Helen of Troy

by Jack Lindsay

  Despite this, she believed unwaveringly in her counsellors, and to her they were very real. She even asserted that she had embraced St Catherine and St Margaret, who had a beautiful perfume about them. (59) Her experience of this sweet odour is, curiously enough, one of the things which links her to the religious mystics, such as St Theresa of Avila, from whom she otherwise differs in many details. When asked by her judges whether she saw St Michael and the angels corporeally and in reality, she replied — and we can still catch the passionate accent of the answer — ‘I saw them with the eyes of my body, as plainly as I see you; and when they left me, I wept, and longed for them to take me away with them.’ (60) On another occasion she declared, with reference to her saints: ‘I have seen them with my own eyes and I believe that it is they as firmly as I do that God exists.’ (61)

  It remains to ask what commands her voices laid upon Joan. At first, following a pattern which is familiar to modern experts on auditory hallucinations, they seem to have confined themselves to brief phrases and injunctions of a fairly general kind. St Michael told Joan ‘to be a good girl and God would help her’. (62) But he told her too — and we may guess that some small space of time has been telescoped in the reply — that ‘she would come to the aid of the King of France’. (63) Then, elaborating once more, ‘the angel told her of the pity which was in the kingdom of France’. (64) One gets a closer view of the process of gradual amplification and clarification from another of Joan’s replies:

  ‘Questioned about the teaching which this voice gave her concerning the salvation of her soul: She said that it taught her to lead a good life; and to go to church; and it said to Joan that it was necessary that she, Joan, should go into France... She confessed further that this voice said to her two or three times a week that she, Joan, must leave and go into France; and she also admitted that her father had known nothing of her departure. She said, also, that the voice told her that she would go into France; and that she could no longer remain where she was; and that this voice told her that she would cause the siege laid before Orleans to be raised. She said then that the voice had told her that she, Joan, should go to the fortress town of Vaucouleurs, to find Robert de Baudricourt, captain of that place, and that he would give her people who would go with her; Joan then replied that she was a poor girl and did not know how to ride a horse or to make war.’ (65)

  This answer is sequential, and covers a period of over three years, from the moment when the voices first announced themselves in the summer of (probably) 1425, until the time in December 1428 when Joan left Domrémy for Burey-en-Vaux, on the way to Vaucouleurs.

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  [1] Il. xi 222-4; Str. 330, 24; Lyk. 1232 sch. Kissoi: tribe of Kissioi in Lower Mesopotamia near Sousa; note the Trojan ally Memnon as founder of Sousa, his father Tithonos (brother of Priam) married to Kissia: GT(3) 260f. Nine years: the plague lasts nine days. Though in which year the wrath occurs is not clearly stated, we have the effect that the war has been going on long. Briseis: Aristotle fr 162.

  [2] Il. ii 158ff; 354ff; 590.

  [3] Il. ii 536, 590. Victim: Mazon 151; innocent, Becker 11 n3. Aristarchos: sch. A; L & S.: hormē.

  [4] Il. iii 16, 27, 30, 37ff (god-like).

  [5] The reasons for the change are obscure; but Iris is a sky-messenger (for Zeus with his will); Hermes, chthonic, suits better Odysseus. Both deities seem to appear in the western gable of the Parthenon: Robertson 53f. Rainbow: Il. xi 27, ‘a protection for mortal men’. Iris also acts for Hera and in later poets is associated with her. Worship at Delos, on isle of Hekate: Athen. xiv 645. Ktemata: Gernet 418f, Bruck 39-74.

  [6] Ambrosial night and sleep: Od. iv 429.

  [7] Od. viii 519. Dia is used of goddesses. Dios: cf. ? diwija, PY An 607. Potis, husband, is cognate with IE potis, lord or master, and with potnia, cult-title for a goddess; Sanskrit patis, lord, master, husband; patni, lady, wife. Latin: potis (sum). Helen as offspring of Zeus; Il. iii 199, 418, 426. Helen uses same verb ēperopeuein (to check, coax, seduce) in accusing Aphrodite as Hektor did in denouncing Paris as woman-obsessed.

  [8] Daimon as individual power: Od. v 396; x 64; xi 61; Il. viii i66. Your fate: oitos. Stygeros used of Hades, Erinyes, war, daimon, a marriage, in Il. and Od. Horned helmets: Korres (2).

