The Memoirs of Helen of Troy [Paperback]

My perspective on "The Memoirs of Helen of Troy: A Novel" is decidedly unique because I having been working on some quite similar to what Amanda Elyot is doing, although my central character is Iphigenia and not Helen. As Robert Graves has amply documented in his cataloguing of "The Greek Myths," there are so many variations of the stories of each figures from Greek mythology that it is impossible to make them all fit. But that proves to be the primary goal here and the more you know about classical mythology the more you can appreciate what Elyot does with the available options at her disposal, from the story of how Theseus kidnapped Helen and fathered her first child, to the tales of Helen in Egypt. As Elyot points out before she begins her story that: "In ancient Greece, the poet was known as a Rhapsode--one who stitches together fragments of song, sometimes of diverse origins, in order to compose an original story." Of course, this is an apt description of what she is attempting in this novel.

Beyond being the fabled "face that launched a thousand ships," Helen was a controversial and hated figure in Greek antiquity. In his "Encomium on Helen," Gorgias of Leontini, the fifth-century B.C.E. Greek sophist best known for his philosophical treatise "On Nature" and his teaching of rhetoric, delivers a speech praising Helen. The Athenians of that time considered Helen of Troy to be a wicked villainess for her role in starting the Trojan War. But Gorgias argued Helen was more a victim of treachery than its perpetrator. The speech was basically an advertisement for Gorgias as a teacher, since if he could defend the indefensible Helen (comparable to praising someone like Hitler), imagine what he could do in praising a nobler subject. Helen was such a controversial figure that Stesichorus, Herodotus, and Euripides all refused to admit Helen had ever gone to Troy, insisting she had only gone to Egypt, under constraint, waiting a dozen years for Menelaus to find her.

The emphasis in "The Memoirs of Helen of Troy" is decidedly more on the narrative than it is on the characters, and rather than explaining Helen the novel is devoted primarily to detailing the events of her life. In that regard Elyot keeps things moving along briskly as she weaves mythological elements together in new ways. I have no doubt students of mythology and classic literature will be offended by some of her choices, such as when Leda commits suicide rather than living to old age to raise Orestes along with Tyndareus. Personally, I was troubled by Diomedes, the Homeric ideal as a warrior, being degraded into a worse offender than Alax Telamon. But then there are also moves that resolve some fine points of mythology, such as Agamemnon already being married to Clytemnestra before the suitors bid for the hand of Helen. You might not agree with her choices, but they are certainly interesting (especially when one of her ideas parallels my own in coming up with a human to guide Priam to the tent of Achilles to ransom back the corpse of Hector).

It is not until the Author's Note at the back of the book that Elyot explains that when there were several versions or variations of the myths and legends pertaining to these characters that she usually went with the most popular version, except for a few instances where a lesser-known variation better served her story (e.g., the parentage of Iphigenia and the method by which Achilles achieved near-immortality). She also notes that the Spartan "agogi" system and the culture of war postdate the Bronze Age, but this better fits the idea that the Trojan War was not about returning Helen to Sparta but rather Agamemnon's desire to control the Hellenspont and the sea trade that Priam has been taxing. That is why I liked how Elyot had Helen comment on the irony that destroying Troy actually defeats the High King's grand plan (not that Agamemnon would be around long to enjoy his victory). She also walks a fine line with regards to the gods and goddesses: they are clearly real, but not physically present. For example, when the gods appear in battles on the plains of Troy taken from the "Iliad," they are as parts of dreams or of whispered tales. Likewise, Helen's immortality is accepted as fact, but signified only by her ability to heal quickly after beatings.

Another complaint might be that Elyot makes too much use of ancient Greek concepts such as hubris, but I appreciate the effort to make this more of a story of the past, grounded in the culture and language of that time, rather than of the present (although you will certainly find some resonance with 9/11 in the Fall of Troy when the twin towers flanking the Scaean gate collapse). Three is a judicious use of sex in the novel, and it that regard Helen is not just a seductress but also a victim of violence as befits the world in which she lives, not to mention the mother of ten childen. The most interesting part of this novel actually comes at the end, once Troy has fallen and Helen is back with Menelaus. This is not only because of how that relationship plays out but also because Elyot does not attempt to work in everything about Helen, such as when Telemachus visits her and Menealus in Sparta early on in Homer's "Odyssey." This underscores the need to develop the characters more so that their arcs over the course of the novel better justify the resolution. But this simply brings me back full circle to where I began, which was to admire how Elyot weaves her pits and pieces together into a narrative whole.