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.
- The task is yours; it is suitable for women to deal with women.
- Be sure that I will clasp her knees.
- Well, then, what if she rejects our proposals?
- You will die. And I, the unhappy one, will be married by force.
- You would be a traitor; that force of yours is all an excuse.
- But I have sworn a sacred oath by your life—
- What do you mean? To die? And never to take his bed in exchange for mine?
- Yes, by the same sword; I will lie at your side.
- Then on these conditions touch my right hand.
- I touch it, swearing that I will leave the light of day if you die.
- And I will end my life if I lose you.
- How then shall we die so as to insure our reputation for this?
- I will kill you on the tomb’s surface, and then kill myself. But first I will fight a great contest for your bed. Let anyone who wishes come near!
- For I will not disgrace my Trojan fame, nor, on my return to Hellas, will I receive great blame—I who robbed Thetis of Achilleus, and saw the slaughter of Aias, son of Telamon, and the son of Neleus made childless;
- shall I not resolve to die for my wife? Most certainly; for if the gods are wise, they lightly bury in the earth a brave man who has been killed by his enemies, while cowards they cast up out of the earth onto a harsh rock.
- O gods, may the race of Tantalos be fortunate at last, and may it be set free from evils!
- Ah, I am unhappy, for so is my fate! Menelaos, we are destroyed. The prophetess Theonoe is coming out of the house; it resounds as the
- bolts are unfastened. Try to escape! But what is the use of trying? For whether she is absent or present she knows of your arrival here. Oh, I am lost, unfortunate! Saved from Troy and from a barbarian land, you have come only to fall upon barbarian swords.
- Please lead the way with blazing torches, and purify, according to the sacred law, the inmost corners of the air, so I may receive the pure breath of heaven; and you in turn, if someone has harmed the path by treading with unholy foot, submit it to the cleansing fire,
- and strike the torch in front of me, so that I may pass through. And when you have paid back to the gods my customary observance, take the household flame within.