Stasimon 1
[Episode]
Dear friends, I welcome your advice. Come in, come into the house, to learn within about my struggles.
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Chorus
You are calling on one who is wholly willing.
Helen
Oh, what an unhappy day! What tearful word shall I hear, unhappy as I am?
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Chorus
Do not be a prophetess of sorrow, dear friend, anticipating lamentation.
Helen
What has my poor husband suffered? Does he see the light and the sun’s chariot and the paths of the stars? Or does he have a lasting fate
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among the dead beneath the earth?
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Chorus
Take a brighter view of the future, whatever will happen.
Helen
For I call on you, I swear to you, Eurotas green with watery reeds,
if this rumor of my husband’s death is true—and what was obscure in those words?—I will stretch a deadly noose about my neck, or drive inward a murderous thrust of slaughter that gushes from the throat,
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a contest of the blade through my flesh, as a sacrifice to the three goddesses and to the son of Priam, who once sat on the hollows of Ida, near the ox-stalls.
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Chorus
May sorrow be turned aside elsewhere, and may your lot be fortunate!
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Helen
Oh, unhappy Troy! Through deeds not done by yourself, you are ruined, and have suffered pitiably; for the gift that Kypris gave me has caused much blood
and many tears; it has added grief to grief and tear to tear, sorrows. . . . Mothers have lost their children and virgin sisters of the slain have cut off their hair by the swollen tide of Phrygian Skamandros.
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And Hellas has cried aloud, aloud, and broken forth in wailing, beating her head, and drenching her soft-skinned cheek with the bloody strokes of her nails.
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O maiden Kallisto, blessed once in Arcadia, who climbed into the bed of Zeus on four paws, how much happier was your lot than my mother’s, you who in the form of a shaggy-limbed beast—the bearing of a lioness with your fierce eye—changed your burden of sorrow;
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and also the one whom Artemis once drove from her chorus, as a deer with horns of gold, the Titan girl, daughter of Merops, because of her loveliness; but the beauty of my body has destroyed the Dardanian towers, it has destroyed them and
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Menelaos
O Pelops, who once held that chariot-race contest with Oinomaos over Pisa, if only, when you were persuaded to make a banquet for the gods, you had left your life then, inside the gods,
before you ever begot my father, Atreus, to whom were born, from his marriage with Airope, Agamemnon and myself, Menelaos, a famous pair; for I believe that I carried a mighty army—and I say this not in boast—in ships to Troy,
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no tyrant commanding any troops by force, but leading the young men of Hellas by voluntary consent. And some of these can be counted no longer alive, others as having a joyful escape from the sea, bringing home again names thought to be of the dead.
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But I wander miserably over the swelling waves of the gray ocean, ever since I sacked the towers of Ilion; and although I long to come home, I am not thought worthy by the gods to achieve this. I have sailed to Libya’s deserts and all its inhospitable landing-places;
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and whenever I draw near my native land, the blast drives me back again, and no favoring wind has ever entered my sails to let me come home.
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And now I am cast up on this shore, a miserable shipwrecked sailor who has lost his friends; and my ship is
broken into many pieces against the rocks. But out of its cleverly-wrought fastenings the keel was left, on which I made my difficult escape by an unexpected chance, and also Helen with me, whom I dragged away from Troy. But I do not know the name of this country
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and its people; for I was embarrassed to burst into a crowd and make inquiries, and so I concealed these shabby clothes, in shame over my misfortune. For whenever a man of high degree is badly off, he falls into an unaccustomed state which is worse than that of one who has long been unfortunate.
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But poverty is wearing me away; for I have neither food, nor clothes around my body; one can compare what I am wearing to rags cast out of the ship. The sea snatched away all the robes I once wore, splendid clothes and ornaments. Deep in a cave
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I hid the woman who caused all my troubles, and have come here, after compelling those of my friends who survived to guard my wife. I have come alone, seeking help for those friends there, if I may find it somehow after careful search.
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When I saw this home, surrounded by walls, and the majestic gateways of some prosperous man, I came near; sailors can hope to get something from wealthy homes; but from those who have no livelihood—they could not help us, even if they wanted to.
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Hello! Is there some gatekeeper who might come from the house and announce my troubles within?
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Old woman
Who’s at the door? Get away from the house and don’t annoy my master by standing at the court-yard gate! Or else you will die because you are
a Hellene, and they have no business here.
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Menelaos
My good woman, you can say these same words in a different tone, for I shall be persuaded; but let go your angry speech.
Old woman
Go away! Stranger, my orders are to let no Hellene come near this house.
Menelaos
Ah! Do not push me, or thrust me away by force.
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Old woman
You are to blame, for not heeding what I say.
