She was subversive,
insubordinate,
uppity, way out of line;
refusing to kow-tow,
flouting authority,
be it of gods or men:
a daughter of Sparta,
even by Spartan standards
a force to be reckoned with,
endowed with a manipulative,
passionately lucid mind.
How could a mere mortal
like Menelaos subdue her kind?
Her contempt for masters
was a taunt to the enslaved.
She was the Other
they bitterly envied,
calling her depraved.
She openly despised them
for their compromising ways,
for the way she was demonised
as casus belli,
Ilium in flames.
Ruthless rather than wise,
she betrayed her husband,
wreaking havoc in Troy,
being incapable of bourgeois
conformity; but if the Trojan War
had a winner, it was surely Eleni.
*On rereading Euripedes'
"Trojan Women"
Reasons for hating Eleni
© Copyright: Jena Woodhouse, 2005
Свидетельство о публикации №105021800235
Свидетельство о публикации №105021800235
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