She is the most beautiful woman in the world. She is the daughter of a god. She is the cause of a war. She ran away; she was kidnapped; she never went to Troy at all. Few mythic names have captivated readers and thinkers so enduringly as that of Helen of Troy, famed for her remarkable beauty and her troubling behavior. Often regarded in contemporary literature as equal parts casus belli and femme fatale, Helen is the subject of centuries’ worth of debate surrounding whether she was kidnapped or left willingly for Troy and what her elusive mythic figure really represents. This program will provide an outline of the myth as it appears in antiquity, as well as an introduction to the interpretations and re-interpretations of Helen in the millennia since she first appeared at her loom in Homer’s "Iliad". We will discuss the potential Indo-European origins of the myth, the conflicting ancient accounts of Helen’s life and mysterious death, and the most famous presentations of her—ancient and modern—as we explore how it is that one woman can be the source of a thousand stories.
Gabrielle Roehr is a doctoral candidate in Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She received her B.A. (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) with high honors in Classics and a minor in Art History from New York University in May of 2020, and began the PhD program in Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania in September of the same year. Her research interests include narrative and storytelling in Greek and Latin poetry, the relationship between weaving and poetry, and contemporary reception of ancient myth. Her in-progress dissertation examines Helen of Troy as narrator and object of narrative in Homer, Attic tragedy, and Latin poetry as well as in twentieth and twenty-first century anglophone adaptations of the Helen myth. Outside of school, she can be found at her loom, sewing machine, spinning wheel, or with her knitting needles, and teaching circus tricks to her esteemed co-author (her dog, Tripp).
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Booking: https://go.evvnt.com/2949680-0