Helen - Peter Burian

Helen who has always been faithful to her husband Menelaus;
who never went to Troy, but was carried off to Egypt, where she
remains throughout the Trojan War, waiting faithfully for her
husband Menelaus to rescue her. Meanwhile, Helen of Troy - a mere
phantom fashioned by the gods - has blighted the real Helen's
life with undeserved hatred.
Helen
plays with this premise in ways that make it by turns amusing and disturbing, playful and
full of serious quandaries. The real Helen did not commit the
deeds for which she is famous, and yet she cannot escape a
reputation based on what the world believes her to be, rather
than on what she is. And yet, with the disappearance of
the phantom Helen, Menelaus does reclaim his wife at last and the
real Helen plots a brilliant deception that will bring them both
home again in triumph.
Helen
is an extraordinary performance that has disturbed critics because it refuses to conform to their
expectations. Whether understood as a tragedy or something more
like aphilisophical divertissement or romantic comedy, Helen has
increasingly been recognized as an intellectually challenging and
emotionally satisfying dramatic masterpiece. Greek text with facing
translation