Analyzing Hilda Doolittle's Poem Helen

In Homer’s epic poem the Iliad, gods and goddesses play an important role in influencing the lives of humans, and Athena is an important part of the war. The goddess Athena is written mostly as a mortal, where she signifies the personification of war. Both sides of the war know that with Athena, they will not lose. This is probably why she is the most significant minor character. Athena is the most significant minor character because she is brave, wise, and she is a warrior. Athena plays a significant role in the unfolding drama, because both the Greeks and the Trojans know that her favor, they cannot be defeated.

In the first section of Odyssey, mortal women are presented to us as controlled by the stereotypes and expectations of the culture of the day, and it is only within that context that we can consider the examples Homer provides of women to be admired or despised. He provides us with clear contrasts, between Penelope and Eurycleia on the one hand, and Helen and Clytemnaestra on the other.

In both the Odyssey and Sappho’s Fragment 16, Homer and Sappho speak of and acknowledge Helens beauty. Though, they do so in different ways. In the Odyssey, Homer compares Helen to that of a goddess using Artemis as an example. Although homer describes her beauty in a positive light, he also claims that Helens attractiveness caused the Trojan war and the death and suffering of many. “when all you Achaeans fought at Troy, launching your headlong battles just for my sake, shameless whore that I was”(160). Therefore in the Odyssey, Helen is depicted as an intricate character. In epic poems, this is a trend that can be seen throughout the reading as the writing style goes into greater detail. One can also conclude that Homer tends to focus on the negative and emphasize war.

Thesis statement: Within the Iliad, the consequences of Helen’s actions and the motif of beauty are demonstrated through her self-blame, passions, and conflicting intentions, which ultimately results in the destruction of Troy.

In both the poems “ To Helen” and “Helen” the views of Helen—“the face that launched a thousand ships”, differs as her beauty praised as a heroine juxtaposes the belief that she remains a traitor.

The Greek forces won the Trojan War. The story of the war is a cornerstone of Greek legend, and pervaded Greek literature and culture. Though the evidence for the Trojan War as historical fact is scarce, it was a formative event in Greek cultural memory, producing some of the classical world’s most famous heroes and narratives. The War was won, Helen was retrieved from Paris, whose violation of ξενία was redressed, the heroes attained the κλέος that many of them fought for – and yet the positive outcomes of the Trojan War are difficult to grasp. For the victims of the Trojan War, the tragedy is obvious; the War ended in genocide and total cultural destruction. But such a war, burnt into legend, should have left the victors far better off; and yet, the Greek heroes only suffer because of it. They die tragic, dishonourable deaths; their households are left in ruin; their families are torn apart. From both modern and classical perspectives, the Trojan War is a tragedy, a “harrowing destruction of life” (Euripides, Andromache, 291). The victory is pyrrhic, the loss of life is horrific, the reparations non-existent.

At the beginning of the story, the gods are debating what to do with the Greeks after they pillaged Troy, but more specifically, violated Athena’s shrine. Athena asks for help and says to Poseidon, “I want to help the Trojans who were my enemies, and make the Greek army’s homecoming a bitter one.” (Euripides 63). To which Poseidon replies, “You’re so fickle. Your mind leaps here and there: now you hate, and now you love, and both in excess.” (Euripides 65). Even Poseidon admits to the “fickleness” of the goddess since her allies during the war were the Greeks. This lends itself to show that Helen could be telling the truth about the goddesses having an argument about the beauty of each other and Aphrodite forcing Helen to run away with Paris. Helen also helps her argument by pointing out that the fight was preordained by the gods based on the prophecy about Paris, and then blames Paris’s mother and father for letting Paris live, rather than slaying Paris and trying to stop the prophecy from coming true. Through the many effective arguments, Helen shows that she did not ask to be carried away by Paris and that she liked Menelaus. Menelaus seems very weak compared to Helen, especially since he seems to not be able to make up his mind whether to kill her or not. In the end, Menelaus seems to decide on letting her live, though he still tells

Homer tends to lighten Helen 's betrayal somewhat in The Odyssey. Homer wants to assure the reader that although it is in the past, it will not be entirely forgotten. In this epic she becomes a wife to Menelaus and not in the literal sense because the two have always been married. Instead, she now openly admits to him and other guests that her actions were unspeakable and unforgivable, almost to say that what occurred what unlike her and she actually is a good woman. Also, Menelaus agrees with her, showing no anger. But Homer lets us know that she is as deceitful and conniving as ever, when Helen admits to openly celebrating the fall of Troy, cheering while the Trojan women wept for their husbands. She says "The rest of the Trojan women shrilled with their grief. Not I: my heart leapt up-my heart had changed now-I yearned to sail back home again" (Homer). Thus, Helen goes from being deceitful to adapting disloyalty.

