Character
Helen
Queen of Sparta · the woman the Trojan War was fought over
The most beautiful woman in the world, whose flight to Troy began the war, now back in Sparta and pouring wine for her husband's guests. The poem is strikingly unmoralising about her: she drugs the wine to stop everyone weeping, recognises Telemachus by his likeness to his father, and tells a story of helping Odysseus when he entered Troy in disguise — immediately after which Menelaus tells one in which she nearly gave the men in the wooden horse away.
She tells a story of helping Odysseus inside Troy; her husband immediately tells one where she nearly gave the wooden horse away. The poem prints both and takes no side.