ON YOUR HEAD BE IT SWORN: OATH AND VIRTUE IN EURIPIDES' HELEN

摘要

It has long been recognized that Euripides’ Helen is a play which explores the tensionnbetween illusion and reality in a very sophisticated and complex way.1 The ‘real’ Helennin this play is a paradigm of chastity and virtue. Not quite a Penelope, but almost.2 Itnis clear that the mythic variant Euripides is dramatizing goes against tradition, andnEuripides takes great care in emphasizing Helen’s chastity, a quality which is antitheticalnto the standard character of the tragic Helen.3 Many scholars have discussednthe issue of Helen’s chastity in this play, especially in terms of implied parallels withnthe virgin Persephone, abducted by Hades.4 Apart from being chaste, Helen is also anclever schemer, but Menelaus, by contrast, has been treated as dim-witted, pompousnand contemptible by the vast majority of scholars.5