Menelaos
Announce to your master inside—
Old woman
I think someone would be sorry, if I announced your words.
Menelaos
I come as a shipwrecked man and a guest; such people are safe from violence.
Old woman
Well, go to some other house instead of this one.
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Menelaos
No; I am going inside. You listen to me.
Old woman
Know that you’re only causing trouble; and soon you’ll be thrown out by force.
Menelaos
Alas! Where are those glorious armies of mine?
Old woman
Perhaps you were grand somewhere, but not here.
Menelaos
O my fortune, how we have been unworthily dishonored.
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Old woman
Why are your eyes wet with tears? To whom are you lamenting?
Menelaos
To my fortunes, which were happy before this.
Old woman
Well then, why don’t you go away and give these tears to your friends.
Menelaos
What is this land? Whose palace is this?
Old woman
Proteus lives here, the land is Egypt.
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Menelaos
Egypt? O wretched, that I have sailed here!
Old woman
And why do you blame the bright gleam of the Nile?
Menelaos
I do not blame it; I am sighing for my fate.
Old woman
Many people are doing badly; you are not the only one.
Menelaos
Is the king you name in the house?
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Old woman
This is his tomb; his son rules the land.
Menelaos
And where might he be? Abroad, or in the house?
Old woman
He is not inside; he is most bitterly opposed to the Hellenes.
Menelaos
What cause does he have? I have felt the consequences of it!
Old woman
Helen, the daughter of Zeus, is in this house.
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Menelaos
What do you mean? What did you say? Tell me again.
Old woman
The daughter of Tyndareus, who once lived in Sparta.
Menelaos
Where did she come from? What is the meaning of this?
Old woman
She came here from the land of Lakedaimon.
Menelaos
When? Surely I have not been robbed of my wife from the cave?
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Old woman
Before the Achaeans went to Troy, stranger. But get away from the house; for something is happening within, by which the palace is thrown into confusion. You have not come at the right time; and if my master
catches you, death will be your guest-gift. For I am well-disposed to Hellenes, for all that I spoke harshly to you in fear of my master.
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Menelaos
What can I say? For after my former troubles, this present event that I hear of is an unhappy one,
if I have come here, bringing my wife who was taken from Troy, and she is kept safe in the cave, but some other woman who has the same name as my wife lives in this house. She said the woman was born the child of Zeus.
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Can there be a man with the name of Zeus by the banks of Nile? For there is only one in heaven. Where in the world is there a Sparta, except by the streams of Eurotas, with its lovely reeds? The name of Tyndareus is the name of one alone.
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Is there any land of the same name as Lakedaimon or Troy? I do not know what to say; for there are probably many things in the wide world that have the same names, both cities and women; there is nothing, then, to marvel at.
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Besides, I will not run away from a servant’s fears; for no man is so barbaric at heart as to refuse me food when he has heard my name. The fire of Troy is famous, and I, Menelaos, who lighted it, am well known in every land.
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I will wait for the master of the house; he gives me two things to look out for: if he is a cruel sort of person, I will keep myself hidden and go back to the shipwreck; but if he shows any softening, I will ask for help in my present state.
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This is the worst evil for me in my misery, to beg the means of life from other kings, when I am myself a king; but it is necessary. The saying is not mine, but it is a wise word: nothing is stronger than dreadful necessity.
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Chorus
I have heard the prophetic maiden, who gave a clear answer within the palace: Menelaos is not yet dead and buried, gone to the land of shadows where darkness takes the place of light;
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but he is still wearing out his life on the ocean swell and has not yet reached the haven of his country, wretched in his wandering life,
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bereft of every friend, approaching every land in his sea-going ship from the land of Troy.
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Helen
Here I am, once again coming back to the sanctuary of this tomb, after learning the welcome words of Theonoe,
who knows all things truly; she says my husband is alive and sees the light of day; he is roaming here and there on countless voyages, not without practice in wandering, and he shall come here when he finds an end to his suffering.
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But she left one thing unsaid: if he will escape when he has come? And I refrained from asking that question clearly; I was so glad when she told me he was safe. She said that he was near this land somewhere, cast up, shipwrecked, with a few friends.
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Oh, when will you come? How much I long for your arrival!
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Ah! Who is this? I am not being ambushed by the plots of Proteus’ impious son, am I? Shall I not, like a young racehorse or a worshipper of Bacchus, reach the tomb? There is something wild
about the looks of this man who is hunting me down.
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Menelaos
You there! the one trying with fearful effort to reach the base of the tomb and the pillars of burnt sacrifice, stay where you are. Why do you flee? I am amazed and speechless at the sight of your body.
Helen
Women, I am being ill-treated. This man is keeping me from the tomb, and he wants to take me and give me to the king, whose wooing I was seeking to avoid.
