Helen

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. Wait! for I see that the one I am pursuing
  2. is still in the house, and has not fled.
  3. You there, why have you put black robes instead of white on your body, and cut the hair from your noble head with a sword, and why do you drench your cheeks with pale tears,
  4. lamenting? Do you mourn, persuaded by dreams in the night, or have you broken your heart with grief because you heard some voice within?
Helen
  1. My lord—for now I give you that name—I am destroyed; everything of mine is gone and I am nothing.
Theokylmenos
  1. In what misfortune are you plunged? What has happened?
Helen
  1. Menelaos—alas, how shall I say it?—is dead, my husband.
Theoklymenos
  1. I do not rejoice at your words, but it is good fortune for me. How do you know? Did Theonoe tell you this?
Helen
  1. Both she, and one who was there when he perished.
Theoklymenos
  1. Someone has come who announces this for certain?
Helen
  1. Someone has come; and may he go where I want him to go!
Theoklymenos
  1. Who is it? Where is he? so that I may learn this more clearly.
Helen
  1. That one, who is sitting crouched at this tomb.
Theoklymenos
  1. Apollo! He certainly has unattractive clothing.
Helen
  1. Alas! I think my husband is in the same situation also.
Theoklymenos
  1. What is this man’s country, and where did he come from, to land here?
Helen
  1. He is a Hellene, one of the Achaeans who saiIed with my husband.
Theoklymenos
  1. What kind of death does he say Menelaos died?
Helen
  1. The most piteous, in the watery waves at sea.
Theoklymenos
  1. On what part of the barbarous ocean was he sailing?