Editing Helen of Troy (section)

== Artistic representations ==
[[File:Zeuxis et les filles de Crotone.jpg|thumb|''Zeuxis et les Filles de Crotone'' ([[François-André Vincent]], 1789, Paris, Louvre). The scene tells the story of the painter Zeuxis who was commissioned to produce a picture of Helen for the temple of Hera at [[Agrigentum]], [[Sicily]]. To realize his task, Zeuxis chose the five most beautiful maidens in the region.<ref>Pliny, ''National History'', 35.[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/35*.html 64–66]. Cicero (''De Inventione'', 2.[http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/cicero/inventione2.shtml 1–3]) sets the story in [[Crotone|Croton]].</ref>]]
[[File:Fresco depicting the meeting of Helen and Alexandros (Paris), Black Room, Pompeii.jpg|thumb|Helen (first from left) and Paris (right), ancient painting from the Black Room in [[Pompeii]]. Helen is depicted here with red hair.]]
From Antiquity, depicting Helen would be a remarkable challenge. The story of [[Zeuxis (painter)|Zeuxis]] deals with this exact question: how would an artist immortalize ideal beauty?<ref>Mansfield, ''Too Beautiful to Picture'', 29</ref> He eventually selected the best features from five virgins. The ancient world starts to paint Helen's picture or inscribe her form on stone, clay and bronze by the 7th century BC.<ref>Hughes, ''Helen of Troy'' 1–2</ref> Homer attributes her with white skin,<ref>Homer. ''Iliad.'' 3.146 (3.121 in Loeb Classical Library).</ref> while [[Sappho]] describes her as "''xanthe''",<ref>Sappho. Fragment 23.</ref> which is translated as "golden" and is used towards individuals with light hair, which includes blond, red and brown hair,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Liddell |first1=Henry George |last2=Scott |first2=Robert |year=1940 |title=A Greek-English Lexicon |editor-last1=Jones |editor-first1=Henry Stuart |editor-last2=McKenzie |editor-first2=Roderick |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=canqo/s |chapter=ξανθός}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hughes |first=Bettany |title=Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore |publisher=Pimlico |year=2006 |isbn=9781446419144 |pages=127, 190 note 10}}</ref> and [[Euripides]] says she had "gold [''xanthes''] curls".<ref>Euripides. ''Helen'' 1224.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hughes |first=Bettany |title=Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore |publisher=Pimlico |year=2006 |isbn=9781446419144 |page=190 note 10}}</ref> Her eyes are said to be "dark"<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ormand |first1=Kirk |title=The Hesiodic Catalogue of Women and Archaic Greece |date=2014 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781139547352 |pages=181-216}}</ref> according to [[Hesiod]] and "dark-blue"<ref>Quintus Smyrnaeus. ''The Fall of Troy'' 14.39-70. Translation A.S. Way.</ref> according to [[Quintus of Smyrna]]. A later Latin account, probably from the fifth century&nbsp;CE, [[Pseudepigrapha|falsely attributed]] to [[Dares Phrygius]], describes Helen as "She was beautiful, ingenuous, and charming. Her legs were the best; her mouth the cutest. There was a beauty-mark between her eyebrows"; she was said to resemble her brothers Castor and Pollux, who according to the account were "blond haired, large eyed, fair complexioned".<ref>Dares of Phrygia. ''History of the Fall of Troy 12.'' A short prose work which purports to be a first hand account of the Trojan War by Dares, a Trojan priest of Hephaestus in the ''Iliad''.</ref> Bettany Hughes notes that Helen and other Homeric heroes tend to be described and depicted by ancient Greeks as being ''xanthos'' ("golden-haired"), and she argues that such look was linked with the connections of ancient heroes and heroines to the gods, as light-haired individuals were less common in ancient Mediterranean than dark-haired ones.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hughes |first=Bettany |title=Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore |publisher=Pimlico |year=2006 |isbn=9781446419144 |pages=127-128}}</ref>

Helen is frequently depicted on Athenian vases as being threatened by Menelaus and fleeing from him. This is not the case, however, in Laconic art: on an [[Archaic Greece|Archaic]] [[stele]] depicting Helen's recovery after the fall of Troy, Menelaus is armed with a sword but Helen faces him boldly, looking directly into his eyes; and in other works of Peloponnesian art, Helen is shown carrying a wreath, while Menelaus holds his sword aloft vertically. In contrast, on Athenian vases of c. 550–470, Menelaus threateningly points his sword at her.<ref>Pomeroy, ''Spartan Women'', 169</ref>
[[File:Casa dell'Efebo 0058 (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|Antique fresco depicting Helen and Menelaus, from the Casa dell'Efebo, [[Pompeii]]]]

The abduction by Paris was another popular motif in [[Pottery of ancient Greece|ancient Greek vase-painting]]; definitely more popular than the kidnapping by Theseus. In a famous representation by the Athenian vase painter [[Makron (vase painter)|Makron]], Helen follows Paris like a bride following a bridegroom, her wrist grasped by Paris' hand.<ref>Anderson, ''The Fall of Troy'', 257; Matheson, ''Polygnotos and Vase Painting'', 225</ref> The [[Etruscan civilization|Etruscans]], who had a sophisticated knowledge of Greek mythology, demonstrated a particular interest in the theme of the delivery of Helen's egg, which is depicted in relief mirrors.<ref>Caprino, ''Etruscan Italy'', 66–71</ref>

In [[Renaissance]] painting, Helen's departure from Sparta is usually depicted as a scene of forcible removal (rape) by Paris. This is not, however, the case with certain secular medieval illustrations. Artists of the 1460s and 1470s were influenced by [[Guido delle Colonne]]'s ''[[Historia destructionis Troiae]]'', where Helen's abduction was portrayed as a scene of seduction. In the ''Florentine Picture Chronicle'' Paris and Helen are shown departing arm in arm, while their marriage was depicted into Franco-Flemish tapestry.<ref>David, ''Narrative in Context'', 136; Hughes, ''Helen of Troy'', 181–182</ref>

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In [[Christopher Marlowe]]'s ''[[Doctor Faustus (play)|Doctor Faustus]]'' (1604), [[Faust]] [[Evocation|conjures]] the [[Shade (mythology)|shade]] of Helen.  Upon seeing Helen, Faustus speaks the famous line: "Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships, / And burnt the topless towers of Ilium."  (Act V, Scene I.)  Helen is also conjured by Faust in [[Goethe's Faust|Goethe's ''Faust'']].

In [[William Shakespeare]]'s play [[Troilus and Cressida]], Helen is a minor character who adores Troilus.

In [[Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood|Pre-Raphaelite]] art, Helen is often shown with shining curly hair and ringlets. Other painters of the same period depict Helen on the ramparts of Troy, and focus on her expression: her face is expressionless, blank, inscrutable.<ref>Maguire, ''Helen of Troy'', 39–43, 47</ref> In [[Gustave Moreau]]'s painting, Helen will finally become faceless; a blank ''eidolon'' in the middle of Troy's ruins.