Five of The Worlds Greatest Love Stories

HELEN OF TROY AND PARIS

There cannot be many people who have not heard this story. Helen was the daughter of Zeus and Leda, and as myth has it, while fleeing from an eagle Zeus disguised himself as a swan, Leda was also a swan, and of the four eggs that hatched, one of them was Helen, she grew up and was regarded as the most beautiful woman in the world, so it’s no surprise that when she came of marriageable age that most of the kings and princes of ancient Greece sought her hand. Eventually it was decided that she should marry Menelaus, thus becoming the Queen of Sparta, all the other kings and princes were made to swear an oath to defend the couple.  But Aphrodite had already promised Helen to Paris, a Trojan prince, he went to Sparta as an emissary, but his intention was to take Helen back to Troy with him, The couple fell in love and fled back to Troy, Helen leaving behind her husband and nine year old daughter. When Menelaus found out that Helen had left him he was furious, he called in the oath of Helen’s former suitors and set off to lay siege to Troy, some of the nobles did however fight on Helen’s side as they took it that the oath was to defend her. Eventually Troy fell, and Paris was killed, and Helen married Deipholous the brother of Paris, but he was also killed in the sacking of the city. Helen was returned to Menelaus, who had sworn to kill her, but as he raised his sword to strike the fatal blow he was overcome by her beauty and let the sword drop, and instead of killing Helen he took her back to Sparta with him. On the death of Menelaus Helen was put into exile by his sons