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I’m still wearing the bracelet you made specifically for me, the emeralds always send colorful squares on the marble floor and glisten under the sunlight, their beauty so mesmerizing it reminds me of your eyes.
Thank you for keeping up our Christmas tradition (where you design something for me, and it’s always the first gift I receive in the early morning). You started it when Santiago wasn’t even around to cheer me up because my parents refused to celebrate Christmas without him…so you came up with the celebration just for the two of us.
All your gifts are tucked neatly in my glass box in my wardrobe, and each is so beautiful and detailed, my heart always warms from the memories.
Thank you so much for being there for me, Florian. The older I become…the more I appreciate it all.
How is your master’s degree going? Are you enjoying your semester abroad in Switzerland? According to all the newspapers, you are.
However, it brings me to another question I wanted to ask you because everyone else in my life just brushes off my concerns.
I’ve recently decided to read the Iliad by Homer to better understand Helen of Troy in order to see why my parents would name me after her. And well…I still don’t get it.
The woman constantly caused trouble through her entire life, and her love story is not even tragic. It’s just selfish.
Their love caused two royal dynasties (well, not sure what I’m supposed to call them all?) to fight against each other, and Troy lost everything.
I mean, Paris is to blame as well, but Helen owed her husband and country her loyalty, right?
Try as I might, I couldn’t find one redeeming quality about her and somehow got even angry with my parents for naming me in her honor.
So many great female characters to choose from.
Penelope. Odysseus’s faithful wife who waited for his return for twenty years (still salty about the fact he cheated on her, though, but whatever).
Briseis. A woman who lost a lot but still found a way to love Achilles and have a son with him.
Andromache. Hector’s wife who stood with him through everything and supported him, forever losing her happiness once he died.
Even Cassandra, Paris and Hector’s sister. She might have gotten a gift from Apollo to see the future, but it was a curse since no one ever believed her prophecies (a punishment because she refused to sleep with the said god).
All these female characters were strong in their own way and dealt with all the bad stuff that life threw their way.
Helen, though?
She was the cause of all these troubles, and she lost absolutely nothing. How strongly could she have loved Paris if she went back to Menelaus when he died?
Mom loves to say that Santiago reminds her of Achilles, who is always in search of glory and chaos as his soul doesn’t want peace.
It just searches for an outlet to his rage.
So once again, he’s the bravest and strongest of warriors, and I’m just a selfish and self-centered character who never considers anyone’s feelings but my own.
Maybe that’s why I made it my mission to become the exact opposite of her.
So tell me, Florian.
Can a love that causes destruction and threatens your legacy be worthy of pursuing?
From Florian’s emails to Jimena…
Helen of Troy.
A woman legendary for her beauty that attracted all the men and made them lose their minds, wanting to have her.
But how many people looked beneath the facade to see the real woman hiding underneath it?
She was a symbol. A token that Menelaus won fair and square and made all other suitors for her hand take an oath to help him should she ever be kidnapped from him.
