Helen of Troy From Homer to Hollywood by Laurie Macguire

Macguire is an Oxford English professor -- and it shows: This is a work for people who won't cringe at the thought of changing the canonical text and who enjoy a fast-paced literary romp liberally peppered with exotic vocabulary. This is probably not the best choice for someone trying to get a clear picture of Helen as she appears in the Iliad or Odyssey, although that is covered, as are the other Helens of Troy in the Epic Cycle and Greek tragedy.

In Helen of Troy From Homer to Hollywood, Laurie Macguire has written a literary biography of Helen, whom we unnecessarily qualify as "of Troy". While Homer's version of Helen is the literary earliest, Helen continues to rate re-tellings and re-inventions, making her malleable with very few firmly fixed traits (like beauty and absence).

Macguire does a great job of capturing the elusiveness and known essence of Helen of Troy, even from the classical perspective. Helen appears few times in the Iliad, where Homer neither reveals her bio nor establishes her part in her abduction. Macguire looks at the attributions of blame, Helen's role in the abduction, Helen's ability to drive men to battle, yet stay the hand of her would-be executioner, and Helen's doppelganger who went to Troy while Helen sojourned in Egypt. Most of the information about later incarnations of the world's greatest half-mortal beauty -- like Achilles, Helen's 11th spouse -- are put into sufficient context to make sense even to the uninitiated. The digression into the Faustus myth and the Caribbean parody of Helen, Omeros, are particularly enlightening.

What is most frustrating about this book has nothing to do with Macguire's writing: there is simply very little to know about Helen. In consequence, people can continue to make up stories highlighting whatever they want.

Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.