Adjectives or words inspired by Helen of Troy's beauty
Are there any adjectives inspired by Helen's beauty?
I can see examples from more recent history like:
Boycott from Charles C. Boycott
or Bowdlerize from Thomas Bowdler.
Some Greek mythology inspired words/phrases are : Herculean
Achilles Heel
Narcissistic
However I could not find anything that refers to Helen of Troy's beauty.If you could also talk of some other lesser known mythological figure based adjectives/phrases, kindly share.
From OED:
Helena, n.
Etymology: < Latin Helena, < Greek Ἑλένη female proper name. The Greek Helene was the sister of Castor and Pollux, the name given to double meteors at sea; but there was perhaps association also with Greek ἑλένη torch.Obs.
A meteoric light seen about the masts of ships: cf. corposant n.helenium, n.
Etymology: modern Latin, < Greek ἑλένιον, possibly commemorating Helen of Troy.
An early name for elecampane, the European herb Inula helenium, of the family Compositæ.
From Wikipedia:
Helen: feminine given name derived from the Greek Ἑλένη Helenē, meaning torch or corposant.
That's about it. You can forget about Hellenic, which is just a synonym for Greek.
There is the (humorous) definition millihelen
If you could also talk of some other lesser known mythological figure based adjectives/phrase...
There are really too many to name. Just following one of your leads:
echo from the nymph who loved Narcissus
echolalia "talk, prattle, a speaking," from lalein "to speak, prattle," of echoic origin.
Psyche The personification of the soul, from which we get Psychology and all it's offspring. Originally a mortal princess who later married Eros/Cupid, (the god of love), was deified, and bore him a daughter, Hedone/Voluptas.
From above, erogenous, voluptuous, hedonist/ic
cupidity "passionate desire, lust; ambition," and every word from cupere "to desire" (concupiscence, covet), Cupid's bow (of the mouth)
Tantalize from Greek Tantalos, king of Phrygia, son of Zeus, punished in the afterlife (for an offense variously given) by being made to stand in a river up to his chin, under branches laden with fruit, all of which withdrew from his reach whenever he tried to eat or drink. His story was known to Chaucer (c.1369).
Pandora's Box: refers to her gift from Zeus, which was foolishly opened by Epimetheus, upon which all the contents escaped. They were said to be the host of human ills (escaping to afflict mankind), or, in a later version, all the blessings of the god (escaping to be lost), except Hope, which alone remained.
Start with the Titans (titanic), and you have heliocentric (from Helios), Mnemosyne, source of the word mnemonic, was the personification of memory in Greek mythology.
Chimera, a sibling of Cerebus, was a fire-breathing female monster with a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a serpent’s tail, from which we get chimera: any mythical animal with parts taken from various animals; a thing that is hoped or wished for but in fact is illusory or impossible to achieve; an organism containing a mixture of genetically different tissues, formed by processes such as fusion of early embryos, grafting, or mutation; a DNA molecule with sequences derived from two or more different organisms, formed by laboratory manipulation.
These words can fill books.
The face that launched a thousand ships
Yes. I know. It's neither an adjective nor a word, but this is the mythical phrase that comes to mind whenever Helen of Troy is mentioned.
Helen was considered to be the most beautiful woman of all time, it is said to be the raison d'etre for the start of the Trojan War. A fleet of a thousand ships set sail to win her back from Paris after he had abducted her.