History of Paris and Helen of Troy

The Greek mythology it is full of incredible stories, be they war, tragic or even romantic. Of all these stories there are some that stand out, and this may happen for very different reasons, but mainly because they are more or less adapted to audiovisual media. One of the most represented stories It is that of Paris and Helena, a tragic myth that has become one of the most famous and recognized, but do we really know this story? To be sure that we know this story correctly, in this lesson from a TEACHER we are going to offer you a summary of the history of Paris and Helen of Troy.

Index

1. Who was Paris before the Trojan War
2. Who was Helen of Troy, before the Trojan War
3. The abduction of Helena
4. Paris and Helen during the Trojan War

Paris was a Trojan prince son of the kings Priam and Hecuba and Héctor's brother. Paris's childhood was not easy, since before his mother was born she had a dream, in which she saw that she would have a son that would end the city of Troy. Priam and Hecuba, advised by Ésaco, who was capable of interpreting prophetic dreams, decided to abandon his son when he was born, being the name of his descendant Paris.

Paris's parents weren't able to abandon him by themselves, so they asked one of his slaves, named Agelaus, to do it for them. The slave went to Mount Ida, a very important area in Greek mythology, but once there he was not able to abandon the newborn. Agelao took pity on Paris and decided to keep him and raise him as his own son.

Young Paris he grew up as a simple shepherd, but his whole life was related to the Greek deities. An example was his first love, being a nymph named Enone, daughter of gods, who predicted that when Paris was about to die she would be the only one capable of saving his life.

It did not take long for Paris to meet the figures of the Greek mythology, since in one of his walks as a pastor he was approached by three goddesses, Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena. The three goddesses asked Paris to choose who she thought was the most beautiful of the three, and each of the deities offered her something in exchange for being chosen by the young Trojan. Paris named Aphrodite as the most beautiful, since she had promised him the love of the most beautiful woman in the world, Helena.

Helena was the daughter of kings, so a simple shepherd could not ask for her hand, although Paris did not stay as shepherd for much longer. Paris's father held games every year in memory of the son he considered dead. Paris participated in one of these games, winning them against her brothers, who, thinking that they had been humiliated by a shepherd, they decided to kill him, but were arrested by his sister, Cassandra, a fortune teller who he proved that Paris was the true son of Priam.

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The origin of Helena of Troy is very interesting, since she was born from an egg laid by Leda, the wife of the King of Tindáreo Sparta. All of this was because Leda had lain with a swan, which was really Zeus in one of her transformations. For all this, Helena was the daughter of Zeus, possessing characteristics such as immortality, but she was raised as a daughter of the kings of Sparta.

From her childhood, Helena was famous throughout Greece for her great beautyher, which made all the kings and princes in the areas around her want to marry her. All of this caused great trouble for his father, as he feared retaliation if he chose one suitor over others. Tindáreo decided to make all the suitors swear that they would abide by the king's decision, not to would seek revenge, and that if at some point Helena were kidnapped they would fight alongside get it back.

After the oaths, Tindáreo chose as Helena's husband Menelaus, brother of the king of Mycenae.

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To continue with this summary of the history of Paris and Helen of Troy, we must talk about how they met, what their life was like together and their tragic outcome.

Paris, already as prince of Troy, went to Sparta due to a trip to Greece that was commissioned by his father. In the Spartan city he was received by Helena and Menelaus, who had just become king of Sparta.

Seeing Helena, Paris remembered the promise that the goddess Aphrodite had made to her, in which he had promised her the love of the most beautiful woman in the world. Aphrodite fulfilled his promise and through her powers made Helena fall in love with Paris, so Helena agreed to leave her husband and go to Troy with Paris. The couple took advantage of the fact that Menelaus was no longer in Sparta, since he had left for Crete, to flee from Sparta. This event is often known as abduction of Helena, although other sources speak of Helena's seduction, since once she was in love, Helena left without resisting or being kidnapped.

Upon arrival in Troy, the citizens did not agree with the abduction, since they considered that it would only bring misfortune, seeing it as a great offense to Menelaus. Still the Trojan royal family decided that Helena could stay with Paris in the city, even though they knew this would only bring trouble.

On the other hand, Menelaus gathered a huge fleet, formed by the troops of all those men who had promised to defend Helen if they kidnapped her, and marched towards Troy, beginning the Trojan War.

The role of Helena and Paris was very different during the trojan war. The first was kept in the palace, where she wove large tapestries that represented the war and little by little the powers of Aphrodite were ceasing to function in her. On the other hand, Paris proved to be a great warrior, especially through the use of bow, being able to kill the great Achilles.

The end of Paris came long before Helena's, he was killed by an arrow from Philoctetes. According to the myths, the servants of Paris looked for Enone, his first love, since she was the only one capable of saving him, but she decided not to go as she felt betrayed because Paris had preferred to marry Helena instead of her, and that is why Paris passed away.

The war was won by the Spartans and Helena reconciled with Menelaus, thus ending the story of Paris and Helena.

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