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Event Website
https://www.mythsoc.org/oms/oms-2023.htm
Start Date
8-6-2023 5:30 PM
End Date
8-6-2023 6:20 PM
Description
The rising popularity of Greek mythology is due in some part to female authors such as Madeline Miller and Natalie Haynes lending a fresh perspective to the Homeric tradition. However, these female authors tend to actually reduce the importance of one of the most important female characters of the Trojan War: Helen. Helen of Sparta has been an enigma to writers throughout the last 3000 years, her story changing with each iteration and era. Since Homer’s Iliad, the most beautiful woman in the world has been victim and villain, strong and weak willed. She has chosen husbands, and been forced to take them. She has gone to Troy willingly, and was stolen in the dead of night. She has hated the confines of Sparta, and she has missed it desperately. She loved her husband Menelaus, she loved Paris, and she hated both. She wasn’t at Troy at all, and she danced on the wall while it burned. She was Helen of Sparta and she was Helen of Troy. In the past and going forward, writers and creators have to decide who Helen is for the story they wish to tell, even if she becomes a contradiction in the answer.
Included in
Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons, Comparative Literature Commons, Digital Humanities Commons, European Languages and Societies Commons, Literature in English, Anglophone outside British Isles and North America Commons, Literature in English, British Isles Commons, Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority Commons, Medieval Studies Commons, Modern Languages Commons, Modern Literature Commons, Other English Language and Literature Commons
Who the hell is Helen of Sparta?
The rising popularity of Greek mythology is due in some part to female authors such as Madeline Miller and Natalie Haynes lending a fresh perspective to the Homeric tradition. However, these female authors tend to actually reduce the importance of one of the most important female characters of the Trojan War: Helen. Helen of Sparta has been an enigma to writers throughout the last 3000 years, her story changing with each iteration and era. Since Homer’s Iliad, the most beautiful woman in the world has been victim and villain, strong and weak willed. She has chosen husbands, and been forced to take them. She has gone to Troy willingly, and was stolen in the dead of night. She has hated the confines of Sparta, and she has missed it desperately. She loved her husband Menelaus, she loved Paris, and she hated both. She wasn’t at Troy at all, and she danced on the wall while it burned. She was Helen of Sparta and she was Helen of Troy. In the past and going forward, writers and creators have to decide who Helen is for the story they wish to tell, even if she becomes a contradiction in the answer.
Comments
SESSION VI
5:30 PM—6:20 Eastern
4:30 PM—5:20 Central
3:30 PM—4:20 Mountain
2:30 PM—3:20 Pacific
9:30 PM—10:20 GMT