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84-415: The first issue of ODY-C was published on November 26, 2014. Matt Fraction became aware of Christian Ward's work as a graphic designer and reached out to him to illustrate a comic. Fraction conceived of ODY-C with Ward in mind to be "the greatest Christian Ward comic that Could Ever Be." ODY-C is Ward's second comic after his last book, Infinite Vacation . Fatherhood has influenced his work—especially

168-407: A Trojan prince, came to Sparta to claim Helen, in the guise of a supposed diplomatic mission. Before this journey, Paris had been appointed by Zeus to judge the most beautiful goddess ; Hera , Athena , or Aphrodite . In order to earn his favour, Aphrodite promised Paris the most beautiful woman in the world. Swayed by Aphrodite's offer, Paris chose her as the most beautiful of the goddesses, earning

252-600: A daughter also called Helen . The three sons died during the Trojan War when an earthquake caused the roof of the room where they slept to collapse. In most sources, including the Iliad and the Odyssey , Helen is the daughter of Zeus and of Leda , the wife of the Spartan king Tyndareus . Euripides ' play Helen , written in the late 5th century BC, is the earliest source to report

336-433: A daughter, Hermione , and (according to some myths) three sons: Aethiolas , Maraphius, and Pleisthenes . The marriage of Helen and Menelaus marks the beginning of the end of the age of heroes. Concluding the catalog of Helen's suitors, Hesiod reports Zeus' plan to obliterate the race of men and the heroes in particular. The Trojan War, caused by Helen's elopement with Paris, is going to be his means to this end. Paris ,

420-469: A death sentence. This version is contradicted by two of Euripides' other tragedies, Electra , which predates The Trojan Women, and Helen , as Helen is described as being in Egypt during the events of the Trojan War in each. From Antiquity, depicting Helen would be a remarkable challenge. The story of Zeuxis deals with this exact question: how would an artist immortalize ideal beauty? He eventually selected

504-507: A goose. Zeus also transformed himself into a goose and raped Nemesis, who produced an egg from which Helen was born. Presumably, in the Cypria , this egg was somehow transferred to Leda. Later sources state either that it was brought to Leda by a shepherd who discovered it in a grove in Attica , or that it was dropped into her lap by Hermes . Asclepiades of Tragilos and Pseudo-Eratosthenes related

588-411: A harmonious married life—he holding no grudge at her having run away with a lover and she feeling no restraint in telling anecdotes of her life inside besieged Troy. According to another version, used by Euripides in his play Orestes , Helen had been saved by Apollo from Orestes and was taken up to Mount Olympus almost immediately after Menelaus' return. A curious fate is recounted by Pausanias

672-547: A high-stakes situation." Factor (2) is an instance of Shay's concept of "leadership malpractice". Other authors have alternative definitions where (2) is by the individual. Shay is respected in military circles, having conducted the Commandant of the Marine Corps Trust Study (1999–2000); serving as visiting scholar-at-large at the U.S. Naval War College (2001); Chair of Ethics, Leadership, and Personnel Policy in

756-402: A host of horsemen, others of infantry and others    of ships, is the most beautiful thing on the dark earth    but I say, it is what you love Full easy it is to make this understood of one and all: for    she that far surpassed all mortals in beauty, Helen her    most noble husband Deserted, and went sailing to Troy, with never

840-418: A male hero and explore how making him a woman would change the feel of the story, but their take on gender soon became more complicated. Fraction wanted to deconstruct traditionally male-centric stories by not simply switching one gender for another, but "killing all men and really exploding things and showing how different literature looks when you invert traditional gender politics." Fraction and Ward agree that

924-612: A natural element. Helen first appears in the poems of Homer , after which she became a popular figure in Greek literature. These works are set in the final years of the Age of Heroes , a mythological era which features prominently in the canon of Greek myth. Because the Homeric poems are known to have been transmitted orally before being written down, some scholars speculate that such stories were passed down from earlier Mycenaean Greek tradition, and that

