Eksodos
Messenger
Then they came at his summons, and caught up the bull and carried him on to the deck. And Menelaos stroked the horse on neck and brow, coaxing it to go aboard.
1565
Finally, when the ship was fully loaded,
Helen climbed up the ladder with elegant step, and took her seat in the middle of the rowers’ benches, and he was near by, Menelaos who was called dead. The rest, equally divided on the right and left sides of the ship, sat down, each beside his man, with swords concealed beneath their cloaks,
1570
and the waves were filled with shouting as we heard the voice of the boatswain.
1575
Now when we had put out from land, neither very far nor very near, the helmsman asked, Shall we sail yet further, stranger, or is this far enough?
For the command of this ship is yours. And he answered, Far enough for me. Holding a sword in his right hand, he stepped into the prow; and, standing over the bull to slay it, with no mention of any dead man, he cut its throat and prayed: O Poseidon of the sea,
1580
who lives in the deep, and you holy daughters of Nereus, bring me and my wife safe and sound from here to Nauplia’s shore! Streams of blood, a good omen for the stranger, darted into the waves. And someone said, There is treachery in this voyage;
1585
let us sail back again! You, give an order for the right oar, you, turn your rudder. But the son of Atreus, standing where he slew the bull, cried out to his comrades, Why do you, the pick of Hellas, delay to slaughter and kill the barbarians
1590
and hurl them from the ship into the waves? And the boatswain cried the opposite command to your rowers: Some of you catch up planks at the end, break up the benches, or snatch the oars from the locks, and make the heads of these foreign enemies bloody!.
1595
They all leapt upright, some with oars in their hands, others with swords; and the ship ran with blood. Helen cheered them on from the stern: Where is the fame you won in Troy? Show it against the barbarians! In their eagerness, some would
1600
fall, some stood upright, you would have seen others lying dead. But Menelaos, in full armor, wherever he spied that his comrades were suffering, would go there, sword in hand; and so we dived
1605
from the ship, and he cleared the benches of your rowers. Then going to the helmsman he told him to sail a straight course to Hellas. So they set up the mast, and favoring breezes blew.
1610
They are gone from here. But I escaped death and let myself down by the anchor into the sea;
and just as I was worn out, some fisherman took me up, and put me out on land, to bring you this report. Nothing is more useful to mankind than a prudent distrust.
1615
Chorus Leader
I never would have believed that Menelaos could have eluded both us
and you, O king, the way he did on his arrival.
1620
[Episode]
Caught by a woman’s tricks, unhappy that I am! My bride has escaped me. If the ship could have been pursued and overtaken, I would have made an effort to catch the strangers at once; but now I will avenge myself upon my treacherous sister,
Theoklymenos
for she saw Menelaos in my house and did not tell me. Therefore she will never deceive another man by her oracles.
1625
Servant
You, there! Where are you rushing off to, my lord? to what bloody deed?
Theoklymenos
Where justice calls me. Get out of my way!
