Helena ΑΕΘΛΟΝ Print

This sculpture is based on the character Helen, the daughter of Zeus, and the contested wife of Menelaus and Paris/Alexandros in the Iliad. Homer describes Helen as desirable and regarded as blameless by others, but she speaks of herself as responsible for the Trojan War. In the Iliad, possession of Helen (and all her property) provides the motive for the war. Participation in the fight for her translates into poetic immortality, while Menelaus (having regained his status as son-in-law of Zeus) learns in the Odyssey that he will achieve immortality through transportation to the Elysian Fields at the end of his life. ΑΕΘΛΟΝ (aethlon) serves here as an epithet of Helen and refers to a prize awarded to a victor in a contest