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1008-623: A new bride, but the Greeks refused to believe that Helen was in Egypt and not within Troy's walls. Thus, Helen waited in Memphis for ten years, while the Greeks and the Trojans fought. Following the conclusion of the Trojan War, Menelaus sailed to Memphis, where Proteus reunited him with Helen. When he discovered that his wife was missing, Menelaus called upon all the other suitors to fulfill their oaths, thus beginning

1092-406: A peaceful, quiet life. Issues #6-10 follow Ene and He as they are tossed by a storm to the planet of Q'af, a land frozen in time and ruled by the two sons of Herakles. Ene is captured by Proteus, who prevents anybody from leaving the world, and He befriends a young boy. He and the boy are chosen to be the twin kings' brides for a night before they are to be beheaded, as has happened every night since

1176-436: A reference to the literal sea that Odysseus sailed on, and he also frequently uses circles and rounded shapes to invoke femininity. The main characters' space ships are based on female reproductive organs, as opposed to the commonly phallic rocket. Whenever the gods enter the narration, the already psychedelic art becomes even more so, as a symbol of the gods' influence on the lives of the characters. The colorful representation of

1260-503: A seduction, whereas in Renaissance paintings it was usually depicted as a "rape" (i. e., abduction ) by Paris. Christopher Marlowe 's lines from his tragedy Doctor Faustus (1604) are frequently cited: "Was this the face that launched a thousand ships / And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?" The etymology of Helen's name continues to be a problem for scholars. In the 19th century, Georg Curtius related Helen ( Ἑλένη ) to

1344-488: A serious and bona fide war injury." In 2018, Volunteers of America established The Shay Moral Injury Center, named in his honor and dedicated to deepening understanding about moral injury in the many populations who experience it. Helen of Troy Helen ( Ancient Greek : Ἑλένη , romanized :  Helénē ), also known as Helen of Troy , Helen of Argos , or Helen of Sparta , and in Latin as Helena ,

1428-408: A shrine with Menelaus. She was also worshiped in Attica and on Rhodes . Her beauty inspired artists of all times to represent her, frequently as the personification of ideal human beauty. Images of Helen start appearing in the 7th century BC. In classical Greece, her abduction by Paris—or escape with him—was a popular motif. In medieval illustrations, this event was frequently portrayed as

1512-402: A similar story, except that Zeus and Nemesis became swans instead of geese. Timothy Gantz has suggested that the tradition that Zeus came to Leda in the form of a swan derives from the version in which Zeus and Nemesis transformed into birds. Pausanias states that in the middle of the 2nd century AD, the remains of an egg-shell, tied up in ribbons, were still suspended from the roof of

1596-535: A stroke himself, he went to work for the United States Department of Veterans' Affairs outpatient clinic in Boston. While working there, in his words, "The veterans simply kidnapped me," and his work with them "utterly redirected my life." In 1987, Shay shifted from neuropathology to the study of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and published a short article linking the combat histories of patients at

1680-471: A temple on the Spartan acropolis. People believed that this was "the famous egg that legend says Leda brought forth". Pausanias traveled to Sparta to visit the sanctuary, dedicated to Hilaeira and Phoebe , in order to see the relic for himself. Pausanias also says that there was a local tradition that Helen's brothers, "the Dioscuri " (i.e. Castor and Pollux), were born on the island of Pefnos , adding that

1764-416: A thought for    her daughter and dear parents. Dio Chrysostom gives a completely different account of the story, questioning Homer's credibility: after Agamemnon had married Helen's sister, Clytemnestra, Tyndareus sought Helen's hand for Menelaus for political reasons. However, Helen was sought by many suitors, who came from far and near, among them Paris who surpassed all the others and won

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1848-631: A treacherous Helen who simulated Bacchic rites and rejoiced in the carnage she caused. In some versions, Helen does not arrive in Troy, but instead waits out the war in Egypt . Ultimately, Paris was killed in action, and in Homer's account Helen was reunited with Menelaus, though other versions of the legend recount her ascending to Olympus instead. A cult associated with her developed in Hellenistic Laconia , both at Sparta and elsewhere; at Therapne she shared

