This painting, from the workshop of the French artist Simon Vouet (17th century), depicts King Menelaus of Sparta and his wife, Helen, receiving an eerily powerful potion during their troubled trip home following the Trojan War. After neglecting their religious duties before setting sail for Greece, Menelaus and Helen were hounded by unfavorable winds and storms, driving their ship on a seven-year detour along the coastlands of Cyprus, Phoenicia, Sidon, Arabia, Libya and Egypt. It was in Egypt where some of the most memorable events from their voyage took place. There, at Pharos, Menelaus wrestled the mysterious wiseman-god, Proteus, otherwise known as The Old Man of the Sea. They traveled inland as far as Egyptian Thebes, where they befriended royals and notables of Egypt. The Greek adventurers found the Egyptians to be hospitable and generous, with plenty of gifts being offered to the Greeks as they prepared to depart. It was in this context that Menelaus and Helen encountered a woman named Polydamna (or Polydamne), who presented Helen with a unique potion that had the power to eradicate sadness and painful memories. The potion, however, was arguably too effective to the extent that it was more of a curse than a blessing. Homer eerily described the power of the potion in book four of The Odyssey, stating:
“Into the bowl in which their wine was mixed, she slipped a drug that had the power of robbing grief and anger of their sting and banishing all painful memories. No one that swallowed this, dissolved in wine, could shed a single tear that day, even for the death of his mother and father, or if they put his brother or his own son to the sword and he were there to see it done. It was one of many drugs which had been given to the daughter of Zeus [Helen] by an Egyptian woman, Polydamna, the wife of Thon” (Homer, The Odyssey, book 4, approximately between lines 220-230).
With their gifts stored and secured, Menelaus and Helen were able to successfully sail home to Sparta with some helpful navigation advice obtained from the aforementioned Old Man of the Sea. Unlike Agamemnon and other unlucky fellows who met early ends in the Trojan War era, Menelaus and Helen went on to live long lives in their Spartan home. They hosted Odysseus’ son, Telemachus, in their palace when the boy traveled to meet them to learn of news about his long-absent father. Helen still had Polydamna’s potion in her possession at the time when Telemachus arrived, and she evidently served a low dose of the elixir to the veteran warriors so that they would be forthcoming and unemotional as they talked about their harrowing war stories from the Trojan War.
Written by C. Keith Hansley
Sources:
- The Iliad by Homer, translated by E. V. Rieu and edited by Peter Jones. New York: Penguin Classics, 2014.
- The Odyssey by Homer, translated by E. V. Rieu and edited by D. C. H. Rieu. New York: Penguin Classics, 2009.
- https://www.britannica.com/topic/Menelaus-Greek-mythology
- https://www.britannica.com/topic/Helen-of-Troy
- https://www.parismuseescollections.paris.fr/fr/musee-carnavalet/oeuvres/helene-offrant-a-menelas-la-potion-de-la-reine-polydamne#infos-principales
