Skip to main content

The Heroes of the Iliad as Indo-European Gods: A Mythological Rosetta Stone, Part 8: Helen

 Helen

Helen – Ushas (The Dawn Goddess)

Helen in the Iliad occupies the “central young queen” position comparable to that of Draupadi in the Mahabharata. Draupadi's divine affiliation is not specified and so we are left to speculate; however, her epithets such as “maker of garlands,” “one who never grows old,” and “born from sacrificial fire,” (as the Dawn itself was seen as brought on by the morning sacrifice) as well as the accusation that she is “unchaste” (a common attribute of the Dawn goddesses, a reflection of all of the forces that center around her and seem to compete for her each morning; perhaps as well the analogy of dawn with Spring and its theme as a time of procreation) due to her five husbands, suggest that she could have a Spring or Dawn association. The greatest obstacle to this identification may be Draupadi's epithet “krsna,” meaning “dark.”  However, this could reasonably refer to the darkness out of which dawn first arises. The dawn is at first a shadowy and shrouded time.  Of course, other explanations could be imagined. Dumezil in his analysis connects her instead to the goddess Saraswati, and it may be that in the Indian and Greek cases a different goddess occupies the same comparable structural position.

Draupadi is the subject of a competition for her hand in marriage, and when Arjuna is selected, all the other Pandava brothers become her husband in common, by accidental pronunciation of their mother. This marriage competition parallels the competition for Helen's hand and the Oath of Tyndareus in which her suitors all become bound to each other, sworn to come to the aid of whoever wins her. When Yudhishthira loses the dice game he loses not only the kingdom but Draupadi as well, who is taken as a slave by Duryodhana. This causes all the Pandavas, now doubly bound by blood and marriage, to seek together to gain back kingdom and wife. When Helen is taken from Menelaus by Paris, this causes all the kingdoms linked by the Oath of Tyndareus to join the fight to bring her back. In Irish myth, the goddess consort of the Sun God Bres is the Dawn Goddess Brigid (whose name derives from PIE *bʰérǵʰonts, “high,” cognate with an epithet of the Vedic Dawn Goddess Ushas: Bṛhatī (बृहती) "high") repeating the marriages of the sun heroes Paris with Helen and the adulterous union of Gronw with Blodeuwedd. In Welsh, the woman stolen from the Lawful Sovereign by the solar figure Gronw Pebr (“The Radiant”) is this Blodeuwedd, who seems at first to be more of a Spring or Love goddess, entirely created out of flowers as she is. Yet, as Angriff and Redbeard, together in discussion with Thomas Rowsell, have reminded us: the Spring was the time of love making and was associated with Dawn goddesses (Brigid, Eostre, etc) and their festivals, and so, as with Freyja, who they mention may fall under this same category, this “flower face” goddess Blodeuwedd may also have only been another aspect of this same goddess. As previously noted, the specific plot roles of Aphrodite and of Helen, conspirator and stolen wife, combine in the figure of Blodeuwedd, attesting to an overlap in the realms of Love, flowers, Spring, and the glow of new morning. One corroboration of this idea may be the fact that the Greek Dawn Goddess Eos' robe is said by Homer to be woven with flowers, and to have the white wings of a bird, while Blodeuwedd is created entirely from flowers and in the end is changed into an owl.

Helen herself has been suggested to be the same figure as Vedic Sarama. This was believed by both Max Muller and Sri Aurobindo to be a name of the Dawn Goddess Ushas, as one of Sarama's two epithets, “the fortunate/beloved one,” was shared by Ushas. However, Muller also hypothesized that “Helene” could derive from Selene, goddess of the moon. This would make Paris the Sun God who steals the moon. On the other hand, Otto Skutsch claims her name derives from *Suelena, which he relates to svarana, “the shining one.” It is the opinion of the comparativist Ceisiwr Serith that this etymology makes Helen the Daughter of the Sun (reconstructed as Proto-Indo-European Sawélyosyo Dhugətḗr), a figure who he claims was habitually confused or combined with the Dawn Goddess. This explanation could fit with Helen's role as well, considering that Serith describes this Sun Daughter as “a maiden who conducts the sun through the sky.” However, Helen does not only conduct the Sun hero but is his explicit lover, and the epithet “the shining one” would not in itself seem to exclude the idea that she could be the Dawn Goddess.  

It is a knotty problem that we may have to reserve an absolute judgment on. However, beyond mere etymology, Helen's own family relations greatly strengthen the case that she is nonetheless The Dawn: her father is Zeus and her brothers are said to be the Horse Twins Castor and Polydeuces, just as the Dawn Goddess is often said to be daughter of the Sky Father (see Rig Veda 6.64.5, and see Brigid as daughter of the Dagda) and a sister or close relation to the Horse Twins (Brigid as sister of Aengus, Ushas as mother of the Asvins). Helen is by no means depicted as daughter of the sun in the Iliad, and if anything she becomes the lover of his representative instead. The clear divinity of Helen's father and brothers in the end emphasizes the divinity of Helen and indeed by analogy that of all the central Iliad characters.

