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Norman Austin

Helen of Troy and Her Shameless Phantom (Myth and Poetics)

by Norman Austin (Author) Format: Hardcover

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Like the male heroes of epic poetry, Helen of Troy has been immortalized, but not for deeds of strength and honor; she is remembered as the beautiful woman who disgraced herself and betrayed her family and state. Norman Austin here surveys interpretations of Helen in Greek literature from the Homeric period through later antiquity. He looks most closely at a revisionist myth according to which Helen never sailed to Troy, but remained blameless, while a libertine phantom or ghost impersonated her at Troy. Comparing the functions of contradictory images of Helen, Austin helps to clarify the problematic relations between beauty and honor and between ugliness and shame in ancient Greece.

Austin first discusses the canonical account of the Iliad and the Odyssey: Helen as the archetype of woman without shame. He next considers different versions of Helen in the Homeric tradition. Among these, he shows how Sappho presents Helen as an icon of absolute beauty while she defends her own preference of eros over honor and her choice of woman as the object of desire. Austin then turns to three major authors who repudiated the traditional Helen of Troy: the lyric poet Stesichorus and the dramatist Euripides, who embraced the alternative myth of Helen's phantom; and the historian Herodotus, who claimed to have found in Egypt a Helen story that dispenses with both Helen and the phantom. Austin maintains that the conflicting motives that prompted these writers to rehabilitate Helen led to further revisions of her image, though none have endured as a credible substitute for the Helen of epic tradition.

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Print length

240 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Cornell University Press
Publication date

April 28, 1994
Reading age

18 years and up
Dimensions

6 x 0.94 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

0801429552
ISBN-13

978-0801429552

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Editorial Reviews

Review

This is an exceedingly interesting and entertaining book, sparkling with wit and imagination.

― The Classical Bulletin

About the Author

Norman Austin is Professor Emeritus of Classics at the University of Arizona.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cornell University Press
Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 28, 1994
Edition ‏ : ‎ First Edition
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0801429552
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0801429552
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.15 pounds
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.94 x 9 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #4,302,106 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #429 in Women's Literature Criticism (Books)
- #892 in Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology Literary Criticism
- #2,863 in Ancient & Classical Literary Criticism (Books)
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