Helene/Introduction
Many versions of the legend of Helen of Troy exist and some bear some truth, but there is a story rarely told. A story from the mouth of Helen herself. The great Pegasus, who was born of the blood of Medusa and could take the form of a swan and a man, came to Leda, a queen of Sparta, and with her sired children. She later gave birth to two great eggs, claiming they were the children of Zeus. One egg bore two infant male humans, named Castor and Pollux, or Polydeuces. From the second egg two females were born whom were named Clytemnestra and Helene, both of whom took the form of purest white pegasi with wings shining like the fire of opals. Zeus, pleased enough at being the adoptive father of such fine children born to a devoted mother, never bothered to correct anyone. She was otherwise raised among her siblings along with three sisters born of Leda and Tyndareus – Timandra and Philonoe.
Like her twinborn sister Helene grew to learn how to change at an unusually early age thanks to a lesson from Zeus, taking the guise of a human woman to pass among the mortals of the world. Though only late in her childhood, her beauty was of great renown and many men both mortal and supernatural sought her. One, a young man named Theseus, sought to claim her and stole her as a child but was defeated by Helene’s family who came to rescue her. When she was old enough to wed, Helen’s step-father, King Tyndareus, accepted the proposal of Menelaus, a neighboring king with whom he sought an alliance.
With Menelaus, Helen bore three human sons, Aethiolas, Maraphius, and Pleisthenes and a human daughter, Hermione. Helene was happy enough with her husband, though often she would take to her true form and travel far and wide to seek out lost treasures and wild places, unable to remain confined to the ground for more than a few days at a time. Very few knew of her true heritage, but her beauty alone was enough to invoke discord.
One young man, a prince of Troy named Paris sought to make her his own. On a diplomatic journey, Paris met Helene and secretly followed her and witnessed her transformation. Appealing to the gods for aid, it was said that Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite came to Paris and asked him who of them was the most beautiful. In return for his favor, Aphrodite told him a secret – like the first Pegasus, a bridle of pure gold could tame Helene. Paris received the golden bridle and stole upon Helene transformed one night as she set to fly and captured her.
The bridle (or a collar of gold, as it appeared in her human form, bound her to Paris and turned her will to obey and desire only him. Even her power to change her form was only available by his will. He stole her away to Egypt where he kept her for ten years while a war in Troy raged as her family sought to recover her. It is unknown if Helene ever bore Paris children during her time of capture. If she did, no record of them exists and she refuses to speak of it. By great fortune, Menelaus and his forces finally located her and defeated Paris and freed Helene and she flew in her true guise to Troy, aiding in the final destruction of the Trojan forces. Disgusted with her capture and finally fed up with her mortal life, Helene left her family behind, taking to the skies and world to fully embrace her true form as an immortal creature. Her time spent hidden in the far flung corner of the mortal world over millennia would cost her greatly, though, weakening much of her spiritual birthright and leaving her distanced from much of the mortal world.
She would disappear for several centuries, living her life as a free and wild creature, watching the world changing and growing from afar. She remained aloof from it all, content without the concerns and struggles of the mortal world though curious to keep an eye on it. She remained aware of her mortal descendants and those of her siblings as they moved among the world, though in time even the very story of their own blood was lost in legend and regarded as little more that fanciful recitations to make an old and dignified bloodline sound even more impressive. When it suited her, she would appear once or twice throughout the millennia, but she never lingered long. As time changed and the world believed less and less, her grief became greater and greater, and soon loneliness took the place of freedom. Attracted to the brilliance of the Americas and the rumors of the End Days coming, she descended once more and took the guise of a woman and decided to see what the world of man had come to since she’d been gone.
