HELEN

Homer calls Hermione the only child the gods granted Helen after her birth. Back in Sparta with Menelaus, Helen presides over a household still defined by the memory of Troy. 1Homer — Odyssey 4.1–14

Apollodorus says Paris carried Helen away from Sparta while Menelaus was absent, leaving nine-year-old Hermione behind. He also records the rival story that Hermes took the real Helen to Egypt and sent only a cloud phantom to Troy. 2Pseudo-Apollodorus — Epitome 3.1–5

After eight years of wandering, Menelaus returned with Helen. Apollodorus ends their story with Hera making Menelaus immortal so that the pair could dwell together in the Elysian Fields. 3Pseudo-Apollodorus · Hyginus — Epitome 6.29; Fabulae 118

Pausanias reports an Argive claim that Helen bore Iphigenia after Theseus abducted her, then gave the child to Clytemnestra. This makes Helen, not Clytemnestra, Iphigenia's mother in that local genealogy. 4Pausanias — Description of Greece 2.22.6–7⚖Told differently in other tellings — change the lens above