Hypostases of Helen

This chapter reexamines the evidence for two cults of Helen, as part of a discussion into the origins of Helen and her myth outside of her narrative. Some scholars have posited that Helen, before becoming humanized into a heroine in Homer's epic, had originated as a goddess, and is thus hypostatized as an essential or real being who exists before and outside of myth and poetry and somehow enters the extant sources. To make matters more obscure, there are two such goddesses—two hypostases. In one, Helen is the avatar of an Indo-European goddess, who is also reflected in certain goddesses in the Rig Veda. In the other hypostasis, Helen is a goddess of cult.