After Ravana abducted Sita from the forest, he took her to a golden city with high stone walls. Soldiers in magnificent, plumed helmets stood with spears around the city, and mighty demons guarded its many gates.

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“Where have you taken me?” Sita demanded of her captor. “This is not Lanka.”

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“You’re right.” Devious Ravana smiled wickedly. “This is Troy, a city on a distant shore that Rama will never find. My allies will keep watch of you until you choose to accept me as your new husband.”

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When the chariot landed, women in long, colorful gowns whisked Sita away. They dressed her in their unfamiliar garb and gave her a necklace of alabaster shells to replace the garland she’d lost during her abduction.

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Ravana showed her Troy’s legendary temples, but Sita was not seduced. She cursed him with every breath, and tears never stopped flowing from her eyes. Finally, Ravana gave up and sent her to the gardens.

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Sita sat in the grove among fruit trees laden with figs and dates. Her body shook with sobs. She wept for her lost husband, for she knew not whether he was alive. She wept that her own vanity had caused them to fall for Ravana’s trap. She cried until the sun had nearly set, and cool, damp air had fallen over the Trojan city.

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While Sita mourned her trouble, a beautiful woman passed her in the gardens. Her golden hair fell around her shoulders and was adorned with pearls, and she wore a dress even finer than Sita’s. She looked like a queen.

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The gorgeous woman stopped in front of Sita. “Why are you crying?” she asked.

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Sita’s first instinct was to lash out, thinking this woman was one of Ravana’s wives. “Don’t talk to me unless you’d like to feel the wrath of my husband when he rescues me.”

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The woman crossed her elegant arms. “If he’s anything like my husband, it will be a decade before he arrives.”

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Sita heard the grief in the woman’s voice. “Who are you?” she asked.

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“I am Helen,” she said. “I used to live in Sparta with my husband, Menelaus, but a Trojan prince named Paris fell in love with me. I didn’t notice his lustful intentions until it was too late. He took me away from my home, brought me here, and my husband and his fellow Greek warriors have been trying to win me back ever since.” 

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Sita felt a kinship with Helen. She introduced herself and told Helen how Ravana had captured her to take her as his wife.

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“I fear that Rama will never find me in such a foreign land,” Sita lamented.

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Beautiful Helen nodded. “I fear that I will never see my home again.”

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“We must do something!” Sita determined. “Together, you and I should escape.”

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Helen shifted uncomfortably, for she had been in Troy for many years and had never sought to escape.

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“I don’t know,” she said warily. “Ravana’s demons have joined the war, and they will know as soon as we’re gone. How would we make it to safety?”

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Sita stood from where she had knelt and took Helen’s hand. “Let’s retire somewhere so we can plan.”

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Helen took Sita to her rooms, which were furnished with the softest pelts and richest carpets. They sat together long into the night, eating exotic Trojan fruits and developing plans to leave the city. 

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However, none of their plans would work. Even if they made it past the gates undetected, they would have to sneak through the entire Trojan army, and then there was no telling if the war-loving Greeks would help Sita or accept Helen.

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Tired and frustrated, Helen jabbed the fire in the room’s brazier with a poker.

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Sparks flashed into the air, and they materialized into a bare-chested man with four arms and smoky gray skin.

 

Helen cried out, for she had never seen any being quite like him before.

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“Agni!” Sita greeted, recognizing the fire god. She bowed and was relieved to see a god from her homeland.

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“Faithful Sita and beautiful Helen, I’ve listened to you scheme all night to escape from the men who have taken you,” Agni said.

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“How did you find us?”  Sita asked.

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“I grabbed the hem of your dress when Ravana took you and followed you here,” Agni said, and Sita remembered how the fire had burned the edge of her dress.

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Helen matched Sita’s bow. “Great god, can you help us?”

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Agni folded two of his arms. “I can help,” he said. “In order for your escape to work, your captors must not know you’re gone. I can make phantoms of both of you, alike to the originals in every manner, but I cannot take you back to your homes until your husbands defeat the forces that kidnapped you.”

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Sita did not hesitate. “It would be far better to wait in your court than to endure Ravana’s harassment.”

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Helen considered the offer. “I am tired of being a game piece for Trojans and Greeks alike. I would stay in the realm of the gods if it meant choosing my own path.”

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“Very well,” Agni said. He snapped, and a ring of fire appeared on the ground. “You will need to walk into this flame, and then your flight will be hidden.”

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Sita went first and strode into the flames. When the blaze enveloped her, it solidified into a mirror-image of herself, another Sita with the same bold eyes. The illusion walked across the room, and even Sita questioned if it was her or a construct.

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Helen feared the fire, but she squeezed her eyes shut and entered the ring. The flames wove together to create a phantom Helen, just as beautiful as the original.

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When the illusions were in place, Agni invited Helen and Sita to take his hands, and he transported them to his palace in the realm of the gods, where they lived in happiness until their respective wars came to an end.

 

 

  

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Author's Note:

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Welcome to the Storybook! By now I hope you've realized that the goal of my storybook is to show how ancient Greek epics and Indian epics can share similar plots, character types, and conventions through the tales of Charan, a rhapsode in training. 

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When I read of Sita being abducted by Ravana, I thought of Helen of Troy, who was taken from her home in Greece and brought to Troy, and the extended Trojan War was fought over her. Interpretations of her story vary and continue to be debated today. Some people believe she chose to leave Menelaus and go with Paris, some believe she was mesmerized by Aphrodite into doing so, and others believe she was a victim in a non-consensual kidnapping. 

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Sita has a very similar story because she was abducted by Ravana and taken to Lanka until Rama fought the war that resulted in her rescue. Both these women are incredible characters and very influential, so I imagined what they would be like if they met.

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My story draws on particular versions of the women's tales that suppose they are actually magical constructs, or phantoms, of the originals. In Sita's story, the Maya Sita (or illusory Sita) spin was created to help preserve Sita's claim to faithfulness to Rama. Agni replaced her with an illusion, and she stayed with him until Rama defeated Ravana. In the play Helen by Euripides, Helen is replaced by an eidolon, a lookalike phantom, and spends the entire Trojan War in Egypt. 

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In my (or Charan's!) combination of their stories, I chose for them to figure out how to escape from their captivity by asking Agni to make illusions of them.

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Bibliography:

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The Kidnapping of Sita, the The Ramayana by Krishna Dharma.

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The Story of Maya Sita, Tiny Tales from the Ramayana by Laura Gibbs

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Maya Sita, Wikipedia.

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Helen (play), Wikipedia.

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Banner Image: Fire in a brazier. Tim White. Flickr.

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Lower Image: Ancient amphitheater. Pixabay.

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