  [9] Sch. AT; Strab. ix 399; Lyk. 109; Eustath. 278, 34 and 433, 21; Paus. i 35, 1. Kythera: Eustath.; Paus. iii 21, 1; C. Robert (1) 1081 n2. Isle of Helena and embargo: Burn (1) 220. Aristonikos (sch. A.): ‘He did not mate in Sparta with Helen so that he might not become conspicuous.’

  [10] Trojan brag: also Il. iv 173f. Inner conflict: F. Robert (I) 17 & 36f; Aphrodite as the élan of passion, existing only in imagination. Cf. Whitman 223-5 (who also sees Il. iii 395 — iv 219 as repeating the treachery motif: 267f). Kerenyi (4) 27 sees the constraint on Helen. See also Fraenkel (1) 93 n3; Wiesemann 37; Jaeger i 47. Aretē at last becomes divine, as gift of the gods; so we get the aretē of Zeus: Nock (3) nn12, 30.

  [11] Il. vi 243ff, especially 280ff.

  [12] Sev. iii 130ff; GK ch. 1.

  [13] Passing refs.: Il. vii 355 (Antenor 350); ix 140, 282.

  [14] Also ix 337ff; xi 122-5; xi 369, 505, 581; xxii 356ff.

  [15] Also xiii 769ff, 490, 660ff; xvi 341 (Paris shooting).

  [16] Il. xix 325; old age, AR iv 1343. Property: xxii 114. Paris among the seven brothers after Hektor’s death: xxiv 249. Twenty years: Thrasyllos (fr. 3) sets abduction ten years before the war.

  [17] Od. xiv 389; 57. Paus. 111 II; Cic. ad Q. frat. ii 12. Xenios, translated guest-friend, can mean stranger, foreigner, host — showing the complex of emotions attached to someone outside the normal group. For Zeus Xenios: Adkins JHS 1972 1-19.

  [18] Soph. Phi. 1426; Ap. iii 12, 6; Tzet. Lyk. 64 etc.

  [19] Webster (1) 125; in general Lorimer 297f; duel c. 700, Boardman (3) fig. 19; Geom. art, Ahlberg 44f.

  [20] Il. xi 385ff; Wüst 1488 for denigrations. God-like: iii 16, 27, 30, 37, 58, 450; vi 210; xxiv 763. Beauty: iii 39, 44; lyre, iii 53. Also see C. Roberts (1) 997f; Bethe (3) i 246, 249, 253. Contrary view: WM (2) 309; Sev. (1) iii 84. Bowmen: Littauer 148, 152; H. Balfour, JAI li (1921), 289ff.

  [21] Ganymedes: Blinkenberg 15; Lindos i (1941), 166; CZ ii 346; Plin. NH xxiii 81; Paus. iii 18, 12. Note stress on physical perfection in Sparta.

  [22] Hdt. vi 61, 6.

  [23] Il. i 153; ii 286; Bethe (3) ii 229-31 thinks it the suitors’ oath.

  [24] Folktale: WM (1) 242 = Kl. Shr. iv 510; Rose (1). Louk. Alex. 2 - as lachnos once used of women: Alexandrides fr. 6od; Stinton 3. Aristarchos: Sev. (2) 261. Sch. TV on Il. iv 52; Sev. (1) iii 55. Mazon (1) 227 supports machlosyne. Homer ignores: Schadewaldt; Irmscher 43.

  [25] N(2) 285ff, (3) 331ff; Paus. iii 15, 6.

  [26] ARV (2nd ed.) 434; C. Robert (3) 200f. Bacchyl.; Edmonds (1) iii 92; BM Pap. 733. Menelaos praises Justice, Eunomia, Themis, as against Hybris.

  Helen of Argos: Il. vii 363, but iii 244, 443; Bethe (3) 97 thinks all the names correspond to an ancient reality. Schefold (2) 1099 ni incorrectly sees Leda at iii 426. Property: Helen as war loot: Becker 8 n3. Theano: Schefold (9) pl. 72: Corinthian krater c. 570-60.

  [27] Il. xxi 446; Idaia, Pollux v 13.

  [28] Il. v 64; Od. xiii 172; thes- is here related to Themis.

