What is a "millihelen"?

A helen is a humorous unit of measurement based on the concept that Helen of Troy, from the Iliad, had a "face that launched a thousand ships". The helen is thus used to measure quantities of beauty in terms of the theoretical action that could be accomplished by the wielder of such beauty. The classic reference to Helen's beauty is Marlowe's lines from the 1592 play The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, "Was this the face that launched a thousand ships / And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?" In the tradition of humorous pseudounits, then, 1 millihelen is the amount of beauty needed to launch a single ship. According to The Rebel Angels, a 1981 novel by Robertson Davies, this system was invented by Cambridge mathematician W.A.H. Rushton. However, the term was possibly first suggested by Isaac Asimov.

More Info: en.wikipedia.org

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22 Comments

David Roy

Mine is the face that lunched on a thousand chips.

Alan Straff

A nice "Leftfield " question ,makes a pleasant change.

eharg

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

JRW

If Helen launched a thousand ships, does a millihelen launch one ship?

elizawheeler

The true measure of beauty is how kind and thoughtful a person is. Internal beauty is the beauty that counts.

Shirley Dutt

If all those ships left, maybe it was because Helen was especially ugly.

Chris Brown

The Helen reference here is the Queen of Sparta and wife to Menelaus, their King, who was seduced by Paris, the Trojan Prince. milli-Helen From milli-, meaning one thousandth and Helen, the name of a beautiful woman from classic literature. Unit for measuring beauty. One millihelen is the amount of beauty that will launch exactly one ship. Background: information: In the epic poem "The Illiad" by Homer, Helen of Troy is considered the most beautiful woman. Her beauty was the cause of the Trojan war because a man named Paris, who was a Trojan prince and one of King Priam's children, declared her the most beautiful, and not one of the goddesses. Because her beauty caused many men to go to war (in a society that revolved around the sea and boats), it can be said that her face was so beautiful it launched one thousand ships. So, one milli-Helen would be one-thousandth of a Helen, or enough to launch one ship. This is also mentioned in the Aeneid by the Roman poet Virgil.