1932-570: A tree, and for this reason the Rhodians have a sanctuary of Helen of the Tree." There are other traditions concerning the punishment of Helen. For example, she is offered as a sacrifice to the gods in Tauris by Iphigeneia , or Thetis , enraged when Achilles dies because of Helen, kills her on her return journey. Tlepolemus was a son of Heracles and Astyoche. Astyoche was a daughter of Phylas, King of Ephyra who

2016-461: Is a distinct syndrome from (but often co-morbid with) PTSD and is one of the primary themes for the veterans described in his books, often leading to personality changes and obstructing successful treatment. Shay writes that his "current most precise (and narrow) definition of moral injury has three parts. Moral injury is present when (1) there has been a betrayal of what is morally correct; (2) by someone who holds legitimate authority; and (3) in

2100-586: Is an American doctor and clinical psychiatrist . He holds a B.A. from Harvard (1963), and an M.D. (1971) and a Ph.D. (1972) from the University of Pennsylvania . He is best known for his publications comparing the experiences of Vietnam veterans with the descriptions of war and homecoming in Homer 's Iliad and Odyssey . Shay's early medical work was laboratory research on how central nervous system cells are affected by strokes , but after suffering

2184-462: Is an affectionate relationship between the two, and Helen has harsh words for Paris when she compares the two brothers: Howbeit, seeing the gods thus ordained these ills, would that I had been wife to a better man, that could feel the indignation of his fellows and their many revilings. [...] But come now, enter in, and sit thee upon this chair, my brother, since above all others has trouble encompassed thy heart because of shameless me, and

2268-489: Is keep people together. Train them together, send them into danger together, bring them home together, and give them time together to digest what they've just been through ... The second axis is expert, ethical, and properly supported leadership ... The third axis of prevention is prolonged, progressive, realistic training for what the troops have to do and face. Shay introduced the concept of "Moral injury" and recommended treatment strategies for it in his two books. Moral injury

2352-501: Is not the case, however, in Laconic art: on an Archaic stele depicting Helen's recovery after the fall of Troy, Menelaus is armed with a sword but Helen faces him boldly, looking directly into his eyes; and in other works of Peloponnesian art, Helen is shown carrying a wreath, while Menelaus holds his sword aloft vertically. In contrast, on Athenian vases of c. 550–470, Menelaus threateningly points his sword at her. The abduction by Paris

2436-482: Is presented as a young princess wrestling naked in the palaestra , alluding to a part of girls' physical education in classical (not Mycenaean) Sparta. Sextus Propertius imagines Helen as a girl who practices arms and hunts with her brothers: [...] or like Helen, on the sands of Eurotas, between Castor and Pollux, one to be victor in boxing, the other with horses: with naked breasts she carried weapons, they say, and did not blush with her divine brothers there. When it

2520-719: Is said to have aided the Dioscuri brothers in returning Helen home. In most accounts of this event, Helen was quite young; Hellanicus of Lesbos said she was seven years old and Diodorus makes her ten years old. On the other hand, Stesichorus said that Iphigenia was the daughter of Theseus and Helen, which implies that Helen was of childbearing age. In most sources, Iphigenia is the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra , but Duris of Samos and other writers, such as Antoninus Liberalis , followed Stesichorus' account. Ovid 's Heroides give us an idea of how ancient and, in particular, Roman authors imagined Helen in her youth: she

2604-435: Is useful in a disaster situation and maladaptive in a family setting, and loss of trust enhances survival in a prison but not in a community setting. Like Derek Summerfield , he also argues against labeling and patronizing treatment. Shay recommends that we resocialize trauma survivors as a means of promoting socially acceptable behavior patterns. He cites classical Greek theater and the collective mourning described in

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2688-680: The Oresteia , and parts of the One Thousand and One Nights . It follows the main points of the Odyssey , but Fraction attempted to make the story more relatable and human than the poetic original. Christian Ward describes the story both as a psychedelic retelling of the Odyssey set in a burlesque universe and the story of a mother travelling home to her family. The story follows Odyssia, Gamen, and Ene (mirrors of Odysseus , Agamemnon , and Menelaus respectively), warrior queens of Achaea after their sack of

