Mouseion: Journal of the Classical Association of Canada

This book accomplishes precisely what it sets out to do: it is an enjoyable and instructive read for the general public and a fine starting point for undergraduates.

The format reflects the intended audience. The book is very solidly grounded in the ancient sources; however, the bulk of these foundations are concealed from those who are not already familiar with the material. There are a handful of footnotes designed to give basic background to the Greekless reader. The “bibliographical notes” suggesting further reading on particular subjects are an excellent resource, though their concision means that the reader must often turn first to the notes and then to the scholarship noted there to discover basic information such as the title of an ancient source. The book provides a lucid synthesis of, rather than an original contribution to, the immense body of scholarship on Helen. Two 2010 articles by the author¹ cover much the same material as chapters three and five respectively, and comparison of the articles with the chapters best illustrates the non-specialist focus of this book (and would, indeed, be a fine exercise for teaching students the difference between good academic and good non-academic writing).

The body of the book is structured conventionally for monographs of this kind, beginning with an overview and then working through ancient [End Page 341] sources one by one. This is a practical approach as the source material for Helen is relatively focused.

The preface sets out Blondell’s methodology. Her focus is on Helen as “a concept, not a person” (xi), and how she is presented by Greek authors responding to fundamental issues of gender, agency, control, and ethics. Chapter 1 expands on the Greek conception of beauty as related to these problems, focusing on unique elements such as the objectivity of beauty, the connection between beauty and persuasive discourse, the significance of adornment, and the accepted attraction of like to like. This is perhaps the most useful chapter of the book, providing the essential and unfamiliar context in a clear and thought-provoking way. Chapter 2 outlines the mythological “biography” of Helen from birth to death. This is a difficult task requiring the synthesis of many sources, and Blondell successfully maintains the delicate balance between coherence and comprehensiveness.

Chapters 3–10 each look at Helen’s presentation in a single work or genre (Iliad, Odyssey, archaic lyric, Oresteia, Herodotus, Gorgias’ Encomium of Helen, Euripides’ Trojan Women, his Helen, and Isocrates’ Encomium of Helen). Each chapter is more or less discrete, providing the most essential context for the work (particularly the less familiar plays and rhetorical speeches) before focusing on the passages in which Helen is presented or discussed. One tendency of these discussions is the overstatement of the role of Helen in the work as a whole, which may be a consequence of the author’s emphasis on a generalizing “mythical” approach at the expense of the particular perspectives of individual literary sources. For example, in chapters 2 and 3, she repeatedly presents Helen as Achilles’ “counterpart,” which is certainly true from some conceptual and broader mythological perspectives, but a rather misleading description of her role in the Iliad. Similarly, Blondell does not discuss the roles of Briseis and Chryseis, who have long been recognized as literary doublets for Helen, and the exclusion of these complementary figures presents Helen in artificial isolation. Such focus is understandable given the scope of this study, and a small price to pay for the comprehensive treatment of all major archaic and classical sources in a single book.

A whirlwind three-page epilogue serves as a conclusion, which I find disappointing. The list of other (mostly later) treatments of Helen is useful, and once again the bibliographical notes are helpful; however, the ending feels abrupt, particularly given the discrete structure of the body of the book, and in contrast to its compelling opening. A conclusion that, for example, traced how changing concepts of beauty related to later portrayals of...