Whoever is the mother, in both versions, Helen is born from an egg in Sparta. (Archaeological Museum of Metapontum, Italy). Helen’s mother was Leda who was seduced by Zeus when he was disguised as a swan. In another version of the myth, Helen’s mother is the goddess Nemesis, the personification of retribution.Ī sculpture showing the birth of Helen of Troy. Zeus disguised himself as a swan to seduce Leda, and Helen was the result of their amorous engagement. In Greek mythology, Helen was the daughter of Zeus and Leda, the queen of Sparta and the wife of Tyndareus. Despite the poor standing of the literary Helen, she also had a divine form and was the centre of cults at several Greek sites, notably Rhodes, Sparta, and Therapne. Following the Greek victory in the war, Helen returned home with Menelaus but she became a despised figure in the ancient world, a symbol of moral failure and the perils of placing lust above reason. Helen, considered the most beautiful woman in the world, was the wife of Menelaus, the king of Sparta, and he persuaded his brother Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, to form a great army to besiege the mighty city of Troy in order to recapture Helen. 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 widely considered the most beautiful of all mortal women. A detail from an Attic red-figure krater showing Helen of Troy.
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