how did ancient greece cast a spell on helen?

Ancient Greece exercised an inexplicable fascination over Helen. In her fancy, the pagan gods and goddesses still walked on earth and interacted with human beings. In her heart, she secretly built shrines to the ones she loved best. She knew the whole tribe of the nymphs, heroes and demigods and loved them. But she could not pardon the cruelty and greed of Medea and Jason and wondered why the gods permitted them to commit wrongs and then punished them for their wickedness. These mysteries of divine justice enwrapped her and she was led to ponder upon such questions from time to time. Homer's Iliad made Greece her paradise because she needed nothing more than a responsive heart to understand and enjoy the text. When she read the fine passages of Iliad, she became conscious of a soul-sense that lifted her above the narrow confines of her life and transported her to the sweeping grandeur of the heavens. Helen's admiration for Virgil's Aeneid was not so great but it was real nonetheless. She had read it as much as possible without the help of notes or dictionary and she always liked to translate the episodes that pleased her especially. The word-painting of Virgil was wonderful sometimes but in her opinion, the gods and men moved through scenes of passion, strife, pity and love like graceful figures in an Elizabethan mask. The characters in Iliad gave three leaps and went on singing so if Virgil was serene and lovely like a marble Apollo in moonlight then Homer was a beautiful, animated youth in full sunlight with wind in his hair. Although Iliad was quite tough to read and not altogether pleasant, yet she felt that way about Homer's work.