Abstract
An episode of the Theseus-legend-that of the rape of Helen by Theseusseems, at first sight, to be a poor imitation of another legend of the rape of Helen by Paris, which has become one of the immortal themes of literature since Homer But, in discussing this problem, we need to deal with a whole series of complexities in the legend The whole sequence of the legend is as follows Helen, being only a girl of ten or so, is carried off from Sparta by Theseus He takes her to Aphidna in Attica, where he leaves her with Aethra, his mother, under supervision of Aphidnos But the Dioscuri, Helen's brothers, come to Aphidna to rescue her from the enemy's hand in the absence of Theseus who has gone to the land of Hades to fetch Persephone for Peinthoos The Dioscuri attack and destroy Aphidna, taking with them not only Helen but Aethra as well Supported by Nilsson's suggestion and S Wide's description of her cult, we are encouraged to regard Helen as originally a Peloponnesian vegetation goddess, who is said to be carried off by a god of wealth But who is this god of wealth ? Certainly he is not Theseus, but rather Aphidnos S Wide refers to Maass's remark that Aphidnos is an underworld god, his name being 'Α-φιδ-νοζ. And it is known that gods of the underworld are very often regarded as gods of wealth Thus this legend of the rape of Helen can be reduced to a myth in which Helen is carried off by Aphidnos to his underworld, Aphidna If Helen is traced back to a vegetation goddess in the Peloponnese, we can only regard this as her origin But it may be thought also that she was venerated as a goddess of some sort in Attica, especially in connection with Nemesis at Rhamnus, as one version of the legend of her birth tells us But we have reasons to believe that this was not the case, the 'Attic' Helen is better understood as an invention by the poet of the Cypria So the Trojan Helen must also have originated in the Peloponnesian Helen raped by Aphidnos Later than this, we can safely say, Theseus, Diacrian prince also assumed the role of Aphidnos and Aphidna was identified with a small town of Diacria in Attica This change may be attributed to the Attic effort to enhance Theseus' fame Even later than that the Dioscuri were introduced into the Theseusversion of the legend, only taking Helen back to Spaita to make her Menelaos' wife, thus connecting the Theseus legend with the Trojan legend, which had, by that time, acquired its complete details The most important question, namely, how Paris, the Trojan prince, could have come into relation with Helen must be left unanswered, because nothing is known as yet about it Bethe's effort to find some place where Menelaos, Helen and Paris are related together in some way or other is doomed to failure. We must satisfy ourselves with the assertion that any passage which has any bearing upon Theseus and the Dioscuri in connection with Helen must be regarded as a later interpolation
