Dating: to go out with (someone in whom one is romantically or sexually interested).
“Dating apps are a scam,” Helene sighed, putter her drink down on the kitchen counter table. Bars were too expensive – a shared apartment was free.
“Try a matchmaker.” “I’m not desperate,” she tsk'ed, watching her roommate Cassandra pour another glass of whiskey, too close to the brim that Helene couldn’t complain.
“Pray to Aphrodite, then.” “I’m not delusional either.”
In the most socially acceptable way possible, Helene has dated multiple men. Again, and again, there was always something off about each and every one of them. It never felt right, and she herself couldn’t explain why, at least not on the spot when her 6th breakup ensued, and Cassandra asked why her face was covered in tear-streamed mascara.
“I just don’t want someone insane. Is that asking too much?” “At least you never got cheated on. So yes, you are asking for quite a bit.”
Love is a difficult matter. Only Aphrodite herself could deny that. Even if Helene didn’t believe in supernaturality, in something basically invisible, the mere hope that there was some sort of force that was in control of everything eased her. Barely.
But even Aphrodite understood the trials that lead to heartbreak. She was responsible for them, after all.
“Men,” Helene groaned, keeping in her usual ‘I told you so,’ when Cassandra brought up her own tragedy. Because both of them were aching now, and more aching didn’t fix anything.
“Let’s try women,” Cassandra suggested, a little slur in her tone as she started teetering from side to side. “Just once. I want my standards exceeded.”
When one door shuts, another door opens. If neither open though, then try using a window.
“It’s hard to expect love when you yourself don’t even know what you’re looking for.”
Aphrodite constantly changed her name, never being the same person twice. When Helene first saw her, she thought she was showing off. Such a beautiful face, a figure that could make any person swoon regardless of what they liked. It was rather insulting that she wasn’t arrogant.
“I’m sorry?” “Oh, nothing,” Venus smiled, the Starbucks coffee cup in her hand revealing her name to Helene’s suppressed interest. “My friend over there is shy. But he says he, “just knows,”.
Helene was speechless as a piece of paper slipped into her pocket, too stunned to respond. She ended up sputtering nonsense even after Venus was long gone, and Helene didn’t know at the time, but never to be seen again.
How tragic – her heartbeat had never exhilarated like that before.
But his name was Paris. And he was absolutely charming. Helene couldn’t tell the story well when people asked how they first met, nor could she tell you how she got his number so quickly. It would continue like that, because the first meeting is never as important as you think. “Do you believe in love at first sight?”
Helene would nod, the delightful feeling of honeymoon excitement running through them in the first few months of being in love. To think Aphrodite would smile at this, laughing because only she could know.
Love at first sight existed. But Helene wouldn’t be talking about him.
End
Analysis:
The story of Helene Of Troy told today would be that of a misogynistic culture that uses power and manipulation in order to forcibly gain the affection of one single woman. From the beginning, the myth introduces problematic methods that will be controversial in today’s society, when Helene explains to Aphrodite of her disinterest in being wedded to Paris (Homer, Iliad 3.339). She questions Aphrodite’s desires, and even her intentions of love towards others which can lead to an even deeper understanding of what love is to Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Promptly defying the possibility of marrying Paris, Helene in turn denies Aphrodite’s power, which is known to lead into grave fortune (Eurpides, Hippolytus 1.30).
In my version of “Helene of Troy”, however, the possibility that Paris and Helene do end up together, not because of a promise and claim after a deal, but rather because of societal standards, is a much more relatable topic than it is love by force. Despite the inevitable successful relationship of Paris and Helene, there are still many flaws in this relationship that they have chosen to be in because of the mindset that heterosexual tendencies are the only way love can work. In the original myth, Helene claims that, “My first pleasure, then, is to have found favour in the eyes of Venus,” (Ovid, Heroides 17.131), already implementing that her priority is not that of Paris’s approval of her appearance, but rather, Aphrodite’s. It is possible that this is merely just a woman’s acknowledgment, further weighing this judgement by the goddess of beauty seeking Helene as beautiful, however, Helene prior is already married to a king and has no need to seek validation. The interpretation being that subconsciously the idea of Aphrodite finding her beautiful, and in the original myth Helene is beautiful enough to fight over, is genuine. Still, Paris and Helene are being raised in a society when love (and ultimately marriage) can only be between a man and woman, so Aphrodite as an option to love is ruled out.
It goes without saying that in the original, Helene’s relationship with men in general is quite complicated as well. This prompts the question of whether Helene being married to a man can truly make sense when there are indefinite reasons why she would prefer them in a modern day setting. As it goes in the story, Helene is forced to wed Paris with the help of Aphrodite’s power manipulating her in order to leave her family and home. “‘My desire had turned by now to going back home again, and I wept, too late, for the blindness that Aphrodite sent me when she made me go there, away from my own dear land, and let me forsake my daughter and bridal room and a husband who fell short in nothing, whether in mind or in outward form’,”(Homer, Odyssey 4.261), Helene addresses the people of Troy, acknowledging her place beside Menelaus as his wife and her betrayal to her country when “eloping” (rather “being abducted by”) with Paris. However, in the Odyssey, chapter 4 during the telling of Helene of Troy opens with the explanation of Menelaus having an inevitable fate to be wed to Helene, and ultimately meaning Helene’s inevitable fate to marry Menelaus back. This shows that Helene’s relationships with men, specifically romantically, has always been forced. This will make sense considering the original myth’s setting, the culture and their perspective of marriage and relationships being more of a social construct, externally the higher rank equaling marriage as an opportunity rather than a source of happiness. Interpreting to today’s society’s take on this approach to relationships, Helene will be seen as an object rather than a person, which is dehumanizing and wrong. Therefore, being with a woman is not completely out of the question regarding the logistics of romance.
