They Burned a City for Her — But Did She Even Want to Go?

Three goddesses started a beauty contest on a mountain. Helen was not in the room. One of them offered her as the reward, and burned a city for it. CHAPTERS 0:00 The Thousand Ships She Never Asked For 0:35 Helen, Queen of Sparta 1:00 Three Goddesses, One Golden Apple 1:35 Aphrodite's Offer to Paris 2:05 The Bargain That Traded Her Life 2:35 Iliad Book 3 - Helen vs Aphrodite 3:15 Ten Years of War in Her Name 4:00 Menelaus's Sword - Her Only Defence 4:30 The Wife Who Came Back 5:00 The Poet Blinded for Blaming Her 5:30 Was She the Villain? ANCIENT SOURCES - separated by tradition, because even the Greeks disagreed GREEK: Homer, Iliad Book 3 (8th c. BC) - Helen argues with Aphrodite and is threatened into compliance Homer, Odyssey Book 4 - Helen years later in Sparta, drugging the wine to dull the men's memory of Troy Stesichorus, Palinode (6th c. BC) - the poet blinded for blaming her, who wrote a retraction and got his sight back Euripides, Helen (412 BC) - the play in which she never went to Troy at all, and a phantom fought the war Apollodorus, Epitome 3.1-3 - the Judgement of Paris ROMAN: Ovid, Heroides 16-17 (1st c. BC, Latin) - the invented letters between Paris and Helen The ancient world doubted her guilt for two and a half thousand years. We just stopped listening. THE ZEUS ARC - the biggest story on this channel Part 1 - The War: https://youtu.be/3RltXvfXj6c Part 2 - The Monster That Almost Ended Him: https://youtu.be/0Vnat6UowDY Part 3 - The Gods He Buried Alive: https://youtu.be/Sy_tGnXfMfo Part 4 - The God Who Ate His Own Wife: https://youtu.be/NhMVhsy63rA GODS WERE THE VILLAINS Medusa - The Untold Crime That Created Her: https://youtu.be/B3iPGQxcvzE Perseus - The Boy Who Killed Medusa: https://youtu.be/IbaS7CKGOvc Cassandra - The Most Chilling Curse in Greek History: https://youtu.be/d0X5m4nDu9k Hercules - She Spent Thirty Years Destroying Him: https://youtu.be/GiAPPU9qtHs Hades and Persephone - Love or Kidnapping: https://youtu.be/AAu4P2wSSAA Pandora's Box - The Version They Want You to Forget: https://youtu.be/VFLHu54lx0s Orpheus and Eurydice - Did She Want to Come Back: https://youtu.be/u9FdyIVDfII Icarus - The Boy Who Didn't Fall: https://youtu.be/oBipel2OJ94 All ten stories in one: https://youtu.be/pH1eVAFr5YA Was Helen the villain, or the hostage everyone agreed to forget about? Tell me below. Subscribe for more Greek mythology. Business: [email protected] #HelenOfTroy #TrojanWar #GreekMythology #Aphrodite #JudgementOfParis #Iliad #Homer #AncientGreece #MortalMyths #GreekGods