Abduction of Helen
event · 3 works · 3 mentions · 4 anchored passages
Helen's flight · Paris carrying off Helen · carrying off of Helen · rape of Helen · seizure of Helen
in the texts
Iphigenia in Aulis
Paris's removal of Helen from Sparta to Troy, the immediate cause of the Greek expedition gathered at Aulis.
for our husbands tell us that fair-haired Menelaus and high-born Agamemnon are leading them to Troy on a thousand ships in quest of Helen, whom Paris the herdsman carried off from the banks of reedy Eurotas, his gift from Aphrodite, when that queen of Cyprus entered beauty’s contest with Hera and Pallas at the gushing fountain.
and he, finding Menelaus gone from home, carried Helen off, in mutual desire, to his steading on Ida.
The Histories
Alexandrus's seizure of Helen from Hellas, which led to the Greek invasion of Asia
The Greeks first resolved to send messengers demanding that Helen be restored and atonement made for the seizure;
But after this (the Persians say), the Greeks were very much to blame;
Then (they say), in the second generation after this, Alexandrus, son of Priam, who had heard this tale, decided to get himself a wife from Hellas by capture;
Theseus
The seizure of Helen by Theseus and Peirithous at Sparta and her subsequent concealment at Aphidnae.
Theseus was already fifty years old, according to Hellanicus, when he took part in the rape of Helen, who was not of marriageable age.
Theseus and Peirithous went to Sparta in company, seized the girl as she was dancing in the temple of Artemis Orthia, and fled away with her.
With this mutual understanding they cast lots, and Theseus won, and taking the maiden, who was not yet ripe for marriage, conveyed her to Aphidnae.