Helene’s sexuality altering in a modern setting may be probable, while Aphrodite’s sexuality is implicitly fluid, even in ancient mythology. In contribution to Aphrodite being all powerful over the love of others, she shows through her own dramatic tales that she is willing to love whomever regardless of position or status. For example, Ankhises, who was only a mortal and had an inevitable death fighting in the Trojan war, was someone Aphrodite bore children for and essentially found him worthy enough to fall in love with (Hesiod, Theogony 1008). Her affair with Ares against Hephaestus shows her willingness to pursue who she loves, despite the laws that separate her desires. Aphrodite’s own version of love is limitless, and ultimately, has no boundaries. So, the conclusion is Aphrodite’s sexuality as well can be fluid. Sappho, an Archaic Greek poet located in Lesbos, writes poems that indicate affairs with women, of which she has cried out to Aphrodite. In her poem To a beloved woman, Sappho relays,
“Blest as the immortal gods is he,
The youth who fondly sits by thee, And hears and sees thee, all the while, Softly speak and sweetly smile,” (Sappho, 313 – 316)
which is undoubtedly a poem to a woman, by a woman. In essence, the workings of Aphrodite who assumedly controls sexual prowess, can make anyone and everyone suffer in their love interests in love, not discriminating against who it is that they may love. Instead of essentially “helping” Sappho love a man, she remains in love with women as a lifestyle and not as a punishment. This implies that Aphrodite as well believes in love in any situation, between anyone, even in her victims.
With the knowledge that Aphrodite is a goddess that has no specific preference, only of that of a beautiful person (Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 270), there was no hesitance for me to write Aphrodite as someone in love with Helene. She herself certainly finds Helene beautiful, and because of this admiration is willing to ruin the marriage of Helene and Menelaus in order to give her to Paris. The explanation for her decision to wed Helene to Paris can be associated with a matter of things other than the taboo topic surrounding same-sex relationships. For example, the complications of being romantically involved with a Greek goddess. That is why, in my remake of the interactions between Helene and Aphrodite, the meeting is brief, but meaningful. Since Aphrodite understands the power and might of love, rather than making her character selfish, in a modern day setting to place her with Paris and still bear feelings for Aphrodite that she still is unaware of would make more sense. Considering that sexuality itself is a fluid complex, and there are many aspects to consider individually, I kept the nuclear family mindset in order to portray the default society has implemented, and how Aphrodite has eternally been the most flexible in love, showing her position as the goddess of love. Rather than showing a reason behind fluid sexuality explicitly, I have put in the idea of “not knowing” one’s sexuality despite a feeling or an inkling, because of societal norms that implement the heterosexual construct of relationships. To have a concrete reasoning for certain sexualities may imply that you can only have a specific type of preference, once. Although that is not the case, and rather, it is more so the unawareness because of a culture that believes in one straight way to be romantically active. Aphrodite, in this myth remake, understands this as well, and keeps to herself a “true love” in order for Helene to come in understanding as to why it is she seems unfulfilled in romantic relationships involving men. Love, and in turn sexuality, is something that is self-discovering that even Aphrodite does not tamper with the process. In order to transcend this myth to modern times, I have changed it so that Helene also believes in her love for Paris rather than rejecting like in the original myth, because in modern day society it will be more supportive and supported from a feminist lens. However, the reality of the matter is that Helene in the myth and in my remake has never properly loved Paris, and therefore either leaving her to love someone else or no one at all.
References
Hesiod, Theogony. 800 B.C. – 500 B.C. Translated by H.G. Evelyn White. 1914. 1008
Homer, Iliad. 800 B.C. – 500 B.C. Translated by A. T. Murray. 1924. 5.349
Homer, Iliad. 800 B.C. – 500 B.C. Translated by A. T. Murray. 1924. 3. 369 – 4.13
Homer, Odyssey. 800 B.C. – 500 B.C. Translated by A. T. Murray. 1919. 4. 261
Euripides, Hippolytus. 484 B.C. – 407 B.C. Translated by Vellacott, P. 1954. 1.30
Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae. 100 B.C. – 200 A.D. Translated by Mary Grant. 1960. 270
Ovid, Heroides. 100 B.C. – 200 A.D. Translated by Grant Showerman. 1931. 17. 115 – 131
Statius, Achilleid. 100 B.C. – 200 A.D. Translated by J. H. Mozley. 1928. 2. 55
Comments