The Trojan Women

Euripides

Euripides. The Plays of Euripides, Translated into English Prose from the Text of Paley. Vol. I. Coleridge, Edward P., translator. London: George Bell and Sons, 1906.

  1. To judge your case required no great exactness; the army with one consent, that army whom you wronged, handed you over to me to die.
Helen
  1. May I answer this decision, proving that my death, if I am to die, will be unjust?
Menelaus
  1. I came not to argue, but to slay you.
Hecuba
  1. Hear her, Menelaus; let her not die for want of that, and let me answer her again, for you know nothing of her villainies in Troy; and the whole case, if summed up,
  2. will insure her death against all chance of an escape.
Menelaus
  1. This gift needs leisure; still, if she wishes to speak, she may. Yet I will grant her this because of your words, that she may hear them, and not for her own sake.
Helen
  1. Perhaps you will not answer me, from counting me a foe,
  2. whether my words seem good or ill. Yet I will put my charges and yours over against each other, and then reply to the accusations I suppose you will advance against me. First, then, that woman was the author of these troubles