Helen of Troy: Beauty, Myth, DevastationAncient Greek culture is pervaded by a profound ambivalence regarding female beauty. It is an awe inspiring, supremely desirable gift from the gods, essential to the perpetuation of a man's name through reproduction; yet it also grants women terrifying power over men, posing a threat inseparable from its allure. The myth of Helen is the central site in which the ancient Greeks expressed and reworked their culture's anxieties about erotic desire.