Acclaim for Bettany Hughes’s
HELEN OF TROY
“Helen-ophiles, rejoice! Helen of Troy gives you everything you ever wanted to know about ‘The Face That Launched a Thousand Ships.’ … Hughes has brilliantly and exhaustively covered … her subject from more angles— romantic, historical, archaeological, mythological, psychological—than even Paris could dream of on his best night.”
—Steven Pressfield, author of Gates of Fire and The Virtues of War
“The nuggets garnered from archaeology in particular are often revelatory…. The details coalesce to conjure up an aspect of this age in its satisfying entirety, a place the reader can enter and explore.”
—The New York Times
“Hughes splendidly reclaims Helen from centuries of helpless victim-hood…. This book puts Helen of Troy at the centre of a world in which, as Bettany Hughes convincingly explains, the primordial power was female.”
—The Observer (London)
“Vivid and evocative…. Underpinned by a sure-footed sense of narrative flow. It will be a resource for students and scholars as well, I think, as a great pleasure for the wider public. I enjoyed it thoroughly and recommend it most highly.”
—Lesley Fitton, Chief Bronze Age Curator in the department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum
“Hughes’s portrait is as close to a real, living Helen as we are likely to get. In an increasingly sexualized culture, the questions Helen raises are more alive than ever.”
—Financial Times
“The most exciting thing about this book is its hot fascination with the past, its almost ecstatic pursuit of a sensuous history…. A passionately sensed and recorded homage to Helen…. Hughes reminds us now, at the end of a long history of Puritanism and misogyny, of a time when women’s dominion over the produce of the earth, and their own sexual powers, made some of them potent subjects and radiant objects of worship, adoration and desire.”
—Page DuBois, professor of Greek History and Cultural Studies, University of California, San Diego, in The San Diego Union-Tribune
“Fantastic…. I have never, EVER, read anybody write so well about travels in Greece and going to explore archaeology.”
—Edith Hall, professor of Greek history at Durham University
“A real tour de force. It combines astonishing erudition and knowledge of the early classical world with a wonderful, easy fluency of writing. It has taught me a lot, and I have enjoyed every page.”
—John Julius Norwich
“An investigative achievement.”
—The Guardian (London)
“An extraordinarily comprehensive account of one of the most enigmatic women of all time; a brilliant and fascinating history.”
—Professor Lord Robert Winston
“A wonderful read. It’s what great history is all about—excitement, a fast-moving story, packed full of information, accessible and brainy, a dazzling combination. Bettany Hughes puts women slap-bang right back at the heart of things.”
—Kate Mosse, author of Labyrinth
“Evoking in sensuous and gorgeous prose the citadels, the palaces and the luxuries of that long-vanished world, history and mythography have been dazzlingly elided. In this passionate book, Hughes adds to Helen’s mystery … powerfully.”
—The Sunday Times (London)
“Never before has the world of Homer’s epic, the thirteenth century BC, been brought so vividly to life. Hughes brilliantly evokes the sights and sounds of the Bronze Age, the heady smells of women’s perfumes and oils, the rustle of linen over their thighs and breasts, the whisper of their prayers and liturgies…. A fascinating, compelling argument…. A gripping read.”
—Dr. Jenny Wallace, Director of Studies in English, Peterhouse College, Cambridge University, in Times Higher Education Supplement
“Hughes skilfully brings this period back to life. A fascinating window on to the power politics of an age. A genuinely exciting historical narrative.”
—The Sunday Telegraph (London)
BETTANY HUGHES
HELEN OF TROY
Bettany Hughes is a cultural and social historian, writer, and television presenter. She received degrees in ancient and medieval history at Oxford University and has carried out research in the Balkans, Greece, and Asia Minor. She has presented numerous documentaries and historical series for the BBC, PBS, and the Discovery Channel, and also writes pieces on popular history for several newspapers and magazines.
