Helen is Penelope's cousin, Menelaus's wife, and Paris's lover. She is considered to be the most attractive woman in the Greek world and she uses her divine beauty to her advantage. Penelope characterizes Helen as vain, cruel, and flirtatious. Penelope feels that she is living in Helen's shadow and often compares herself to her. She worries that Odysseus prefers Helen to her. In Penelope’s narrative, Helen runs away from Menelaus with Paris, a Trojan prince, inciting the Trojan War and causing Odysseus to leave Ithaca. In the afterlife, Helen continues to seek male attention. She often goes to séances and decides to be reincarnated in the world of the living.
Helen Quotes in The Penelopiad
The The Penelopiad quotes below are all either spoken by Helen or refer to Helen. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 9
Quotes
She’d been in the household ever since Odysseus’s father had bought her, and so highly had he valued her that he hadn’t even slept with her. ‘Imagine that, for a slave-woman!’ she clucked to me, delighted with herself. ‘And I was very good-looking in those days!’
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Explanation and Analysis:
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Helen Quotes in The Penelopiad
The The Penelopiad quotes below are all either spoken by Helen or refer to Helen. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 9
Quotes
She’d been in the household ever since Odysseus’s father had bought her, and so highly had he valued her that he hadn’t even slept with her. ‘Imagine that, for a slave-woman!’ she clucked to me, delighted with herself. ‘And I was very good-looking in those days!’
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
