“...The Face That Launch'd a Thousand Ships...”

Special Interview Edition Vol. 2, Issue 1 November 2019 Theme: Retelling History and Mythology “The only way that history can be “Every great changemaker was a “I don’t think I write books to make “I marvelled at the interpretation of meaningful is if we present several dreamer, someone who saw the them famous, I write books because the sequence by the writers because points of view and see the “truth” as world differently – saw potential and I like them.” there is not a single weak moment for something that lies between those pursued it.” Draupadi.” multiple perspectives.” Sharanya Manivannan Devdutt Pattanaik Pooja Sharma Ashwin Sanghi Page 7 Page 3 Page 5 Page 5 “Part of the delight, therefore, in reading renditions of Greek myth, both ancient and modern, lies not in labelling departures as “wrong,” but in comparing them with other versions and investigating why a particular detail was included or why a particular change was made” - Thomas D. Kohn, “Tartarus and the Curses of Percy Jackson”, 2015 Helen throughout history, purports we - or Priam - to disagree? She but thankfully the goal of feminism that between these polarized has conveniently put herself in her was never to rescue every woman. I positions – Helen or someone else place, so that they do not have to. to blame – is the Homer’s Iliad is the major site for concept of joint As Graver puts it, the analysis of Helen’s character. II culpability, as in The Helen’s character is Sara Teasdale (1884-1933) was Though Homer blames her as the Odyssey when Helen “ennobled” by her “feminine in the highest sense of direct cause of the outbreak of says that Aphrodite acknowledgment of past that much-abused word” as Harriet the Trojan War, she plays only a “brought me to Troy misdeeds. This form of Monroe puts it. Her poems present secondary part in the epic and only “...the face that launch’d . and made me self-disempowerment the woman’s point of view as a few words are put in her mouth. forsake my daughter, fits right with the authentically, as sincerely, as those Man is considered the default while my bridal chamber, patriarchal structures of Shelley, Byron, Tennyson, any woman is the ‘Other’ (Beauvoir). and a husband who for women. “Few masculine lyrist of them all, present Helen’s agency is regularly lacked nothing”. things are as gratifying that of the man. Naturally, as her minimised by the characters and the Helen is both active as remorse to those modern apologist or some may call narrative as a whole. There is hardly and passive; she does a thousand ships...” in authority, since it her an encomiast for Helen, she lifts any development of her character, the forsaking but is affirms not only the her out from the ruins of antiquity and only a constant indecisiveness that passively “made” HELEN OF TROY IN HOMER & TEASDALE behavioural norms ‘retells’ her with a poetic expertise envelops her – whether or not she to and “brought.” they prescribe for that outdoes. She presents women in is to blame for the war. Katherine their inferiors, but a constructive light, with the power Duncan-Jones rightly notes that No woman in the epic is free from their original judgment of the to take charge of their lives and make “for the majority of writers, whether the unabashed reification that the transgressor’s weakness, which changes. Helen is displayed with a historical or literary, her appearance narrative forces. Athena successfully in turn allows them to claim the wealth of emotions and is portrayed is essentially a blank, to be filled Satvik Tandon spurs Odysseus into rallying the subordinate’s collusion in her as a strong, intelligent woman aware in – or not – by the imagination of army by urging him not to let Helen, subjugation” (Blondell). Her of people’s conceptions of her. aftercomers. And though she was for whom so many Achaeans have influential discourse, which celebrated for having triggered major already lost their lives, remain becomes the audible complement of For never woman born of man and military activity – her face launching as a “boast” – an object to glory her Aphrodite-gifted visible charms, maid those ‘thousand ships’, a phrase in - for Priam and the Trojans. of self-blame then becomes an Had wrought such havoc on the interestingly re-spun in modern times Helen, however, fiercely uses this “exercise of power”. Note how she earth as I, – she is herself essentially passive, a objectification to her own purposes. addresses it only to Hector and Priam Or troubled heaven with a sea of victim of rape and/or abduction.” and not Paris – only to men who can flame “Agency entails responsibility, and fortify her position and her life. However, it will be injustice to responsibility entails susceptibility Teasdale’s Helen sounds