Mother, hear me while I speak, for I see that you are angry with your husbandto no purpose; it is hard for us to persist in impossibilities. Our thanks are due to this stranger for his ready help; but you must also see to it that he is not reproached by the army, leaving us no better off and himself involved in trouble.Listen, mother; hear what thoughts have passed across my mind.I am resolved to die; and this I want to do with honor, dismissing from me what is mean. Towards this now, mother turn your thoughts, and with me weigh how well I speak; to me the whole of mighty Hellas looks; on me the passage over the sea depends; on me the sack of Troy;and in my power it lies to check henceforth barbarian raids on happy Hellas, if ever in the days to come they seek to seize her women, when once they have atoned by death Lines 1381-2 are corrupt. The corrections here followed are τάσδ᾽ for τὰς in l. 1381, and ὀλέθρῳ γάμον ὄν Hermann’s emendation of ὄλεθρον, ἥντιν᾽ in l. 1382. for the violation of Helen’s marriage by Paris. All this deliverance will my death insure, and my fame for setting Hellas free will be a happy one.