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Oresteia, the lyric poets, Herodotus' Histories, Gorgias' Encomium of Helen, Euripides' Trojan Women and Helen, and finally Isocrates' Encomium of Helen. The book is descriptive in its focus, and shows that Helen, 'who is a concept, not a person' (p. xi), occupied roles that are important both in themselves and also for understanding the works in question. ... [Blondell] has achieved a miracle of lucid, useful and responsible accessibility. This jargon and footnote free volume will benefit scholars and students in classics, the humanities and beyond." --The Classical Review

"Blondell's stimulating and provocative book demonstrates how Helen is 'an ever-refreshing screen for the projection of ideas and ideals about beauty, women, sex and power.' Demonized, idolized, allegorized, or humanized, Helen of Troy remains no woman and every woman." --Bookslut

"A compelling new portrait of the most famous femme fatale in history as she appears in Greek myth and literature." --Publishers Weekly

"Readers need not be scholars of Greek poetry and culture to appreciate this engaging look at an epic tale with modern resonance." --Booklist

"If you have an appreciation for the classics or even just strong feminine roles, you will want to pick this book up. It will easily become a favorite amongst the rest of your library for years to come." --citybookreview.com

"An entertaining and lively narrative...." --Library Journal

"An insightful book, filled with salacious tales of morality that the ancient Greeks did better than anyone since, Blondell's Helen of Troy is a real beauty." --Clifford Cunningham, Sun News Miami

"A marvelously comprehensive look at Helen of Troy and her interpretations--literary, dramatic, and historical--through the ages. Every dimension of the myth of Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world and immortal in memory, is explored and analyzed. It leaves you awed and enlightened." --Margaret George, author of Helen of Troy and The Memoirs of Cleopatra

"Helen's face launched not only a thousand ships but also thousands of texts and artworks: Blondell's lucid, learned, but light-handed study shows why." --Glenn Most, University of Chicago

"A broad, subtle, and beautifully-written study that deserves a large and varied readership. Combining shrewd analysis with lightly-worn expertise, Blondell shows how Greek culture turned again and again to the myth of Helen to confront the disquieting power of female beauty." --Sheila Murnaghan, University of Pennsylvania

"Blondell has written a rich and penetrating study of the Helen myth in the Greek world."
--New Republic

"This book is a fine demonstration of the way in which textual accounts of a Greek
legendary icon can be probed in depth to reveal nuances of cultural history that could
easily be overlooked. While it is no surprise that a study of Helen should uncover ways
in which the masculine agenda of patriarchal Greece was confirmed, Blondell has also
exposed the often self-serving and illogical measures taken by Greek writers to accomplish
this. She does this with a freshness often quickened by humour" --Phoenix

Book Description

A compelling new interpretation of an alluring figure from ancient Greek culture

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press; Reprint edition (November 1, 2015)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 308 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0190263539
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0190263539
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.1 x 0.9 x 9.2 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 25 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Ruby Blondell

Ruby Blondell

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Ruby Blondell writes about the myths and literature of ancient Greece, often from the perspective of gender studies. Their latest book, Helen of Troy in Hollywood, focuses on the representation of Helen and her beauty in popular film and television, and what this may say about our own values and attitudes. It covers movies ranging from silent film (The Private Life of Helen of Troy, 1927) to mid-century epic (Helen of Troy, 1956), to Troy (2004). Other chapters discuss a variety of television texts: Star Trek's Elaan of Troyius, an episode of Xena Warrior Princess, and the 2003 miniseries Helen of Troy.

You can read excerpts from this book at LitHub (https://lithub.com/how-casting-helen-of-troy-becomes-an-exercise-in-female-power/) and Lapham's (https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/helen-troy-real-not-myth)

You can listen to Blondell talking about their work on Helen of Troy in these podcasts:

Let's Talk about Myths, Baby! (https://omny.fm/shows/lets-talk-about-myths-baby/conversations-the-face-that-lit-a-thousand-screens)

Forgotten Hollywood (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/forgotten-hollywood/id1554877313?i=1000621344284)

In their previous book, Helen of Troy: Beauty, Myth, Devastation, Blondell explores the threat of female beauty embodied in the myth of Helen and the Trojan War. Greek authors gave surprisingly many twists and turns to Helen's story as they grappled with their ambivalence towards female beauty, which they perceived as both infinitely desirable and a source of terrifying power over men. These themes still resonate today, since our own culture's relationship to female beauty remains fraught with desire and danger.

