Helen: Did you mean...?

Helen is a Greek tragedy by Euripides (c. 484-407 BCE). It is usually thought to have first been performed at the Great Dionysia of 412 BCE and was part of the trilogy that included Euripides' lost Andromeda. Helen recounts an unusual...

Helen of Troy (sometimes called Helen of Sparta) is a figure from Greek mythology whose elopement with (or abduction by) the Trojan prince Paris sparked off the Trojan War. Helen was the wife of Menelaus, the king of Sparta, and...

Helen Recognising Telemachus, Son of Odysseus, oil on panel by Jean-Jacques Lagrenée, 1795. In a scene from Book 4 of Homer's Odyssey, Helen recognizes Telemachus when he visits Sparta due to his striking...

A detail from an Attic red-figure krater showing Helen of Troy. Made c. 450 BCE. (Louvre, Paris)

The story of Helen of Troy, and the Trojan war specifically, is best known from the Iliad, by Homer, after the abduction by Paris of Troy, which was ultimately the catalyst for the ten-year Trojan War...

Menelaus (also Menelaos) is a figure from ancient Greek mythology and literature who was the king of Sparta and the husband of beautiful Helen, whose abduction by the Trojan prince Paris sparked off the legendary Trojan War. The story...

Oenone was a nymph in Greek Mythology, the daughter of the river god Cebren and sister of the nymph Asterope/Hesperia. She was given the gift of prophecy by Rhea (mother of the gods) and the gift of healing by Apollo. Her name comes from...

Red-figured hydria attributed to the Syriskos Painter. Made in Attica, Greece, c. 480 BCE, found in Vulci.

A sculpture showing the birth of Helen of Troy. Helen's mother was Leda who was seduced by Zeus when he was disguised as a swan. Limestone, made in the 5th century BCE. (Archaeological Museum of Metapontum, Italy)

A detail of a scene from an Attic spouted krater perhaps showing the abduction/elopement of Helen of Troy with Paris which sparked off the Trojan War. Other interpretations include Ariadne and Theseus as the two figures...