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. 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.
Menelaos
  1. I am no thief, nor a servant of evil men.
Helen
  1. And yet the clothes you are wearing are unsightly enough.
Menelaos
  1. Put fear aside and stop your rapid flight.
Helen
  1. I do so, now that I have reached this spot.
Menelaos
  1. Who are you? Whom do I see in you, lady?
Helen
  1. But who are you? The same reason prompts us both.
Menelaos
  1. I never saw a closer resemblance.
Helen
  1. O gods! For the recognizing of friends is a god.
Menelaos
  1. Are you a woman from Hellas, or a native of this land?
Helen
  1. From Hellas; but I want to learn your story too.
Menelaos
  1. You seem to me very much like Helen, lady.
Helen
  1. And you seem to me like Menelaos; I don’t know what to say.
Menelaos
  1. Well, you have correctly recognized a most unfortunate man.
Helen
  1. Oh, at last you have come to the arms of your wife!
Menelaos
  1. What do you mean by wife? Do not touch my robe.
Helen
  1. The one whom Tyndareus, my father, gave to you.
Menelaos
  1. O torch-bearing Hekate, send visions that are favorable!
Helen
  1. You see in me no specter of the night, attendant on the queen of phantoms.
Menelaos
  1. As one man, I am certainly not the husband of two women.