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Helen of Troy
The son of Faust and Helen, Euphorion is a beautiful, brilliant boy, a pure figure bathed in light. Euphorion represents the union of Faust’s striving, Romantic culture and Helen’s harmonious Classical Greek culture—but the boy has, tragically, inherited too much of his father’s ambitions to transcend natural limits. Euphorion chases a radiant chorus girl into the sky and falls to his death, marking the failure of the modern world to successfully integrate its Greek model. Goethe modeled this character on an English poet he admired, Lord Byron, who died fighting in the Greek War of Independence (1821-1832).
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Euphorion Character Timeline in Faust
The timeline below shows where the character Euphorion appears in Faust. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 2: Act 3: A Shaded Grove
...have together just conceived and brought into the world a brilliant boy (later identified as Euphorion), a true genius who not only can already walk and talk, but who can bounce...
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Faust, Helen, and Euphorion enter. Euphorion says that to see him dance makes his parents’ hearts dance, and his...
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Euphorion singles out the wildest girl in the chorus and catches her, only for her to...
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Euphorion flings himself into the air, radiant, sustained a moment by his garments, but then he...
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