Euripides' Helen is based on Herodotus' account, where Helen was in Egypt while the gods sent a phantom to Troy in her stead.
On paper, it sounds like an absurd attempt to "fix" Helen's character, but Euripides uses the premise to tell a surprisingly moving story.
Helen's innocence doesn't allow her to escape the war's consequences. As far as the world is concerned, she's still the woman who abandoned her husband, ran away with Paris, and brought doom to Troy.
"The ruins of Troy
now belongs to the enemy's fire
and I am the killer of many,
my name is the cause of the pain,
and Leda is dead,
she hung from a noose,
in despair at my shame.
And my husband has wandered all over the sea,
and is finally dead and gone,
and the light of my homeland, my brothers the twins,
Castor and Pollux,
are not to be seen, they have vanished..."
- Line 195-216
But Euripides doesn't simply declare her innocent and move on. She mourns everyone who suffered because of her reputation: the Greeks who died trying to rescue her, her family, and even the Trojans whose city was destroyed in her name.
At the same time, however, Helen is anything but a passive damsel in distress waiting to be rescued. After spending seventeen years in Egypt, she's the one who understands the political situation, has information of the king, the royal family, the customs, and uses it to devise a plan involving Menelaus' supposed death and funeral at sea.
While Menelaus carries out the plan, it's Helen who secured their very escape.
And speaking of Menelaus, his marriage with Helen stands strong throughout the play.
Despite the initial suspicion, their reunion easily became one of my favorite moments in Greek tragedy. Rather than seeing Helen as something to reclaim, he sees her as an equal:
We two are a team: if one is sad, so is the other.
- Line 647
It's a simple line, but it says everything about their marriage. Her joy is his joy, and her pain is his pain.
When he refuses to leave Egypt without her and says he sacked Troy for her, it can be read as "you owe me," but that's not the case here.
After enduring ten years of war, seven years of wandering, being shipwrecked, and learning that the army lost so much for a cloud, he chooses her all over again.
Despite it all, his wife is still worth fighting for.
Just as importantly, his pride never gets in the way. When Helen proposes the escape plan, he follows her lead without objection, acknowledging that she understands the situation far better than he does and willingly placing his life in her hands.
In the end, Helen took me completely by surprise.
Beneath its bizarre premise is a story of grief, reputation, and the consequences of war.
But what stayed the most with me was Euripides giving us an older couple who has ever reason to be bitter, yet instead chooses to hold hands, remember, accept, and move forward together.
And for once, there's a truly well-deserved happy ending.
