Freshman Honors Seminar:
“The face that launched a thousand ships”:
Helen of Troy and Her Ghosts
Fall 2013
Professor Liana Theodoratou
A. S. Onassis Program in Hellenic Studies
285 Mercer Street, 8th Floor
Tel: 212-998-3995
Email: hlt1@nyu.edu
Trajectories:
In Homer’s Iliad, Helen, reflecting on her destiny, proclaims that her function is not
primarily to be a woman, but to be first and foremost a story. “On us the gods have set an
evil destiny,” she explains, “that we should be a singer’s theme / for generations to come”
(Il.6.357-58). Taking its point of departure from the Helen of ancient Greece—the
daughter of Zeus and Leda—this course will trace the various Helens whose stories have
been told throughout the history of Western literature—from the Helen of Homer to that
of Sappho, Stesichorus, Hesiod, Aeschylus, Euripides, Pierre de Ronsard, Christopher
Marlowe, William Shakespeare, Jean Giraudoux, W.B.Yeats, Paul Valéry, Yannis Ritsos,
and beyond. Within this literary trajectory, Helen becomes a means of tracing the story
of literature itself. She is composed of all the ideas and desires that have been projected
onto her body. In the wording of the modernist poet, H. D. (Hilda Doolittle), “Helen is
the Greek drama.” In each instance, Helen’s identity is shattered across an entire history
of representations of her relation to literature and poetry and, in the process, she even
becomes another name for literature and poetry. Tracing this history will permit us to
think about the survival of the past in the present, about the role and place of
representation in the establishment of identity in general, and about the way in which the
present is haunted by the phantoms of the past.
This is an Honors Seminar and it is intended to encourage students to analyze more
challenging texts and to develop oral, research, and writing skills. Students are strongly
encouraged to use the University’s resources: Bobst Library, the Writing Center, the
University Learning Center, and the College Advising Center.
Required Texts:
Available at NYU Bookstore:
Aeschylus, Oresteia, Tr. Robert Fagles, Penguin Classics
Euripides, Medea, Hippolytus, Electra, Helen, Tr. James Morwood, Oxford U. Press
Euripides, Trojan Women and Other Plays, Tr. James Morwood, Oxford U. Press
Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus and Other Plays, Oxford U. Press
William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, Oxford U. Press
J. G. W. Goethe, Faust (Part II), Penguin Putnam Inc.
H. D. (Hilda Doolittle), Helen in Egypt, New Directions
On NYU Classes:
Pierre de Ronsard, Sonnets for Helen
Jacques Offenbach, The Beautiful Helen
Jean Giraudoux, The Trojan War Will Not Take Place
Hugo von Hofmannsthal, The Egyptian Helen
Yannis Ritsos, “Helen”
Assignments:
HELEN “THE ORIGINAL”
Sept. 3
Introduction, Homer
Sept. 10
Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Sept. 17
Euripides, Helen
Sept. 24
Euripides, Trojan Women, lyric poetry
HELEN “TRANSLATED”
Oct. 1
Pierre de Ronsard, Sonnets for Helen
Oct. 8
Christopher Marlowe, Dr. Faustus
Oct. 22
William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida
Oct. 29
J. G. W. Goethe, Faust (Part II)
HELEN IN FRANCE
Nov. 5
Jacques Offenbach, The Beautiful Helen
Nov. 12
Jean Giraudoux, The Trojan War Will Not Take Place
Albert Camus, Paul Valéry, Pierre Jean Jouve
HELEN IN EGYPT
Nov. 19
Hugo von Hofmannsthal, The Egyptian Helen
Nov. 26
H.D., Helen in Egypt
HELEN (BACK) IN GREECE
Dec. 3
Yannis Ritsos, “Helen”
Sikelianos, Seferis, Sinopoulos, Elytis
Dec. 10
Conclusions
Musts:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Do all the reading
Come to all the seminars
Talk a lot in class
Give two formal oral presentations
Write two 4-5 page papers
Write a final paper (8-10 pages)
Grading:
Class attendance, preparedness, and participation: 20%
Two oral presentations: 20%
Two short papers: 30%
Final paper: 30%