American Journal of Philology

Homer creates Helen as a complex and suffering figure with a good mind, who strives for autonomy, expression, and belonging, within and despite the many constraints to which she is subject. The first part of the paper focuses on the constraints within which Helen operates: she is a captive and possession, she is subject to the wishes of the gods, and she is an abhorred foreigner viewed as the cause of suffering and strife. The second part examines her six encounters in the epic to show how she maneuvers within those constraints while retaining and increasingly asserting her own personhood.