Historians have always found the fine line between narrative as myth or history problematic, an issue that Herodotus, one of the great ancient Greek historians, attempts to deal with by rationalizing myth, so as to still incorporate it into his accounts, and actively distinguishing myth from history. Rationalization boils myth down into its most fundamental components, supporting the argument that myth is simply history spun out of proportion or misremembered by exposing myth’s basis in real life events. Recognizing this, Herodotus rationalizes the Helen myth to strip away the embellishment of more poetic retellings and reveal at the myth’s core larger scale motivations for the Trojan War – attitudes towards women and past conflicts – in order…