Euripides

Peter Burian

The Helen of this play never goes to Troy, but is carried to Egypt, where she remains during and after the Trojan War, waiting faithfully for her husband Menelaus to rescue her. Meanwhile, Helen of Troy - a mere phantom fashioned by the gods - has blighted the real Helen's life with undeserved hatred, since she cannot escape blame for destruction and death in which she had no part, or rather a part in name only. In Euripides' hands this premise suggests a world in which nothing is precisely what it seems. Helen plays with the confusion of appearance and reality in ways that are by turns amusing and disturbing, playful and full of serious quandaries. Whether understood as tragedy or (as some critics prefer) something more like philosophical divertissement or romantic comedy, Helen has increasingly been recognized as an intellectually challenging and emotionally satisfying dramatic masterpiece.

Helen

Samuel Barnes

Read until you are demented / your great thick books whose substance is as smoke.

Rebecca Moraglia

A man, when he is vexed by those at home,

goes out to ease the disquiet in his heart.

And they say of us that we're never at risk,

sheltered at home, while they fight with spears.

How wrong they are: I'd rather three times over

stand behind a shield than give birth once.

Helen quotes

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