Le roi d’Hélène de Christos Choménidis : l’histoire d’Hélène racontée par Ménélas

L’histoire d’Hélène racontée par Ménélas

Authors

  • Orestis Karavas University of the Peloponnese

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.34679/thersites.vol19.288

Keywords:

Menelaus, Helen of Troy, Christos Chomenidis, Trojan War

Abstract

In April of 2020, Christos Chomenidis (Athens, 1966) published his eleventh novel, a book of over 400 pages by the title Her king. The main character is Menelaus and the starting point is Helen’s run away with Paris. Menelaus decides to tell his truth about this well-known story. In Her king all great heroes of the legend of Troy participate, but they are presented through a distorting mirror: e.g. Menelaus is the bravest son of Atreus and not Agamemnon; Leda’s story is a lie; the Dioscuri are a couple of imbeciles. My paper is mostly a review on Chomenidis’ book, where I highlight the deviations from the “official” story about the beginning of the Trojan war and find the possible ancient sources that the author chose to follow or not.

Published

2024-12-09