The answer is the metaphorical union of the real Helen (erstwhile wife, true lover, mother of Hermione, but also adulteress and partner of Paris) with the figurative Helen (spectral, alluring, an eternal trigger for jealousy and betrayal, the stolen “prize,” and the cycle of vengeance and war).

Die Frau ohne Schatten was Strauss’ problem child, and he begged Hofmannsthal to abandon the grandiose symbolic romantic style in the future