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. What do you mean? What will you say? Ah, my wife, you have ruined me.
Helen
  1. Escape from this land and flee as quickly as possible. The man who lives in this house will kill you.
Menelaos
  1. What have I done to deserve such a fate?
Helen
  1. You have come unexpectedly to hinder my marriage.
Menelaos
  1. What! Does someone plan to marry my wife?
Helen
  1. And to act in violence against me, which I have endured.
Menelaos
  1. Does he have private power, or is he the ruler of the country?
Helen
  1. He is the lord of this land, the son of Proteus.
Menelaos
  1. This is that riddle I heard from the servant.
Helen
  1. Which one of the barbarian’s gates were you standing beside?
Menelaos
  1. This one, from which I was being driven away like a beggar.
Helen
  1. You were surely not begging for food, were you? How unhappy I am!
Menelaos
  1. That was the deed, though it did not have that name.
Helen
  1. Then you know everything, it seems, about my marriage.
Menelaos
  1. I do. But if you have escaped his bed—that I do not know.