Though little is known for certain of his early life, Euripides was probably born around 460 b.c.e. to the farmer Mnesarchus and his wife Clito, and his studious nature quickly led him to a literary life in Athens. He turned to playwriting at a young age, achieving his first of five victories in the dramatic competitions of the Athenian City Dionysia in 441 b.c.e. His plays are often ironic, pessimistic, and display radical rejection of classical decorum and rules. Together with Aeschylus and Sophocles, Euripides provided the canon of Greek tragedy and thereby laid the foundation of Western theatre. «Helen» is a drama which follows an alternative myth of Helen of Sparta after the fall of Troy. It begins with the premise that Helen did not run off to Troy with Paris, but was actually stolen away to Egypt by the gods and replaced by a phantom look-alike in Troy.
