Helen

More Strange Births

"You were fated, fated to have a life full of pain, when Zeus begot you on your mother, shining through the air on the wings of a snow-white swan." Many strange births occur in Greek mythology. Read more

Rhodes: the Isle of Helios

"The ancient stories of men tell that when Zeus and the immortals were dividing the earth among them, Rhodes was not yet visible in the expanse of the sea, but the island was hidden in the salty depths. Helios was absent, and no one marked out a share for him; in fact they left him without any allotment of land, although he was a holy god." In this post, I… Read more

Book Club | August 2019: Apollodorus Library, 3.8–3.16

"When Thetis had got a babe by Peleus, she wished to make it immortal, and unknown to Peleus she used to hide it in the fire by night in order to destroy the mortal element which the child inherited from its father, but by day she anointed him with ambrosia. But Peleus watched her, and, seeing the child writhing on the fire, he cried out; and Thetis, thus prevented from… Read more

Book Club | October 2016: Euripides’ Helen

Our next Book Club selection takes us to the world of ancient Greek drama, and that most famous and beautiful of women, Helen. There is a new "heroized" version of the play in the Text Library, which tracks the Core Vocab words that we are familiar with from the HeroesX project and the Sourcebook. We also provide links to other free online translations. We will discuss in the forum and… Read more