2772-596: The Iliad as possible precedents. In Odysseus in America he writes of "the circle of communalization of trauma": "When trauma survivors hear that enough of the truth of their experience has been understood, remembered and retold with enough fidelity to carry some of this truth ... then the circle of communalization is complete." Shay is a passionate advocate of improved mental health treatment for soldiers and of more vigorous efforts to prevent PTSD, in addition to structural reform of

2856-600: The Oath of Tyndareus ) promising to provide military assistance to the winning suitor, if Helen were ever stolen from him. The obligations of the oath precipitated the Trojan War. When she married Menelaus she was still very young; whether her subsequent departure with Paris was an abduction or an elopement is ambiguous (probably deliberately so). The legends of Helen during her time in Troy are contradictory: Homer depicts her ambivalently, both regretful of her choice and sly in her attempts to redeem her public image. Other accounts have

2940-574: The Age of Heroes may itself reflect a mythologized memory of that era. Recent archaeological excavations in Greece suggest that modern-day Laconia was a distinct territory in the Late Bronze Age , while the poets narrate that it was a rich kingdom. Archaeologists have unsuccessfully looked for a Mycenaean palatial complex buried beneath present-day Sparta. Modern findings suggest the area around Menelaion in

3024-462: The Greek proper word and god for the sun, Helios . In particular, her marriage myth may be connected to a broader Indo-European "marriage drama" of the sun goddess, and she is related to the divine twins , just as many of these goddesses are. Martin L. West has thus proposed that Helena ("mistress of sunlight") may be constructed on the PIE suffix -nā ("mistress of"), connoting a deity controlling

3108-573: The Office of the U.S. Army Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel; and was Omar Bradley Chair of Strategic Leadership at the US Army War College and Dickinson College (2008–2009). In 2007 he received a MacArthur "Genius Grant" fellowship . In 2010 he was awarded the Salem Award for Human Rights and Social Justice for "building public awareness and acceptance of post-traumatic stress disorder as

3192-500: The Spartan poet Alcman also said this, while the poet Lycophron 's use of the adjective "Pephnaian" ( Πεφναίας ) in association with Helen, suggests that Lycophron may have known a tradition which held that Helen was also born on the island. Two Athenians , Theseus and Pirithous , thought that since they were sons of gods, they should have divine wives; they thus pledged to help each other abduct two daughters of Zeus . Theseus chose Helen, and Pirithous vowed to marry Persephone ,

3276-637: The Trojan War. The Greek fleet gathered in Aulis , but the ships could not sail for lack of wind. Artemis was enraged by a sacrilege, and only the sacrifice of Agamemnon's daughter, Iphigenia , could appease her. In Euripides Iphigenia in Aulis , Clytemnestra, Iphigenia's mother and Helen's sister, begs her husband to reconsider his decision, calling Helen a "wicked woman". Clytemnestra tries to warn Agamemnon that sacrificing Iphigenia for Helen's sake is, " buying what we most detest with what we hold most dear ". Before

3360-724: The VA with the experience of war described in Homer 's Iliad . He was then approached by classics professor Gregory Nagy who suggested that the topic might be expanded into a full-length book on the nature and treatment of PTSD. He has written two books, Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character (1994) and Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming (2002), which discuss PTSD by reference to

3444-399: The ability to be impregnated by a woman's egg. He, the equivalent of Helen , is the first man born in ten thousand years, due to the interference of the gods, and a handful more follow, forming much of the conflict of the books. The gods themselves also display diverse gender expressions, from the bearded Athena and Hera to the "mother-father" Zeus. ODY-C tells the story of the Odyssey ,

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3528-522: The best features from five virgins. The ancient world starts to paint Helen's picture or inscribe her form on stone, clay and bronze by the 7th century BC. Dares Phrygius describes Helen in his History of the Fall of Troy : "She was beautiful, ingenuous, and charming. Her legs were the best; her mouth the cutest. There was a beauty-mark between her eyebrows." Helen is frequently depicted on Athenian vases as being threatened by Menelaus and fleeing from him. This

