Bettany Hughes is an historian, broadcaster, and author of Helen of Troy, Goddess, Princess, Whore (Pimlico 2013). Here, she writes about the myth of Helen as explored through the ages ...

Sparta was home to King Menelaus and Helen: once Helen of Sparta, before she was kidnapped by the Trojan prince, Paris, and became Helen of Troy. Today, Menelaus and Helen’s Sparta is empty.

Helen is the wife of Menelaus - King of Sparta - and he musters an army led by his brother Agamemnon to sail to Troy to take Helen back. The war lasts for 10 long years, during which time the main ...