The virtual disappearance
of the religious aspect of
Helen that
surrounded her with an aura of sacred terror
laid her open to the most scathing insults.
People expressed amazement that the Trojan War
should have been fought over such an unimportant
creature – a woman -- adding that the woman in question had
absolutely no value because she herself had no sense of her own
dignity. A fine assortment of insults could easily be garnered from
Euripides. This tradition did not stop with him; at the height of the neoclassical period in
Europe the name of Helen became a simple figure of speech, a metonym that could be used
to designate any woman who was dangerous because she was flighty; in Schiller's Maria
Stuart one of the queen's most persistent opponents can find no worse epithet for her than this: she is a Helen.
she is a Helen
she is a Helen
she is a Helen
she is a Helen
she is a Helen
she is a Helen
she is a Helen
she is a Helen
she is a Helen
she is a Helen
she is a Helen
she is a Helen
she is a Helen
she is a Helen
she is a Helen
she is a Helen
she is a Helen
she is a Helen
she is a Helen
she is a Helen
she is a Helen
she is a Helen
she is a Helen
she is a Helen
she is a Helen
she is a Helen
she is a Helen
she is a Helen
she is a Helen
she is a Helen
she is a Helen
she is a Helen
she is a Helen
she is a Helen
she is a Helen
she is a Helen SHE IS A HELEN