Will the Real Helen Please Stand Up?

Background resources, readings from ancient authors, and reading plans
for Toronto Pursuits 2025

HELEN

READINGS FOR DISCUSSION

Focus your preparation on these:

Homer, Iliad. Book 3, lines 121 – 448 (15 pages)
Homer, Odyssey.Book 4, lines 1 – 625 (20 pages)
Aeschylus, Agamemnon. Chorus III (3 pages)
[Download .pdf here ]
Euripides, The Trojan Women (complete) (49 pages)[in Andromache, Hecuba, Trojan Women]
Gorgias, Encomium of Helen (3 pages)
[Download .pdf here]

SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS

Explore these as time permits:

Herodotus, Helen was never in Troy (6 pages)
[Download .pdf here]
Lucian, The Judgement of Paris (6 pages)
[Download .pdf here]
Lucian, Dialogues of the Dead (2 pages)
[Download .pdf here]
Colluthus, The Rape of Helen (5 pages)
[Download .pdf here]
Pausanias, Helen in Sparta (5 pages)
[Download .pdf here]
Isocrates, Encomium of Helen (18 pages)
[Download .pdf here]

ODYSSEUS

READINGS FOR DISCUSSION

Focus your preparation on these:

Homer, Iliad
- Book 2, line 142 - 336 (8 pages)
- Book 9, line 162 - 315 (5 pages)
- Book 10, line 203 - end (12 pages)
Homer, Odyssey
- Books 5 - 12 (130 pages)
- Books 17 - 24 (130 pages)
Sophocles, Philoctetes (complete) (65 pages)
[in The Complete Sophocles II: Electra and Other Plays]
Euripides, Hecuba (17 pages)
- line 1 - 463
- [in Andromache, Hecuba, Trojan Women]

SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS

Explore these as time permits:

Euripides, Iphigenia at Aulis (4 pages)
[Download .pdf here]
Sophocles, Aias (Ajax) (51 pages)
[in The Complete Sophocles II: Electra and Other Plays]
Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book XIII selections (23 pages)
[Download .pdf here]

HERACLES

READINGS FOR DISCUSSION

Focus your preparation on these:

Euripides, Heracles (complete) (65 pages)
[in Euripides: Four Plays—Medea, Hippolytus, Heracles, Bacchae]
Sophocles, Women of Trachis (complete) (55 pages)
[in The Complete Sophocles II: Electra and Other Plays]

SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS

Explore these as time permits:

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book IX selection (21 pages)
[Download .pdf here]
Xenophon, Prodicus’ Encomium of Heracles (2 pages)
[Download .pdf here]
Herodorus, On Heracles (1 page)
[Download .pdf here]

MEDEA

READINGS FOR DISCUSSION

Focus your preparation on these:

Apollonius, Argonautica, Books 3 - 4 (74 pages)
[in Jason and the Golden Fleece]
Euripides, Medea (complete) (50 pages)
[in Euripides: Four Plays—Medea, Hippolytus, Heracles, Bacchae]

SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS

Explore these as time permits:

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 7 selection (30 pages)
[Download .pdf here]
Pindar, Pythian 4 (13 pages)
[Download .pdf here]
Pausanias, Tomb of Medea’s Children (2 pages)
[Download .pdf here]
Aelian, Medea’s Children (1 page)
[Download .pdf here]

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