Helen of Troy would actually be middle-aged
Dec 15, 2021 23:42:44 GMT -6
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123anon987 likes this
Post by 123anon987 on Dec 15, 2021 23:42:44 GMT -6
When Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman in the world, with the face to launch a thousand ships and start the whole Trojan war was rescued by the end of it, she was depicted as the same stunning youthful beauty she had always been.
- - - - But she would have to be at least well into middle age (mid-40s) by the time her husband finds and rescues her, and not the young beautiful damsel she had been when the rescue attempt and the whole Trojan war started:
*-*-*-*-HELEN would be 44-48 YEARS OLD by the end of the Trojan war:
, , , ,We know Helen's first child was 29 by the end of the Trojan war. The child was 9 when Helen left for Troy.
, , , So Helen was atleast 24 (gave birth at 15) when taken to Troy, reasonably could be 28 years old if she had given birth at 19. It took the Greeks 10 years to get to Troy, and another 10 until they captured the city and rescued Helen. They would have found Helen a 44 to 48 year old middle-aged woman, potentially even 54. Not the young and most beautiful woman in the world as she had been when they left.
--You would think her beauty would have faded a bit. There is a scene where her ex-husband is about to kill her, but she bares her breasts, and in awe he drops his sword and decides to save her instead.
, , , , , But demigods age normally, so some wrinkles on that "face-to-launch-a-thousand-ships", a few greys hairs, the begginings of a pot belly, a little sag and deflation to those breasts, and them not being as pretty, young and pink-tipped would have been what he actually saw now that she's in her mid-to-late 40's, compared to her youthful and perky 24 year old body when he last saw her.
------Statistically, grey hairs show up by early 30's, wrinkles appear then if not earlier, her metabolism would have slowed majorly by 40, the median age for a woman to get a chest-lift is 34, so her breasts would have lost atleast a bit of mammary tissue and perkiness by her mid-40's, and she had already given birth before. She would have gotten at least crows feet and her first grey before her rescuers even landed at Troy, and had a whole 10-15 years of accumulating more wrinkles and grey's waiting for her ex-husband to save what HAD been a young, peerless beauty 20 years earlier.
*-*-Calculations*-*-
Helen's daughter was 9 when Helen left for Troy with Paris, so Helen must have been atleast 24 when she was taken from her husband in Greece, if she gave birth at 15. Helen states by the tenth year at the end of the Trojan war, it had been 20 years since she left Greece. Thus, she is atleast 44 years old, 48 years old if she gave birth at 19. If married at 22, and taking 2 years to conceive, she potentially even could have been 54 years old by the time of her rescue, at the maximum.
-*-*-*14 was the common age of marriage in ancient Greece, though it could be as high as 18-22, especially in Sparta, which is where Helen was raised and married.
-*-*-*It took them 2 years to prepare to voyage to Troy, another 8 were spent being way-laid, adventuring, accidentally sailing back to Greece and prepping again, and another 10 years after reaching Troy seiging the city till they captured it.
Although she is still quite striking (4.136) in The Odyssey, she is a matronly, middle-aged hostess, far different from the Helen who drove men to such desire that they were willing to go to war for her. www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/o/the-odyssey/summary-and-analysis/book-4
Research---*-----*------Research-----*-----*-*-Research:
"Helen, now middle-aged but still a beauty, was reunited with her husband Menelaus." www.thoughtco.com/sequence-major-events-in-trojan-war-112868
"Helen has been gone twenty years. What happened when the Greeks broke into Troy to see a middle aged woman?" www.patheos.com/blogs/eidos/2019/08/spoiling-song-of-solomon-troy-and-movies/
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_of_Troy
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suitors_of_Helen
www.rwaag.org/helen2
www.quora.com/How-old-was-Helen-in-the-Iliad?share=1
mythology.stackexchange.com/questions/1995/how-old-were-paris-and-achilles-at-the-time-of-the-trojan-war
colors-newyork.com/why-did-helen-go-with-paris-and-start-the-trojan-war/#Is_Helen_of_Troy_a_true_story
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judgement_of_Paris
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_War
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iliad
tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/TheTrojanWar
mythology.stackexchange.com/questions/7848/how-long-do-demigods-live-for
Age and fertility www.researchgate.net/figure/Age-at-menarche-and-first-birth-among-some-natural-fertility-societies-mean-and-95_fig4_338576763
Alternatively, Helen was as old as her sister Clytemnestra, who was at least 29 at the start of the second gathering at anulis, because her daughter was of marriageable age, and she would have to be 15 when she gave birth to the daughter. Then the war started, and took 10 years to finish, making Helen at least 39 years old, and reasonably possible up to 44 years old (if Clytemnestra was 19 at birth, and her daughter 15 by time of marriage). This info is less reliable however
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clytemnestra en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iphigenia
- - - - But she would have to be at least well into middle age (mid-40s) by the time her husband finds and rescues her, and not the young beautiful damsel she had been when the rescue attempt and the whole Trojan war started:
*-*-*-*-HELEN would be 44-48 YEARS OLD by the end of the Trojan war:
, , , ,We know Helen's first child was 29 by the end of the Trojan war. The child was 9 when Helen left for Troy.
