A review by mashedpotatoandsaladcream
Helen of Troy: The Story Behind the Most Beautiful Woman in the World by Bettany Hughes

dark informative inspiring mysterious reflective slow-paced

4.0

“the study of helen as a real character from history has been consistently neglected… it has been too tempting perhaps to remember helen as ‘the most beautiful woman in the world’, too appealing to keep her vapid and perfect -too disappointing to discover the worlds desire and to find her flawed” 

helen seems to have always been a woman who has always seems to interest, perhaps alongside medea, the premise of having these women remembered for centuries to be redefined and challenged throughout them with varying sympathies. but i remember going to one of my first year university lectures and fully being introduced to helen and being hooked since. i had seen part of bettany hughes’ documentaries on youtube and id been meaning to read this book for a while, forgetting, and then remembering it after re-reading helen’s chapter in natalie haynes’ pandoras jar. and anything that delves into the premise of helen keeps my attention. 

hughes explores the relation between the myth and the possible reality -was helen just a character made up by homer, but it not, how would she have existed and lived, before going on to explore her legacy in the contexts of the eras she finds herself in (from late bronze age, to euripides’ interpretation in 6th/5th century bc athens, the seeming reincarnation of helen by the side of simon magus, how her tale was used to aid queen eleanor of aquitane, and also the apparition of helen and her meaning in harlowe’s dr faustus) —all of this being built on her having had no contemporary depictions, and no canon appearance. 

“museum storerooms around the world have shelves crammed with vases showing helen at various points in her life-story and in her evolution as an idol -brown as a girl, helen as queen, hepen as a demi goddess, helen as a whore- but these images, without exception, are all made up; they reveal not who helen was, but who men have wanted her to be”

hughes travels herself all around to these historical sites to find remnants of helen (even to one’s where the evidence has been long lost, when reading she tells of how it was highly likely her home palace was lost to elements and scavengers) and it really hits when she’s recounting her tales how far civilisation has come. helen herself is a ghost that haunts the landscape and yet is still renown and yet all these sanctuaries and palaces are being found in rural towns when hundred and thousands of years ago this would have been a place of utmost importance for those living in the area. 

what i also liked was how it sheds light on the role of women in the ancient world of mycenae, sparta, and even crete. even with it being the exploration of helen, you were also learning about how women were treated, venerated, expected to act so on and i found this really interesting learning about the different societal norms and such. and then, i was at least even a little, faced with the fact that you would view the typically female places in history (like religion, family) and somehow lesser and when faced with the relics and mosaics of the minoan women —i felt a little ashamed even to think of this as an idea. athenian women and their treatment was not the same everywhere. 

“in the past, the pre-eminence of women in the religious sphere in the late bronze age have been discussed in patronising, faintly pitying tones, as it whole men got on with the business of fighting, women simply tended the shrines. but… the women that we find represented at mycenae, pylos, tiryns, knossos, and thebes appear significant, prominent, gorgeous. a striking spartan queen, in charge of her lands and responsible for the spiritual health of her people, could well have been the prototype for Helen - rich, influential, hallowed… Helen was a woman who could not be allowed to simply be wonderful”

it is non fiction, although not a relatively massive book, i still found it difficult to get through despite having recognised a lot of the content with the minoans and such, it was still slow going (it doesn’t help id been reading on and off on a bout of headaches) but it didn’t have some over complication jargon so it is defiantly a friendly read with that aspect. it was a nice read. but you have to admire it for what it is -i’m not sure whether there are that many books dedicated to helen of troy? i haven’t seen that many about her and it has been soon two decades since this was published so i wonder how much has changed or developed but kudos to hughes for researching and writing this. and her prose? writing? that is also something i liked (especially mentioned earlier but her recounting her own travels to the various countries , cities, towns, and places were vivid and admirable)

“helen is an archetype. men fall for her, have sex with her and then, when terrible things happen, it is she who gets the blame… i will share my private fantasy of ‘the worlds desire’: that one day her body will be found. because it is only when helen of troy becomes a desiccated pile of bones, when men can look at a toothless jaw, a tarnished ring and hand that has become an incomplete claw, that she can, finally, be laid to rest. only

then that we will stop hounding her, stop blaming her for being the most beautiful woman in the world”