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Menelaos
I am no thief, nor a servant of evil men.
Helen
And yet the clothes you are wearing are unsightly enough.
Menelaos
Put fear aside and stop your rapid flight.
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Helen
I do so, now that I have reached this spot.
Menelaos
Who are you? Whom do I see in you, lady?
Helen
But who are you? The same reason prompts us both.
Menelaos
I never saw a closer resemblance.
Helen
O gods! For the recognizing of friends is a god.
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Menelaos
Are you a woman from Hellas, or a native of this land?
Helen
From Hellas; but I want to learn your story too.
Menelaos
You seem to me very much like Helen, lady.
Helen
And you seem to me like Menelaos; I don’t know what to say.
Menelaos
Well, you have correctly recognized a most unfortunate man.
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Helen
Oh, at last you have come to the arms of your wife!
Menelaos
What do you mean by wife? Do not touch my robe.
Helen
The one whom Tyndareus, my father, gave to you.
Menelaos
O torch-bearing Hekate, send visions that are favorable!
Helen
You see in me no specter of the night, attendant on the queen of phantoms.
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Menelaos
As one man, I am certainly not the husband of two women.
Helen
You are the master of what other wife?
Menelaos
The one hidden in the cave, whom I am bringing from Troy.
Helen
You have no other wife but me.
Menelaos
Can it be that I am in my right mind, but my sight is failing?
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Helen
Don’t you think that when you look at me you see your wife?
Menelaos
Your body resembles hers, but the real truth robs me of this belief.
Helen
Look; what more do you need? Who knows better than you?
Menelaos
You are like her; I will not deny that at least.
Helen
Who then shall teach you, if not your own eyes?
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Menelaos
It is there that I am ailing, because I have another wife.
Helen
I did not go to Troy; that was a phantom.
Menelaos
And who fashions living bodies?
Helen
The air, out of which you have a wife that the gods labored over.
Menelaos
What god’s handiwork? You are saying things beyond hope.
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Helen
Hera’s, as a substitute, so that Paris would not have me.
Menelaos
How then could you be here and in Troy at the same time?
Helen
The name may be in many places, though not the body.
Menelaos
Let me go! I have come here with enough pain.
Helen
Will you leave me, and take that phantom bride away?
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Menelaos
Yes, and fare well, for your likeness to Helen.
Helen
I am ruined! I found you, my husband, but I will not have you.
Menelaos
The greatness of my troubles over there convinces me; you do not.
Helen
Ah me! Who was ever more miserable than I am?
Those whom I love best are leaving me, and I shall never reach the Hellenes or my own country.
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Messenger
(entering hurriedly.) Menelaos, I find you, after taking great trouble to look for you, wandering over the whole of this foreign land; I am sent by the comrades whom you left behind.
Menelaos
What is it? Surely you are not being plundered by the foreigners?
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Messenger
It is a miracle; what I say is of less account than what happened.
Menelaos
Tell me; for, judging by this eagerness, you are certainly bringing something new.
Messenger
I say that you have suffered countless labors in vain.
Menelaos
You are mourning over old sorrows; what is your message?
Messenger
Your wife has disappeared, taken up into the folds of the unseen air; she is hidden in heaven, and as she left the hallowed cave where we were keeping her, she said this: Miserable Phrygians, and all the Achaeans! On my account you were dying by the banks of Skamandros,
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through Hera’s contrivance, for you thought that Paris had Helen when he didn’t. But I, since I have stayed my appointed time, and kept the laws of fate, will now depart into the sky, my father; but the unhappy daughter of Tyndareus,
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guilty in no way, has borne an evil name without reason.
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Welcome, daughter of Leda, were you here after all? I was just announcing your departure up to the hidden starry realms, not knowing that you had a winged body. I will not let you mock us like this again,
for you gave your fill of trouble to your husband and his allies in Ilion.
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Menelaos
This is the meaning of that; her words have turned out to be true. O longed-for day, that has given you to my arms!
Helen
O Menelaos, dearest of men, the time was long, but delight is just now ours.
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With joy I have found my husband, friends, I have embraced my dear one, after long days of blazing light.
Menelaos
And I have found you; but I have many questions about t; now I do not know what to begin with first.
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Helen
I am so happy, the hair rises on my head and my tears run down. I fling my arms around your neck,
dear husband, to have my delight.
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Menelaos
O dearest sight! I have no fault to find: I have my wife, the daughter of Zeus and Leda; your brothers on their snow-white steeds
blessed you, blessed you at an earlier time, while torches blazed, but the god who took you from my home is driving us on to another fortune, better than this. An evil that was good brought you together with me, your husband
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after a long time, but may I still benefit by my good luck.
