Post #7: Imitatio- The Encomium of Helen

Bushra Zaman

English 360 Section 1

Imitatio

The Encomium of Helen

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Helen, Queen of Sparta, was accused of a great deal. It is said that she fueled a war, resulting in many deaths and an oratory battle that is unsolved to this day. But what do we truly know of the accusations against her? I am rooted in the belief that all were quick to judge and point their fingers at her, without properly considering other arguments. I am here today to ensure that her humanity be rightfully hers again by rebuking those against her. Helen of Troy is not to be blamed for the actions of the Trojan War but rather to be pitied for the actions against her.

Helen was a great beauty bred from the gods. She was the daughter of Zeus, father and overseer of all gods, and Leda, Queen of Sparta. Helen’s birth was a result of the working indignation of Zeus himself. The god of all gods had long planned his daughter’s conception. As a product of the gods, it is only logical to state that the matter of Helen’s workings in the Trojan War was of the gods’ preplanned intentions. Humans and even demigods, including Helen, were easily influenced by the workings of Zeus and his siblings. Helen just happened to be caught in the net of Fate, a game all of us are mere pawns in.

To truly know what occurred during the events leading to the Trojan War is impossible. But when considering the severity and brutality of such times, when women were viewed as sheer play things for men, we can deduce that Helen was the assaulted, not the instigator. Helen was just another merciless victim in the hands of a barbarian. Therefore, it should be the responsibility of the law to punish the barbarian who had taken full advantage of Helen for his assault and the suffering he inflicted upon Helen her. For Helen was not just grieved with pain after this wrongdoing but also taken from the place she knew as home and forced to live among a people who wished only ill on her kingdom. We should direct our detest, therefore, at the one who robbed her, not Helen.

We must also note that Helen was persuaded by speech. Speech itself is a very powerful mode; it can evoke the deepest and greatest of emotions from those who are open to it. Poetry, which the great Prince had recited to Helen, is a form of speech with rhythmic structure. Poetry absorbs the soul, bringing out a physical pain from the person it is inflicted upon, similar to the effect of drugs on the body. Such persuasion can only come as a result of setting a false argument, or a lie. This false argument, spoken by the Prince, marks him as guilty. And it is only right for him to be punished for drawing out Helen and marking her as the perpetrator in this great battle of which she is innocent, and had been beguiled by poetry, and thus held powerless.

Let us then come together and bring Helen’s name to peace (Apostrophe)! I implore that we all look at this conflict through another lens, the lens of Helen’s innocence. Take into account my arguments that clearly depict her as the victim and not the accused and let us rightfully give back her humanity!

Bizzell, Patricia, Herzberg, Bruce. "The Encomium of Helen." The

Rhetorical Tradition. 2nd. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2001. Print.