  [29] Aias: Od. iv 502; JL (2) 125-7,136f; and index palladion.

  [30] Menelaos, also Od. i 285; iii 317, 326; Nestor iii 130ff. Other disasters: Rose (2) 243; Aisch. Ag. 648ff; Verg. Aen. i 39ff. Orestes: Dyer; Duckworth 46-8; D’Arons; Elektra recognition scene: Haspels 226 no 18.

  [31] Diotrephes: fostered or cherished by Zeus: used of kings, Il. ii 196; of Menelaos iv 44, cf. 63. Menelaos and Leleges: GT (3) 430.

  [32] Arist. HA viii 28; Hdt. iv 29.

  [33] Distaff, but sv Hesych. Klytemnaistra: bitch-faced as killer of husband, Od. xi 424.

  [34] Vergil uses Proteus: Georg. iv 387ff. In art also Schefold (9) figs. 11-2; Buschor (3). />
  [35] Also for Menelaos, Od. viii 516-20 (Deiphobos); xi 460; xiii 414.

  [36] Leda: N(5), 443f; (13) 366f; Picard (4) 458f, 463; GT (3) 293; Od. xi 436-9 and 298-304; xxiv 199 (Klytemnaistra as daughter of Tyndareos). Link (?) of Leda with Mylitta, Mu-al-li-da-at: title of Babylonian goddess of childbirth: Langdon. Ramsay (2) i 91 n2 inclines to drop derivation from Leto for identification with Semitic Al-lat or Alilat: Hdt. i 131; iii 8, Robertson-Smith. Other theories: CZ ii 1042 n5. Tyndareos: GT (3) 429; Krappe (1) 363. Ancestry: Ap. iii 10, 5; Paus. iii 13, 8; sch. AR i 146, 201; Ap. i 7, 10; Serv. Aen. viii 130; Hyg. Fab. 14 etc.

  [37] Od. xiv 67-71 & 468ff; xvii 116-21; xxi 76 and 147.

  [38] Od. xxii 226-30; xxiii.

  [39] Od. xxiv 115-9.

  [40] Jaeger i 47; no new physical traits, Od. xv 58; iv 305.

  [41] Bérard on iv 264-79; Sev. (2) 336.

  [42] Sev. (2) 334.

  [43] Agamemnon: Il. xix 85ff; Dodds 3f. Achilles: Il. xix 270ff; i 412, ix 376, cf. xii 254; xi 340; Od. xxiii 11ff. Glaukos: Il. vi 634ff. Also xvii 469f. For Moira: N(3a) 168f, (12) 52; Cornford (1) chs. 1-2; Greene.

  [44] Od. xi 61; xxi 297ff; Dodds 5.

  [45] Od. xv 233f, or ‘bringing houses to ruin’. Dodds 7; see 6 for atē as late development in Ionia; Il. ix 512 an importation from mainland with the Meleagros legend. Dodds (6f) does not seem to grasp the full force of Moira-Moirai.

  [46] Dodds 8 & 21 with refs.; GT (1) 50-3. Dikē: Guthrie (1) 123-7, Lloyd-Jones 5, 166 — a judgement or an assertion of one’s right (Iliad); as right or custom in Od. General sense twice, Il. xvi 387, Od. xiv 84; Chantraine (1) 283f; Palmer (5) 149f.

  [47] Leitzke on relations of gods to Moira; Ehnrnark 74ff; N(3) i 338ff; Greene 22f. Zeus as impartial divine will: N(12) 59; a harmful intrusion is generally daimon, not theos. Further: N(11) & (3) i 201ff; WM (9) i 362ff, Leitzke 42ff; Rose (4); Dodds 23 n65.

  [48] Dodds 8f; Il. xx 242, cf. Judges xiv 6, xv 4.

  [49] Il. XX 411; Od. ii 206.

  [50] Dodds 9; Il. xiii 61, 75, cf. v 122, xxiii 772. Hektor burial: Il. xv 605ff. Ares: Il. Xvii 210ff. Bard: Od. xx 347; viii 44, 498; Pind. Nem. iii 9; Chadwick Growth iii 182.; MacKay 50. Menos akin to Sanskrit minas, spirit or passion, cf. Greek mainomai.

