On Hating Helen

            From my contributions in class, it is pretty clear that I resent the character of Helen. I would like to start by warranting the fact that I do believe she is an ambiguous character. It is hard to tell if she followed Paris to Troy because she was forced, or if it was by free will. However, my dislike for Helen has little to do with this ambiguity, or even the fact that she is central to the war. After all, although she is central to why the war has begun, after nine years the war has become about more than Helen, it has become about gaining kleos, and about destroying or defending a city.  The reason I detest Helen is because I believe she, unlike any other character is the book, has less to lose.

            This is especially apparent in Book 24 when she laments Hector. She speaks about no longer having a friend since Hector has died; however this is misleading. Whether or not she has a “friend” afterwards is hard to prove, but what isn’t hard to prove is that no matter how this war ends, she has somewhere to go. If the Greeks win, she has a home with Menelaus. If the Trojans win, she has a home with Paris. And of course from the Odyssey, we can confirm that she does get to go home with her original husband, Menelaus. Trojans are fighting for their home, for their families, for their lives. Both sides are losing friends and family members; some soldiers will never go home again. Helen may lose some of the people around her, but she ultimately has another home, another place to go. She also never suffers fully with one side. Helen doesn’t lose her husband or children to war, nor does she have to suffer kidnap and rape that the Trojan women will eventually suffer. Helen lives.

            I will not refuse to acknowledge the fact that Helen does not have a choice in this matter, and that because she has these two homes, in some ways it may seem she has more to lose. However, while reading the Iliad, it was overwhelmingly frustrating knowing that many soldiers were dying because of her and were losing their home because of her. These soldiers only had one home, one life, and one family. Yet no matter how fate decided things ended, Helen had a way out. She was never fully losing a home or a family, and no matter which way the scales of war settled, she had a home and a family to fall back on.

Pledge: Michaela Knipp