By marriage she was Queen of Laconia, a province within Homeric Greece, the wife of King Menelaus. Her abduction by Paris, Prince of Troy, brought about the Trojan War.
As with all legendary characters who inhabit the Age of Heroes, the legends ascribe divine ancestry to her: as being the daughter of Zeus, King of the Gods, and being hatched by her mother, Leda, from an egg.
At the time of her marriage, she is said to be still very young, and, as the most beautiful woman in the world, to have had many suitors (or lovers) before marrying Menelaus. Furthermore, the legends are ambiguous as to whether her subsequent involvement with Paris is abduction or seduction. Moreover, it is said that, previously, she has already been abducted by (or had eloped with) Theseus, and bore him a child.