Helen of Troy
The Ancients
History Hit
4.7 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 10 March 2022
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Helen of Troy, the face that launched a thousand ships - but is there more to her than a beautiful face? To mark Women's History Month, Tristan is joined by author and broadcaster Natalie Haynes to discuss Helen's place in mythology and history. Often viewed through the male gaze, Natalie helps set the record straight about who Helen really was. With discussions of her conception, abductions, and grief after the Trojan War - we learn about why she was so noteworthy in mythology.
This episode contains references to rape and self harm.
For more Ancients content, subscribe to our Ancients newsletter here.
If you'd like to learn even more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today!
To download, go to Android or Apple store.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | It's the Entrance on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes, your host. And in today's |
| 0:16.3 | podcast, well a couple of days back was International Women's Day, March is Women's |
| 0:19.5 | History Month. And today we're going to be talking all about one of the most famous |
| 0:23.2 | women from antiquity, and perhaps the most famous women from ancient Greek myths. |
| 0:27.4 | It's about time we talked about myths, about the Trojan War, about the figure of Helen, |
| 0:32.2 | Helen of Troy, the face that launched a thousand ships. In this podcast we're going to be |
| 0:36.9 | giving a detailed rundown of Helen, the many versions of Helen, shall we say, that exist |
| 0:42.6 | from various authors, from antiquity, from ancient Greek times, whether it's Sophocles' |
| 0:47.0 | Helen in one of his lost plays, or one of Euripides' Helen's in two of his plays where |
| 0:51.9 | Helen features, or of course the Helen that features in Homer's Iliad and Homer's Odyssey |
| 0:58.4 | most famously. Now to talk through all of this, including the legacy of Helen, how she |
| 1:03.7 | influenced a certain character in one of the Star Trek episodes, yeah you heard me |
| 1:08.0 | write that. I was delighted to interview a very special guest because at the moment, she |
| 1:13.5 | is one of the leading lights in the classics world, she's one of the most famous faces, |
| 1:18.1 | shall we say, in the classics world. She's a writer, she's a best-selling author, she's |
| 1:21.8 | a comedian, she's a broadcaster, she's multi-talented, incredibly talented, and this is of course |
| 1:27.5 | Natalie Haynes. It was a pleasure to chat to Natalie about a week or so ago to talk all |
| 1:32.7 | things Helen of Troy, she's extremely funny as you're about to hear, and stay tuned for |
| 1:37.4 | a second episode we recorded with Natalie, all about Pandora, the famous Pandora, which |
| 1:43.1 | will also be releasing in due time. So without further ado, to talk all about Helen |
| 1:47.9 | of Troy, the various versions of Helen is Natalie. |
| 2:00.9 | Natalie, thank you so much for taking the time to come on the podcast today. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Hit, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of History Hit and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.