ELEYNE2. Helen, daughter of Jupiter and Leda, sister of Castor and Pollux, was Menelaus's wife and queen of Sparta. Considered the most beautiful woman in the world, she was abducted by Paris, youngest son of Priam of Troy, while he was her husband's guest. Paris took her to Troy, where she became his legal wife. This abduction caused the Trojan War (Iliad III.87-95).
The Man of Law says that Chaucer has described Eleyne's tears, MLI 70. Januarie will clutch May in his arms harder than Paris did Eleyne, MerchT 1752-1754. The story of Paris and Eleyne, both text and gloss from the Roman de la Rose, appears on the wall of the temple of glass, BD 331-334; Chaucer may have had in mind a manuscript with commentary and pictures. Eleyne is one of love's martyrs, PF 291; she appears among the lustful in Inf V.64. Attrides recovered the lost marriage of his brother by destroying Troy and winning Menelaus's wife back again, Bo IV, Metr 7.1-7. The Greeks besiege Troy to avenge the rape of Eleyne, Tr I.57-63. Criseyde is fairer than Eleyne, Tr I.442-455. Eleyne is included in the dinner party at Deiphebus's house and plays a small part in the plot of Book II of Troilus and Criseyde. Eleyne must hide her beauty before Alceste, the supreme example of conjugal love, LGW F 254, LGW G 208. (Helen's beauty is a medieval commonplace.) [Deiphebe: Menelaus: Paris]
Eleyne, the ME variant, appears twelve times medially, MLI 70, with elided final -e, BD 331, with initial stress and three syllables; with secondary stress and two syllables, Tr I.62, 455; Tr II.1447, 1576, 1625, 1687, 1703; Tr III.222, 410; Tr V.890; and six times in final rhyming position, Tr I.677; Tr II.1556, 1714; Tr V.890; Eleyne, with three syllables and final syllabic -e, occurs twice initially, PF 291, Tr II.1604; and three times medially, Tr II.1641; Tr III.204; Tr IV.1347.