Helen

Family: Greek · Role: daughter of Zeus · First appears: The Catalogues of Women and Eoiae · Fragments 61–80

The accounts give differing parentage for Helen: the Catalogues of Women and Eoiae calls her a daughter of Ocean and Zeus, while the Cypria says Nemesis gave birth to her after Zeus joined with her by force.

In the Catalogues, many sought Helen as a wife: Philoctetes, Odysseus, Podarces, Protesilaus, Menestheus, Lycomedes, Aias of Salamis, Elephenor, Idomeneus, and Menelaus. Tyndareus required the suitors to swear an oath concerning her marriage, and Menelaus prevailed by giving the greatest gifts. Helen later bore him Hermione and Nicostratus, and the account also says she dishonoured his marriage bed.

In the Cypria, at Mount Ida, Alexandrus chose Aphrodite after being lured by the promise of marriage with Helen. At Sparta, Helen and Alexandrus united, took treasures aboard, and sailed away by night; at Troy, he celebrated their marriage. The account says Helen took Pleisthenes son of Helen with her to Cyprus and bore Alexandrus’s child Aganus. In the Little Iliad, Deiphobus later marries Helen.