  [51] Od. i 48; i 23; Met. xv 140, xvii 332; Pind. Pyth. iii 81; feast, Il. ix 70.

  [52] Dais: Il. xv 95; xviii 279. Desmos: Il. i 166. Daithmos: IG xiv 352 ii 23 (Halaisa); rules for distribution, IG xii (5) 50 Naxos.

  [53] Il. xvii 98; xi 792. Lot: Od. v 396, x 64; Hdt. i 111.

  [54] GT (1) 429, 206, 49f; Robertson-Smith (1) 39. Alkman: Edmonds 72; sch. Il. i 222; Hdt. v 95. Bacchylides: Greene 81f.

  [55] Myres (2) 462; and (4); G. Murray (1) App. C. Winckler. Against historicity: Schadewaldt (2); Wade-Gory (on Hektor); Mireaux. Queens: H. M. Chadwick (3) 333, 337f, 97f; Beowulf 2930ff; Prokop. Hist. Gothic War iv 20; Greg. iii 6, 10. The theme of Waldhere’s story is the elopement and escape of lovers.

  [56] Simpson; Webster (1) 111, 94, 128, 213, 83; iron in Bronze Age, Lorimer 111f, Simpson 10 nn3-6. Dendra panoply: Verdelia AE (1957), 15; BCH lxxxv (1961), 671; AJA lxxxx (1963), 67; Vermeule (1) 135f. Phoinikians: Lorimer 67; Webster (1) 66. Cremation: Lorimer 107; Mylonas (8). Objects: also Kirk (5). Slaves: Palmer (4) 5. Art: Benson, and for Mykenean patterns, N. Himmelmann-Wildschutz. Catalogue of Ships: Allen (1), Bowra (3) 70ff, Lorimer, Wade-Gery (App. A), Simpson pt. iii, Page (2) 136; Huxley (3). Social system: Finley (2). Muster-rolls at Pylos and Ugarit: Simpson 172 n40. Anax in Cypros used for king’s son or brother (? borrowed from Homer): Dow 155. As cult-term: Shipp Trans. Phil. Soc. 1958 and (1) 129, Ruijgh 113f, Hemberg. Tholoi as hero-tomb going back to Mykenean days: F. Robert (2). Word for gold: Benveniste 131; Mayer Rend. 1st. Lomb. xciv (1960), 315-19; Peruzzi Word xv (1959), 323.

  [57] Killen; Allen. .Mykeneans as Greeks: Blegen (6); Dow; Vermeule 72.f; F. Matz Die Agais in HB d. Arch. ii 1954 263 etc. Against: Schachermeyr 1468, Hood etc. Early relations Crete and Byblos: Branigan. Mykenean sites in Asia Minor (Miletos, Ephesos, Müsgebi) AJA lxxi (1967), 183f. Hooker on relations to Egypt; Middle Helladic pottery in Sicily and Aiolian Islands, giving way to Mykenean I & II types; Taylour (2) 182; Mykenean pottery in Cyclades, Dawkins (4). Myth of Danaos: Vermeule 109; Hooker 176f; Astour; Kretschmer (4). Banquet-halls, west facades, palaces of Knossos, Phaistos, Mallia, and reception-halls; Pylos (3-aisled room): AJA lxv 165-72. Mellaart (1960) dated Troy to 3500: C. Renfrew, Before Civilisation (1973).

  [58] Dates: Myres (2) with refs.; Forsdyke (3) 28f; Blegen (1) & (2) etc. Doubts: Nylander 7.

  [59] Il. vi 433f; xvi 702; Troy iii 87; D. Gray 258. Alsop 73f; Troy vi 51, 61, 70, 73, 117, 123.

  [60] Epithets: Bowra (1) 1-13. Forces: Thouk. i 10, 3. Open space: Leaf (1) 150f. Arrowhead: Troy iv 48-51. Epithets going back to Mykenean times, Bowra (1) 11-13.

  [61] Greaves: Bowra (1) 17ff; Lorimer 250-54, 132-94 (shields). Goliath, I Sam. 17, 6. Armour: BCH lxxxii 707; lxxxi 322f, 340; Kirk (1) pls. 4a, 66b.

  [62] Bowra (1) 14-26.