Blondell's earlier books cover a broad range of topics in Greek literature and myth, especially Plato and Greek tragedy. Their translations of tragedy, including Medea (in Women on the Edge) and Sophocles' Theban Plays (Antigone, Oidipous the King, and Oidipous at Colonus), are designed to be readable for a modern audience and usable as theatrical scripts, while also helping the reader to understand these dramas in their cultural context.

Blondell was born in England, and was entranced by Greek mythology from an early age. That fascination took them to Oxford for a BA in Classics and then to the University of California for a PhD. They are now a professor emeritx at the University of Washington in Seattle, where they have retired from teaching but remain professionally active.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
25 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

coffee and a donut
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating!
Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2014
Verified Purchase
This is an amazing book. It examines how Greek authors represent Helen of Troy over time and across a range of genres, like epic, lyric poetry, tragedy, history, oratory, and philosophy. This is no small feat given how frequently Helen shows up in ancient literature and how ambivalent the Greeks are about "the most beautiful woman in the world." The fact that people are still writing poems and making movies about Helen of Troy is evidence of how fascinated people are with the idea of her, which makes this book all the more relevant. I wish she had time to talk about how Helen has been represented in more modern works, but I guess there's only so much you can do in one book. Maybe next time!

Aside from illuminating the figure of Helen, the author does an impressive job of introducing readers to ancient Greek thinking about women and beauty in a way that is highly sophisticated yet very accessible. It made me think a lot about the way female beauty plays out in modern America--as something to be valued as well as something to be suspicious of. Apparently, it's a catch-22 that never gets old. Anyway, this book is a must read for anyone who is interested in ancient Greece, myth, literature, gender, and/or women's history. I highly recommend it!
7 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Impressive and quite exhaustive analysis
Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2022
Verified Purchase
It is impossible to sum up this book! Two comments must be made however: 1) it's a very rich and detailed analysis, 2) Helen is and has always been intellectually omnipresent. She's definitely an immense figure, paradoxically portraying patriarchal society!
Helpful
 Report
AZ BIBLIOPHILE
4.0 out of 5 stars BOOK REVIEW
Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2015
Verified Purchase
INTERESTING READ; HELEN WOULD HAVE BEEN PLEASED WITH HER "LEGEND STATUS". THANK YOU---
Helpful
 Report
Anand Joshua Venigalla
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful scholarly work
Reviewed in the United States on August 26, 2019
Verified Purchase
My favorite chapters are the ones on the Iliad, Odyssey, and the Oresteia. Yet Blondell’s scholarship and learned study of the Greek traditions of Helen is a wonderfully General yet specific study of the “most beautiful woman in the world” as Ancient Greek literature read her.
Helpful
 Report
lam
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, Well-Written Study of an Interesting (and Often Salacious) Topic!
Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2014
Verified Purchase
This is an engaging and beautifully written study of Helen of Troy, as seen in a wide variety of works. The author offers smart analysis of Helen's role in a number of literary works, which helps the reader to have a more nuanced understanding of this complicated figure from Ancient Greek myth (too often simply read as victim or villain). Highly recommended if you're looking for an enjoyable read from a well-respected classical scholar on this fascinating figure!
9 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Cynthia Norris-Brooks
2.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Artwork
Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2014
However did you get the artist (heirs) to license use of this fantastic artwork? It's absolutely gorgeous! A Victorian era painting, isn't it?
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Janie
5.0 out of 5 stars best Helen monograph
Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2018
Verified Purchase
I love the Helen books by Norman Austin and Matthew Gumpert, but this one is the most comprehensive and interesting I've come across. So grateful this book exists and excited to read more of Blondell's work.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Kim Heimbuch
5.0 out of 5 stars Like most stories
Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2014
The story of Helen of Troy is one of the most beloved myths in history. Like most stories, the variant of her life changes upon whom you talk to and what you read, but the consensus has held true that her strength and beauty ushered in the femme fatale stories that would succeed her own. This book further explores the magnificent stories of Helen, providing readers with an in-depth understanding and appreciation for one of the finest historical periods: Ancient and Classical Greece. Author Ruby Blondel, a professor of classics at the University of Washington, goes all out utilizing the vast array of literature from the Iliad and Odyssey to the heroic tales of Helen, including Euripides’s The Trojan Women. No detail is spared or discounted and when brought together in this type of forum tells a beautifully epic story to be told until the end of time.

