Helen Line Art

Helen Line ArtA minimalist single line drawing of Helen, queen of Sparta and, in the old Greek phrase, the face that launched a thousand ships. The whole figure is carried in a single continuous line. Helen was the daughter of Zeus and Leda and the half sister of Castor, Pollux and Clytemnestra. Married to the Spartan king Menelaus, she was abducted (or eloped the sources disagree) by the Trojan prince Paris, and it was the recovery of Helen that the Greek kings

what stands today is a 1970s reconstruction (anastylosis) of the original facade using the original stones recovered in situ

Most have not survived intact

water droplets suspended mid-air

Atlas's daughters

What is certain is that the opening line has been memorised by Greek schoolchildren for two and a half millennia — and that its compression (muse

knowing he was fated to die young

wakes him with a drop of spilled oil

and delicate decorative panels into lavishly scaled wall programmes

bronze or stone — arrows bounced off it

was a centaur)

The archer is one of the oldest mythological figures in the Greek and wider ancient repertoire — Apollo and Artemis both carry the bow

depending on the source