Thus she, at least,
does not, like Homer, in his chivalrous way, throw all the blame on the
Immortals and on destiny. The cheerful acquiescence of Helen in destiny
makes part of the comic element in _La Belle Helene_, but the mirth only
arises out of the incongruity between Parisian ideas and those of ancient
Greece.
Helen is freely and bitterly blamed in the "Odyssey" by Penelope, chiefly
because of the ruinous consequences which followed her flight. Still,
there is one passage, when Penelope prudently hesitates about recognising
her returned lord, which makes it just possible that a legend chronicled
by Eustathius was known to Homer,--namely, the tale already mentioned,
that Paris beguiled her in the shape of Menelaus. The incident is very
old, as in the story of Zeus and Amphitryon, and might be used whenever a
lady's character needed to be saved. But this anecdote, on the whole, is
inconsistent with the repentance of Helen, and is not in Homer's manner.
The early lyric poet, Stesichorus, is said to have written harshly
against Helen. She punished him by blindness, and he indited a palinode,
explaining that it was not she who went to Troy, but a woman fashioned in
her likeness, by Zeus, out of mist and light. The real Helen remained
safely and with honour in Egypt. Euripides has made this idea, which was
calculated to please him, the groundwork of his "Helena," but it never
had a strong hold on the Greek imagination.
Pages:
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236