Helen

Helen (known as Helen of Troy and, earlier, Helen of Sparta) was the daughter of Leda and Zeus (in the same union with the Spartan king Tyndareus, which produced Clytemnestra and the twins Castor and Polydeuces). She was considered the most beautiful woman in the world (described by Christopher Marlowe as having 'the face that launched a thousand ships'), and became the wife of King Menelaus of Sparta. Her abduction by the Trojan prince Paris brought about the Trojan War to retrieve her. After the fall of Troy, she returned to Sparta with Menelaus, who found himself unable to punish her for her unfaithfulness.