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Wenting Tang
Literature Humanities 52
October 15, 2015

Helen and Weaving in the Iliad: Gendered Mechanisms of Glory and Female Powerlessness
In Greek mythology, The Fates are responsible for weaving the destiny of mortals. Not
coincidentally, Helen, who has very little control over her own life throughout the Iliad, is first
introduced in Book Three while weaving, when a disguised Iris is sent to fetch her.
She came on Helen in the chamber; she was weaving a great web,
a red folding robe, and working into it the numerous struggles
of Trojans, breakers of horses, and bronze-armored Achaians,
struggles that they endured for her sake at the hands of the war god.
Iris of the swift feet stood beside her and spoke to her:
"Come with me, dear girl, to behold the marvelous things done
by Trojans, breakers of horses, and bronze-armored Achaians
the fighting has ended

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But Menalaos the warlike and Alexandros will fight
with long spears against each other for your possession.
You shall be called the beloved wife of the man who wins you. (3.125-138)

Initially, this situation seems commonplace enough; weaving wasand still isa
stereotypically womanly occupation. But a closer reading would indicate Helens actual motive
behind this activity is much more complex and unclear than fulfilling her duties as a wife. By the
fourth line of this section, the reader is reminded the war is supposedly being fought in order to
win her. The conflict goes far beyond just Paris and Menelaus; the Achaian and Trojan
warriors, along with their families, are all directly affected by a single event that some would not
hesitate to blame on Helen. Helens hands are manipulating the threads to depict scenes of
fighting on the robe, which effectively serves as a metaphor for the war itself and Helens
involvement. As the wise elders at the Skaian gates claim, Helens fault lies in her beauty, not her
voluntary or involuntary actions (3.156-158). Nonetheless, by weaving the story of the suffering
she causes on the robe, Helen takes responsibility for causing these events, unlike Paris, who
maintains his righteousness in accepting the gift Aphrodite promised him (3.65-66). Helen takes
on the burden of accountability again in Book Six, where she rues the day of her birth and call
herself a nasty bitch evil-intriguing, as if she is purposely influencing the war, despite going on
to acknowledge the ultimate control held by the gods and her own relative powerlessness
(6.344). Unlike most other women bound by the patriarchal constraints of ancient Greece,

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Helens weaving goes beyond practicalityoffering a sense of reconciliation as well as
empowerment (however limited) and recognition beyond the traditional cult of domesticity.
The robe itself symbolizes Helen and her legacyin the sense that she formed it with her
own hands but also amplifies the notoriety that came from her supreme beauty and the battle
triggered by it. Like the elaborate purple ivory cheek piece compared to Menelaus injury in
Book Four, practicality and material worth is enhanced or even outweighed by the value that is
imbued within the item through the work of the women who create the item. Menelaus earns the
wound and gains honor in battle, whereas women of all social classes are able to prove their
value to their families by producing woven works, potentially allowing them to gain trust and a
level of notoriety in wider Greek society.
Even the goddess Aphrodite pays mind to these standards, disguising herself as an old
woman who is trusted because of her superior skill in wool work in order to lure Helen into
Paris bedchamber, further tangling the web of Helens life.
She laid her hand upon the robe immortal, and shook it,
and spoke to her, likening herself to an aged woman,
a wool-dresser who when she was living in Lakedaimon
made beautiful things out of wool, and loved her beyond all others. (3.385-388)
Despite this, Helen sees through Aphrodites ploy and calls her out for meddling, another one of
the countless examples of the tired trope of the deceitful woman. Clearly, the cultural
significance of spinning and weaving is immense and vital in the depiction of women in Homeric

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works, but Helens weaving is an atypical representation. In the Iliad, Helens weaving is
mirrored yet contrasted by Achilleus playing of the lyre, another mortals attempt to reflect on
and deal with fate as a pawn of the gods (9.186-189). Men gain glory through their actions in war
and the circulation of their mighty deeds through song, whereas weaving is reserved solely for
women. This strictly gendered divide is shown again in Book Six, when Hektor says to his wife
Andromache,
Go therefore back to our house, and take up your own work,
The loom and the distaff, and see to it that your handmaidens
Ply their work also; but the men must see to the fighting,
All men who are the people of Ilion, but I beyond others. (6.490-493)
Andromache and her characterization as a dutiful wife and mother are presented as a foil to
Helen, but as women, they are bound together by tragedy and the common task of weaving and.
Later on in Book 22, Andromache is seen weaving an elaborate robe in anticipation of Hektors
return and following his previous instructions: an act of dramatic irony because we know Hektor
has already been killed. The Iliad closes on both of the women mourning Hektor, as well as the
loss of the lifestyles they were accustomed to. Andromaches preparations for her husbands
return will only go to waste. In fact, she promises to burn the clothing wrought by the hands of
women in his house in order to add to his honor (22.510-514). Facing the defeat of Troy without
a husbands protection, Andromache is at great risk. Presumably, Helen will be returned to
Menelaus as the most valuable spoil of war. At this point, both women are left powerless, with
their futures sealed as easily disposable pawns of men and the gods who control them.

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Ultimately, the vital difference between Helen and Andromache lies with their connection
to men and the permanence of their handiwork. While Andromache and her weaving are
fundamentally bound to her husband Hektor, Helen parallels Homer by recording history and
depicting her worldview on the robe, and in this way, it can outlast her. Despite the tenuous state
Helen is left in at the end of the Iliad, her robe is able to serve the greater purpose of making her
unique voice and perspective communicated in a world where women have little freedom to
speak, while helping her internally by reconciling the situation she is forced into with the
acceptance of responsibility and her notoriety.

Works Cited
Homer. The Iliad. Trans. Richmond Lattimore. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2011. Print.