3612-400: The city Troiia-VII. Achaea went to war with Troiia-VII over He, the first man born in ten thousand years. After, the three women go their own way. The first five issues follow Odyssia, a trickster and a mother who longs to go home to her Sebex wife and young son but is caught up again and again in strife. ODY-C represents Odyssia as both a victim of PTSD and somebody who isn't satisfied with

3696-450: The city, she feigned Bacchic rites , leading a chorus of Trojan women, and, holding a torch among them, she signaled to the Greeks from the city's central tower. In the Odyssey , however, Homer narrates a different story: Helen circled the Horse three times, and she imitated the voices of the Greek women left behind at home—she thus tortured the men inside (including Odysseus and Menelaus) with

3780-500: The decision was made, all the suitors should swear a most solemn oath to defend the chosen husband against whoever should quarrel with him. After the suitors had sworn not to retaliate, Menelaus was chosen to be Helen's husband. As a sign of the importance of the pact, Tyndareus sacrificed a horse . Helen and Menelaus became rulers of Sparta, after Tyndareus and Leda abdicated. Menelaus and Helen rule in Sparta for at least ten years; they have

3864-521: The end of the war, the Trojans have come to hate her. When Hector dies, she is the third mourner at his funeral, and she says that, of all the Trojans, Hector and Priam alone were always kind to her: Wherefore I wail alike for thee and for my hapless self with grief at heart; for no longer have I anyone beside in broad Troy that is gentle to me or kind; but all men shudder at me. These bitter words reveal that Helen gradually realized Paris' weaknesses, and decided to ally herself with Hector. There

3948-511: The entire war in Egypt . An eidolon is also present in Stesichorus ' account, but not in Herodotus' rationalizing version of the myth. In addition to these accounts, Lycophron (822) states that Hesiod was the first to mention Helen's eidolon . This may mean Hesiod stated this in a literary work, or that the idea was widely known/circulated in early archaic Greece during the time of Hesiod and

4032-589: The experiences of American veterans of the Vietnam War , and the experiences depicted in the Iliad and the Odyssey . Shay's research uncovered what may be the earliest historical reference to PTSD, in Lady Percy 's soliloquy in Henry IV, Part 1 (act 2, scene 3, lines 40-62 ). Written around 1597, it represents an unusually accurate description of the symptom constellation of PTSD. Shay has also done research on

4116-427: The fanciful story in humanity. While doing research for the book, Fraction was most influenced by Odysseus in America by Jonathan Shay , Margaret Atwood 's The Penelopiad , and Herodotus 's The Histories . Other influences on the development of the comic include Barbarella , Jodorowsky , Heavy Metal comics, Cirque du Soleil , burlesque , and fetish . Most of the comic is written in dactylic hexameter like

4200-402: The favor of Tyndareus and his sons. Thus he won her fairly and took her away to Troia, with the full consent of her natural protectors. Cypria narrate that in just three days Paris and Helen reached Troy. Homer narrates that during a brief stop-over in the small island of Kranai , according to Iliad , the two lovers consummated their passion. On the other hand, Cypria note that this happened

4284-538: The first a Spartan goddess, connected to one or the other natural light phenomenon (especially St. Elmo's fire ) and sister of the Dioscuri , the other a vegetation goddess worshiped in Therapne as Ἑλένα Δενδρῖτις ("Helena of the Trees"). Others have connected the name's etymology to a hypothetical Proto-Indo-European sun goddess , noting the name's connection to the word for "sun" in various Indo-European cultures including

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4368-453: The folly of Alexander. After Paris was killed in combat, there was some dispute among the Trojans about which of Priam's surviving sons she should remarry: Helenus or Deiphobus , but she was given to the latter. During the fall of Troy, Helen's role is ambiguous. In Virgil 's Aeneid , Deiphobus gives an account of Helen's treacherous stance: when the Trojan Horse was admitted into

4452-452: The geographer (3.19.11–13), which has Helen share the afterlife with Achilles. Pausanias also has another story (3.19.9–10): "The account of the Rhodians is different. They say that 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,

