Promotional Information

A major new book about the life and legend of the world's 'most beautiful woman' - by the new star of TV history.

About the Author

Bettany Hughes won a scholarship to read Ancient and Modern History at Oxford. Her postgraduate research into large-scale public ritual took her travelling across Asia Minor, the Balkans and Central Europe. She has been widely acknowledged as the best of the new generation of TV historians. Her first television series, Breaking the Seal, was produced for BBC 2 and the Open University and she has written and presented The Spartans, Seven Ages of Britain, The Minoans and Helen of Troy for Channel 4. She has two children and lives in London.

Reviews

"The book triumphantly reclaims Helen from some of her traducers. Hughes' portrait is as close to a real, living Helen as we are likely to get" Financial Times "I hope that many readers buy this book...When Helen launched her "thousand ships" was she a "shameless hussy"?...Or, like her mother, was she a rape victim?...The answers have always depended on who you speak to and when. Hughes has them all" The Times "A wonderful read, it's what great history is all about - excitement, a fast-moving story packed full of information, accessible and brainy, a dazzling combination... Add to your pile of must-read books" -- Kate Mosse, author of Labyrinth "Evoking in sensuous and gorgeous prose the citadels, the palaces and the luxuries of that long-vanished world... A passionate book" The Sunday Times "Hughes skilfully brings this period back to life. A fascinating window on to the power politics of an age...a genuinely exciting historical narrative" Sunday Telegraph

Hughes, a freelance historian who has presented television documentaries on the ancient world, has written an impressive study of the fabled Helen of Troy. She draws upon a wide range of sources from mythology, literature, art, archaeology, and her own travels to ancient sites to bring substance to the Helen who has been the object of adoration and condemnation for over 3000 years. Starting with Homer's presentation of Helen in The Iliad, her first appearance in literature, Hughes reconstructs what her life as an aristocratic woman in the Late Bronze Age would have been like. Hughes deftly re-creates the Mycenaean culture of ancient Greece and the world of Troy, based on the latest archaeological evidence. Her research contrasts the political and spiritual power held by women at this period (including women in Hittite culture) with later classical Athens. She documents Helen's magnetism, her "terrible beauty," and her demonization by classical and Christian writers, as well as her veneration at shrines and cult centers and her representation by an array of artists, poets, playwrights, theologians, and filmmakers through history. Hughes draws the reader into her deftly written work with her stunning ability to capture the essence of a landscape or a character. The brilliant and exhaustive research that produced this gem of a book never overshadows its appeal. For history and women's studies collections, as well as for a wide general audience.-Joan W. Gartland, Detroit P.L. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.