Some literary critics have called Helen an anti-war play, but it might be more accurate just to say that Euripides insists upon acknowledging the heartbreaking realities of war, whether or not the war itself is advisable. Within the context of this play, it does appear that he considered the Trojan War an exercise in meaningless death, and he may have been nudging his audience toward viewing their own recent military misadventure in the same tragic light. Euripides’s critical portrayal of the meaninglessness of war would likely have struck his Athenian audience with particular force, as the Athenians had just received word of the devastation of their fleet in 413 BCE, as their ill-considered military venture against Sicily—an extension of the Peloponnesian War—ended in a shocking failure. Just as the devastating cost of the Trojan War was a lamentable, preventable mistake, so also their failed invasion of Sicily arguably need never have been launched.

The backstory of Helen of Troy was well known and infamous when Euripides wrote his play. It was presumed across the Greek world that she was the instigating cause of the Trojan War. Helen was famous for her beauty, and Aphrodite had offered her as a prize to Paris, the son of King Priam of Troy.