  [63] Early battle fresco, Knossos: PM iii fig. 45; spears or slings, Webster (1) 32, 58f.

  [64] Marinatos (7); Karo (3) 106-8 & no 481; W. S.Smith 65-8; Vermeule (1) pl. xiv; Hooker; Mellink AJA lxxi, 92-4. Also Matz (3) pl. 93 & (7) 208, 5 pl. 16, 1; Schefold (8) 1ff; Meuli. Cretan: Marinatos (7) 85; V. Muller JdAI xl (1925), 1141; Stais 49-51.

  [65] Smith. Attack: Reichel & Stais.

  [66] Outpost: PM iii 89-99. Forced interpretation: Marinatos (7) 84f. For walls, cf. Town Mosaic of Knossos, PM i 301-14; Smith 42, 67.

  [67] Hooker 271; Vermeule (1) 102. Smith 68 suggests the naked men are on same side as Mykeneans in boat. Archers: Page (2) 278; Webster (1a) 104f. Hunt: Buchholz (2) Lorimer 276-9. Hall (JHS xxxi, 120) thinks defenders have feather headdresses; puts them in Anatolia.

  [68] Persson (3) 181-6 argues for Egypt; Schachermeyr (4) 345; for hilly landscape, fragment from Shaft Grave IV: Karo no. 605a; Hooker 277. Also Webster 58f; Matz (3) 93f; Forsdyke pl. 17. Thera frescoes: Modiano, Marinatos (9).

  [69] Karo (3) 128-31; Lorimer 279 & pl. 12, 3; Persson (3) 188; PM iii fig. 48; Rodenwaldt. Cypros: JHS lxxvii 269; Webster (1) fig. 18. In general: Webster 32, 58f.

  [70] Webster (1) 60, 38; Lorimer 146 & pl. 1; BSA xxxix (1939), 70; Matz (3) 109. Cf. Myk. stēlē: Lorimer pl. 2, 2; Hood. Against myth: Kirk (4) 146ff. For myth: Hampe; Webster (6) 38ff & (1) 168ff. Sceptical: Dunbabin 20ff, 77ff; Starr 154, 261; Hood 86. Mourning: Iakovidis, Vermeule (2) & (1) 208f (funeral), cf. Lorimer 48. Woman: Webster (1) 38-40, 60f, prophetess; Marinatos (1) 177; Matz (6) 217, 228. Note on east pediment of temple of Zeus at Olympia, Pelops’ Seer (fig. N) mourns in anticipation.

  [71] Astour 103 n1.

  [72] Gordon (2) 28, (1) & (6); 2 Sam. 3, 14; Gordon (7) 294f; Zeph. ii 6; Gen. xii 12-20, 1-18; I Kings xvii 3, 5.

  [73] Keret: Gordon as in previous note; Pritchard; Egnell 149ff. Historical basis: Virolleaud, Gaster. Webster (1) 69, 72, 86f, 120, 127, 120f. Ugaritic gods: Pope (1) & (2). People tend to be organized in gilds apart from peasants and herdsmen; king in general could dispose of land at will.

  [74] Menelaos pedestal: Eilmann, CVA Berlin 1 pl. 31-3; Matz (5) 306 pl. 208. Joppa: Pap. Harris 500 verso 1-3; Peet JEA xi 226f; Maspero, Contes pop. (4th) 115ff; Erman (1) 167-9; W. K. Simpson 81-4; Wilson ANET 22; H. Goedicke, CE xliii 1968 219-33; JEA xli 1955 64-71; Lefebvre, 125-7 — cf. Arabian tale of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, also the Odyssean tale of the trick on the Kyklops Polyphemos. Goedicke rightly rejects the suggestion that a battering-ram was called Horse (such rams seem an Assyrian invention: Yadin, Art of Warfare 314ff), but suggests a confusion with a Semitic word such as hepp (to hide), which has a related term in Egyptian. (The Egyptian Hb seems assimilated by the Greeks with hippos, to which was added potamos, river; Hb meant hippopotamus.) Djehuty’s Club ASAE 1947 xlvii 245.

