Ankit Saxena asked Amalia Carosella:

In Helen of Sparta, all that You wrote was fiction or factual myth from greece history? I need to go with facts, so, just wanna confirm.

Amalia Carosella Hi Ankit,

Thanks for your question!

The events of HELEN OF SPARTA are taken from Greek Myth, but the setting and details of the historical period were drawn from the historical/archaeological record of Mycenaean/Bronze Age Greece.

For instance, there was certainly a bronze age palace built at Sparta, Pylos, Athens, and Mycenae (among other locations) but we can't say with certainty that there was a man named Agamemnon who lived in the bronze age and became king of Mycenae. It's VERY likely, judging by the historical and archaeological record that there was some kind of war with Troy, because we've found remains of a city that appear to have been burned/otherwise catastrophically destroyed, but very UNlikely that this was a ten year epic event as described by Homer.

We know that Helen was a cult figure who was worshipped in later ages by Spartans and other Greek women, but there is no way of knowing for certain that she lived, as the only evidence we have of her particular story and life is through myth, and the belief of later Greeks that she existed. One could argue that they might have been in a better position to determine whether she was a real historical person or not, but then, the Greeks had a much more fluid understanding of what constituted history than we do, today.

My historical note at the end of HELEN should give you an idea of where I made small changes or insertions in the myths themselves to accommodate the story -- for instance, the birth of Helen's brothers as an event that took place BEFORE Helen's birth, rather than all four siblings being born together (hatched from eggs as two sets of twins), and to my knowledge, Helen never did suffer prophetic dreams, though it isn't out of the realm of possibility since many players in Greek Myth do have prophetic experiences or glimpses of their fate.

Hopefully that answers your question, but if not, feel free to follow-up!

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