About the Book
Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 49. Chapters: Geography of ancient Laconia, Laconian mythology, Sparta, Helen, Peloponnesian League, Castor and Pollux, Leda, Taras, Thestius, Phyleus, History of Sparta, Battle of Sellasia, Laconophilia, Women in Ancient Sparta, Spartathlon, Sparta in popular culture, Hyacinth, Battle of Gythium, Amykles, Paul Cartledge, 464 BC Sparta earthquake, Pellana, The Spartans, Sparti, Sphaerus, Pavlopetri, Alcon, Agis I, Dion, Alagonia, Phalanthus of Tarentum, Naucratis Painter, Demetrius Lacon, Amyclas, Polycaon, Mothax, Eurotas, Messene, Aristomenes, Canopus, Brasiae, Archaeological Museum of Sparta, Cranae, Lacedaemon, Oenus, Harpalus, Tripolis. Excerpt: In Greek mythology, Helen (in Greek, - Helen ), known also as Helen of Troy (and earlier Helen of Sparta), was the daughter of Zeus and Leda (or Nemesis), daughter of King Tyndareus, wife of Menelaus and sister of Castor, Polydeuces and Clytemnestra. Her abduction by Paris brought about the Trojan War. The etymology of Helen's name has been a problem to scholars until the present. Georg Curtius related Helen ( ) to the moon (Selene ). Emile Boisacq considered from the noun meaning "torch." It has also been suggested that the of arose from an original, and thus the etymology of the name is connected with the root of Venus. Linda Lee Clader points out however that none of the above suggestions offers much satisfaction. If the name has an Indo-European etymology, it is possibly a suffixed form of a root *wel- "to turn, roll," or of *sel- "to flow, run." The latter possibility would allow comparison to the Vedic Sanskrit Sara y, a character who unlike Helen is abducted in Rigveda 10.17.2. This parallel is suggestive of a Proto-Indo-European abduction myth. Sara y means "swift" and is derived from the adjective sara a ("running," "swift"), the feminine of...
