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. Your body resembles hers, but the real truth robs me of this belief.
Helen
  1. Look; what more do you need? Who knows better than you?
Menelaos
  1. You are like her; I will not deny that at least.
Helen
  1. Who then shall teach you, if not your own eyes?
Menelaos
  1. It is there that I am ailing, because I have another wife.
Helen
  1. I did not go to Troy; that was a phantom.
Menelaos
  1. And who fashions living bodies?
Helen
  1. The air, out of which you have a wife that the gods labored over.
Menelaos
  1. What god’s handiwork? You are saying things beyond hope.
Helen
  1. Hera’s, as a substitute, so that Paris would not have me.
Menelaos
  1. How then could you be here and in Troy at the same time?
Helen
  1. The name may be in many places, though not the body.
Menelaos
  1. Let me go! I have come here with enough pain.
Helen
  1. Will you leave me, and take that phantom bride away?
Menelaos
  1. Yes, and fare well, for your likeness to Helen.