Helen of Troy

Helen of Troy was a character from Greek mythology who figured prominently in the epic poem called the Iliad by Homer. Helen was reportedly the most beautiful woman in the world, and her abduction by Paris of Troy away from her husband Menalaus, who was the king of Sparta, caused a ten-year war known as the Trojan War. Helen was the daughter of the god Zeus and Leda. When Greeks, after a ten-year struggle, using cunning to devise the Trojan horse subterfuge to gain entrance to the city of Troy, the Trojan hero Aeneas had an opportunity to kill Helen but was dissuaded by his mother, the goddess Venus. Helen returned home with Menelaus back to Sparta, according to Greek mythology.