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Chorus
May you benefit indeed, and I join in the same prayer; for when there are two, it is not possible for one to be unhappy and the other not.
Helen
My dear friends, I no longer sigh or grieve over what is past.
I have my husband, for whom I have been waiting to come from Troy for many years.
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Menelaos
You have me, and I have you; although it was hard to live through so many days, I now understand the actions of the goddess. My joy is tearful; it has more
Helen
What can I say? What mortal could ever have hoped for this? I hold you to my heart, little as I ever thought to.
Menelaos
And I hold you, whom we thought to have gone to Ida’s city and the unhappy towers of Ilion.
By the gods, how were you taken from my home?
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Helen
Ah! ah! You are setting out on a bitter beginning. Ah! ah! You are asking about a bitter tale.
Menelaos
Speak; all gifts from the gods should be heard.
Helen
I detest the story I am now to introduce.
Menelaos
Tell it anyway. It is sweet to hear of troubles.
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Helen
Not to the bed of the young barbarian, on the wings of oars, on the wings of desire for lawless marriage—
Menelaos
What god or fate tore you from your country?
Helen
Ah, my husband! The son of Zeus, of Zeus, brought me to the Nile.
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Menelaos
Amazing! Who sent you there? O dreadful story!
Helen
I have wept bitterly, and my eyes are wet with tears; the wife of Zeus ruined me.
Menelaos
Hera? Why did she want to bring trouble to the two of us?
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Helen
Alas for my terrible fate, the baths and springs, where the goddesses brightened the beauty from which the judgment came.
Menelaos
Regarding the judgment, Hera made it a cause of these troubles for you?
Helen
To take me away from Paris—
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Menelaos
How? Tell me.
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Helen
To whom Kypris had promised me.
Helen
Unhappy, unhappy; and so she brought me to Egypt.
Menelaos
Then she gave him a phantom instead, as I hear from you.
Helen
Sorrow, sorrow to your house,
Menelaos
What do you mean?
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Helen
My mother is no more; through shame of my disgraceful marriage she tied a noose around her neck.
Menelaos
Alas! Is our daughter Hermione alive?
Helen
Ah, my husband! Unmarried, and without children, she mourns my
Menelaos
O Paris, who utterly destroyed my whole house, these things ruined you also, and countless bronze-clad Danaans.
Helen
The god cast me out, ill-fated and accursed, from my country,
from my city, and from you, when I left my home and bed—yet I did not leave them—for a shameful marriage.
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Chorus Leader
If indeed you should find happiness in the future, it would be a match for the past.
Messenger
Menelaos, give me as well a share of that joy which I understand, but not clearly.
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Menelaos
Come and take part in our talk, old man, you too.
Messenger
This woman is not the arbitrator of all the trouble in Troy?
Menelaos
She is not; I was tricked by the gods
and had in my arms the baneful image of a cloud.
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Messenger
What are you saying? We suffered in vain for the sake of a cloud?
Menelaos
It was the work of Hera, and the rivalry of the three goddesses.
Messenger
And the one who is truly your wife is this woman here?
Menelaos
This is she; trust my word for that.
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Messenger
O daughter, how intricate and hard to trace out is the nature of the god! In some way that is good, he twists everything about, now up, now down; one man suffers, and one who has not suffered comes afterwards to a bad end,
having no security in his current fortune. You and your husband have had your share of trouble, you in repute, he in the heat of battle. In his eagerness, while he was eager, he got nothing; but now that he has achieved the greatest good fortune, he has it without cause.
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You did not, after all, bring shame upon your old father or on the twin sons of Zeus, nor did you do such things as were spoken of. Now again I renew your wedding rites and remember the blazing torch I bore, running beside the four yoked horses; and you,
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in the chariot as a bride, were leaving your happy home with this man here. Whoever pays no reverence to his master’s affairs, rejoicing with him and grieving with his troubles, is worthless. Although I was born a servant, let me still be numbered among honest
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slaves; my mind is free, if not my name. For this is better than to suffer double misery as one man: to have a worthless heart and, being a slave, to owe obedience to any other.
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Menelaos
Come, old man—often by my shield
you have had your full share of trouble and hard work—now also have a share in my success, and go tell the friends I left behind the state of matters here, as you found them, and how my fortune stands; and bid them wait at the beach and watch eagerly for the
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struggle which I expect awaits me; and if we should be able somehow to steal this woman away from the land, tell them to keep good watch so that we may share the luck and escape, if we can, from the barbarians.
