for you know how we cherished you

On the one hand I don't actually at all care for (especially what seems like specifically movie adaptations doing this) Menelaus as the old, ugly, abusive husband. (But if that's what it takes to keep the unquestionably reciprocated and positive Helen/Paris in adaptations, then that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.) And I also don't really care for the implication in the new Odyssey movie that Menelaus was the one to mutilate Helen.

On the other hand, certain parts of the community wringing their hands about how "Menelaos would NEVER" etc and so on, especially if they then bring up Euripides' Helen makes me roll my eyes and feel like I'm owed damages.

Because the way the "Reclamation of Helen" most often goes in the sources (visual and text) that have survived to us is certainly not some heartfelt reunion. The Odyssey's Sparta scenes, especially the first one, has a marked split in how it can be/is read, and that means one half "reconciled, happy marriage" and one half "these people are NOT in a good relationship".

And then there's Euripides' Helen.

Where Teucer tells us Menelaos dragged (what he thought was) Helen out from Troy by the hair.

A queen at the long fall of her empire

Gold necklace with blue glass, Byzantine, early 7th century

beau voice: I don't know, I didn't know it was possible to speak celestial in a zemnian accent

The winners of our episode, Siobhan Thompson and Grant O'Brien!

1944

"Ya Habibi Taala Elhaani" is a captivating song performed by the renowned Syrian singer Asmahan.