Helen of Troy and a thousand-year-old lie

2026-03-01 21:51:00, Blog CNA

We all know the story. Helen of Troy, the face that launched a thousand ships. The most beautiful woman of the ancient world. The woman who was kidnapped. Or the woman who left willingly. Depending on which version you choose to believe.

In one story, the goddess Aphrodite promises Helen to Paris, the prince of Troy. There's just one small problem: she's married to Menelaus, the king of Sparta. Paris takes her away and... war breaks out. Ten years of blood, heroism, betrayal, burning cities.

In another version, less well-known but equally powerful, Helena is not a victim. She chooses herself. She falls in love and leaves with full will. A woman who abandons her marriage for a passion. But there is still a struggle...

Two versions. Two opposing moralities. But one conclusion: Helena is to blame.

If she is kidnapped, it is the cause of the war. If she chooses herself, it is the cause of the war. If she is a victim, it is the cause. If she is free, it is the cause.

It's a paradox that repeats itself with almost frightening precision: whatever she does, the narrative finds a way to turn her into the epicenter of disaster.

But let's stop for a moment and strip the myth from the poetry.

Helen of Troy and the war that mobilized kings

Was it really Helen who mobilized the kings of Greece? Was it she who raised the armies, who filled the ships with soldiers, who fed the wounded pride of men? Or did the war need a justification?

In the ancient world, a king's honor was a matter of power. Alliances between Greek kings were fragile and based on mutual oaths. When Helen married Menelaus, the other princes swore to protect her marriage. Not out of love, but out of political balance.

When she leaves, the romantic narrative is overshadowed by a colder reality: the men had a reason to fight. A perfect pretext to assert strength, to gain glory, to expand influence.

Helena became the story that made war visible and acceptable. Because it is easier to say “a beautiful woman started it all” than to admit that wars are born of ambition, ego, and the thirst for power. It is easier to personify a catastrophe in a face than to explain it in terms of structures, interests, and rivalries.

The myth is not just an old story. It is a model of thought. Helen becomes a symbol of temptation, of disorder, of the destruction that comes when the masculine order is shaken. She is a silent warning: a woman's choice can turn the world upside down.

But perhaps the truth is more naked. Wars do not start from love. They start from pride. They do not start from beauty, but they start from power.

Helen of Troy did not command an army

Helen may have been abducted. She may have been in love. She may have been simply a figure used by poets to make the story more dramatic. But one thing is clear: she did not command armies, she did not declare battles, she did not build the wooden horse.

Yet, for thousands of years, we continue to repeat the formula: "the Trojan War started because of Helen."

Maybe because it's a beautiful sentence. Or maybe because it makes us feel more comfortable. Because if Helena is to blame, then the men who burned the city are simply reacting. That's what myths do. /Bota.al