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.
- This one, from which I was being driven away like a beggar.
- You were surely not begging for food, were you? How unhappy I am!
- That was the deed, though it did not have that name.
- Then you know everything, it seems, about my marriage.
- I do. But if you have escaped his bed—that I do not know.
- Know that I have saved myself untouched for you.
- What could persuade me of this? If true, your words are sweet.
- Do you see my wretched sanctuary at this tomb?
- I see a miserable bed of straw, but what do you have to do with it?
- Here, as a suppliant, I am asking for an escape from his bed.
- For want of an altar, or because it is the barbarians’ way?
- This was as good a protection to me as the temples of the gods.
- Then it’s not possible for me to take you home by ship?
- A sword is waiting for you, rather than my bed.
- So I would be the most wretched of mortals.
- Do not feel shame now, but escape from this land.
- Leaving you behind? I ravaged Troy for your sake.
- Yes, for that is better than that our union should cause your death.
- Oh! these are coward’s words, unworthy of those days at Troy.
- You could not kill the tyrant, your possible intention.