Helen of Troy: The Story Behind the Most Beautiful Woman in the World by Bettany

Description: Helen of Troy by Bettany Hughes Focusing on the "real" Helen of Troy (the possibility of a flesh-and-blood Helen), acclaimed historian Bettany Hughes reconstructs the context of life in the Bronze Age Greece for one of the most enigmatic and notorious figures of all time. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description For 3,000 years, the woman known as Helen of Troy has been both the ideal symbol of beauty and a reminder of the terrible power beauty can wield.In her search for the identity behind this mythic figure, acclaimed historian Bettany Hughes uses Homers account of Helens life to frame her own investigation. Tracing the cultural impact that Helen has had on both the ancient world and Western civilization, Hughes explores Helens role and representations in literature and in art throughout the ages. This is a masterly work of historical inquiry about one of the worlds most famous women. Author Biography Bettany Hughes is a cultural and social historian, writer, and television presenter. She received degrees in ancient and medieval history at Oxford University and has carried out research in the Balkans, Greece, and Asia Minor. She has presented numerous documentaries and historical series for the BBC, PBS, and the Discovery Channel, and also writes pieces on popular history for several newspapers and magazines. Table of Contents Illustrations Text Acknowledgements Maps Timeline Dramatis PersonæFamily Trees Foreword and AcknowledgementsINTRODUCTIONCherchez la Femme An Evil Destiny Helen-Hunting Goddess, Princess, Whore PART ONEHELENS BIRTH IN PRE-HISTORY1 A Dangerous Landscape 2 A Rape, a Birth 3 The Lost Citadel 4 The Mycenaeans 5 The Pre-historic Princess PART TWOTHE LAND OF BEAUTIFUL WOMEN6 The Rape of Fair Hellen 7 Sparte Kalligynaika 8 Tender-eyed Girls PART THREETHE WORLDS DESIRE9 A Trophy for Heroes 10 The Kingmaker 11 A Royal Wedding PART FOURKOUROTROPHOS12 Hermione 13 A Welcome Burden 14 Helen, High Priestess 15 La Belle Hélène PART FIVEA LOVERS GAME16 The Golden Apple 17 Bearing Gifts 18 Alexander Helenam Rapuit 19 The Female of the Species Is More Deadly Than the Male PART SIXEROS AND ERIS20 Helen the Whore 21 The Pain of Aphrodite 22 The Seas Foaming Lanes PART SEVENTROY BECKONS23 East Is East and West Is West 24 The Fair Troad 25 The Topless Towers of Ilium 26 The Golden Houses of the East 27 A Fleet Sets Sail PART EIGHTTROY BESIEGED28 Helen – Destroyer of Cities 29 Deaths Dark Cloud 30 A Beautiful Death – Kalos Thanatos 31 The Fall of Troy PART NINEIMMORTAL HELEN32 Home to Sparta 33 The Death of a Queen 34 The Age of Heroes Ends 35 Fragrant Treasuries 36 The Daughter of the Ocean PART TENTHE FACE THAT LAUNCHED A THOUSAND SHIPS37 Helen in Athens 38 Helen Lost and Helen Found 39 Helen, Homer and the Chances of Survival 40 Veyn Fables 41 Helen of Troy and the Bad Samaritan 42 Perpulchra – More Than Beautiful 43 Dancing with the Devil 44 Helens Nemesis APPENDICES1 The Minotaurs Island 2 La Parisienne 3 Women of Stone and Clay and Bronze 4 Elemental Helen – She-Gods and She-Devils 5 Royal Purple – The Colour of Congealed Blood Epilogue – Myth, History and Historia Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index Review "Dazzling. . . A look at the love match between beauty and power, displaying the archetypal trophy mistress" to the modern world." –O, The Oprah Magazine"A divine biography. . . . Sizzling. . . . [Hughes] , a young British historian, explores not only the Bronze Age babe but also what she has meant throughout history and the cultural significance of being both desired and despised." –USA Today"[Hughes] multi-faceted, multi-hued, and multi-period portrait of la Belle Helene will capture the imagination of professional scholars and general readers alike. I cannot recommend it too strongly." –Professor Paul Cartledge, Cambridge University"Hughes brings a passion for ancient history and archaeology crossed with a strain of feminism to the figure of Helen." –The Washington Post Book World"The book triumphantly reclaims Helen from some of her traducers. Hughess portrait is as close to a real, living Helen as we are likely to get." –Financial Times"When Helen launched her "thousand ships," was she a "shameless hussy?" Or, like her mother, was she a rape victim? . . . The answers have always depended on who you speak to and when. Hughes has them all." –The Times"Hughes skillfully brings this period back to life. A fascinating window onto the power politics of an age . . . a genuinely exciting historical narrative." –Sunday