4536-454: The gods was influenced by Hindu iconography. The main character Odyssia is purposefully illustrated as someone with indeterminate race in order to be more relatable to all readers, but Matt Fraction insisted that she must have a muscular build befitting the warrior that she is. ODY-C was originally conceived as a direct binary gender-swapped version of the Odyssey that would take the archetype of

4620-497: The kings killed their spouses for having a secret affair. He delays the slaughter by telling the kings stories every night, in the hope that Ene will return and save them. This arc has a recurring theme of sexual assault and the revenge and justice that follows. Issues #11 and #12 follows Gamem's return home and retells the Fall of the House of Atreus. Gamem's wife, Menstra, plots to murder her for killing their daughter and take her place on

4704-607: The memory of their loved ones, and brought them to the brink of destruction. After the deaths of Hector and Paris, Helen became the paramour of their younger brother, Deiphobus; but when the sack of Troy began, she hid her new husband's sword, and left him to the mercy of Menelaus and Odysseus. In Aeneid , Aeneas meets the mutilated Deiphobus in Hades ; his wounds serve as a testimony to his ignominious end, abetted by Helen's final act of treachery. However, Helen's portraits in Troy seem to contradict each other. From one side, we read about

4788-458: The moon ( Selene ; Σελήνη ). But two early dedications to Helen in the Laconian dialect of ancient Greek spell her name with an initial digamma (Ϝ, probably pronounced like a w), which rules out any etymology originally starting with simple *s- . In the early 20th century, Émile Boisacq considered Ἑλένη to derive from the well-known noun ἑλένη meaning "torch". It has also been suggested that

4872-404: The most familiar account of Helen's birth: that, although her putative father was Tyndareus, she was actually Zeus' daughter. In the form of a swan, the king of gods was chased by an eagle, and sought refuge with Leda. The swan gained her affection, and the two mated. Leda then produced an egg , from which Helen emerged. The First Vatican Mythographer introduces the notion that two eggs came from

4956-475: The night before they left Sparta. At least three Ancient Greek authors denied that Helen ever went to Troy; instead, they suggested, Helen stayed in Egypt during the Trojan War. Those three authors are Euripides, Stesichorus, and Herodotus. In the version put forth by Euripides in his play Helen , Hera fashioned a likeness ( eidolon , εἴδωλον) of Helen out of clouds at Zeus' request, Hermes took her to Egypt, and Helen never went to Troy, but instead spent

5040-444: The opening of hostilities, the Greeks dispatched a delegation to the Trojans under Odysseus and Menelaus; they endeavored without success to persuade Priam to hand Helen back. A popular theme, The Request of Helen (Helenes Apaitesis, Ἑλένης Ἀπαίτησις), was the subject of a drama by Sophocles , now lost. Homer paints a poignant, lonely picture of Helen in Troy. She is filled with self-loathing and regret for what she has caused; by

5124-408: The original Odyssey has some seriously flawed gender politics; for example, male suitors waiting around to have sex with Penelope to gain her land and money. ODY-C explores how archetypes like Leia Organa's metal bikini would look in a gender-swapped world in the form of He's fetish gear-inspired outfit, which looks very different but reduces him to a symbol of sexual availability and fertility all

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5208-464: The original, but two issues are written entirely in limerick. ODY-C is planned to mirror the Odyssey : it will have 24 issues, one for each of the Odyssey ' s 24 chapters. A hardcover edition of ODY-C collecting issues #1-12 was released on November 23, 2016. It includes the ten-page fold out present in the comic's first issue, essays by the classicist Dani Colman, and teaching aids. ODY-C Cycle Two will pick up in late 2017 and will mirror

5292-514: The other hand, in the Cypria , part of the Epic Cycle , Helen was the daughter of Zeus and the goddess Nemesis . The date of the Cypria is uncertain, but it is generally thought to preserve traditions that date back to at least the 7th century BC. In the Cypria , Nemesis did not wish to mate with Zeus. She therefore changed shape into various animals as she attempted to flee Zeus, finally becoming

