Profile

DISCLAIMER: Muse and mun are both over the age of 18. This is just for funsies.

Name: Helen of Troy (Yeah, that one.)

Fandom: Greek mythology, but I've gathered a smattering of sources for her background/personality, most notably Margaret George's excellent novel Helen of Troy, Eric Shanower's comic Age of Bronze, and of course, the Iliad.

Media: uh, oral and written tradition? Or I guess epic poem works, too.

Played by: Louisa. I can give you more contact info upon request!

Physical description: While a lot of art has focused on portraying Helen as blonde-haired and blue-eyed, I like Eric Shanower's depiction of her with dark hair and eyes and you know, actually looking like she's from ancient Greece. So yes. She's dark-haired and has brown eyes and lightish-to-olive skin. Helen is of average height. Oh! And she's also breathakingly beautiful, to the point of it almost being frightening (she is, after all, supposedly the daughter of Zeus). So there's that.

Personality: Helen has always been aware of her beauty, to the point where it's almost become a crutch for her, and even a source of shame. Men have looked upon her so much that she often feels objectified, and thus has some self-esteem issues (in the end, she blames herself for the Trojan War). At the same time, she can be very proud--it's her way of protecting herself. She is kind and resourceful, and is a survivor in many senses of the word.

Short biography:

Supposedly born of Zeus (diguised as a swan, wtf) and the mortal woman Leda, Helen grew up in the Bronze Age-era city-state of Sparta. She was married to Menelaus, the son of Atreus (and brother of Agamemnon!) at the tender age of fifteen. They lived relatively contently for a few years, though perhaps the relationship between Helen and Menelaus was one-sided (Helen herself is uncertain of this!). Nevertheless, she did bear him a daughter, Hermione.

However, trouble arose when an envoy from Troy, consisting of Princes Paris and Aeneas, came in order to negotiate the return of Priam's (the king of Troy) sister, Hesione, from the Greeks (Hesione had been kidnapped some years earlier). Paris, who was promised Helen by the goddess Aphrodite (you know, goddess of love, blah blah blah), seduced Helen (or perhaps she fell in love with him first--there are differing stories) and they ran off together to Troy while Menelaus was away.

Helen arrived in Troy after some traveling around the Aegean (because who wouldn't want to see Egypt, come on). She and Paris were wed, apparently annulling her former marriage to Menelaus--for the time being. Things were happy for them (and the rest of Troy, Priam included, who apparently loved foreign women and therefore thought Helen was a delight) until the Greeks arrived, bringing war and devastation to the city.

I've taken Helen from the end of the war, just as Menelaus has claimed her for his wife again (and is also somehow about to kill her? Man, those ancient Greek men, I swear).