Certamen for Beginners Practice Exam

The Trojan prince who abducted Helen is Paris. In Greek mythology, Paris is known for his role in instigating the Trojan War. The story goes that Paris, while attending a divine banquet, was tasked with judging a beauty contest among the goddesses Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. Each goddess offered him a bribe, and Paris ultimately chose Aphrodite, who promised him the love of the most beautiful mortal woman, Helen, who was already married to Menelaus, the king of Sparta.

Paris's abduction of Helen is often depicted as a pivotal moment leading to the outbreak of the Trojan War, as Menelaus and his brother Agamemnon assembled a great Greek army to retrieve her. This act of abduction set the stage for the epic tales of heroism, love, and conflict that are central to works like Homer's "Iliad."

The other figures mentioned do not play the role of abducting Helen. Hector is known as a noble Trojan warrior, Menelaus is Helen's husband who seeks to rescue her, and Theseus is a hero from an earlier myth involving the Minotaur in Crete, not connected to Helen's abduction.