The Iliad: Helen Analysis

Helen shows that she has moments with and without agency, which is the ability to act freely, throughout the third book of The Iliad. She displays characteristics of agency through speech. This verbal agency means that Helen only makes choices with her words, but not her actions. By using her voice Helen can get what she wants, but only with certain people. Her moments of verbal agency show that she is a strong woman and has some control, but whenever she is confronted by someone with more authority, she is found obeying whatever is asked of her. By doing this, Helen also uses silence as a form of agency. She does this by making her own choice to stay silent. In the Homeric world, Helen is only able to use her voice to show her agency due to …show more content…
Since Aphrodite swept Paris away earlier in the passage, this made Helen upset because she would have been returned to the Achaeans if Paris had died. Then, she uses her anger towards Aphrodite. She makes her own decision that she does not want to be with Paris and temporarily she has more power than Aphrodite. For example, Helen speaks with sarcastic language towards the goddess. She tells Aphrodite to “go to him yourself” (III. 470) instead of her and also that “I’ll never go back [to Troy] again!” (III. 475) Helen is briefly unafraid of Aphrodite. Her tone in the quote does not show respect to the goddess. She shows disrespect to Aphrodite through her emotions in the excerpt, uncommon for a woman to do. The mortal women in The Iliad are more submissive to those above them, in comparison to Helen. Helen’s ability to stand out shows that she will defend herself through speech if she does not want to do something that a person in power suggests she do, in this case go back to Paris. Although she shows strength in this particular moment, she describes herself as a “slave” (III. 474) later in her outburst, showing how she feels and how she has to follow every order that is given …show more content…
This occurs when she says “I might make you the butt of hard, withering hate from both sides at once… then your fate can tread you down to dust.” (III. 483-485) The way Aphrodite uses her speech to make Helen back off is an example of what can be accomplished using this type of agency. Since Aphrodite is more powerful, she must listen to what is being said. So when Aphrodite mentions both sides hating Helen, it frightens her because she is already not well-liked by the Trojan women. Helen depicts this idea when she says “the women of Troy would scorn me down the years.” (III. 477) The women she mentions would hate her if she left or was exiled from either city. Helen is terrified to end up alone because women that are alone are seen as about to be abducted or raped, since there is no one to protect them at that point.1 Helen’s reaction can say a lot about Homeric society within The Iliad and how women needed people around to be safe. Once Helen realizes that she could end up alone, she “went along, in silence” (III. 487) with Aphrodite. When she goes silent, Helen chooses to, since it will be safer for herself. She may not want to be silent, but she does so she still has a choice. The “silence” (III. 489) could show that Helen was forced to be that way, but since she made her own decision not to continue yelling at Aphrodite, this is not true. It is only when Aphrodite

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