Who was considered the most beautiful woman and blamed for starting the Trojan War?

• A. Hera
• B. Penelope
• C. Helen
• D. Cassandra

Answer: (C)

Helen of Troy, celebrated as the most beautiful woman in ancient myth, is the figure tied to the start of the Trojan War. In the familiar tale, Paris judges which goddess offers the fairest reward and names Aphrodite as the winner because she promises him the most beautiful woman, Helen, wife of Menelaus. Her departure with Paris provokes Menelaus and the Greek chiefs to retrieve her, sparking a war that lasts for years. So the idea that beauty sparked the conflict points to Helen. Hera is a goddess involved in other disputes, Penelope is Odysseus’s loyal wife, and Cassandra is a Trojan prophetess whose warnings go unheeded; none of them fit the description of the woman whose beauty started the war.