# Villain, Victim... Double Agent? The Many Lives of Helen of Troy pt 3

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/instant-classics-7455513/villain-victim-double-agent-the-many-lives-of-helen-of-troy-pt-3
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/instant-classics-7455513/villain-victim-double-agent-the-many-lives-of-helen-of-troy-pt-3.md
Podcast: [Instant Classics](https://stenobird.com/podcast/instant-classics-7455513)
Published: 2026-02-05T06:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NSR6618170381.mp3?updated=1770167631
Audio file: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NSR6618170381.mp3?updated=1770167631
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/instant-classics-7455513/episodes/villain-victim-double-agent-the-many-lives-of-helen-of-troy-pt-3
Duration seconds: 2697

## Resource

What happened to Helen after the Trojan War? Mary and Charlotte pick up the trail of mythology’s most famous femme fatale as she makes the long journey home from Troy. The big question at the end of the previous episode was whether her husband Menelaus would kill her as revenge for betraying him with Paris. Needless to say, her charms win out and, after a long stop in Egypt, where she acquires some amazing accessories, they return home to Sparta. Just in time for Telemachus, son of Odysseus, to arrive and ask them if he knows where his father is? The Helen of The Odyssey Book 4 takes us by surprise. She and Menelaus have settled into a rather humdrum domestic companionship. And it raises the question: was all that fighting and bloodshed worth it? For this? Just as fascinating as Homer’s surprise depiction is a theory embedded in Greek texts that Helen never actually went to Troy, but sat out the whole affair in relative safety in Egypt. The Helen people saw on the ramparts of Troy was simply an eidolon - an image. Mary and Charlotte show how the true nature of Helen - villain, victim or double agent? - provided an endless source of debate, and opportunities for creative flights of fancy, in the ancient world. Finally, they look at a few of the different accounts of her final years. @instaclassicpod for Insta, TikTok and YouTube @insta_classics for X email: instantclassicspod@gmail.com Mary and Charlotte recommend some further reading: In addition to the reading recommended for the earlier episodes: The whole tradition of the phantom of Helen is discussed in detail by Norman Austin in Helen of Troy and her Shameless Phantom (Cornell UP, 2018) Helen and Menelaus in Sparta feature in Book 4 of the Odyssey (with a detailed recent discussion by J Burgess in The Oxford Criti…

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