5376-404: The plot of Odyssia returning to her son. Fraction wanted to rewrite the Odyssey for his daughter as a story about a mother trying to get back home to her daughter, but realized it would be far too inappropriate for a four-year-old. The diverse body types, races, and sexualities are partly because of Fraction wanting to write characters his daughter could look up to, but they also function to ground

5460-497: The same. Some men (Aeolus, Herakles) and women retain their original gender in ODY-C , but the most significant change to the original concept was the introduction of a third gender , Sebex. In the world of ODY-C , Zeus kills all men in order to eliminate any potential challengers, and instead of stealing fire from Olympus, Prometheus steals a future for humanity by creating a third gender, Sebex: brightly-skinned feminine people who have

5544-496: The southern part of the Eurotas valley seems to have been the center of Mycenaean Laconia. Helen and Menelaus had a daughter, Hermione . Different sources say she was also the mother of one or more sons, named Aethiolas , Nicostratus , Megapenthes and Pleisthenes . Still, according to others, these were instead illegitimate children of Menelaus and various lovers. Helen and Paris had three sons, Bunomus , Aganus , Idaeus , and

5628-458: The structure of the first cycle: five issues following Odyssia, five following He and Ene, and two issues following the fall of the house of Atreus. Chris Ward's illustrations tell the story of the Odyssey by way of 1970s European science fiction. He notes that European science fiction at that time was more organic and existential than American hard sci-fi, which was more focused on possible future technologies. He employs much underwater imagery as

5712-633: The throne. While ongoing, the series has attracted favorable reviews and attention, including from IGN , USA Today , and Wired . The first volume was on the Otherwise Award honor list for 2015 and Ward's art for the first volume earned him a nomination for the British Comic Awards Emerging Talent. At the review aggregator website Comic Book Roundup, the series received an average score of 8.5 out of 10 based on 82 reviews. Jonathan Shay Jonathan Shay (born 1941)

5796-431: The treacherous Helen who simulated Bacchic rites and rejoiced over the carnage of Trojans. On the other hand, there is another Helen, lonely and helpless; desperate to find sanctuary, while Troy is on fire. Stesichorus narrates that both Greeks and Trojans gathered to stone her to death. When Menelaus finally found her, he raised his sword to kill her. He had demanded that only he should slay his unfaithful wife; but, when he

5880-413: The union: one containing Castor and Pollux ; one with Helen and Clytemnestra . Nevertheless, the same author earlier states that Helen, Castor and Pollux were produced from a single egg. Fabius Planciades Fulgentius also states that Helen, Castor and Pollux are born from the same egg. Pseudo-Apollodorus states that Leda had intercourse with both Zeus and Tyndareus the night she conceived Helen. On

5964-498: The use of Prozac in treating PTSD in Vietnam veterans . Shay writes, "For years I have agitated against the diagnostic jargon ' Posttraumatic stress disorder ' because transparently we are dealing with an injury , not an illness, malady, disease , sickness, or disorder ." Shay argues that PTSD is not an illness but the persistence of adaptive behaviors needed to survive in a stressful environment. For example, emotional numbing

6048-492: The ways the U.S. armed forces are organized, trained, and counseled. He has collaborated with General James Jones , the past commandant of the Marines, and Major General James Mattis of the Marines. He has promoted the concept of preventative psychiatry in support of military cohesion, leadership and training: Prevention of psychological and moral injury in military service has three axes: cohesion, leadership, and training. First

6132-558: The wife of Hades . Theseus took Helen and left her with his mother Aethra or his associate Aphidnus at Aphidnae or Athens . Theseus and Pirithous then traveled to the underworld , the domain of Hades, to kidnap Persephone. Hades pretended to offer them hospitality and set a feast, but, as soon as the pair sat down, snakes coiled around their feet and held them there. Helen's abduction caused an invasion of Athens by Castor and Pollux, who captured Aethra in revenge, and returned their sister to Sparta. In Goethe 's Faust , Centaur Chiron