almost sideline her character with just to blame and, most importantly, Helen makes no attempt to overcome tongue-in-cheek – a little proud of these suppositions. With the vogue punishment. As long as the question the Trojan women’s disapproval by a beauty that was once the world’s of feminist criticism in the 20th is whether Paris stole her, or whether exercising her considerable personal most destructive force, of a face that century, various critics have used the Trojans should return her, then charm. That charm is, in its essence, had burnt the topless towers of Ilium. feminist theories to scrutinise she cannot be held accountable: “both erotic and heterosexual, so it and rescue Helen’s character. he is to blame for starting the has no leverage with the women and Yet she is so much more than visual war, and they for allowing it to gives them no incentive to exonerate beauty, a beauty she so knows will The most common argument against continue. It is Paris who takes the her by viewing her as a passive not be seen again – “she withers it”. her is her “running” away with Paris blame, from Achaeans and Trojans object… She is outing herself as a Her blame game starts from “the high that triggered a violent chain reaction alike, in acknowledgment of the Pandora, a beautiful woman with gods” to Leda and ends at the swan that lasted ten years. Ruby Blondell larger scope for agency assigned an evil interior, who that was Zeus. In the middle of the observes that Helen's elopement is to the male. In the Iliad itself no uses her power poem, however, there is a complete presented in The Iliad as an assertion one directly challenges Helen’s of agency in reversal of mood and tone, the not of her own desire, but of Paris's worth as a casus belli.” (Blondell). ways that modus operandi of Teasdale. Helen or Aphrodite's. A variety of speakers cause has decided she cannot ask for death - Menelaus, Hector, Helen herself, The objectification of misery when there are so many more springs and the narrator - speak of Paris Helen serves a different to men” to witness and when the “strong "taking" her to Troy and Helen uses purpose for the (Blondell). sweet scent” of the sea holds her here. the same verb with Aphrodite as men on the other subject. This verb does not exclude side of the fight. O’Gorman has “Helen ponders how to save her volition in a person who is "taken" As Blondell argued that Helen’s life as she contemplates Menelaus’ but it can also be used, among other writes, “the self-blame suggests a punitive uxoricide. Her decision things, for dragging a resistant theft of an object questioning, from a female is to do with more than mere self- animal and for the outright abduction is more easily rectified point of view, of the value of preservation, or self-preservation as of women and children in warfare. than the seduction of a wife”. the apparently futile masculine an end in itself. She wants to live military enterprise, unsettling its so that she can make Greece love Building on the apology by Hector and Priam cannot seem to very premise. If she considers her again, rehabilitate if not her Gorgias (483 – 375 BC), four blame Helen throughout the epic over herself loathsome and contemptible, reputation, her ability to cause a Pan- main reasons are deducible for her but this is only rightly so. Any such the how can she possibly believe that the Hellenic reaction: “I shall go back to elopement – unavoidable (divine) The admission would make the Trojan men war fought over her is worthwhile? Sparta on his breast. / I shall live on to agency, abduction by force, Paris’s refusal to return Helen inexplicable, who dif- conquer Greece again!”. The breast manipulative power of speech fer- since it is the retention of Helen - as come In the famous scene of Book 3 changes from Helen’s mammary (which was considered reverent) or ence opposed to the original elopement - face to face where Helen is asked to bed Paris, to Menelaus’ pectorals” (Maguire). her passion/lust. In context of the is made that is the cause of the continuing war. with her both she argues with a goddess but, only But the image is odd: how does last reason, a manifestation of their clear by Paris, As long as the Trojan leaders remain explains and naturally, loses. Helen’s poignancy one return on one’s spouse’s breast (physical) love is in the presence of when he declares in solidarity with Paris, who refuses justifies the war as a character derives in part from the rather than the expected – if clichéd Aphrodite during their copulation that he is willing to return her, they cannot afford to in masculine fact that, unlike many of Aphrodite’s – arm? According to Maguire, in Book 3 of The Iliad (gods are but to return the question her value.

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