HELEN'S PROMISE

The brothers Agamemnon and Menelaus were great friends of Paris and while they were feting him royally he abducted Helen his host's wife, and together they fled for the safety of Priam's palace in Troy where they lived as man and wife. The consequences were disastrous and since Helen was a willing partner she was to a great extent responsible for the “Siege of Troy” which lasted ten years.

Could it be that they called for war knowing that Helen had cuckolded Menelaus, and was it for vengeance that he risked his own life and that of many others too, or did he battle for honour and the lovely Helen? The scholars have always doubted that a king would give ten years in battle to regain a hetaera, it was easy for them to pronounce thus, after all, they had never seen Helen.

Helen, like Pygmalion's wife was Aphrodite's soul-daughter, and she had power over men. Years before when Hermes brought Aphrodite, Athena and Hera to the Judgement of Paris, the ballance was tipped heavily in Aphrodite's favour when she promised Paris the most beautiful woman on earth if he would award her the golden apple from the garden of Hesperides. When Hecuba gave birth to Helen the child was anointed by Zeus with the soul-nature of Aphrodite and the promise to Paris was founded in Hecuba's daughter.

Helen and her sister-in-law Clytaemnestra had so far eluded the Fates, but their husbands were stalked by Nemesis, in love and in death. The cup of love offered by Athena tasted of revenge, but it contained more than one charm, so Menelaus' pride was restored with the gift of Cassandra, who was Paris' sister, taken as a prize of war. Menelaus spared Helen's life at the fall of Troy, and she responded with a promise of Elysium by persuading Persephone to hide Hades' mantle as he strode the field of valour.
- DANIEL

A very convoluted story requiring intense research into each character and role as it is played out. The basic drama revolves around Paris and Helen who betray Helen's husband Menelaus and in turn is the cause of the ten-year Trojan war. There are various outcomes based on differing stories. Menelaus is pacified with the gift of Paris' sister Cassandra or is Helen returned to him with a promise of Elysium. Betrayal seems to typify the three daughters of Eve: Helen, Clytemnestra and Aphrodites who are the Nemesis of the brothers Agamemnon and Menelaus.
- LJO