You are listening to Trojan War, the podcast, history's most awesome epic.

This is episode number six in the series. Today's episode is titled, Helen of Sparta. So welcome back to Trojan War, the podcast.

This, of course, is episode number six, an episode titled Helen of Sparta.

Now, if you recall back to episode number five in our ongoing serialized telling of the entire

Trojan War epic, you'll remember that I rather cruelly left the episode hanging on a cliffhanger.

Aphrodite had just instructed her son, Eros, the magic little boy

with the erotic arrows and his little bow, to release one of those erotic arrows directly

into Helen of Sparta. Helen had been hit by the arrow and looked up. And there in front of her was the young,

devastatingly gorgeous, 18-year-old Paris Prince of Troy. A guest of her husband, King Menelaus of

Sparta, and now, for all intents and purposes, King Menelace of Sparta's brother.

Well the arrow hit Helen and that's where I'd left things at the end of the

preceding episode and I apologized for the cliffhanger but I told you there was an awful

lot of story to cover and so we'll pick up that story right now. But to pick up the story, I have to again,

hang on to the edge of that cliff for just a little wee bit longer because what I need to do is

take you back and ask the question about whether Helen really was that stunningly gorgeous.

Aphrodite assured Paris that Helen was the most beautiful, sexy, desirable woman who'd

ever walked the face of the earth.

And Paris thought she was.

But, well, you know how stories can grow with the telling over the centuries?

And of course, now we refer to Helen.

Well, we quote Christopher Marlowe, the Elizabethan poet, and say, Helen was the face that

launched a thousand ships and

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