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Messenger
It shall be done, lord. Now indeed I see how worthless
the seers’ doings are, and how full of falsehood; there was no health in the blaze of sacrifice after all, or in the cry of winged birds; even to think that birds can help mankind is certainly foolish. For Calchas gave no word or sign to the army,
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when he saw his friends dying on behalf of a cloud, nor did Helenos; but the city was taken by storm in vain. You might say: because the god did not want them to? Then why do we consult prophets? We ought to sacrifice to the gods and ask a blessing, but leave divination alone;
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for this was invented otherwise, as a bait for a livelihood, and no man grows rich by sacrifices if he is idle. But sound judgment and discernment are the best of seers. Exit Messenger.
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Chorus Leader
My views about seers coincide exactly with this old man’s; whoever has the gods as friends
would have the best prophecy at home.
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Helen
All right; so far all is well. But how you were saved, my poor husband, from Troy, there is no gain in knowing, yet friends have a desire to learn what their friends have suffered.
Menelaos
Truly you have asked a great deal all at once. Why should I tell you about our losses in the Aegean, and Nauplios’ beacons on Euboia, and my visits to Crete and the cities of Libya, and the mountain-peaks of Perseus? For I would not satisfy you with the tale,
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and by telling you these evils I would suffer still, as I did when I experienced them; and so my grief would be doubled.
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Helen
Your answer is better than my question. Leave out the rest, and tell me only this: how long were you a weary wanderer over the surface of the sea?
Menelaos
Besides those ten years in Troy, I went through seven cycles of years on board ship.
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Helen
Alas, poor man, you have spoken of a long time; and, saved from there, you have come here to the slaughter.
Menelaos
What do you mean? What will you say? Ah, my wife, you have ruined me.
Helen
Escape from this land and flee as quickly as possible. The man who lives in this house will kill you.
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Menelaos
What have I done to deserve such a fate?
Helen
You have come unexpectedly to hinder my marriage.
Menelaos
What! Does someone plan to marry my wife?
Helen
And to act in violence against me, which I have endured.
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Menelaos
Does he have private power, or is he the ruler of the country?
Helen
He is the lord of this land, the son of Proteus.
Menelaos
This is that riddle I heard from the servant.
Helen
Which one of the barbarian’s gates were you standing beside?
Menelaos
This one, from which I was being driven away like a beggar.
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Helen
You were surely not begging for food, were you? How unhappy I am!
Menelaos
That was the deed, though it did not have that name.
Helen
Then you know everything, it seems, about my marriage.
Menelaos
I do. But if you have escaped his bed—that I do not know.
Helen
Know that I have saved myself untouched for you.
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Menelaos
What could persuade me of this? If true, your words are sweet.
Helen
Do you see my wretched sanctuary at this tomb?
Menelaos
I see a miserable bed of straw, but what do you have to do with it?
Helen
Here, as a suppliant, I am asking for an escape from his bed.
Menelaos
For want of an altar, or because it is the barbarians’ way?
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Helen
This was as good a protection to me as the temples of the gods.
Menelaos
Then it’s not possible for me to take you home by ship?
Helen
A sword is waiting for you, rather than my bed.
Menelaos
So I would be the most wretched of mortals.
Helen
Do not feel shame now, but escape from this land.
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Menelaos
Leaving you behind? I ravaged Troy for your sake.
Helen
Yes, for that is better than that our union should cause your death.
Menelaos
Oh! these are coward’s words, unworthy of those days at Troy.
Helen
You could not kill the tyrant, your possible intention.
Menelaos
Does he then have a body that cannot be wounded by a sword?
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Helen
You will hear. But to undertake impossibilities is no mark of wisdom.
Menelaos
And so I am to offer my hands to be bound, in silence?
Helen
You are in a dilemma; we need some contrivance.
Menelaos
Yes, for it is sweeter to die in action than by not acting.
Helen
There is one hope, and only one, for our safety.
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Menelaos
Are we to buy it, or dare it, or win it with words?
Helen
If the tyrant were not to learn of your arrival.
Menelaos
Will any one tell him about me? He will certainly not know who I am.
Helen
He has within an ally equal to the gods.
Menelaos
A voice that has settled in the inmost parts of his house?
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Helen
No, but his sister; she is called Theonoe.
Menelaos
The name is prophetic; tell me what she does.
Helen
She knows everything, and she will tell her brother that you are here.
Menelaos
We must die; for I cannot escape her notice.
Helen
Perhaps we might persuade her by supplication—
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Menelaos
To do what? What hope are you leading me to?
Helen
Not to tell her brother that you are here in this land.
Menelaos
If we persuade her, could we get away from this country?
Helen
Easily, in common with her; but secretly we could not.
Menelaos
The task is yours; it is suitable for women to deal with women.
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Helen
Be sure that I will clasp her knees.
Menelaos
Well, then, what if she rejects our proposals?
Helen
You will die. And I, the unhappy one, will be married by force.
Menelaos
You would be a traitor; that force of yours is all an excuse.
