if i were writing a feminist myth retelling centered around a female character mostly overlooked and denied interiority in the ancient texts that mention her, i would simply not throw helen under the bus to do so
rip to margaret atwood and madeline miller but i’m different
μηδ᾽ εἰς Ἑλένην κότον ἐκτρέψῃς,
ὡς ἀνδρολέτειρ᾽, ὡς μία πολλῶν
ἀνδρῶν ψυχὰς Δαναῶν ὀλέσασ᾽
ἀξύστατον ἄλγος ἔπραξεν.
don’t turn your bitterness onto Helen,
as if she were the murderer, as if she and she alone
robbed so many Greek men of their lives
and dug you a bottomless despair.
Clytemnestra in Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1464-7
