en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_of_Troy
2 corrections found
Hera fashioned a likeness (eidolon, εἴδωλον) of Helen out of clouds at Zeus' request
In Euripides' Helen, Hera creates the phantom Helen because she is angry about losing the Judgment of Paris—not because Zeus asked her to do it.
Full reasoning
In the opening of Euripides' Helen, Helen explains that Hera, angry at losing the beauty contest to Aphrodite, gave Paris a sky-made image of Helen instead of the real woman. The text says: "But Hera, indignant at not defeating the goddesses ... gave to the son of king Priam not me, but an image ... that she fashioned out of the sky". Zeus is mentioned separately afterward as the god who used the war for his own purposes, and Hermes is the one who transports the real Helen to Egypt. So the article's addition "at Zeus' request" misstates Euripides' version by attributing Hera's action to a request from Zeus that the play does not make.
A secondary summary from a reputable classical site says the same thing: Hera, angry at Paris' choice, made the phantom, while Hermes carried the real Helen away.
2 sources
- Euripides, Helen - The Center for Hellenic Studies
"But Hera, indignant at not defeating the goddesses ... gave to the son of king Priam not me, but an image, alive and breathing, that she fashioned out of the sky and made to look like me."
- Introducing Euripides' Helen - Kosmos Society
"a lookalike phantom [eidōlon] given by Hera to Paris made it seem so ... Hermes removed the real Helen to the palace and protection of the kings of Egypt."
She is one of the eponymous women the tragedy The Trojan Women produced in 415 BC by the Greek playwright Euripides.
Helen appears in Euripides' The Trojan Women, but she is not one of the titular 'Trojan women.' The title refers to the captive women of Troy, while Helen is explicitly Spartan/Greek.
Full reasoning
This sentence is incorrect because Helen is not one of the titular "Trojan women". In myth and in Euripides' play, Helen is the Spartan wife of Menelaus, not a woman of Troy. The title The Trojan Women refers to the women of Troy—such as Hecuba, Andromache, Cassandra, and the other captive Trojan women—whose city has been destroyed.
A standard reference work defines the Trojan women as the royal women of Troy and their female subjects, and contrasts them with Helen, Menelaus's wife, the woman over whom the war was fought. The play text itself also distinguishes Helen from the Trojan women, saying that the unassigned Trojan women are in the tents "and with them Spartan Helen". So Helen is a character in the play, but not one of the eponymous Trojan women named by its title.
2 sources
- Trojan Women | Encyclopedia.com
"The Trojan Women, in mythology, are the royal women of Troy (Hecuba/Hekabe, Andromache, Cassandra/Alexandra, Polyxena) and their female subjects ... They become innocent victims of a war fought over another woman, Menelaus's wife, Helen."
- Euripides, Trojan Women - The Center for Hellenic Studies
"And such of the Trojan women as are not portioned out are in these tents ... and with them Spartan Helen, daughter of Tyndareus, justly counted among the captives."