Helen
But I have sworn a sacred oath by your life—
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Menelaos
What do you mean? To die? And never to take his bed in exchange for mine?
Helen
Yes, by the same sword; I will lie at your side.
Menelaos
Then on these conditions touch my right hand.
Helen
I touch it, swearing that I will leave the light of day if you die.
Menelaos
And I will end my life if I lose you.
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Helen
How then shall we die so as to insure our reputation for this?
Menelaos
I will kill you on the tomb’s surface, and then kill myself. But first I will fight a great contest for your bed. Let anyone who wishes come near!
For I will not disgrace my Trojan fame, nor, on my return to Hellas, will I receive great blame—I who robbed Thetis of Achilleus, and saw the slaughter of Aias, son of Telamon, and the son of Neleus made childless;
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shall I not resolve to die for my wife? Most certainly; for if the gods are wise, they lightly bury in the earth a brave man who has been killed by his enemies, while cowards they cast up out of the earth onto a harsh rock.
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Chorus Leader
O gods, may the race of Tantalos be fortunate at last, and may it be set free from evils!
855
Helen
Ah, I am unhappy, for so is my fate! Menelaos, we are destroyed. The prophetess Theonoe is coming out of the house; it resounds as the
bolts are unfastened. Try to escape! But what is the use of trying? For whether she is absent or present she knows of your arrival here. Oh, I am lost, unfortunate! Saved from Troy and from a barbarian land, you have come only to fall upon barbarian swords.
860
Theonoe
Please lead the way with blazing torches, and purify, according to the sacred law, the inmost corners of the air, so I may receive the pure breath of heaven; and you in turn, if someone has harmed the path by treading with unholy foot, submit it to the cleansing fire,
865
and strike the torch in front of me, so that I may pass through. And when you have paid back to the gods my customary observance, take the household flame within.
870
Helen, what about my prophecy—how is it? This man, your husband Menelaos, has openly arrived,
robbed of his ships and of your counterfeit. O unhappy man! What troubles you have escaped to come here; nor do you know whether you are to return home or to stay here. For there will be strife among the gods, and a solemn assembly held by Zeus on your account this very day.
875
Hera, who was hostile to you before, is now friendly and wants to bring you safely home, with this woman, so that Hellas may learn that the marriage of Paris, Kypris’ gift, was false; but Kypris wishes to ruin your journey home,
880
so that she may not be convicted, or seem to have bought the prize of beauty by a marriage that was profitless as regards Helen. Now the decision rests with me, whether to ruin you, as Kypris wishes, by telling my brother of your presence here, or to save your life by taking Hera’s side,
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keeping my brother in the dark, for his orders are for me to tell him, whenever you happen to come to this land.
890
One of you, go show my brother this man is here, so that I may secure my position.
Helen
Maiden, I fall at your knees as a suppliant,
and seat myself in this sad posture on behalf of myself and of this man; I am on the point of seeing him slain, after I have found him with such difficulty. Please do not tell your brother that my husband has returned to my loving arms,
895
but save us, I beseech you; do not forsake the piety that was once yours for your brother’s sake, buying favors that are wicked and unjust. For the god hates violence, and commands everyone to have their possessions without robbery.
900
Wealth that is unjust, though it may bring some power, ought to be avoided. Heaven is common to all mortals, and so is the earth, where people ought to fill up their homes without having another’s property, or taking it away by force.
905
At a critical time, but unhappily for me, Hermes gave me to your father to keep safe for my husband, this man who is here and wishes to have me back. But how could he recover me if he is dead? How could your father ever restore the living to the dead? Now examine the will of the god and of your father;
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would the deity and your dead father be willing to give back again their neighbor’s goods, or would they not? I think they would. It is not, therefore, right that you should attach more importance to a thoughtless brother more than a good father. If you, who are a prophet and believe in divine affairs,
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ruin the lawful intention of your father and gratify your lawless brother, it is disgraceful that you should have full knowledge of divine matters, both what is and what will be, and yet not know what is right. Save me, the unhappy one, enveloped in these troubles,
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and give me this addition to my fate; for there is no mortal who does not hate Helen; I am famous throughout Hellas as the one who betrayed my husband and lived in Phrygia’s golden halls. If I come to Hellas and set foot once more in Sparta,
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they will hear and see how they were ruined by the wiles of gods, while I was no traitor to my friends after all; and so they will lead me back to virtue again, and I shall betroth my daughter, whom no man now will marry; and, leaving this bitter beggar’s life here, shall enjoy the goods that are in my home.
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And if this man were dead and slaughtered on a funeral pyre, I would be cherishing his memory with tears far away; but shall I be robbed of him when he is now alive and safe?
