Love the sinner, hate the sin?

After reading the Encomium of Helen, it's apparent to me that people have been finding ways to excuse behavior since before Christ. In his persuasive essay, Gorgias writes what he finds a well reasoned argument to dissuade the belief that Helen is innocent of guilt for starting the Trojan war. He has a few points that are believable, but out of the several major possibilities he gives for Helen's betrayal, he gives two that I don't buy:

1. Divine intervention

2. Natural instinct

In a nutshell, Gorgias argues that Helen would be innocent of crime if the Gods were involved in this, because Gods are more superior in every way to humans, and humans could not possibly deny destiny. In continuing to feign the poor accused Helen, he adds that Helen could have been persuaded by discourse to abandon her people. He elaborates on the many ways this could have been done, from verbal persuasion to seduction.

"It has been said that if she was persuaded by discourse, she did no wrong but rather was unfortunate... she escapes without difficulty from the blame for the sin alleged to have taken place. For the things we see do not have whatever nature we will, but rather that which befalls each. The soul receives an impression in its own ways through the sight." (Gorgias, P. 15)

That said, Helen did it because she was convinced it was the right and necessary thing. I could go on a long tangent about ethics here, but more accurately, Gorgias is describing in multiple ways an excuse we all share:

Who's ever used that one before?

I did, back in the third grade. I was at school and some of the other kids were making me mad. So with my lack of restraint, I started beating one of them up. The teacher came and stopped us and asked me why I had done it. My response? "Aw, the Devil made me do it!" My teacher was not amused. Later, my Mom told me that Satan could never make me do anything. He could tempt me, or try to persuade me but only I had control over my actions. That truth stuck with me. No actions of Helen's, claimed by Gorgias to be from the Gods themselves or her own surrender to temptation excuse the fact that she is guilty for the start of the Trojan war.