Note in the name HELENA — THE AGAMEMNON

[P. 29, CHORUS. The name HELENA.]—There was a controversy in Aeschylus’ day whether language, including names, was a matter of Convention or of Nature. Was it mere accident, and could you change the name of anything at will? Or was language a thing rooted in nature and fixed by God from of old? Aeschylus adopts the latter view: Why was this being called Helena? If one had understood God’s purpose one would have seen it was because she really was “Helenâs”—Ship-destroyer. (The Herald’s story of the shipwreck has suggested this particular idea.) Similarly, if a hero was called Aias, and came to great sorrow, one could see that he was so called from ‘Aiai,’ “Alas!”—The antistrophe seems to find a meaning in the name Paris or Alexandras, where the etymology is not so clear.