Elena e l’alibi della violenza

The letter exchange between Helen and Paris in Ovids Heroides is a new step in the long-standing reception of the mythical episode of the abduction of Helen. Ovid re-writes the story of the two lovers according to the elegiac code, focusing specifically on the seduction by Paris and re-shaping the roles of the abductor and the seduced woman in the light of both the Ars amatoria and the juridical tradition. Helens innocence and her role of victim and not accomplice of the raptus are granted by the use of vis on behalf of Paris, even if as the poet teaches in his Ars the violence is just simulated and, most of all, grata puellis.