Oh! Oh! Maidens of Hellas, the prey of barbarian sailors! An Achaean sailorcame, he came bringing tears upon tears to me. Ilion has been destroyed and is left to the enemy’s fire through me, the death-giver, through my name, full of suffering.Leda sought death by hanging, in anguish over my disgrace. My husband, after much wandering in the sea, has died and is gone;and Castor and his brother, twin glory of their native land, have vanished, vanished, leaving the plains that shook to their galloping horses,and the schools of reed-fringed Eurotas, scene of youthful labors.

ChorusAlas, alas! for your mournful fate and destiny, lady! You were fated, fated to have a life full of pain, when Zeus begot you on your mother,shining through the air on the wings of a snow-white swan. What evil is not yours? What life have you not endured? Your mother is dead;the twin beloved sons of Zeus do not enjoy happiness; and you do not see your fatherland, while through the cities a rumor goes, mistress, which hands you overto the bed of a barbarian; your husband has lost his life in the salty waves, and never again will you bring glee to your father’s halls and Athene of the Bronze House.

HelenAh! Who was it, either from Phrygiaor from Hellas, who cut the pine that brought tears to Ilion? From this wood the son of Priam built his deadly ship, and sailed by barbarian oarsto my home, to that most ill-fated beauty, to win me as his wife; and with him sailed deceitful and murderous Kypris, bearing death for the Danaans.Oh, unhappy in my misfortune! But Hera, the holy beloved of Zeus on her golden throne, sent the swift-footed son of Maia. I was gathering fresh rose leaves in the folds of my robe,so that I might go to the goddess of the Bronze House; he carried me off through the air to this luckless land, and made me an object of miserable strife, of strife between Hellas and the sons of Priam. And my namebeside the streams of Simois bears a false rumor.