Helen in Egypt: Poetry [Paperback]

The fabulous beauty of Helen of Troy is legendary. But some say thatHelen was never in Troy, that she had been conveyed by Zeus to Egypt,and that Greeks and Trojans alike fought for an illusion. A fifty-linefragment by the poet Stesichorus of Sicily (c. 640-555 B.C.), whatsurvives of his Pallinode, tells us almost all we know of this otherHelen, and from it H. D. wove her book-length poem. Yet Helen in Egyptis not a simple retelling of the Egyptian legend but a recreation ofthe many myths surrounding Helen, Paris, Achilles, Theseus, and otherfigures of Greek tradition, fused with the mysteries of Egyptianhermeticism.A fifty-linefragment by the poet Stesichorus of Sicily (c. 640-555 B.C.), whatsurvives of his Pallinode, tells us almost all we know of this otherHelen, and from it H. D. wove her book-length poem.