Helen of Troy - Red-Haired Fresco

Red Hair News: A fresco has recently been excavated in Pompeii, showing a Helen of Troy with decidedly reddish hair.

I found out about it via a post on Facebook by Ian Cook, the author of Redhead and The Future Is Red, so there's another little red hair link. Apparently the hair of Helen of Troy was described as "Xanthe" by the ancient poetess Sappho.

https://www.royaltynowstudios.com/blog/helenoftroy

Xanthê is generally translated as meaning blonde-haired, though it also comes with overlapping connotations of red and brown. The exact meaning of these terms often difficult to pin down. We've discussed this issue on here before: What's in a colour: xanthòs

The hair in the fresco image definitely looks reddish. At least from the images we've seen shared in the media. The Helen portrayed isn't quite as red-haired (nor as moody) as our favourite red-haired Helen of Troy though..

(Helen of Troy - Frederick Sandys)