Euripides reverses the legend of Troy and transforms the story of the beautiful Helen, whose kidnapping from Paris was the cause of the war of the Troy, in a farce. According to the myth, the Greeks fought in Troy for a shadow, as Paris never abducted Helen from Sparta, but took only an animate effigy of her, while the real Helen was transferred to Egypt by Hermes, where he stayed near the king Proteus, loyal to her husband and deeply embittered for her fate. After the fall of Troy, Menelaus arrives shipwrecked in Egypt. The two husbands recognize each other and after new adventures they leave together for Greece.