Editing Helen of Troy (section)

=== In Troy ===
When he discovered that his wife was missing, Menelaus called upon all the other suitors to fulfill their oaths, thus beginning the Trojan War.

The Greek fleet gathered in [[Avlida|Aulis]], but the ships could not sail for lack of wind. [[Artemis]] was enraged by a sacrilege, and only the sacrifice of Agamemnon's daughter, [[Iphigenia]], could appease her. In Euripides ''[[Iphigenia in Aulis]]'', Clytemnestra, Iphigenia's mother and Helen's sister, begs her husband to reconsider his decision, calling Helen a "wicked woman". Clytemnestra tries to warn Agamemnon that sacrificing Iphigenia for Helen's sake is, "''buying what we most detest with what we hold most dear''".<ref>{{cite book |author=Euripides |title=Iphigenia in Aulis |at= 1166–1170 |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0108%3Acard%3D1146}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Hughes |title=Helen of Troy |pages=195–196}}</ref>

<gallery mode="packed" heights="300px">
File:Leighton Helen of Troy.jpg|''Helen on the Ramparts of Troy'' was a popular theme in late 19th-century art – seen here a depiction by [[Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton|Frederick Leighton]].
File:Helen Moreau.jpg|In a similar fashion to Leighton, [[Gustave Moreau]] depicts an expressionless Helen; a blank or anguished face.
File:Often she would stand upon the walls of Troy.jpg|[[Lithograph]]ic illustration by Walter Crane
File:Hélène.jpg|Paul Dujardin after Gustave Moreau, ''Hélène'', photogravure, 1880
</gallery>

Before the opening of hostilities, the Greeks dispatched a delegation to the Trojans under Odysseus and Menelaus; they endeavored without success to persuade [[Priam]] to hand Helen back. A popular theme, ''The Request of Helen'' (Helenes Apaitesis, Ἑλένης Ἀπαίτησις), was the subject of a drama by [[Sophocles]], now lost.<ref group=lower-alpha>Ancient writers do not agree on whether the embassy was dispatched before the gathering of the Greek army in Aulis or after it reached Tenedos or Troia. In Herodotus' account the Trojans swore to the Greek envoys that Helen was in Egypt, not in Troy; but the Greeks did not believe them, and laid siege to the city, until they took it.<br />{{cite book |title=Cypria |at=fr. 1}}<br />{{cite book |author=Herodotus |title=Histories |at=II, 118: 2–4 |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D2%3Achapter%3D118%3Asection%3D2}}<br />{{cite book |author=Homer |title=Iliad |at=III, 205 |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134%3Abook%3D3%3Acard%3D191}}<br />{{cite book |author=Pseudo-Appolodorus |title=Epitome |at=28–29 |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022%3Atext%3DEpitome%3Abook%3DE%3Achapter%3D3%3Asection%3D28}}</ref><ref>About Euripides' lost drama, see {{cite book |author=Hughes |title=Helen of Troy |page=191}}</ref>

Homer paints a poignant, lonely picture of Helen in Troy. She is filled with self-loathing and regret for what she has caused; by the end of the war, the Trojans have come to hate her. When [[Hector]] dies, she is the third mourner at his funeral, and she says that, of all the Trojans, Hector and [[Priam]] alone were always kind to her:<ref name="Hughes 219">{{cite book |author=Hughes |title=Helen of Troy |page=219}}</ref><ref name="Redfold 122">{{cite book |author=Redfold |title=The Tragedy of Hector |page=122}}</ref>
{{blockquote|<poem>
Wherefore I wail alike for thee and for my hapless self with grief at heart;
for no longer have I anyone beside in broad Troy that is gentle to me or kind;
but all men shudder at me.<ref>{{cite book |author=Homer |title=Iliad |at=XXIV, 773–775 |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134%3Abook%3D24%3Acard%3D746}}</ref></poem>}}

These bitter words reveal that Helen gradually realized Paris' weaknesses, and decided to ally herself with Hector. There is an affectionate relationship between the two, and Helen has harsh words for Paris when she compares the two brothers:<ref name="Redfold 122" /><ref>{{cite book |author=Suzuki |title=Metamorphoses of Helen |page=36}}</ref>{{blockquote|<poem>
Howbeit, seeing the gods thus ordained these ills,
would that I had been wife to a better man,
that could feel the indignation of his fellows and their many revilings. [...]
But come now, enter in, and sit thee upon this chair, my brother,
since above all others has trouble encompassed thy heart
because of shameless me, and the folly of Alexander.<ref>{{cite book |author=Homer |title=Iliad |at=VI, 349–351, 354–356 |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134%3Abook%3D24%3Acard%3D746}}</ref><ref name="Hughes 219"/></poem>|sign=|source=}}

After Paris was killed in combat, there was some dispute among the Trojans about which of Priam's surviving sons she should remarry: [[Helenus]] or [[Deiphobus]], but she was given to the latter.