Further supporting the case, Arthur Anthony Macdonell explains that in the Rig Veda Ushas is “closely associated with the sun. She has opened paths for Surya to travel (1.113); she brings the eye of the gods, and leads on the beautiful white horse (7.77). She shines with the light of the Sun (1.113), with the light of her lover (1.92). Surya follows her as a young man a maiden (1.115): she meets the god who desires her (1.123). She thus comes to be spoken of as the wife of Surya (7.75) and the Dawns as the wife of the Sun (4.5)” (Macdonell, A Vedic Reader).  This describes quite perfectly the relationship between Helen and Paris. As the Veda says, “She who is rich in spoil, the Spouse of Sūrya, wondrously opulent, rules all wealth and treasures. Consumer of our youth, the seers extol her: lauded by priests rich Dawn shines out refulgent” (7.75.5-6). 

Importantly for the deeper meaning of the epic, and as this last verse hints: the Vedic Dawn Goddess Ushas was seen as a bringer of strife and a waster of human life, a bringer indeed of the passage of Time each day (“consumer of our youth”). So also can we describe Helen, for she causes the great war by her beauty and acquiescence to the Sun God, leading to the wasting of the lives of untold thousands of men. Hers is the face that launches every ship, each day, with all that it brings.


Dawn Goddess: (Helen, Draupadi/Ushas, Brigid, Blodeuwedd)

- The most beautiful of women

- Promiscuous, multiple husbands and multiple suitors

- Her marriage to the Lawful Sovereign ends up linking all of the Gods of Society and allies together

- Is taken from her husband the Lawful Sovereign by the Sun God, sparking the war

- Is not killed but may be cursed in punishment

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Celtic Creation Myth: Branwen, Matholwch, and Efnysien, or: Earth, Sky, and Rudra : Part 1 of 4

  The Celtic Creation Myth: Branwen, Matholwch, and Efnysien, or: Earth, Sky, and Rudra Part 1 of 4 [Endnotes can be found at the end of each part] Is Efnysien Rudraic? The Second Branch of the Mabinogi , Branwen, daughter of Llyr , is a tantalizing canvas on which interpreters have painted many a colorful thesis. We will add our own here, as certain considerations point to a momentous Rudraic quality in the sower of strife, Efnysien. Marcel Meulder in his article “Nisien and Efnisien: Odinic couple or dioscuric?” has shown a strong parallel of Efnysien, known as the sower of strife, and his brother Nisien, known as the bringer of peace and accord, to Scandinavian figures Bolwis and Bilwis of Saxo’s Gesta Danorum , two figures who are also described in very similar terms, as a bringer of strife and a bringer of peace. Meulder has then demonstrated that these are each Odinnic pairs in terms of their qualities and mythic parallels. 1 The Mabinogi of Branwen, daughter of Llyr describes

The Celtic Creation Myth: Branwen, Matholwch, and Efnysien, or: Earth, Sky, and Rudra : Part 3 of 4

The Celtic Creation Myth: Branwen, Matholwch, and Efnysien, or: Earth, Sky, and Rudra Part 3 of 4 < Part 2 The Castration of Saturn, Antoine Verard Indo-European Contexts If we follow Kramrisch’s suggestion that this overall myth connects to the time around the Vernal or March Equinox, we find further parallels confirming these readings. The Roman New Year is known to have taken place on the Ides of March, perhaps originally being tied to the full moon of this period, marking the end of Winter and the coming of Spring. The first inkling of the new light of the day of the year and the beginnings of fertility were for the Romans the moment the New Year would begin. A well-known myth from Phrygia connected to the festivities of the later Imperial Roman period, including the festival day Canna intrat , tells of Attis and Agdistis. Agdistis is a divine being having both male and female genitals and thus should be taken as an image of the primordial union of “Sky” and “Earth” or “Fathe

The Great Lunar Cycle: The Horse Twins and the Grail: Full Article, Parts 1-12

The Great Lunar Cycle: The Horse Twins and the Grail [ A glossary of relevant names and charts of parallels appear at the end of this article.] The Aesir-Vanir War and the Holy Grail The Aesir-Vanir War's place in comparative mythology has perplexed and misled interpreters for a long time now, not least because it is somewhat unclear if there is an exact example of the same motif in any other branches. Some point to the Deva-Asura conflict of the Vedic religion, but this can be shown to have at its root an internecine dispute possibly stemming from the time of Indo-Iranic unity, out of which arose, over time, the demonization of the favorite gods of the Iranics by the Vedics as “asuras” and the demonization of the favorite gods of the Vedics by the Iranics as “devas.” The division between the Asuras and Devas fails to match the division between the groups of gods who make war in the Norse myth. These are not the same groups of gods coming in conflict. To greatly simplify the matt