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Ah! not that, maiden, I beseech you:
grant me this favor, and imitate the character of a just father; for this is the fairest glory for children, when the child of a good father resembles its parents in character.
940
Chorus Leader
The arguments here proposed are worthy of pity,
and so are you. But I am anxious to hear what Menelaos will say to save his life.
945
Menelaos
I could not endure to fall at your knees, or wet my eyes with tears; for if I were cowardly, I would greatly dishonor Troy.
And yet they say that it is fitting for a noble man to let tears fall from his eyes in misfortune. But I will not choose this honorable course, if it is honorable, in preference to bravery. But, if you think it right to save a stranger
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seeking justly to recover his wife, then restore her and save us in addition; if not, I would be wretched, not now for the first time but as often before, and you will seem to be an evil woman. What I consider honest and worthy of me,
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and what will touch your heart most closely, these things I will say at the tomb of your father, with regret for his loss.
960
Old man, dwelling in this tomb of stone, give her back, I demand of you my wife, whom Zeus sent here for you to keep for me.
I know you will never restore her to me yourself, for you are dead; but this woman here will not think it right that her father, invoked from below, once so glorious, should bear a tarnished name; for she is the one in authority now.
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You, too, Hades of the world below, I call as an ally;
you who have received so many bodies slain by my sword for Helen’s sake, you have your payment; either restore them to life again now, or compel this woman to show herself better than her pious father, and give me back my wife.
970
But if you will rob me of her, I will tell you what she omitted in her speech. So that you may know, maiden, I am bound by an oath, first to go into battle with your brother; he or I must die; the matter is simple.
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If he refuses to meet me face to face, but hunts us down, two suppliants at the tomb, by starvation, I am resolved to kill this woman, and then to plunge this two-edged sword through my heart, on the surface of the tomb, so that streams of blood may
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run down the grave; we will lie, two corpses side by side upon this polished slab, a deathless grief to you, and a reproach to your father. Your brother will never marry this woman, nor will any other; but I will carry her off,
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if not to my house, at any rate to death.
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Why do I say this? If I turned to women’s ways with tears, rather than being active, I would be pitied more. Kill me, if it seems good to you; you will not kill those who are without fame; but it is better to yield to what I say,
so that you may act with justice, and I recover my wife.
995
Chorus Leader
You must judge these arguments, maiden. Decide in such a way as to please all.
Theonoe
My nature and my inclination lean towards piety; and I respect myself, and I would not defile
my father’s fame, or gratify my brother at the cost of seeming infamous. There is a great temple of justice in my nature; and having this heritage from Nereus, I will try to keep it, Menelaos.
1000
Since Hera wishes to serve you, I will cast my vote on her side. May Kypris be gracious to me; but she has had nothing to do with me, and I will try to remain a virgin always. As for your reproaches against my father at this tomb,
1005
I have the same words to say. I would be doing wrong if I do not give her back; for that man, if he were alive, would have given her back for you to have, and you to her.
1010
For truly there is retribution for these things, both among the dead and among all men living. The mind
of the dead does not live, yet it has eternal thought as it falls into eternal ether. So as not to give advice at length, I will be silent as to what you have entreated, and I will never aid my brother’s folly with my counsel.
1015
For I am doing him a service, though he does not think it, if I turn him from his godless life to holiness. You yourselves devise some course of action; I will stand out of your way by my silence. Begin with the gods, and beg
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Kypris to allow you to return to your country, and Hera that her intention to save you and your husband may remain the same. And you, my own dead father, never, as far as I have strength, shall you be called impious instead of pious. Exit Theonoe.
1025
Chorus Leader
No one born lawless ever prospered, but in a lawful cause there is hope of safety.
1030
Helen
Menelaos, as far as the maiden is concerned, we are safe. For the rest, you must contribute your advice and frame a device to save ourselves.
Menelaos
Then listen; you have been in the house for a long time and are intimate with the king’s servants.
1035
Helen
What do you mean by that? You are offering hope, as if you were really about to do something useful for both of us.
Menelaos
Could you persuade someone in charge of the wagons
and horses to give us a chariot?
1040
Helen
I might; but how will we escape, in our ignorance of the country and the barbarian land?
Menelaos
You are right; a dilemma. Well, what if I were to hide in the house and kill the king with this two-edged sword?
Helen
His sister would never be silent or allow you to intend her own brother’s death.
1045
Menelaos
Nor indeed is there a ship in which we might safely escape; for the sea holds the one we had.
Helen
Listen to me, if even a woman can say something wise.
Are you willing to be called dead in word, though you are not dead?
1050
Menelaos
It is a bad omen; but if I profit by it, I am ready to be called dead in word, though I am not dead.
Helen
And truly I would mourn you, as women do, with hair cut short and laments before this impious man.