, , , So Helen was atleast 24 (gave birth at 15) when taken to Troy, reasonably could be 28 years old if she had given birth at 19. It took the Greeks 10 years to get to Troy, and another 10 until they captured the city and rescued Helen. They would have found Helen a 44 to 48 year old middle-aged woman, potentially even 54. Not the young and most beautiful woman in the world as she had been when they left.
--You would think her beauty would have faded a bit. There is a scene where her ex-husband is about to kill her, but she bares her breasts, and in awe he drops his sword and decides to save her instead.
, , , , , But demigods age normally, so some wrinkles on that "face-to-launch-a-thousand-ships", a few greys hairs, the begginings of a pot belly, a little sag and deflation to those breasts, and them not being as pretty, young and pink-tipped would have been what he actually saw now that she's in her mid-to-late 40's, compared to her youthful and perky 24 year old body when he last saw her.
------Statistically, grey hairs show up by early 30's, wrinkles appear then if not earlier, her metabolism would have slowed majorly by 40, the median age for a woman to get a chest-lift is 34, so her breasts would have lost atleast a bit of mammary tissue and perkiness by her mid-40's, and she had already given birth before. She would have gotten at least crows feet and her first grey before her rescuers even landed at Troy, and had a whole 10-15 years of accumulating more wrinkles and grey's waiting for her ex-husband to save what HAD been a young, peerless beauty 20 years earlier.
*-*-Calculations*-*-
Helen's daughter was 9 when Helen left for Troy with Paris, so Helen must have been atleast 24 when she was taken from her husband in Greece, if she gave birth at 15. Helen states by the tenth year at the end of the Trojan war, it had been 20 years since she left Greece. Thus, she is atleast 44 years old, 48 years old if she gave birth at 19. If married at 22, and taking 2 years to conceive, she potentially even could have been 54 years old by the time of her rescue, at the maximum.
-*-*-*14 was the common age of marriage in ancient Greece, though it could be as high as 18-22, especially in Sparta, which is where Helen was raised and married.
-*-*-*It took them 2 years to prepare to voyage to Troy, another 8 were spent being way-laid, adventuring, accidentally sailing back to Greece and prepping again, and another 10 years after reaching Troy seiging the city till they captured it.
Although she is still quite striking (4.136) in The Odyssey, she is a matronly, middle-aged hostess, far different from the Helen who drove men to such desire that they were willing to go to war for her. www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/o/the-odyssey/summary-and-analysis/book-4
Research---*-----*------Research-----*-----*-*-Research:
"Helen, now middle-aged but still a beauty, was reunited with her husband Menelaus." www.thoughtco.com/sequence-major-events-in-trojan-war-112868
"Helen has been gone twenty years. What happened when the Greeks broke into Troy to see a middle aged woman?" www.patheos.com/blogs/eidos/2019/08/spoiling-song-of-solomon-troy-and-movies/
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_of_Troy
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suitors_of_Helen
www.rwaag.org/helen2
www.quora.com/How-old-was-Helen-in-the-Iliad?share=1
mythology.stackexchange.com/questions/1995/how-old-were-paris-and-achilles-at-the-time-of-the-trojan-war
colors-newyork.com/why-did-helen-go-with-paris-and-start-the-trojan-war/#Is_Helen_of_Troy_a_true_story
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judgement_of_Paris
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_War
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iliad
tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/TheTrojanWar
mythology.stackexchange.com/questions/7848/how-long-do-demigods-live-for
Age and fertility www.researchgate.net/figure/Age-at-menarche-and-first-birth-among-some-natural-fertility-societies-mean-and-95_fig4_338576763
Alternatively, Helen was as old as her sister Clytemnestra, who was at least 29 at the start of the second gathering at anulis, because her daughter was of marriageable age, and she would have to be 15 when she gave birth to the daughter. Then the war started, and took 10 years to finish, making Helen at least 39 years old, and reasonably possible up to 44 years old (if Clytemnestra was 19 at birth, and her daughter 15 by time of marriage). This info is less reliable however
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clytemnestra en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iphigenia