For my mother and father
who taught me everything
And for Adrian, Sorrel and May, from whom I’m still learning
CONTENTS
Illustrations
Text Acknowledgements
Maps
Timeline
Dramatis Personæ
Family Trees
Foreword and Acknowledgements
INTRODUCTION
Cherchez la Femme
An Evil Destiny
Helen-Hunting
Goddess, Princess, Whore
PART ONE
HELEN’S BIRTH IN PRE-HISTORY
1 A Dangerous Landscape
2 A Rape, a Birth
3 The Lost Citadel
4 The Mycenaeans
5 The Pre-historic Princess
PART TWO
THE LAND OF BEAUTIFUL WOMEN
6 The Rape of ‘Fair Hellen’
7 Sparte Kalligynaika
8 Tender-eyed Girls
PART THREE
THE WORLD’S DESIRE
9 A Trophy for Heroes
10 The Kingmaker
11 A Royal Wedding
PART FOUR
KOUROTROPHOS
12 Hermione
13 A Welcome Burden
14 Helen, High Priestess
15 La Belle Hélène
PART FIVE
A LOVER’S GAME
16 The Golden Apple
17 Bearing Gifts
18 Alexander Helenam Rapuit
19 The Female of the Species Is More Deadly Than the Male
PART SIX
EROS AND ERIS
20 Helen the Whore
21 The Pain of Aphrodite
22 The Sea’s Foaming Lanes
PART SEVEN
TROY BECKONS
23 East Is East and West Is West
24 The Fair Troad
25 The Topless Towers of Ilium
26 The Golden Houses of the East
27 A Fleet Sets Sail
PART EIGHT
TROY BESIEGED
28 Helen – Destroyer of Cities
29 Death’s Dark Cloud
30 A Beautiful Death – Kalos Thanatos
31 The Fall of Troy
PART NINE
IMMORTAL HELEN
32 Home to Sparta
33 The Death of a Queen
34 The Age of Heroes Ends
35 ‘Fragrant Treasuries’
36 The Daughter of the Ocean
PART TEN
THE FACE THAT LAUNCHED A THOUSAND SHIPS
37 Helen in Athens
38 Helen Lost and Helen Found
39 Helen, Homer and the Chances of Survival
40 Veyn Fables
41 Helen of Troy and the Bad Samaritan
42 ‘Perpulchra’ – More Than Beautiful
43 Dancing with the Devil
44 Helen’s Nemesis
APPENDICES
1 The Minotaur’s Island
2 La Parisienne
3 Women of Stone and Clay and Bronze
4 Elemental Helen – She-Gods and She-Devils
5 Royal Purple – The Colour of Congealed Blood
Epilogue – Myth, History and Historia
Abbreviations
Notes
Notes
Bibliography
ILLUSTRATIONS
Maps
All maps drawn by Henry Buglass, Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity, University of Birmingham.
1 The Mycenaean World; 2 Laconia, the Argolid and Central Greece: Major Mycenaean settlements and traces of roads; 3 The Hittite World (Map 1, ‘The World of the Hittite’ taken from Life and Society in the Hittite World by Trevor Bryce, 2002, by permission of Oxford University Press); 4 The Troad in the Late Bronze Age; 5 Bronze Age trade routes in the Mediterranean; 6 Helen’s itinerary through the Eastern Mediterranean and the location of her cult sites.
Part-Title Images
Helen’s seduction and return. Red figure skyphos, 490–480 BC. From Campania or Sessola (© 2005 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston); Signet ring (The Demon Ring) with ritual scene. Gold, c. 1500 BC. From the ‘Tiryns Treasure’ (National Archaeological Museum, Athens); Statuette of a girl runner. Bronze, c. 550 BC. Found in the sanctuary of Zeus at Dodona (National Archaeological Museum, Athens); Mycenaean diadem. Gold, c. 1550 BC. From Shaft Grave III on the Acropolis at Mycenae (National Archaeological Museum, Athens); Ivory Triad, c. 1300 BC. From the ‘Sanctuary Deposit’ north of the palace on the Acropolis at Mycenae (National Archaeological Museum, Athens); Linear B inscription, Tablet Ab 553 (© Diana Wardle); Linear B symbols of ‘Man’ and ‘Woman’ (© Diana Wardle); Human skull from Mycenae (Mycenae Museum); ‘The Jewels of Helen’. Gold earring, c. 2500 BC, discovered by Heinrich Schliemann (bpk/Museum of Antiquities, Berlin; photography by Klaus Goeken); Arrow and spearheads found outside the walls of Troy. Bronze (Troia Project, Tübingen University); Helen. Marble relief carving from altar at Lacus Juturnae, 1st century AD (© German Archaeological Institute, Rome); Female figurine. Marble, c. 2500 BC (Archaeological Museum, Naxos); Snake goddess votary. Faïence, c. 1600 BC. Excavated by Sir Arthur Evans, 1903 (Archaeological Museum, Heraklion).