Telegraph. Long Description For 3,000 years, the woman known as Helen of Troy has been both the ideal symbol of beauty and a reminder of the terrible power beauty can wield. In her search for the identity behind this mythic figure, acclaimed historian Bettany Hughes uses Homer s account of Helen s life to frame her own investigation. Tracing the cultural impact that Helen has had on both the ancient world and Western civilization, Hughes explores Helen s role and representations in literature and in art throughout the ages. This is a masterly work of historical inquiry about one of the world s most famous women. Review Quote "The book triumphantly reclaims Helen from some of her traducers. Hughess portrait is as close to a real, living Helen as we are likely to get." Financial Times "When Helen launched her "thousand ships," was she a "shameless hussy?" Or, like her mother, was she a rape victim? . . . The answers have always depended on who you speak to and when. Hughes has them all." The Times "Hughes skillfully brings this period back to life. A fascinating window onto the power politics of an age . . . a genuinely exciting historical narrative." Sunday Telegraph. Excerpt from Book Chapter 1A DANGEROUS LANDSCAPESuddenly down from the mountains rocky crags Poseidon stormed with giant, lightning strides and the looming peaks and tall timber quaked beneath his immortal feet as the sea lord surged on. --Homer, Iliad To understand the disquiet landscape that nurtured Helen, we must begin our story 175 miles south-east from Sparta, Helens traditional birthplace, across the Aegean Sea on the Cycladic island of Thera. Here, over three and a half thousand years ago, a single, cataclysmic event directed the course of western civilisation.Between 1859 and 1869, labour-gangs were employed on the island of Thera to quarry raw materials for cement. Huge amounts were needed: this was preparatory work for the construction of the new canal at Suez. The workers were after pozzolan, a powdered pumice-stone which, combined with lime, produces a cement so fine that it is like plaster; they were digging in the right place. Here were layers of pumice a full 10 m thick: the tell-tale sign of massive geo-physical activity. The volcanic island of Thera had erupted a number of times, and as the navvies dug deeper and deeper it became clear that the most spectacular explosion pre-dated the Romans, the classical Greeks and Homer himself. When the pick-axes finally hit the bedrock, the workers had made their way through extruded volcanic material 3,500 years old to the archaeological level of the Aegean Bronze Age. What was being quarried was the fall-out of a gargantuan natural disaster.The landscape of present-day Thera still signals the force of an earth that is uneasy. Take a little boat out to the collapsed centre of the volcano and you crunch your way through its hills and hummocks built up of dusty, aerated lava. Pumice stones skitter and slide underfoot at the approach to the volcanos centre. The ground still breathes out attenuated plumes and wisps of smoke. Footpaths wind past giant rocky outcrops: once molten ooze, these subterranean minerals have now hardened into titanic chunks of shiny, black, broken treacle. For centuries, the Theran landscape would have been a stark aide-memoire, telling the ancients that men were mere matchwood when it came to the anger of the earth, the sea and the sky.Thera is a shocking and savage enough place today - just imagine it as the volcano erupted around 1550 bc. Earthquakes a month or so before would have been the first signal that the gods were uneasy. Then the massive mountain in the sea would have started to exhale clouds of ash, a dark stain in the sky, an ugly blur visible for a hundred miles. With a scream of released pressure, steam would have escaped in voluminous billows and tight jet-blasts. And then the coup de th Details ISBN1400076005 Author Bettany Hughes Short Title HELEN OF TROY Series Vintage Language English ISBN-10 1400076005 ISBN-13 9781400076000 Media Book Format Paperback DEWEY B Subtitle The Story Behind the Most Beautiful Woman in the World DOI 10.1604/9781400076000 Place of Publication New York Country of Publication United States AU Release Date 2007-01-09 NZ Release Date 2007-01-09 US Release Date 2007-01-09 UK Release Date 2007-01-09 Pages 528 Publisher Random House USA Inc Year 2007 Publication Date 2007-01-09 Imprint Random House Inc Illustrations 16 PP COLOR; 16 PP B&W; 6 MAPS Audience General We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:9954136;

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