That always confused me:
As husband and wife, Menelaos and Helen (Book IV) play upon the game of ambiguity–Helen tells Telemakhos the story of how she recognizes Odysseus, who has entered the city of Troy in disguise (and how she converses with him but does not give him away). She is not without shame, but her own story casts her as pro-Greek; Menelaus tells how Helen attempted to betray the Greek warriors (hidden inside the Trojan Horse) by calling out each man’s name in the voice of his wife. Her calling out to the Wooden Horse suggests she favors the Trojans. The pro-Greek position she attributes to herself in her own story is juxtaposed to her husband’s account of her behavior at the city of Troy. So, while Clytemnestra perhaps, more clearly, represents a binary opposite to Penelope, Helen (as wife) is more complex and potentially more troubling because she is undefined and unlimited, even though her mythos is shame. She represents the lover archetype.