Menelaos
What saving remedy does this have for us two? There is a flavor of deception in your scheme.
1055
Helen
I will beg the tyrant of this country for permission to bury you in an empty tomb, as if you had really died at sea.
Menelaos
Soppose he allows it; then how shall we escape with no ship,
when we have buried my body in the empty tomb?
1060
Helen
I will urge him to give me a vessel, from which I shall have the offerings from your tomb let down into the sea’s embrace.
Menelaos
You have spoken well, except for one thing: if he commands you to set up a tomb on the dry land, your pretext comes to nothing.
Helen
But I will say it is not the custom in Hellas to bury those who have died at sea on the dry land.
1065
Menelaos
You are setting this right, too; then I will sail with you, and help let down the funeral offerings, in the same ship.
Helen
You must above all be at hand,
with your sailors who escaped from the wreck.
1070
Menelaos
Be sure that if I have a ship at anchor, they will be posted, man beside man, each with his sword.
Helen
You must direct everything; only let there be winds in our sails to guide us, and a speedy ship.
Menelaos
It will be so; for the deities will bring my troubles to an end. But from whom will you say that you heard I was dead?
1075
Helen
From you; allege that you were the only one to escape death, when you were sailing with the son of Atreus, and that you saw him dead.
Menelaos
It is true that these rags thrown around my body
will bear witness with me as to the shipwreck.
1080
Helen
They have come at the right time, although then they seemed an ill-timed loss. Perhaps that misery may turn to good fortune.
Menelaos
Should I to enter the house with you, or am I to sit quietly here at this tomb?
Helen
Stay here; for if he does something harsh to you, this tomb and your sword would protect you. But I will go into the house, cut off my hair, exchange my white robe for a dark one, and tear my cheek with nails that make the flesh bloody.
1085
For the contest is a great one, and I see two turns of the scale: either I must die if I am detected in my plot, or else come home and save you as well.
1090
Lady Hera, you who lie in the bed of Zeus, grant relief from their labors to two pitiable creatures;
we beg you, casting our arms straight towards heaven, where you have your home in an embroidery of stars. And you, who won the prize of beauty at the price of my marriage, Kypris, daughter of Dione, do not destroy me utterly. You have maltreated me enough before now,
1095
handing over my name, though not my body, to barbarians. Let me die, if you want to kill me, in my native land. Why are you so insatiable for mischief, practising arts of love, deceits, and treacherous schemes, and magic spells that bring bloodshed on families?
1100
If you were only moderate, in other ways you are by nature the sweetest of gods for men; I don’t deny it. Exeunt Helen and Menelaos.
1105
[Choral 1]
Let me call on you, beneath leafy haunts, sitting in your place of song, you, the most sweetly singing bird,
Chorus
tearful nightingale, oh, come, trilling through your tawny throat, to aid me in my lament, as I sing the piteous woes of Helen and
1110
the tearful fate of Trojan women under the Achaeans’ spears; when he sped over the surging plains with foreign oar, when he came, came bringing to Priam’s race from Lacedaemon
1115
you, Helen, his unhappy bride—Paris, fatally wedded, under the guidance of Aphrodite.
1120
Many of the Achaeans have breathed out their last amid the spears and hurling stones and have gone to unhappy Hades; their wives have cut off their hair in sorrow,
and their homes are left without a bride; an Achaean man, who had only a single ship, lit a blazing beacon on sea-girt Euboia, and destroyed many of them, casting them onto the rocks of Kaphareus
1125
and the sea-shores of the Aegean, by the treacherous flame he kindled. The mountains of Malea provided no harbor, in the gusts of the storm, when Menelaos sped far away from his country, bearing on his ships a prize of the barbarian expedition, no prize but strife
1130
with the Danaans, Hera’s holy phantom.
1135
[Choral 2]
What is god, or what is not god, or what is in between— what mortal says he has found it by searching the farthest limit,
Chorus
when he sees divine affairs leaping here and there again and back, in contradictory and unexpected chances? You, Helen, are the daughter of Zeus;
1140
for a winged father begot you in Leda’s womb; and then you were proclaimed throughout Hellas, betrayer, faithless, lawless, godless. I do not know whatever certainty is among mortals,
1145
but the word of the gods I have found true.
1150
You are fools, who try to win a reputation for virtue through war and marshalled lines of spears, senselessly putting an end to mortal troubles;
for if a bloody quarrel is to decide it, strife will never leave off in the towns of men; by it they won as their lot bed-chambers of Priam’s earth, when they could have set right by discussion
1155
the strife over you, O Helen. And now they are below in Hades’ keeping, and fire has darted onto the walls like the bolt of Zeus, and you are bringing woe on woe . . . .
1160