Kolouthou Arpagē Helenēo = Coluthi Raptus Helenae
by Colluthus of Lycopolis
Little is known about the classic poet Collothus besides his birthplace of Lycopolis and his single extant work: a narrative poem entitled “The Rape of Helen.” [1] His work and authority on mythology is discounted however, with one scholar even saying that a translation of the poem is “better than [Collochus] deserved.” [2]
The Rape of Helen is a well-known mythical story about Helen, the daughter of the god Zeus (or mortal father Tyndareus) and the mortal Leda. According to the deity myth, Helen was born with her twin sister Clytemnestra out of a swan’s egg after her mother was turned into a swan to escape the wrath of Zeus’s wife Hera. Also born out of an egg were Helen’s twin brothers Castor and Pollux. When she was grown, Helen was married to Menelaus, who assumed the throne of Sparta when her father Tyndareus abdicated, while her sister married Menelaus’s brother Agamemnon. The story of the Rape of Helen customarily begins with the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, when an “apple of discord” causes a conflict between three goddesses over the title of most beautiful goddess. The Trojan shepherd (who doesn’t yet know he is a prince) Paris chooses Aphrodite as the fairest, and is therefore wins the love of the most beautiful woman in the world - Helen. Stories differ as to whether this was true love leading to an elopement or a “Rape” or kidnapping of Helen from her husband in Sparta. Either way, Helen’s going to Troy leads to the infamous Trojan War. Though the “Rape of Helen” is universally viewed as the proximate cause of the Trojan War, “Helen was merely the instrument employed to initiate the action.” [3] The underlying cause of all of the events leading to the war was the decision of Zeus to free the earth from some of the oppressiveness of humankind by killing off many people in a war. It is notable, however, that this initial purpose, without which none of these mythical events would have occurred, is not addressed in much classical literature, including Collochus’s “Rape of Helen.” [4]
Bibliographic Information
Author: Colluthus of Lycopolis
Title: Kolouthou Arpagē Helenēo = Coluthi Raptus Helenae: Recensuit ad Fidem Codicum Mss. ac Variantes Lectiones et Notas Adiecit Joannes Daniel A Lennep
Publication Info: Leovardiae, ex officina Gulielmi Coulon, 1747.
Edition:
Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library
Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy
Bound in contemporary calf with gilt panels and decorative gilt double rule compartments on spine. Gilt label on black morocco leather.
References
- ↑ E. Harrison, reviewer. “Oppian, Colluthus, Tryphiodorus by A. W. Mair; Athenaeus, the Deipnosophists by C. B. Gulick; Plutarch’s Moralia by F. C. Babbitt,” The Classical Review 44, no. 2 (May 1930): 83.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ John Reeves, “The Cause of the Trojan War: A Forgotten Myth Revived,” The Classical Journal 61, no. 5 (Feb. 1966): 212.
- ↑ Ibid.