The Birth of Helen. Campanian red-figure bell krater vase, c. 340 BC. The Caivano Painter (Naples National Museum); The ruins of Troy. Manuscript, 15th century AD. From Liber insularum archipelagi by Cristoforo Buondelmonti (© Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticano, Rome); Wall painting from the cult centre at Mycenae c. 1250 BC. Pen and ink with partial reconstruction (© Diana Wardle); Terracotta mounted female figure, votive offering. Pen and ink reconstruction, late 4th/early 3rd century BC (Artwork © Melanie Stéiner; original figurine, Sparta Museum,); Perfume jar inscribed with dedication to Helen. Bronze aryballos, c. 675 BC. Found at the Menelaion, 1975 (Sparta Museum, photograph courtesy of H.W. Catling); Mirror with handle in form of a nude woman. Bronze, c.540 BC. (National Antiquities Collection, Museum of Munich); and Theseus’ Abduction of Helen. Proto-Corinthian aryballos, perfume vase, c. 680 BC (Louvre Museum, © Photo RMN/© Hervé Lewandowski); Goddess from Mycenae. Terracotta figure, made c. 1300 BC, deposited at the cult centre at Mycenae c. 1230bc (Mycenae Archive, Birmingham University); Mycenaean female figure riding a horse. Terracotta, (?) 13th century BC. Said to have been found in a tomb at Mesogeia, Attica (Stathatos Collection, National Archaeological Museum, Athens); Crouching Lion. Ivory, deposited 1230 BC, from the cult centre at Mycenae (© Mycenae Archive, Birmingham University); Kourotrophos figurine with child and parasol. Clay, c. 1300 BC. From Chamber Tomb 80 at Mycenae (National Archaeological Museum, Athens); ‘Priam’s Treasure’. Photograph, 1874. Artefacts c. 2500 BC, from Heinrich Schliemann’s excavation of Troy. (Reproduced in Trojanische Altertümer [1874], Leipzig); King Priam meets Helen of Troy. Manuscript, 1470 AD. From Chronique Universelle by Jean de Courcy (© Photo SCALA, Florence/Pierpont Morgan Library, New York); The Marriage of Paris and Helen. Manuscript, mid-14th century AD. From Historia destructionis Troiae by Guido delle Colonne, 1287 AD (Fondation Martin Bodmer, Geneva); Mycenaean Charioteer. Watercolour reconstruction of 13th century BC decoration from the megaron at Pylos. Piet de Jong, 1955 (Courtesy of the University of Cincinnati); Lion-hunt dagger. Bronze inlaid with gold, niello and electrum, c. 1550 BC, found in Shaft Grave IV, Grave Circle A at Mycenae (National Archaeological Museum, Athens); Linear B, Tablet Un1314. Clay, c. 1200 BC. From the Palace of Nestor at Pylos (National Archaeological Museum, Athens); Helen of Troy. Oil on canvas, 1898. Evelyn De Morgan (De Morgan Centre, London/Bridgeman Art Library, London); The confrontation of Helen and Paris. Fragment of Attic white-ground calyx-crater, c. 450 BC (Cincinnati Museum of Art); Helen of Troy. Oil on panel, 1867. Frederick Sandys (National Museums Liverpool/Walker Art Gallery); Helen. Oil on canvas, 1881. Sir Edward John Poynter. (Art Gallery of New South Wales/Photo by Brenton McGeachie for AGNSW); Cover image of The Private Life of Helen of Troy by John Erskine. Illustration by Earle Bergey, 1952 (Popular Library, 147 [1947, Reprinted 1952]); The Rape of Leda. Marble relief, date unknown (British Museum); Zeuxis Choosing his Models for the Image of Helen from among the Girls of Croton. Oil on canvas, 1789. Andre-François Vincent (Louvre Museum, © Photo RMN © René Gabrielle Ojéda); Zeuxis painting a statue of Helen. Manuscript, 1282 AD. From Cicero’s Rhetoric, The French School (Bridgeman Art Library/Musée Condé, France); ‘The Royal Citadel of Mycenae’ and ‘The Lion Gate at Mycenae’. Artwork by Donato Spedaliere from Mycenaean Citadels c. 1350–1200 BC (Fortress 22) by N. Fields and D. Spedaliere (Osprey Publishing [2004], © Osprey Publishing); Troy, 13th century BC. Computer generated reconstruction, Hans Jansen (© Hans Jansen, Tübingen University, Troia Project); Reconstruction of the South Gate of Troy, c. 1250 BC. Watercolour, acrylic and gouache. Christophe Haussner, 2004 (© Christophe Haussner); The ruins of a royal palace at Büyükkale, c. 1260 BC. Aerial photograph by Ayse Seeher (Courtesy of Hattusa Excavations); The megaron at Pylos. Watercolour reconstruction by Piet de Jong, 1955 (Courtesy of the University of Cincinnati); Signet ring. Gold, 15th–13th century BC. Mycenae Acropolis Hoard (National Archaeological Museum, Athens); Pin with rock-crystal head. Bronze, late 17th century BC. Excavated from Grave Circle B at Mycenae (National Archaeological Museum, Athens); ‘Clytemnestra’ figure. Terracotta, made c. 1300 BC, deposited c. 1230 BC. Found at