#also the ??? fact that Menelaos is never once given the epithet 'husband of lovely-haired Helen'

[littlesparklight]

There's something vaguely funny how, when reading papers touching on Helen and Menelaos' scenes in the Odyssey, the interpretation of the marital relationship can vary so wildly.

It goes from anywhere between "marital bliss" to "obviously tense and questionable reconciliation". So different readings from the same thing!

And like, I can definitely see both ends of these very disparate interpretations.

Helen seems relaxed, she and Menelaos to all appearances amicable as they speak with each other, she walks around the palace/comes down into the hall as she wishes, they sleep together, etc.

And yet, also; she just single-handedly decides to drug both her husband and her guests, no apparent warning or question about it. Her and Menelaos' Trojan tales are distinctly at odds with how Helen and her actions are shown. Menelaos comes after Helen, he chooses a story that immediately questions and problematizes Helen's proclaimed feelings and motives in her story.

And when you put that in conjunction with what seems to have been the mainstream version of the reclamation of Helen, that is, that Menelaos attempted to kill her but Aphrodite had to intervene... Well, I don't think it's impossible or improbable that they actually have truly reconciled and are back at a good spot in their relationship, ten years after the sack and having spent nothing but time together for eight of those years as they travelled.

But still. I could also equally see it the other way, given the very insistent general tradition that Helen left of her own will/desire, and an attempted murder might be hard to forgive. So the ambiguity in the Sparta scenes is really interesting.