Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore Hardcover - 2005

From the publisher

An illuminating, erudite, lively search for the real Helen of Troyua chronicle that combines historical inquiry and storytelling ela -from one of BritainAEs most widely acclaimed and popular historians.

As soon as men began to write, they made Helen of Troy their subject; for close to three thousand years she has been both the embodiment of absolute female beauty and a reminder of the terrible power that beauty can wield. Because of her double marriage to the Greek king Menelaus and the Trojan prince Paris, Helen was held responsible for an enduring enmity between East and West. For millennia she has been viewed as an exquisite agent of extermination. But who was she?

Focusing on the orealo Hele -a flesh-and-blood aristocrat from the Greek Bronze Ag -Bettany Hughes reconstructs the context of life for this pre-historic princess. Through the eyes of a young Mycenaean woman, Hughes examines the physical, historical, and cultural traces that Helen has left on locations in Greece, North Africa, and Asia Minor. Vivid and compelling, this remarkable book brilliantly unpacks the facts and myths surrounding one of the most enigmatic and notorious figures of all time.