“Helen is an emblematic figure of the bride in art and texts, and as well as cult.”

If you have an appreciation for the classics or even just strong feminine roles, you will want to pick this book up. It will easily become a favorite amongst the rest of your library for years to come.

*This book was provided in exchange for an honest review
*You can view the original review at San Francisco Book Review
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Charles Vasey
5.0 out of 5 stars A Woman For All Seasons
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 17, 2015
Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )
Is there no end to the interest we have in Helen of Troy? I hope not because this book is a fine example of what yet can be mined from the topic. The result is an admirably clear discussion of Helen as object and as agent. This is then considered in the light not just of the Iliad but of later authors. If Helen was used by Paris in the original she has become the plaything of many others since. The changes in how she is seen over time are also interesting as to the differences in mores of the "original" era (where the Greek heroes are rather closer to their steppe ancestors) and later Greeks.
One person found this helpful
 Report
Zipster Zeus
5.0 out of 5 stars Very readable and thought-provoking- excellent
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 5, 2015
Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )
Lovely hardback book that immerses you in the legend with all the detail, twists and turns of a studious but lively historical account.There is so much more to Helen than the popular 'Hollywood' perception of the ultimate femme fatale, and this book beautifully dives headlong into an intimate investigation not just of the woman, but the timeless, profound issues that surround her story- that of beauty, love, desire and powers of femininity that these are affecting aspects of. So this book quickly becomes much more than 'just' a study of the story of Troy and Helen, but an in-depth analysis of fundamental issues within our human nature. It's a great book, firmly rooted in classical study, but still a very readable and thought-provoking one for that, that never bores or becomes too dry. Highly recommended.
Report
Charlotte
4.0 out of 5 stars A welcome exploration of the myth of Helen of Troy
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 26, 2015
Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )
Norman Austin says: "This is a welcome study of the most charismatic and at the same time the most enigmatic character in all of Greek literature. We call this person Helen of Troy but we should more correctly call her Helen of Sparta, since Sparta was in fact her home. We could also call her Helen of Egypt since, according to one ancient story, she was never in Troy at all but was sequestered in Egypt while the Greeks and Trojans fought for ten years over her mere image (her eidōlon). This ambiguity about where Helen belonged is but the topmost layer of the aura of perplexity surrounding this famous persona."

Meanwhile, Emily Wilson, associate professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania says: "Blondell has written a rich and penetrating study of the Helen myth in the Greek world...Helen of Troy is a great achievement, because it performs a brilliant critique of a set of patriarchal conventions from antiquity that have by no means disappeared from our own culture."

This is a scholarly book, but never dull in its erudite approach. My only very tiny quibble is that I would have liked even more illustrations. This book has a wide audience from the general reader with an interest in history to the academic specialist. Perfect for long winter evenings!
Report
Damaskcat
5.0 out of 5 stars Helen of Troy
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 29, 2015
Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )
This is a well written book which examines Helen of Troy and the way she was depicted in Greek myth, poetry and other writing. It also examines the way female beauty can cause havoc and devastation at any era of history. Beauty is a curse as well as a blessing. I was interested to read about the way Greek culture saw women's position in society as well as in art and literature.

Basically women were expected to be submissive, dress modestly and to stay at home most of the time. They were not allowed to be independent or think for themselves. Socrates seems to have been a lone voice which spoke out against the submission of women as he saw them as being as capable as men.

The book has plenty of illustrations throughout the text, a bibliography, notes of the chapters and an index. If you want to know more about Helen of Troy - apart from her being the spark that lit the Trojan Wars then this may be the book for you. It raises issues which women are still battling with today across the world.
2 people found this helpful
 Report
Amazon Customer
2.0 out of 5 stars Hard-going
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 28, 2013
Verified Purchase
Whilst well researched, I found this a difficult book to read. The author has a favourite word which is used over and over. This is Helen's 'agency'. I wasn't sure what to make of this, and didn't find the dictionary particularly helpful on the subject.
3 people found this helpful
 Report