the cult centre in Mycenae (© E.B. French); Funeral shroud. Sheet gold, second half of 1600 BC. From Shaft Grave III, Grave Circle A at Mycenae (National Archaeological Museum, Athens); Woman carrying a pyxis (cosmetic box). Graphic depiction of a fresco fragment found within the palace at Tiryns, c. 1300 BC. Artwork by Gilliéron (National Archaeological Museum, Athens); Female saffron-gatherer: girl wearing Minoan dress. Fresco, c. 1600 BC, from ‘Xeste 3’ at Akrotiri, Thera (Greek Archaeological Society); Female saffron-gatherer. Fresco, c. 1600 BC, from ‘Xeste 3’ at Akrotiri, Thera (Greek Archaeological Society); Mature woman. Fresco, c. 1600 BC, from the ‘House of the Ladies’ at Akrotiri, Thera (Greek Archaeological Society); Boxing Children. Fresco, c.1600 BC, from the ‘West House’ at Akrotiri, Thera (National Archaeological Museum, Athens); Head of young man. Ivory, deposited c. 1300 BC, the cult centre at Mycenae (Mycenae Museum, © Mycenae Archive); Spartan dancing girl. Bronze, c. 550–520 BC. Found at Prizren, Serbia; possibly made in or near Sparta (British Museum); Young Spartans Exercising. Oil on canvas, 1860. Edgar Degas (© 2005 National Gallery); Eris, the Goddess of Discord. Attic black-figure cup interior, c. 560 BC (© bpk/Antiquity Collection, National Museums of Berlin/photograph by Ingrid Geske); The Abduction of Helen. Egg tempera on wood, attributed to Zanobi Strozzi, c. 1450 (© 2005, National Gallery); Sappho: No. 47, Fragment 16, c. 600 BC. Papyrus copy, late 1st–early 2nd century AD (Bodleian Library, University of Oxford); Detail of The Rape of Helen. Oil on copper, mid-18th century. Johann Georg Platzer (Wallace Collection); L’enlèvement d’Helene. Oil on poplar, c. 1470. Liberale da Verona (Louvre Museum, © Photo RMN, © René-Gabriel Ojéda); The Abduction of Helen. Egg tempera on wood, c. 1450. Master of the Judgement of Paris (© 2005, National Gallery); Mycenaean woman/goddess. Lime-plaster, c. 1300 BC. Found near the cult centre at Mycenae (National Archaeological Museum, Athens); The Toilet of Helen. Oil on canvas, 1914. Bryson Burroughs (Walters Art Museum, Baltimore); The sacrifice of Iphigeneia. Manuscript, 15t
h century AD. From Recueil by Raoul Lefevre (National Library, Paris); Neoptolemus batters Priam. Black-figure amphora vase, 540 BC, made in Athens (British Museum); The rape of Cassandra. Attic red-figure vase, c. 430 BC (Louvre Museum, © Photo RMN/© Hervé Lewandowski); The murder of Cassandra. Hammered bronze sheet from a coated wooden box or piece of furniture, 675–650 BC (National Archaeological Museum, Athens); Menelaus and Helen. Red-figure amphora vase, 470–450 BC, made in Athens (British Museum); Nemesis and companion. Attic red amphora vase, 530 BC (© bpk/Antiquity Collection, National Museums of Berlin); The Building of the Trojan Horse. Oil on canvas, c. 1760. Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (© 2005 National Gallery); Helen at the Scaean Gates. Oil on canvas, c. 1880. Gustave Moreau (photograph © RMN, Gustave Moreau Museum, Paris; caption: Euripides, Helen by George Seferis, translation by E. Keeley and P. Sherrard from George Seferis: Complete Poems, (1995), Princeton University Press; Helen Recognising Telemachus, Son of Odysseus. Oil on panel, 1795. Jean-Jacques Lagrenée (State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg); The Ludovisi Throne: The Birth of Aphrodite. Stone relief carving, 460–450 BC. Found in 1887 on the grounds of a now demolished villa in Rome (© Photo SCALA, Florence, National Museum of Rome); Black figure mastos (breast-shaped cup). Clay, made in Athens 520–500 BC, excavated in Etruria (British Museum); Kore Statue. Marble, c. 2nd century AD. Excavated at the Roman Stadium, Samaria in 1932 (photograph © 2005 Palestine Exploration Fund, London; Rockefeller Archaeological Museum); Dioscuri helmets. Limestone, relief carving, date unknown. Excavated at Roman Kore Temple by Eliezer Sukenik in 1931 (© 2005 Palestine Exploration Fund, London); Representation of a theatrical mask. Stone, 1st–2nd century AD (British Museum); Elizabeth I and the Three Goddesses. Oil on panel, 1569. Hans Eworth (Royal Collection © 2005, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II); The Circle of the Lustful. Pen and ink and watercolour over pencil on paper, 1824–1827. William Blake (© Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery); A lyre player. Watercolour reconstruction of 13th century BC fresco from the megaron at Pylos. Piet de Jong, 1955 (Courtesy of the University of Cincinnati).
Helen of Troy Page 1
