Great Books Ep 84. Euripides - Helen. What If Everything You Knew Was a Lie?
Finding out that they fought for over ten years for a fake Helen was shocking to the Greeks. How do we cope with life-altering changes in beliefs and the unsettling nature of reality?
“What can I think or say? For after my previous troubles, this is a fresh piece of ill-luck I hear, if, indeed, after recovering my wife from Troy and bringing her hither, and putting her for safety in the cave, I am then to find another woman living here with the same name as my wife.”
~ ‘Helen’ by Euripides (Edward P. Coleridge translation. GB5 - p. 302)
Brief Summary
The play starts with Helen in Egypt. We immediately learn that Helen, whom Paris took to Troy and the one for whom the Greeks fought for over ten years, was not the real Helen but a fake phantom created by Hera with her breath. The real Helen was whisked away by Hermes to Egypt and has been living under the protection of King Proteus until recently. King Proteus has died, and his son Theoclymenus rules Egypt; he wants to marry Helen, and she has been taking refuge near the tomb of Proteus. At this point, Helen is still unsure of the outcome of the Trojan War.
Teucer, Ajax’s half-brother, arrives in Egypt since he has been exiled by his father for not stopping Ajax’s suicide. He came to Egypt to seek counsel from Theonoe, the King’s sister, who is a famous prophetess. He is shocked to see Helen here and, after the initial disbelief, tells her what happened at Troy and about the Greek victory. He says the army was scattered in the raging seas on the way back, and Menelaus might have died.
Menelaus arrives in Egypt after being shipwrecked. He is turned away from the palace gates due to his ragged appearance and goes to the tomb of Proteus. He is surprised to see a woman who resembles his wife Helen, who he had hidden in a cave near the shore, asking men to watch over her while he sought help to go to Greece. The woman says she is the real Helen, and the other woman with him is a phantom. Just then, a messenger arrives and tells Menelaus that his wife disappeared in thin air, proclaiming that she is a phantom and her time is done.
Helen tells Menelaus that Theoclymenus wants to marry her and that he might kill him if he finds out that her husband is still alive. They plan to say that Menelaus died at sea, and as per their custom, the wife must hold a burial there. They talk to Theonoe and convince her to help them. When Theoclymenus comes to Proteus’ tomb, he finds Helen weeping and with cut hair. She says he husband Menelaus has died, and only one person escaped the shipwreck, the person in rags near her. The person in rags, who is actually Menelaus, says he witnessed Menelaus dying. Helen says they need to bury woven robes that wrap no corpse on the sea as per their custom. They would need a ship, and after the burial, she would marry him. Theoclymenus obliges and gives them a ship.
After a while, a messenger comes to Theoclymenus and tells him that Helen has escaped, that it was Menelaus who was with her earlier and that Greek men with Menelaus overpowered them and sailed away. Theoclymenus is enraged at this and vows to pursue them and kill them. He also threatens to kill his sister, Theonoe, for not informing him. Helen’s divine brothers, the Dioscuri, appear and tell Theoclymenus to not go after Helen and to forgive his sister since all this happened as per divine will. Theoclymenus accepts this.
My Thoughts
This was the first I had heard of this story of Helen of Troy not being the real Helen, and my first thought was that this was a made-up thing that was added at a later point in history to allow Helen to come back to Sparta with Menelaus. To tell everyone that she never shared her bed with anyone. The person who went with Paris and got married again to someone else after Paris died was a fake Helen. Maybe Menelaus could not bring Helen back and have her continue as his wife even if he wanted to since the public sentiment was totally against her. When Teucer sees her in Egypt, he initially goes into a fit of rage.
“Ha! great gods! what sight is here? I see the counterfeit of that fell murderous dame, who ruined me and all the Achaeans. May Heaven show its loathing for thee, so much dost thou resemble Helen!”
Maybe this was the story from the beginning, even during Homer’s time when the Iliad and Odyssey were just oral stories. Perhaps it was added later to match the social mores of the day during Euripides’ time. It doesn’t matter. What set me thinking was the effect on people when their worldview completely changes. In the story, people accept the new story since gods are involved and gods can do anything.
"Many are the forms the heavenly will assumes; and many a thing God brings to pass contrary to expectation: that which was looked for is not accomplished, while Heaven finds out a way for what we never hoped."
What about real life? I think there have been many instances in history where people’s worldview changed due to a new discovery, invention or development of a new theory. Darwin’s theory of evolution helped explain a lot of things that we observe in nature, but I’m sure it dramatically changed the worldview and origin theory of living things for many people. Copernicus’ theory of heliocentricity, which said that the Sun doesn’t’ revolve around Earth, but Earth revolves around the Sun, was quite mind-altering at the time. The same applies to discovering atoms, cells, DNA, etc. In the past few centuries, there have been many eye-opening inventions and discoveries. And yet, we cannot think that we know everything. We don’t know what we don’t know.
Humans can probably reach a stage where we can understand, to a large degree, everything on Earth and explain most of the phenomenon that happens here. But is there a limit to how much our brains can actually grasp and understand? How much can an ant or a firefly understand about Earth? Even if it tried hard for millions of years, I guess it cannot because its brain capacity does not allow it to comprehend the complexities of all life on Earth the way the human brain comprehends. I wonder if the human brain has such a limit, too. Can a human brain really aspire to understand the real nature of the universe or multiple universes even, other than marveling at the vastness of it all?