Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore

Love how Bettany Hughes not only gives you what is was like in antiquity but also how it is today. She visits museums & the very places where the books events occurred. Gives the reader a better perspective of how things were & are. No doubt, the title is very accurate in terms of how Helen is perceived. Excellent find.

The book is up to Ms Hughes usual high standard. It discusses Helen in the context of the Bronze Age (including Homer) and how she has been regarded throughout history. The discussion about the Bronze Age and the Trojan War era is particularly thorough and reveals a great deal of knowledge about this little known time. For example when discussing (some) women's high status in the bronze age she points out that the Lion Gate Lions at Mycenae are in fact lionesses. The book is also interesting and entertaining and does not necessarily require some knowledge of the subject.

This is popular history. This work is not a history text. The reader needs to keep this in mind when starting this work. The author, in my opinion has done more than an excellent job. Her prose alone make the book worth the read. Granted, there is much speculation in this work, but if you read the author's comments, she is the first to point this fact out. That being said, with what we know today, and the author has done an amazing job of gathering her facts, then much of the life of Helen must be speculation. The author has given us this although I would choose the words "educated speculation" in the case of this work. I enjoyed ever word of it, learned a lot and was stimulated to read other works. What more could I ask for? Not only do we get a speculative look at a shadowy figure, but we get an excellent look at bronze age history. The author's discription of present day sights is absolutely wonderful and makes one want to travel. As a side note, after years and years of reading and the study of history, I have found that an expert in the field of history does not absolutely have to have a worn tweed jacket,gray beard and monotone speech to know his or her subject.

I have been studying the Trojan war for years and have finally found a book to help fill in the details of the other side of the story. Very little is known about the end of the Bronze age - archaeology was just invented a century ago- and not all are even convinced that a "Troy" even existed as written by Homer. I am a firm believer in Homer's Illiad and after visiting these sites in person I became even more enthusiastic about this lost time. Much has been written about this violent/turbulent age but few books have been written regarding Helen and the real details around her myth, possible life, and her position in history. Hughes packs so much into her book that I started taking notes on page 2! Facts and tidbits of info that I have never seen anywhere before. She makes some assumptions and guesses but she seems to be right on in her beliefs. I am going back to Greece in the near future to crawl over Sparta and Pylos and this heavy book will be in my scant luggage! Buy this book! I also suggest you check out her PBS video on Helen, so well done. Hannibal

I love people who challange the ideas that history has set down. This book does just that. How many times have we thought of Helen of Troy simply as the trophy of the famous Trjoan War? She must have been more than that. In order for men to fight a 10 year war there must have been something more to Helen than meets the eye. A companion television production played on PBS recently and was excellent. Definately a good book for anyone interested in pursuing the real Helen in her own time.