6216-539: The wrath of Athena and Hera . Although Helen is sometimes depicted as being raped (i.e. abducted ) by Paris, Ancient Greek sources are often elliptical and contradictory. Herodotus states that Helen was abducted, but the Cypria simply mentions that after giving Helen gifts, "Aphrodite brings the Spartan queen together with the Prince of Troy." Sappho argues that Helen willingly left behind Menelaus and their nine-year-old daughter, Hermione , to be with Paris: Some say

6300-479: The λ of Ἑλένη arose from an original ν, and thus the etymology of the name would be connected with the root of Venus . Linda Lee Clader, however, says that none of the above suggestions offers much satisfaction. More recently, Otto Skutsch has advanced the theory that the name Helen might have two separate etymologies, which belong to different mythological figures respectively, namely *Sṷelenā (related to Sanskrit svaraṇā "the shining one") and *Selenā ,

6384-479: Was a figure in Greek mythology said to have been the most beautiful woman in the world. She was believed to have been the daughter of Zeus and Leda or Nemesis , and the sister of Clytemnestra , Castor, Pollux , Philonoe , Phoebe and Timandra . She was married to King Menelaus of Sparta "who became by her the father of Hermione , and, according to others, of Nicostratus also." Her abduction by Paris of Troy

6468-460: Was afraid to select a husband for his daughter, or send any of the suitors away, for fear of offending them and giving grounds for a quarrel. Odysseus was one of the suitors, but had brought no gifts because he believed he had little chance to win the contest. He thus promised to solve the problem, if Tyndareus in turn would support him in his courting of Penelope , the daughter of Icarius . Tyndareus readily agreed, and Odysseus proposed that, before

6552-409: 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

6636-481: Was another popular motif in ancient Greek vase-painting ; definitely more popular than the kidnapping by Theseus. In a famous representation by the Athenian vase painter Makron , Helen follows Paris like a bride following a bridegroom, her wrist grasped by Paris' hand. The Etruscans , who had a sophisticated knowledge of Greek mythology, demonstrated a particular interest in the theme of the delivery of Helen's egg, which

6720-584: Was consequently attributed to him. Herodotus adds weight to the "Egyptian" version of events by putting forward his own evidence—he traveled to Egypt and interviewed the priests of the temple ( Foreign Aphrodite , ξείνη Ἀφροδίτη) at Memphis . According to these priests, Helen had arrived in Egypt shortly after leaving Sparta, because strong winds had blown Paris's ship off course. King Proteus of Egypt , appalled that Paris had seduced his host's wife and plundered his host's home in Sparta, disallowed Paris from taking Helen to Troy. Paris returned to Troy without

6804-411: Was killed by Heracles. Tlepolemus was killed by Sarpedon on the first day of fighting in the Iliad . Nicostratus was a son of Menelaus by his concubine Pieris, an Aetolian slave. Megapenthes was a son of Menelaus by his concubine Tereis, with no further origin. In Euripides 's tragedy The Trojan Women , Helen is shunned by the women who survived the war and is to be taken back to Greece to face

6888-482: Was ready to do so, she dropped her robe from her shoulders, and the sight of her beauty caused him to let the sword drop from his hand. Electra wails: Alas for my troubles! Can it be that her beauty has blunted their swords? Helen returned to Sparta and lived with Menelaus, where she was encountered by Telemachus in Book 4 of The Odyssey . As depicted in that account, she and Menelaus were completely reconciled and had

6972-580: Was the most immediate cause of the Trojan War . Elements of her putative biography come from classical authors such as Aristophanes , Cicero , Euripides , and Homer (in both the Iliad and the Odyssey ). Her story reappears in Book ;II of Virgil 's Aeneid . In her youth, she was abducted by Theseus . A competition between her suitors for her hand in marriage saw Menelaus emerge victorious. All of her suitors were required to swear an oath (known as

7056-429: Was time for Helen to marry, many kings and princes from around the world came to seek her hand, bringing rich gifts with them or sent emissaries to do so on their behalf. During the contest, Castor and Pollux had a prominent role in dealing with the suitors, although the final decision was in the hands of Tyndareus. Menelaus, her future husband, did not attend but sent his brother, Agamemnon , to represent him. Tyndareus

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