Members: Clarenz Labares Hannah Clarisa Katja Raz Jane Manto Venus Maningding Norris Barroga Althea Galzote Urica Resurreccion Deniza Capili Course and Section: AAPD1C

1. Life of
Helen
AAPD 1c
Ms. Arlene Opina

2. Helen, the face that launched a thousand
ships, was a tantalizing enigma from the
very first. She was flesh and blood
certainly, but she was also immortal, since
her father was none other than Zeus. Her
mother was the beautiful Leda, queen of
Sparta.

3. Stories claiming Leda as Helen's mother tell how Zeus
disguised himself as a swan and raped the Spartan queen.
Leda then produced two eggs. From one came Helen and
her brother Pollux. Clytemnestra and Castor emerged from
the other. Other versions of the myth say that Zeus seduced
Nemesis, and she laid the two eggs. A shepherd discovered
them and gave them to Queen Leda, who tended the eggs
until they hatched and raised the children as her own. In some
variations of this legend, Helen and Pollux were the children
of Zeus, but Clytemnestra and Castor were actually the
children of Tyndareus.

4. When she was about ten, she was seen by Theseus and
Piritous, who both fell in love with her. They cast lots and
Theseus won, so he kidnapped her and took her to
Aphidnae, where he entrusted her to his mother, Aethra.
Helen of Troy's brothers, the Dioscuri, went after her,
while Theseus and Piritous were gone to kidnap
Persephone. Someone told them where Helen was
hidden, and they took her back, together with Aethra
(Theseus' mother), who became Helen of Troy's slave
until the end of the war of Troy.

5. When Helen came back home, Tyndareus,
her father, decided it was time to marry her.
As word about her beauty had spread all
over Hellas, all the kings, princes and heroes
of Greece came and tried to win her hand.
Her father was afraid that her choosing one
of them over the others might lead to war.

6. Among those seeking to marry Helen was
Odysseus, the king of Ithaca. Odysseus advised
Tyndareus to have all the suitors take an oath to
accept Helen's choice and promise to support
that person whenever the need should arise. The
suitors agreed, and Helen chose Menelaus, a
prince of Mycenae, to be her husband. Helen's
sister Clytemnestra was already married to
Menelaus's older brother, Agamemnon.

7. The Immortals were not actually fighting on the battlefield but they
were engaged in constant meddling. When Menelaus was obviously
going to win the fight with Paris, Aphrodite swooped down and
carried Paris away ... she carried him to Helen's bedchamber.
Aphrodite found Helen on a high tower of Troy where she was
watching the fight with the other Trojan women. Assuming a
disguise, Aphrodite told Helen to leave the tower and go to Paris.
Helen recognized Aphrodite's divinity and asked why she was trying
to beguile her. Aphrodite was not accustomed to being questioned
or disobeyed by a mortal ... she threatened Helen with her divine
hatred if her commands were not obeyed at once. Helen went to
Paris and confessed that she wished that she had been killed at birth
because so much misery and suffering had been endured for her
sake.

8. The last bitter days of the Trojan War saw the deaths of
the Trojan prince Hector and the greatest warrior of all time,
Achilles.The Greeks however had a brilliant idea. They
built a giant Wooden Horse and concealed their best
fighters inside. They then took their fleet to a nearby island
where they could not be seen by the Trojans. The trick
worked ... the Trojans thought the Greeks had finally given
up and returned to their homes and that the Wooden Horse
was a peace offering in the form of a tribute to the lord of the
Sea, Poseidon. Over the objections of the seer Laokoon
(Laocoon), the Wooden Horse was brought inside the city.

9. Helen was suspicious of the horse and the
intentions of the Greeks. Once the Wooden
Horse was inside the city walls, she walked around it
and imitating the voices of different men's wives,
called out to see if any of the men she suspected to
be hiding in the horse would answer. All the men
hiding inside the horse remained silent. The Trojans
began their victory celebration and when all their
energies had been spent, relaxed into a wineinduced slumber.

10. The Greeks emerged from the Wooden Horse and the
slaughter began. Troy was a large city and its toppling was
not as organized as we might think. In the confusion, a man
named Deiphobos (Deiphobus) found Helen and hastily
married her. When Menelaos found out about the
marriage, he killed Deiphobos and was reunited with the
semi-divine Helen.When the walls of Troy were finally
toppled and King Priam and his family were either dead or
enslaved, the invaders collected their treasures and slaves
and sailed for home.

11. After the fall of Troy:* Menelaus took
Helen back to Lacedaemon, where they
lived an apparently happy married life
once more* After the end of their mortal
existence, they continued to be together
in Elysium.

12. According to the Rhodians: *when Menelaus was dead, and
Orestes still a wanderer, Helen was driven out by
Nicostratus and Megapenthes and came to Rhodes, where she
had a friend in Polyxo, the wife of Tlepolemus.* For Polyxo, they
say, was an Argive by descent, and when she was already married
to Tlepolemus, shared his flight to Rhodes.* At the time she was
queen of the island, having been left with an orphan boy. They say
that this Polyxo desired to avenge the death of Tlepolemus on
Helen, now that she had her in her power. So she sent against her
when she was bathing handmaidens dressed up as Furies, who
seized Helen and hanged her on a tree, and for this reason the
Rhodians have a sanctuary of Helen of the Tree."

13. Members:
Clarenz Labares
Hannah Clarisa
Katja Raz
Jane Manto
Venus Maningding
Norris Barroga
Althea Galzote
Urica Resurreccion
Deniza Capili