  [75] Ring: 6209 Nat. Mus. Athens; PM iv fig. 926; GK 317; Persson (1) 80f pl. 25, 179 fig. 25; Karo (2); Bossert (1) fig. 400e; Mylonas (7) 567; Marinatos (4)
takes as Elysion, Nilsson as homecoming. Points and angles in upper field probably represent buildings on hilly terrain.

  [76] Karo and von Salis 27: departure; Marinatos (4) Elysion.

  [77] Persson (1) 81f no 26; PM ii 250, fig. 147b; iv 953 fig. 923; Mylonas (7) 566.

  [78] GK 318; Payne (2) 240 no 38, cf. vase of Arkades: Demargne pl. 10; aryballos, GK 309. Possible polos on the woman: GK. Carrying-off as marriage, eg Helen with crown on bronze relief of Olympia.

  [79] GK 318; Pfuhl MuZ iii fig. 15; Hampe (4) 78 pl. 22; Buschor 36; von Salis (2); Mylonas (7) 561f.

  [80] Dawkins (1) zi4f, pl. cix—cx, cf. 195 pl. lxxiv; GK 320; Burn (2) 40; E. Kunze GGA (1937) 290: not Helen. Basin: Kraiker pl. 5; J. M. Davison (1) 67ff fig. 98; Hampe (4) 26 pl. 22, I & (7) 30, 18; Kunze (2) 170, 2.

  [81] Mylonas (7), comparing metope of Selinos and painting in House of Tragic Poet at Pompeii. Marriage: Mylonas 563 with refs. Compare group at Samos, c. 625-600, with wooing gesture, Zeus and Hera: Richter (3) fig. 263. Spartan stele at Magoula, c. 600, bearded man and woman either side: he sets his hand on her nape and she touches his beard; he threatens her with sword at her throat: Helen and Menelaos, less likely Helen and Paris? GK 71 no 24, pl. xliii, 1, cf. sarcophagus of Klazomenai (GK 76f): woman crouched between two warriors.

  [82] Persson (1) 82-4; Bossert fig. 399b; Seager 89f; Marinatos (8) 224; Squab: Louk. Menippos 7. Chrysalis and quadruple axe in air?

  [83] D. Levi (1) 278f; Persson (1) 180 fig. 28. Levi says objects are baetyls not pithos. PM iv 952 fig. 920.

  [84] Delaporte ii 107, A 125 pl. 70, 2, cf. 641 (A31).

  [85] Westermarck 175ff. Sparta: Plout. Lyk. xv; Nik. Damas FHG iii 458; Xenophon Resp. Lac. 1. Homopatoria: Sch. Arist. Ach. 146; JH (4) 498-500. Photios: ib. 378. Hippolytos: Paus. i 32, I; Eur. Hipp. 1424; JH (4) 336f. Keirein: ib. 337; Plout. Thes. v. Apollo: JH (4) 441; Frazer (2) iii 279. Woman in male clothes to cheat following spirits: Frazer (4) ii 260; N (2) 371f. Secret visit as trial marriage: N (7) 33i. Flight and pursuit in myth: initiation, Jeanmaire (1) 257ff, 179, 222.f, 235, 241, eg flight of Dionysos, ib. 62, 73-5, 210, 249f; II. Vi 123-43; flight of women in Dionysiac rites as at Agrionia at Orchomenos; at Sikyon: N (2); Plout. QG 38; Ap. ii 29; Hesych. sv Agrionia; Paus. ix 20,3, etc. Flight of daughters of Proitos maddened by Aphrodite; curative dance by young men, healing of girls in temple of Artemis Hemerasia. Cf. race of armed young men at wooing of Atalanta: Kall. Hymn Art. 234; Polyb. iv 18, io; Hesych. sv akrouchei; Paus. viii 18, 8; F (1) ii 448. Motif of nude youth running, popular in fifth century, eg on Nolan amphora, c. 480, he flees from Zeus. For relation to Dionysiac dance, youth appearing as komast: J. S. Crawford. God-ravishings, eg Apollo takes Kyrene in gold chariot: Pind. Pyth. ix 1-7. Rape of two Hyakinthidai, relief Ionic temple on Ilissos: Kerenyi (7) 50; goddess of Ilissos originally only Meter (‘Mother’) with her temple, the Metroion. Oreithyia carried off playing by Ilissos: Paus. i 9, 5. Diōgma: Hesych, Souda (historical rationalization).