Helen
The storyHelen was the most beautiful woman of the world．She was an infamous lady．She lighted the flames of the Trojan war and brought extreme destruction on the city of Troy．
Helen was the daughter of Zeus．Helen's matchless beauty and charms drew towards her many heroes from all parts of Greece. When still small she was carried off by Theseus，who wished to have a divine wife ．But she was rescued later by her brother Castor，and brought back to her native land．Her stepfather married her to Menelaus，king of Sparta．
Nothing of importance had happened to her married life until Paris came to visit Sparta．Helen was attracted by Paris' lovely face．They stole one another's love in the absence of Menelausand then eloped on board a ship to Troy．Helen left her young daughter behind．To get Helen back，the Greek army sailed across and laid a long siege to the city of Troy ．
Helen was quietly weaving her story into a web of golden carpet one day when she was called up the city walls of Troy to look at the fighting between Menelaus and Paris．Menelaus was determined to kill Paris in the battle．Sitting by the side of King Priam，she told the chiefs of the Greek side to him．Tears of love filled up her eyes when she saw her first husband down below．After Paris fled the field she had the feelings of love and scorn．She encouraged Hector and Paris to take the field again and sincerely mourned the death of the true hero Hector. But when Odysseus and Diomedes came in disguise to steal the Palladium，she helped them to do so as much as she could．After Paris died in battle she became the wife of another son of Priam． In the meantime Menelaus was anxiously searching for Helen in the ruined palaces of Troy．Aphrodite had made Helen more beautiful，so that，when he finally found her trembling in a corner，Menelaus was most unwilling to bring his sword down on her charming face．Menelaus felt secretly overjoyed to have his wife back again．Following Menelaus through the ruins of the city，Helen felt ashamed of her impure behavior．And she was truly scared at the terrible fate she was to have in the Greek Camp．
Once more her beauty saved her．No one could bring him self to thrust his sword into such a charming and graceful lady．In the tent of Menelaus she threw herself at the feet of the Spartan king，asking for forgiveness ．Moved by the scene，Menelaus helped her up and let her forget the past．He held her in his arms while she had tears of grief and happiness．The pair loved each other like before and vanished in the far west．
In modern culture
Inspired by the line "Was this the face that launched a thousand ships...?" from Marlowe's play The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, Isaac Asimov jocularly coined the unit millihelen to mean the amount of beauty that can launch one ship.
The band Genesis wrote and performed two songs that referred to Helen. The song "Ripples" from their 1976 album titled Trick of the Tail includes the line..."The face that launched a thousand ships." The song "Blood on the Rooftops" from their 1976 album titled Wind & Wuthering, includes the line "Seems Helen of Troy has found a new face again."
The song "The Third Temptation of Paris" by Alesana tells the story of Helen and Paris from the viewpoint of Paris.
Henry Rider Haggard wrote a novel, "The World's Desire" in which Odysseus finds Helen in Egypt as a priestess and they wed.
The modernist poet H.D. wrote an epic poem Helen in Egypt from Helen's perspective.
The Australian singer/song writer "Jon English" wrote a 1990 rock opera Paris which tells the story of love and the Trojan War. A handful of small plays have appeared based on this musical work. A larger "Paris" musical will start in July 2008.
[ 本帖最后由 郭庆 于 2008-11-4 19:56 编辑 ]
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