The poetic imagery I found to be the most memorable was the sound imagery in the fourth stanza of Hilda Doolittle's "Circe".

Homer’s epic, The Iliad, highlights the influence and jurisdiction that beauty provides. The prizes and glory a man accumulates from war measure his power, while beauty measures a woman’s power. Since conquering a woman is the ultimate prize to a man, her beauty represents ultimate power. Though the beauty of mortal women has the power to turn men against each other, mortal women have no influence over this power and are instead objectified by men. Immortal women, however, have authority over their beauty and are able to control men with their power. Helen, on the other hand, though mortal, has the beauty of a goddess. Yet, Helen is bound by her fate to Paris, making her power obsolete. By presenting Helen’s hopeless power and supplying the reader with insight on her suffering through her thoughts, Helen is portrayed as a tragic hero.

Initially, Collins demonstrates how one can weigh a dog’s weight with his method. Concrete diction in the first stanza, such as, “ small bathroom”, “ balancing”, and “shaky” suggest the uncomfortable nature of his intimate relationship with his pet. Although Collin is unappreciated for the gritty toil determination, he praise himself to applauded that “this is the way” and raising his self-esteem by comparing how easier it is than to train his dog obesity. In addition, the negative diction used to describe Collin holding his dog to be “awkward” for him and “bewildering” for his pet. This establish he rather force love rather willing show patience. When holding a pet on scale, there is less hustle because he secures the dog’s position by carrying it. Where as when he orders the dog to stay on the weighing scale with a cookie, his dog only followed him because of the expected reward.

In “The Trojan Women,” there are four enduring women who dominate the play and only two men who say anything at all. Moving us with their rants and dramatic reactions, these women engulf the audience in overwhelming grief and irresistible pride. Euripides emphasizes these four women to help us understand one of his main themes. Hecuba with her pride, Cassandra with her virginity and uncanny wisdom, Andromache with her misery and heartache, and Helen with her powerful, seductive reasoning all represent superior illustrations of feminism throughout the play.

The role of women in Greek literature has demoralized them and showing them in a maligned light. The women are portrayed as frail, cruel, insensitive, or as seductresses. These characteristics have been integrated into today’s society and [have] built the standards and defined the moral outlook of women. However, in Greek mythology, powerful and strong women are not as well celebrated, such as Athena. Homer’s The Odyssey construes the positive and negative role of women through the epic poem. The women in the poem are depicted through the contrasting actions of Penelope and the maids, in addition with the opposite personalities between the goddess Athena and the nymph Calypso.

To start off we have Helen of Troy, a mortal woman, thought to be one of the most beautiful in her time. She left her husband Menelaus of Sparta for Paris of Troy and because of that and her beauty a 10 year war surged between Sparta

There are many notable retellings of the story of Troy that focus on the perspectives of minor characters, rather than the central characters commonly known in the Iliad, the great warriors Achilles and Hector. The novel “Inside the Walls of Troy” by Clemence McLaren does just this by featuring the perspectives of Helen of Sparta, the beloved of Paris, and Cassandra of Troy, the daughter of King Priam for different periods of time before, throughout, and after the end of the war. The author, a modern era female writer, focuses the text’s aims and attentions to other modern females, albeit young adults. Due to this specific genre, McLaren’s retelling must fulfill certain expectations, such as relaying the story of Troy in an interesting enough manner as to hold the audience's attention and incorporating strong female protagonists the audience can not only relate to, but identify with. To do this, the original epic, the Iliad, wholly from the perspective of battle hardened men and a complex, tedious read must be transformed to simple language that resonates with young, female readers of a contemporary society, while still imparting the significant insights of the original text. McLaren’s retelling of the Iliad comprises of many events and character traits that allow the audience to engage with and appreciate the story of Troy in a way that the original version does not allow for, such as: Cassandra’s attribute as a prophetess and narrator, Helen’s childhood narrative, Polyxena’s retrieval of Hector’s body, and lastly, Helenus’s character as a male character who recognizes women to be the equals of men.